Privacy Policy

EDUCATION & SKILLS SERVICE

How we handle your information

This Privacy Notice is designed to help you understand how Northumberland County Council as a registered Data Controller will handle your personal information. It will outline why we ask for your personal information, detail the information we hold, how it is used, shared and how long it is kept for. It will also detail how you can exercise your rights.

Why do we ask for your personal information? We use information about parents/carers/children and young people to enable us to process school admission, free school meal and transport applications as well as provide a range of support services to students.

What information do we hold? We only process the minimum personal information and special category (sensitive) information required to deliver School Admissions, School/Post 16 Transport, Free School Meals and Support Services.

The personal information we process includes:

  • basic details about you, for example, name, address, date of birth, gender
  • unique identifiers (such as your NI number),
  • contact we have had with you, for example, appointments & letters of correspondence,
  • notes and reports about your relevant circumstances
  • details and records about the service you have received,
  • relevant information from other people that we have been in contact with in relation to the service that you have received

We may also process some sensitive information about you that is classed as ‘special category’ data, and which receives additional protections under law, and in terms of our processing of it. The special category (sensitive) personal information we process includes:

  • ethnic origin
  • religious beliefs
  • medical data

How does the law allow us to use your personal information? There are a number of legal reasons why we are allowed to collect and use your personal information. In order to process your personal data, we rely on one or more of the following legal bases;

  • We need them to perform our legal obligations as set out in the Education Act

For your special (sensitive) personal data, we must also have an additional legal basis to process it. We use one of the following;

  • Processing is necessary for archiving, research or statistical purposes

How long do you keep my information for? We will only store your information for as long as is legally required or in situations where there is no legal retention period they will follow established best practice. The retention period for student and parent/carer records is up to the student’s 25th birthday or their 33rd birthday if they have had a Statement of Special Needs or Education, Health and Care Plan.

Who will you share my information with? We may need to share your information with others to enable us to work together for your benefit.

We will only share information with third party partners if they have a genuine and lawful need for it. In some instances, this will be internal council services however, sometimes information will be shared with an external third party but only if they have a justifiable and lawful need for it.

We may share your information with:

  • Professional advisors and consultants
  • Central Government departments including but not limited to; Department for Education, Department for Work and Pensions.

Information will be processed within the UK and will not be shared with overseas recipients.

Can request a copy of my records? You can request what information the Education and Skills service holds about you. If you wish to see a copy of your records you should submit a Subject Access Request which is available through our website or by contacting the Information Governance Office. You are entitled to receive a copy of your records free of charge, within a month.

Do I have Other Rights? Data Protection law gives you the right:

  1. To be informed why, where and how we use your information.
  2. To ask for access to your information
  3. To ask for information to be corrected if inaccurate or incomplete.
  4. To ask for your information to be deleted or removed where there is no need for us to continue processing it.
  5. To ask us to restrict the use of your information.
  6. To ask us to copy or transfer your information from one IT system to another in a safe and secure way.
  7. To object to how your information is used.
  8. To challenge any decisions made without human intervention (automated decision making).
  9. To lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office
  10. If our processing is based upon your consent, to withdraw your consent.

Further information If you would like to know more about how we use your information, or if for any reason you do not wish to have your information used in any of the ways described in this notice, please tell us. Please contact Suzanne Finnie on 01670 623173/Suzanne.Finnie@northumberland.gov.uk.

Data Protection Officer: informationgovernance@northumberland.gov.uk

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you are unhappy with the way we process your data. Details can be found on the ICO website, or you may write to the ICO at the following address:

Information Commissioner's Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF Tel: 0303 123 1113 Email: casework@ico.org.uk

Home