Elective home education – privacy notice

PN0310-4
CYPS Early Intervention Service – Education Welfare Service

Education Welfare Service: Elective Home Education – Privacy Notice

Calderdale Council of Town Hall, Crossley Street, Halifax, HX1 1UJ is registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) under the provision of the Data Protection Act 2018. The Council takes its responsibilities as Data Controller under the Act very seriously. This privacy notice explains how Calderdale Council will use your personal information to meet its duty to ensure that children residing in Calderdale are in receipt of an education either in school or otherwise.

The type of information we will collect and process

The following information will be collected directly from you as parent/guardian of the child, from your child’s last school, or previous Local Authority:

• Child’s name, address, gender and date of birth
• Previous school history (such as schools attended, attendance information, exclusions information)
• Characteristics (such as ethnicity and home language)
• Any safeguarding concerns that school have alerted us to on their referral, or details of social services involvement
• Any safeguarding information recorded on the pupil CPOMS safeguarding record where the parent has elected to home educate
• Any history of being a looked after child
• Free School Meals information
• Special Educational Needs information
• Parent/Guardian’s name and contact details

The purpose of processing your information

Your personal information is collected for the following purposes:

• To enable us to carry out specific functions for which we are responsible in accordance

with the Education Act 1996 and the Education & Inspection Act of 2006, to maintain a record of children in Calderdale who are known to be home educated and establish that an efficient and suitable full-time education provision is in place

• provide advice and guidance to home educating families
• inform families about how to access services and facilities from other agencies that would generally be delivered via school
• advise and support families who request support with returning children to school or identifying a school place
• to establish the identities of children who are not registered at a school and are not receiving a suitable education otherwise

The lawful basis for the processing of your information

Personal information is processed under the following legal basis:

• Article 6(1)(e) - 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.

Special Category Information is processed under the following conditions:

• Article 9(2)(g) - for reasons of substantial public interest with a basis in law (equality of opportunity or treatment) and for safeguarding of children under 18 years old

Sharing your personal data

Your information will be shared with

• The Department for Education (DfE) for the purpose of statutory data collections
• CK Careers, who are contracted by the Council to provide careers advice to all children in Calderdale
• Other local authorities, should you move to or from Calderdale
• Schools in the event of a school attendance order being required
• Schools in respect of a CPOMS pupil safeguarding file of a child that leaves the school following a parental decision to electively home educate

Your data will not be shared with any third parties without your consent unless the law allows us to do so.

How long we will keep your information

Your information will be kept for 25 years from your child’s date of birth. Where a child has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC) this information will be kept for 35 years from your child’s date of birth. When the applicable retention period has ended your data will be securely destroyed.

Your rights

UK GDPR provides the following rights for individuals. Not all rights are absolute and therefore will only apply in certain circumstances:

• The right to be informed
• The right of access
• The right to rectification
• The right to erasure
• The right to restrict processing
• The right to data portability
• The right to object
• Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

You can make a request in respect of these rights to Home Education Officer, 1st Floor, Princess Buildings, 18 Princess Street, Halifax. HX1 1TP. 

You have the right to complain to the Data Protection Officer if you feel that your data has not been handled in accordance with the law. You can contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer at information.management@calderdale.gov.uk.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk