Bulletin Number 8: Common Programs and Services

Revised August 2003

PDF Version (pdf)

• Overview
• Conditions for disclosure
• What is a common or integrated program or service?
• Examples of common or integrated programs and services
  • Child and Family Service Authorities
  • Post-secondary Educational Bodies
  • School-housed public libraries
  • Administration
• Steps to take when implementing common or integrated programs and services

Joint delivery of programs and services is becoming more common and increasingly important for effective and efficient provision of public services. Provincial government departments deliver programs in partnership with each other and with local public bodies, and local public bodies work together to serve the needs of their communities.

The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) Act recognizes the need to protect personal privacy by restricting broad disclosure of information between public bodies. At the same time, additional flexibility was needed to accommodate joint program and service delivery. To balance these two needs, the Act was amended in 1999 to permit disclosure when necessary for the administration of a common program or service.

Section 40(1)(i) reads:

A public body may disclose personal information only to an officer or employee of a public body or to a member of the Executive Council, if the disclosure is necessary for the delivery of a common or integrated program or service and for the performance of the duties of the officer or employee or member to whom the information is disclosed.

An employee is a person employed by a public body. The definition in section 1(e) of the Act also includes a person who performs services for the public body as a volunteer, appointee, student or under a contract or agency relationship with the public body.

The term officer is included to ensure that all persons who hold an office in a public body in any capacity are encompassed by the provision, including elected and senior officials.

A member of the Executive Council is a minister appointed to head a department or agency of the Government of Alberta.

The disclosure must be necessary for the delivery of the program or service and for the performance of the duties of the receiver of the information. It does not mean that an official, employee or Member of the Executive Council automatically has access to all personal information within the common program or service.

The section does not permit disclosure to non-public bodies. Authority for such disclosure will have to be found elsewhere in section 40 such as through an agreement made under an enactment (section 40(1)(e)), verification of suitability for a program or benefit (section 40(1)(l)) or for purposes of law enforcement investigations (section 40(1)(q)).

Common means that there is a single program or service that is delivered or provided by two or more public bodies.

Integrated means that the program or service has several distinct components, each of which may be delivered or provided by separate public bodies, but which when put together comprise the complete program or service.

Public bodies may share common clients, but that attribute alone does not determine whether a program or service is common or integrated.

Attributes of a program or service that should be considered when determining whether or not a program or service is common or integrated include:

• legislative authority for the bodies to work together;
• common goals expressed in program description or business plan;
• formal agreement or terms of reference between public bodies explaining their roles and how the components fit together;
• joint planning between the public bodies;
• clear delineation of services being jointly delivered from those that are not; and
• collaboration or coordination in delivery in order to achieve common objectives or goals.

Not all of the above attributes would be required in order for a program or service to be considered to be "common" or integrated. Nor is this an exhaustive list of all attributes that might be considered. But the presence of several of these attributes together would assist in that conclusion.

Examples are provided as information of the types of common and integrated programs or services that are in place. A program that public bodies have or are contemplating may be similar or take a different approach.

Child and Family Service Authorities:

Authorities are established under the Child and Family Service Authorities Act. That Act, in section 9(1)(h), specifically gives the authorities the mandate to work with the Government of Alberta, other authorities and other public and private bodies to coordinate the provision of child and family services.

It also sets out the relationship between the authorities and the Government of Alberta and gives the Minister of Children’s Services power to set rules for records management, data storage and transmission and the sharing of information with other service providers.

There is legislative authority for the programs and for joint delivery and there are agreements in place between the authorities and the Government governing the programs.

For example, the following public bodies could potentially be involved in delivery of these programs:

• Department of Children’s Services,
• Department of Human Resources and Employment,
• Department of Education,
• Department of Health and Wellness,
• Child and Family Service Authorities,
• Persons with Developmental Disabilities Boards,
• Educational bodies,
• Health Care bodies,
• Municipalities,
• Metis Settlements, and
• Police services.

Post-secondary Educational Bodies:

Examples of common or integrated programs and services used in universities would be:

• conjoint nursing programs that require the disclosure of personal information between the program departments;
• other programs, such as Emergency Medical Technician programs that require a student to attend two separate colleges to complete the program; and
• a number of programs that include work placement or practicum requirements, often in another public body such as a health care body or housing management body.

School-housed public libraries:

Some public libraries are housed in a local school. These libraries generally provide both school and public library service from the same facility. The client databases are often merged and staff may provide service to both sets of clients. Sometimes staff are employed by different public bodies to provide this service, for example, school board staff provide service during the day, and town staff provide service evenings and weekends.

Administration:

Some public bodies share administrative resources to increase efficiency and reduce costs. Municipalities may provide central human resource and financial services to other local government bodies such as library boards, police services and municipal boards and agencies. These may include provision of temporary staff services, pay and benefits services and accounts payable and receivable.

In Investigation Report 2000-IR-006, the Portfolio Officer found the City of Calgary’s Human Resources department offered a common program or service to its public body corporations, including the Police Service, Public Library and the Parking Authority.

As well, municipalities are also involved with educational bodies and government departments in the provision of services through the Family and Community Support Services Act, including after school care, and by provision of family/school liaison workers.

The Act does not set out the requirements of the establishment of common or integrated programs. The following advice is offered for consideration to provide transparency to Albertans where their personal information is used and disclosed and to take into consideration the principles of the Act.

When designing a new common or integrated program or service that involves personal information, consideration should be given to whether a privacy impact assessment should be completed as a part of the program proposal. If the program or service involves particularly sensitive personal information, and an integrated computer system is involved, a privacy impact assessment may be warranted. It is desirable to provide privacy impact assessments to the Information and Privacy Commissioner for review and comment.

When public bodies are implementing such programs or services, they should ensure that individuals participating in the program are notified of all the partners and of the sharing of personal information. It is important that the notice inform the clients how their information will be used, and by whom.

When some of the public bodies participating in a common program have law enforcement responsibilities, it is very important that clients are aware of their involvement. Law enforcement includes the police and RCMP, but also includes other kinds of law enforcement, such as child welfare investigations. For example, if a student or other client asks a social worker for assistance with a drug addiction problem, the client should be aware from the notice whether this information may be released to the police department.

There are several considerations concerning disclosures of the personal information collected for the delivery of the common program or service. In general, public bodies should:

• disclose information in non-identifiable form whenever possible;
• disclose personal information only to those who need to know about a particular individual;
• disclose only to the extent necessary for program or service delivery, and ensure that personal information is not used for any other purpose, and
• note disclosures on the client records.

Within the common program personal information can be disclosed to other staff when it is necessary for them to do their job. All staff need to be aware that the information cannot be disclosed outside the common program, even within the public body.

For example, if a client provides income information to Common Program A as part of a program to receive financial aid, that personal information cannot be used to make decisions for eligibility for Program B within the same public body but outside the common program. Such a disclosure would be the same as an authorized disclosure between public bodies.

It is also important that the public body receiving personal information takes steps to ensure that the information is protected and only seen and used by those who need it for program or service delivery. It should also ensure that the information is used only within the particular program that needs it.

Whenever possible, public bodies should notify clients of uses and disclosures at the time personal information is collected. It is recognized that there are cases when this is not possible because of the type of program or the need being filled. In these cases a record of disclosure should be maintained on the client files so that individuals can be aware of how their personal information is being used and, if necessary, can ask the Information and Privacy Commissioner to investigate those disclosures.

In many cases it will be possible to disclose information without identifying individuals. Individuals can be given an identifier known only to the disclosing public body and details of the situation are adequate for the receiving public body to fulfil its role. Only when the name or other personal information is essential to program or service delivery should it be disclosed.

Purpose

FOIP Bulletins are intended to provide FOIP Coordinators with more detailed information for interpreting the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. They supply information concerning procedures and practices to aid in the effective and consistent implementation of the FOIP Act across public bodies. FOIP Bulletins are not a substitute for legal advice.

Government of Alberta
Access, Privacy and Security
Service Alberta
3rd Floor, 10155 - 102 Street
Edmonton, Alberta T5J 4L4
Phone: (780) 422-2657
Fax: (780) 427-1120
Web site: http://foip.gov.ab.ca