Privacy and data use
How the Department of Social Welfare collects, uses, keeps and shares the information in this licensing service.
Information we collect
The statutory fields of Form 13, the renewal profile and the monitoring checklist: institution details, owner and staff particulars, first-aid certification, financial arrangements, association affiliation, inspection findings and evidence, payments and licences. We also record account activity — sign-in attempts, actions taken, the office and role used, and the date and time.
Why we collect it
To assess and licence day-care centres, to protect children, to account for public revenue, and to satisfy statutory record-keeping. Data is not used for marketing.
Who can see it
Access is limited by role and by geography. National users see all records; regional users see only their region; district users only their district; applicants only their own institutions. A district officer cannot reach another district by changing an address in the browser — every request is checked on the server.
What is published
The public register lists licensed institutions with their region, district, category, licence number and validity, so parents can check that a centre is authorised. Owner names are not published unless the Department enables that setting. Public verification searches are logged.
Retention and security
Licensing history is permanent: superseded licences, earlier report versions and past bills are retained rather than overwritten. Passwords are stored only as salted hashes. Sessions expire after 30 minutes; accounts lock after five failed attempts. Backups are encrypted and restored on a scheduled basis.
Your choices
You may correct your contact details at any time from your profile. Withdrawals, corrections and complaints are handled by your district office. Requests about how your data is processed should be addressed to the Department's Data Protection Officer at licensing@dsw.gov.gh.