Privacy notices

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council privacy notices.

Education Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice is designed to help you understand how and why the Education Department, processes your personal data. This notice should be read in conjunction with the Council’s Corporate Privacy Notice.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council is a ‘Data Controller’ as defined by Article 4(7) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council education department supports schools and its pupils in a variety of ways. Functions include but are not limited to:

  • School Admissions (primary and secondary)
  • Special Education Needs and Disabilities
  • Attendance Support
  • Elective Home Education Support 
  • School Transport
  • Educational Psychology
  • Transition to post-16 education or training  
  • Free School Meal Auto-enrolment 

Data Protection Officer

Redcar and Cleveland House

Kirkleatham Street

Redcar

TS10 1RT

You can contact the DPO by emailing: InformationGovernance@redcar-cleveland.gov.uk or by calling 01642 774774.

What personal information do we collect?

We may collect the following personal information:

  • Your personal information (such as name, address, date of birth, email address and phone number) 
  • Your child’s personal information (such as name, address, date of birth and any photo of their likeness that is provided with their application) 
  • Details of current, next or most recent education, employment or training. 
  • School preference information and parent’s reasons for selection 
  • Educational history (such as schools previously attended and attendance, attainment and exclusion information)
  • Involvement with other Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council teams from our existing records 
  • Individual characteristics (such as whether you are a child in care, care leaver, refugee/asylum seeker, carer, supervised by YOS, teenage parent, under alternative provision etc.) 
  • Education Health and Care Plan status and detail of any Special Educational Need 
  • Special category characteristics (such as ethnicity, religion, health data) 
  • Notes and reports about your relevant circumstances (such as concerns about learning, areas that require support and change, barriers to learning, strength and needs, interventions and next steps to support outcomes) 

We also may hold special category data, which would include information relating to race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data and health data. 

Why do we collect your personal information? 

We use your personal data to carry out tasks in the public interest or to comply with a legal obligation. We may need to seek your consent to collect and use your personal information in some circumstances. If we need to collect special category information, we rely upon reasons of substantial public interest (equality of opportunity or treatment). 

We may use your personal information to:

  • Allocate your child a school place through the co-ordinated admissions process
  • Fund your free early education places 
  • Support our statutory duty to ensure sufficient, suitable early years and school places are available 
  • Identify your child’s special educational needs
  • Make decisions about whether to conduct a statutory needs assessment or issues an Education, Health and Care Plan
  • Work with children and young people to gain an understanding of strengths and needs based on their psychological skills 
  • Maintain a record of children who reside in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland who are home educated 
  • Provide advice and guidance to home educating families 
  • Provide support to ensure children attend school
  • Provide support to vulnerable children
  • Undertake additional statutory duties placed on us. 

Who do we obtain your information from?

Other organisations may share your personal information with us for the purpose of service delivery or because they are legally required to do so. We also obtain information from other sources including personal details, characteristics, educational history and professional involvement. 

This includes but is not limited to:

  • Your child’s school or educational setting 
  • Other teams working within Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council that have been involved with you 
  • NHS
  • The Department for Education
  • Cleveland Police  
  • Other Local Authorities 

Who do we share this information with?

In some instances, we may share your information with other services within the Council as part of service delivery or because we are legally required to do so. 

We may share your information with, but not limited to the following:

  • Your child’s school or educational setting
  • Other teams working within Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council 
  • NHS
  • The Department for Education
  • Cleveland Police 
  • Commissioned providers of local authority services
  • National Border Targeting Centre (NBTC)
  • Other Local Authorities 

How long do we keep your information for?

Your information will be held in accordance with the Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council retention schedule.

What is our lawful basis for processing your information?

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council relies on the following lawful basis to process your personal data:

  • UK GDPR Article 6(1)(C) – processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject. 
  • UK GDPR 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. 

When processing special category data, the Council will rely on the following lawful basis:

  • UK GDPR Article 9(2)(G) – processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law) meeting Schedule 1, Part 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 as below: 
  • (8) Equality of opportunity or treatment 
  • (18) Safeguarding of children and individuals at risk 

 

Free School Meal Auto-Enrolment 

As part of the Free School Meals Auto Enrolment Project, some parents and carers with a child/children who we think may be eligible for free school meals, and not currently claiming them, will receive a letter offering to check their free school meal eligibility and auto enrol them to free school meals if they are eligible. Parents and carers do have the right to object to this processing and opt out. 

This project involves the processing of your personal data. We’ll use your surname, National Insurance Number and your date of birth so that we can check if your child qualifies for free school meals. When we use your information, the government’s electronic free school meals checking service advises whether you are eligible. 

We use your data to help us deliver our ‘public task’. The laws which allow us to handle these applications and enrol pupils in free school meals include the Education Act 1996 and the Localism Act 2011. 

We don’t see any other information about you or your family when we use the checking service and we’re not allowed to ask for anything else from the Department of Work and Pensions, Inland Revenue or Benefits Agency. The information is kept securely and we follow strict procedure about how we look after your personal data under the General Data Protection Regulation. 

Letters will be sent to parents and carers who may be eligible for free school meals. If you do not want us to use your Housing Benefit information to check eligibility, or enrol your child onto the free school meals scheme you can opt out using the details provided on the letter. 

We share information between Council teams to identify pupils who may be eligible for free school meals but do not currently get them. We also share information with the Department for Education to check if pupils and families are eligible, and after we have automatically enrolled them, we share that information with schools and academies. 

If pupils live or go to school in an area outside of Redcar and Cleveland, we may share information with other councils to help check if children are eligible for free school meals.  

Your Rights

You have a number of rights that you may exercise in relation to your personal data. Some of the rights do not apply automatically and may not be available in certain circumstances where a lawful exception applies. 

You have a right to access your personal data. You can request a copy of personal data that we hold about you and ask us to explain how we use your data. 

You have a right to object to processing of your personal data. You have an absolute right to stop your data being used for direct marketing. In other cases where the right to object applies, we may be able to continue using your data if we have a compelling reason for doing so. 

If we are relying on consent as the lawful basis to process your data you can withdraw your consent at any time, and we will stop further processing. 

  • You have a right to request the restriction or suppression of your personal data. 
  • You have a right to have your personal data erased, if we no longer have a legitimate use for it. This right is sometimes called the ‘right to be forgotten’. 
  • You have a right to rectification of your personal data if the information we hold in relation to you is inaccurate or incomplete. 
  • You have a right not to be subject to any decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal or similarly significant effects. You can request human intervention or challenge any solely automated decision-making that significantly affects you. 

If you would like to request access to your personal data or exercise any of your other data protection rights, please contact the Information Governance Team:

Information Governance 

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council

Redcar and Cleveland House

Kirkleatham Street

Redcar

TS10 1RT 

Email: InformationGovernance@redcar-cleveland.gov.uk 

Telephone: 01642 774 774 

 

You can seek advice and have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is an independent body set up to uphold information rights in the UK. You can contact them through the ICO website www.ico.org.uk, their helpline on 0303 123 1113, or in writing to:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF 

 

The legislations, policies and guidance that relate to this service includes, but is not limited to:

  • Children Act 2004
  • Children and Families Act 2014
  • Education and Skills Act 2008
  • Education Act 1996
  • The Localism Act 2011

For more information about how the Council uses your data, including your privacy rights and the complaints process, please see our Corporate Privacy Notice.