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Accessing information about your child

Information about privacy notices to pupils and/or parents and carers.

Schools, Local Authorities (LA), the Department for Education (DfE) and other bodies that process personal data about children and staff are required by the Data Protection Act 2018 to issue a Privacy Notice to parents/children and young people and staff.

The Data Protection Act 2018 requires a privacy notice to be issued to parents/children and young people and staff when their personal data is processed. This includes:

  • Schools;
  • Local Authorities;
  • the Department for Education;
  • and other bodies.

This is to inform them of the purposes for which the data is being held and what it will be used for.

A single, short and easily understandable Privacy Notice can be provided to children/parents and staff by the school or LA at the same time as other communications. For example, a pupil might receive the Privacy Notice as part of a school brochure or induction pack or in a school diary and it could be posted on the school notice board.

For staff, the Privacy Notice might be included as part of a contract, induction pack and posted on the staff notice board.

A child receiving Social Care Services or a child looked after might receive their Privacy Notice as part of other information about the services that they are being offered.

What schools and the local authority do with pupils' and children's data

Schools process personal data about pupils and are 'data controllers' in respect of this for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018. Schools may receive information about them from their previous school or college, Local Authority and the Department for Education (DfE). It processes this information to:

  • Support pupil learning.
  • Monitor and report on pupil progress.
  • Provide appropriate pastoral care.
  • Assess the quality of our services.
  • Comply with the law regarding data sharing.

The categories of pupil information that schools collect, hold and share include:

  • Personal information (such as name, unique pupil number and address).
  • Characteristics (such as ethnicity, language, nationality, country of birth and free school meal eligibility).
  • Attendance information (such as sessions attended, number of absences and absence reasons); assessment information, relevant medical information, special educational needs information, exclusions / behavioural information, post 16 learning information.

While most pupil information that you provide to schools is mandatory, some is given on a voluntary basis. In order to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation, you will be informed whether you must give certain pupil information or if you have a choice in this.

To find the contact details of your child's school use our search tool, see: Search for schools.

From time to time the school is required to pass on some of this data to local authorities. We use information about children and young people to enable us to carry out specific functions for which we are responsible. This includes, the assessment of any special educational needs the child may have or to ensure its duty of care with regard to safeguarding. We also use this personal data to derive statistics which inform decisions we make (for example) the funding of schools and to assess the performance of schools and to set targets for them. These statistics are used in such a way that individual children cannot be identified.

The Local Authority will process personal data about its school workforce for research and statistical purposes and to evaluate and develop education policy and strategies. The statistics are used in such a way that individual staff cannot be identified from them. The LA may also use it to support and monitor schools regarding sickness and recruitment of staff.

Local Authorities, including Calderdale Council, are required to collect and process information about children and young people who are in our care and to whom we provide services. We use this personal data to:

  • Support these children and monitor their progress;
  • provide them with pastoral care;
  • and assess the quality of our services.

Youth Support Services

For pupils aged 13 and over, schools are legally required to pass certain information to the provider of Youth Support Services in their area. This is the local authority support service for young people in England who are aged 13 to 19.

Primary Care Trusts (PCTs)

Use information about pupils for research and statistical purposes, to develop, monitor and evaluate the performance of local health services. These statistics will not identify individual pupils. It is necessary for certain health information about children (such as height and weight) to be kept for a certain period of time. PCTs need to maintain children's names and addresses for this purpose. PCTs may also provide individual schools and LAs with aggregated health information which will not identify individual children.

Pupil level information will be shared between the Local Authority and Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust to support the Health for all Children Vision Screening Programme from 1st September 2017. This agreement will only apply for a 12 month period and will then be reviewed.

For more details or to make a request, visit: NHS Calderdale.

Education and training

We hold information about young people living 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 education need or disability). Education institutions and other public bodies (including the Department for Education (DfE), Ofsted, police, probation and health services) may pass information to us to help us to do this.

We share some information we collect with the Department for Education (DfE). This is for them to:

  • Produce statistics;
  • assess our performance;
  • determine the destinations of young people after they have left school or college;
  • and to evaluate Government funded programmes.

We may also share information with post-16 education and training providers to secure appropriate support for them. We may also share data with education establishments which shows what their pupils go on to do after the age of 16.

For children under 16, a parent or guardian can ask that no information other than their child's name, address and date of birth (or their own name and address) be passed to a local authority. This right transfers to the child on their 16th birthday. Pupils and/or a parent/guardian will need to inform the school/LA if this is what they wish.

DfE may share individual level personal data that we supply to them, with third parties. This will only take place where legislation allows it to do so and it is in compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018.

Decisions on whether the DfE releases this personal data to third parties are subject to a robust approval process. This is 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 level data, requestors must comply with strict terms and conditions covering the confidentiality and handling of data, security arrangements and retention and use of the data.

For more about how this sharing process works, visit National Pupil Database: Guidance.

For information on which third party organisations (and for which project) pupil level data has been provided to, visit National Pupil Database: Third Party Requests.

Requesting information

For more about how we and/or the DfE store and use your personal data:

All information we record and hold is processed securely and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018. You also have the right to access the data held. If you wish to access your data please contact the relevant organisation in writing.

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