Education and Learning (Information Management Team) Privacy Notice
We are committed to protecting your privacy when you use our services.
This privacy notice informs children, young people and their parents/carers how the Information Management Team (Children’s Service, Bradford Metropolitan District Council) use your personal information and how we protect your privacy in compliance with our obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
This notice explains what information we hold about pupils, the reasons for holding it, the third parties to whom it may be passed on to when carrying our statutory functions, and any other activity involving our use of your personal data, such as collecting, storing, sharing, and destroying.
The categories of personal information that we collect, process, hold and share:
- personal information (such as name, date of birth, NHS number, unique pupil number and address)
- characteristics (such as ethnicity, language and free school meal eligibility)
- special education needs information
- education assessment, progress and attainment information
- education/learning history and planned destinations
- relevant medical and health information
- attendance, exclusions and behavioural information
- parents/carers contact information
- youth offending information
- child employment and performance licensing information
- relevant social care information records
Why we collect and use this information
We use children and young person’s data to:
- enable us to carry out statutory functions for which we are responsible, including school admissions, attendance, exclusions, alternative education provision, encouraging post-16 education/training participation, safeguarding and welfare of children
- assess any Special Educational Needs a child or young person may have
- produce statistics and reports which inform decisions such as the funding of education, training provision and school place planning. Statistics are used in such a way that individual children cannot be identified from them.
- assess performance for schools’ improvement
- evaluate, monitor and review service provision
- evaluate and develop education policy and strategies
- comply with Department for Education (DfE) and other government departments’ research and statistical returns
- inform targeting of support and services to families, children and young people who are most in need
The lawful basis on which we use this information
The lawful basis on which we collect and use your personal data is that:
- Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation
- Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller
We hold the information in line with the following legislation
- Education Act 1996
- School Admissions Code 2012
- Children and Families Act 2014
We use your personal information:
- when you, or your legal representative, have given consent
- to comply with any data sharing arrangement
- when it is necessary to perform our statutory educational duties under relevant legislation and associated statutory guidance including but not limited to:
- promoting the education or wellbeing of Bradford’s children/young people
- safeguarding and promoting the welfare of Bradford’s children including those children placed out of authority
- ensuring fair access to educational opportunity
- promoting the educational achievement of Bradford’s Looked After Children including those children/young people placed out of authority
- if we need to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights, including protecting public interests or in the exercise of official authority
- It is necessary to protect someone in an emergency
- It is necessary to deliver health or social care services
- For law enforcement, prosecutions and Court proceedings
- when it is necessary in a contract for the supply of services
Collecting this information
Whilst the majority of children and young person’s information provided to us is mandatory due to compliance with a legal obligation, some of it is provided to us on a voluntary basis. To comply with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, we will inform you whether you are required by law to provide certain information to us; if you do have a choice to provide information that is not mandatory, your explicit consent will be requested. You have the right to withdraw your consent if this is applicable to processing your data. If this is the case, we will let you know.
The parent/carer is responsible for their child’s consent up to age 16. From age 16 onwards the young person can provide their own consent.
How long your personal data will be kept
We will hold your personal information in line with Bradford Council’s retention schedule. At its expiry date the information will be reviewed, and only retained where there is an ongoing requirement to retain for a statutory or legal purpose. Following this your personal information will be securely destroyed.
If you would like to see a copy of our retention schedule, please email [email protected].
Who we share this information with
We may sometimes share the information that we have collected about you where it is necessary, lawful and fair to do so. We may share information with the following for these purposes:
- council’s internal departments so they can carry out their statutory roles and support our service (e.g. social care, housing, Complaints Team, Business Intelligence Team, Corporate Finance Team, Legal Services Department, Information Management Team)
- the Department for Education (DfE) who have legal powers to collect pupil, child and workforce data that schools, local authorities and awarding bodies hold
- Home Office and other agencies with whom we have a duty to co-operate (for example, Ofsted, HMRC, Education Skills and Funding Agency)
- youth support services to enable them to provide information regarding training and careers as part of the education or training of 13-19 year olds
- schools and other educational/training settings
- governing bodies of schools, including non-maintained special schools
- governing bodies of further education colleges and sixth form colleges
- proprietors of academies including free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools
- management committees of pupil referral units
- independent schools and independent specialist providers
- early years providers in the maintained, private, voluntary and independent sectors that are funded by Bradford Council
- The First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability)
- NHS commissioning board, NHS trusts, local health boards, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs)
- other local authorities (education, social care, relevant housing, employment and other services)
- emergency and medical services (for example, ambulance, school nurse or GP)
- commissioned social care services
- youth offending and probation services, police and courts, and youth custodial establishments
- employers of young people
- relevant agencies and parties in relation to safeguarding and child protection matters
- your legal representative or another advocate (if you have instructed one)
Education and training
We collect and use personal information for the purpose of meeting our obligation to provide your child with education and to work with our partners to provide and improve education and training services to children and young people in the Bradford area.
We hold information about young people living, looked after and/or educated in our area, including about their education and training history. This is to support the provision of their education up to the age of 20 (and beyond this age for those with a special educational need or disability). Education institutions and other public bodies (including the DfE, police, probation and health services) may pass information to us to help us to support these provisions.
Pupils aged 16+
We will also share relevant information about pupils not in education, training or employment (such as their contact details) aged 16+ with the provider of youth support services as they have responsibilities in relation to the education or training of 13-19 year olds.
This enables them to provide the following services:
- post-16 education and training
- youth support services
- careers advice
Looked after children and previously looked after children
Local authorities must discharge their statutory duty of the Children Act 1989 to promote the educational achievement of looked after children. That includes those children placed out of authority.
Local authorities have a duty under the Children Act 1989 (as amended by the Children and Social Work Act 2017) to promote the educational achievement of previously looked after children in their area.
The National Pupil Database (NPD)
The law requires us to provide information about our pupils to the DfE as part of statutory data collections. Some of this information is then stored in the national pupil database (NPD). The legislation that requires this is the Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013.
To find out more about the NPD, go to the National Pupil Database information on gov.uk.
The Department may share information about our pupils from the NPD with third parties who promote the education or well-being of children in England by:
- conducting research or analysis
- producing statistics
- providing information, advice or guidance
The Department has robust processes in place to ensure the confidentiality of our data is maintained and there are stringent controls in place regarding access and use of the data. Decisions on whether DfE releases data to third parties are subject to a strict approval process and based on a detailed assessment of:
- who is requesting the data
- the purpose for which it is required
- the level and sensitivity of data requested: and
- the arrangements in place to store and handle the data
To be granted access to pupil information, organisations must comply with strict terms and conditions covering the confidentiality and handling of the data, security arrangements and retention and use of the data.
For more information about the department’s data sharing process, please visit: how DfE shares personal data.
Keeping your personal information secure
We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security incidents and we will notify you and the appropriate regulator of any incident where we are legally required to do so.
When your data is sent to other countries?
We do not send any information we collect about you outside the United Kingdom.
Rights for individuals under UK GDPR
What are your rights?
Please contact the Corporate Information Governance Team at [email protected] to exercise any of your rights, or if you have a complaint about why your information has been collected, how it has been used or how long we have kept it for.
You can contact our Data Protection Officer at [email protected] or write to: Data Protection Officer, City Hall, Centenary Square, Bradford, BD1 1HY.
The UK GDPR also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office who are the supervisory authority responsible to regulate and monitor the legislative obligations within the UK and can be contacted on 03031 231113.