This privacy notice explains how Knowsley Council collects, uses, and protects personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
How we use your information
Knowsley Council processes personal data in order to fulfil its statutory responsibilities to:
- Monitor school attendance, performance and engagement
- Safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people
- Plan and deliver educational services
- Identify children missing from education
- Promote the educational outcomes for Children and Young people
- Monitor and review EHCP provision and outcomes
- Ensure that children receive suitable full-time education
- Identify and support vulnerable pupils, including those with SEND
- Assess the suitability of placements and inform annual EHCP reviews
- Work in partnership with schools, other local authorities, and agencies.
Knowsley Council will collect and process personal information in relation to Children who are educated in Knowsley, have a Knowsley issued Education Health & Care Plan (EHCP) and/or Children who are or were cared for by the local authority, their families, and other third parties in order to:
- Enable us to undertake specific functions so we can and fulfil our statutory duties under the Children Act 1989 and Education Act 1996.
- Ensure children and young people get the necessary education, health and care support.
- Monitor and support the educational progress of Cared for and previously Cared for Children.
- Provide social workers, parents/carers and guardians with information about educational settings, schools and colleges their young person may wish to attend.
- Ensure children and young people get a place in an educational setting.
- Ensure that children and young people are safeguarded and attend educational settings regularly.
- Provide appropriate interventions and support.
- Ensure access to funding available for educational services / intervention e.g. pupil premium plus.
- Work in partnership with schools, carers, and other agencies.
- Develop national policies.
- Administer and allocate funding.
- Identify and encourage good practice.
- Report to government departments and meet inspection requirements.
- Provide statutory returns to the government.
- Monitor and improve our performance.
- Collect information to let us plan future delivery of services.
- Provide information to government about the educational and early years settings children that young people attend.
Attendance data is a key indicator used to:
- Understand whether a pupil is able to access their education
- Identify risks to educational progress or wellbeing
- Inform early intervention and support.
What information we collect
We may collect and process the following types of personal data:
- Personal Information such as Name, date of birth, and address.
- Special Information such as ethnicity, language, religion and disability.
- Unique Pupil Number (UPN).
- Education records and pupil information including assessment data, attainment data and information relating to behaviour and incidents in educational, early years and post 16 settings.
- Attendance and exclusion data including attendance percentage and absence breakdowns.
- Information relating to educational and early years settings, including staff contact details and financial information.
- Special educational needs (SEN) information and assessment information including medical assessments to inform Educational, Health and Care Plans (EHCP).
- Outcomes for Cared for Children (such as strengths and difficulties questionnaire scores and EHCPs).
- Information about children and young people who have or have had a Social Worker from Knowsley Council.
- Episodes of being cared for (such as important dates, information on placements).
- Personal circumstances to enable assessments to be made regarding educational support required.
- Information from schools, carers, and other professionals.
- Safeguarding and welfare information where applicable.
- Information relating to persistent absence.
- Relevant contextual information regarding barriers to attendance.
We only request and process the minimum necessary information required to fulfil our duties.
Lawful Basis for Processing
Under Article 6 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases Knowsley Council rely on for processing this information are:
- Article 6(1)(c), which states that processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation.
- Article 6(1)(e), which states that processing is necessary for the performance of a public task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.
Knowsley Council also has duties placed under the Local Government Act. To do this work, we also need to collect some special category data. This is personal data that needs more protection because it is sensitive. Under Article 9 of the UK GDPR, the lawful bases we rely on for processing special category information are:
- Article 9(2)(g) – Substantial public interest
- Article 9(2)(h) – Health and social care purposes
These legal bases are underpinned by acts of legislation that dictate what actions can and should be taken by local authorities. This includes, but may not be limited to:
- Children’s Act 1989 and 2004
- The Children and Families Act 2014
- Children and Social Work Act 2017
- Education Act 1996
- Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005
- Health and Social Care Act 2015
The relevant lawful conditions under the Data Protection Act 2018 are as follows:
- Schedule 1, Part 1, Paragraph 2, Health and social care.
- Schedule 1, Part 2, Paragraph 6, Statutory and government purposes.
- Schedule 1, Part 2, Paragraph 8, Equality of opportunity and treatment.
- Schedule 1, Part 2, Paragraph 18, Safeguarding of children and individuals at risk.
Who We Share Your Data With
We may share your personal information with:
- Other services within Knowsley Council
- Social Workers and foster carers
- Social care, Health services and Safeguarding partners
- Other services in other Local Authorities, such as Schools Admissions, Special Educational Needs, Virtual Schools
- Schools and education settings
- Government departments e.g. Department for Education
- Statutory agencies such as Ofsted
- Other partners such as health and the police
- Other local authorities (where appropriate).
We only share the minimum necessary information where it is necessary to:
- Fulfil statutory duties
- Safeguard Children
- Support educational outcomes
- and ensure all partners comply with data protection laws.
We do not share personal information about you with anyone else without consent unless the law and our policies allow us to do so.
All data sharing is carried out securely and in line with data protection law.
Data sharing with out-of-borough schools
Where a pupil with an EHCP issued by Knowsley Council attends a school outside the borough:
- Knowsley Council remains the maintaining Local Authority
- We are required to monitor attendance, provision, and outcomes
- Schools are expected to work in partnership with the Local Authority to support the pupil.
As such we may request attendance and related information directly from these schools to sure statutory duties are met.
Department for Education (DfE)
The Department for Education (DfE) collects personal data from educational settings and local authorities via various statutory data collections.
We share children in need and children looked after data with the Department for Education (DfE) on a statutory basis, under Section 83 of 1989 Children’s Act, and also under section 3 of The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013.
All data is transferred securely and held by the Department for Education (DfE) under a combination of software and hardware controls which meet the current government security policy framework.
For more information, please see ‘How Government uses your data’ section.
For privacy information on the data the Department for Education collects and uses, please see here.
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Here for Key Stage 4 and 5 and adult education.
How Long We Keep Your Data
We will hold the information about you on secure Knowsley Council systems for no longer than is reasonably necessary.
Knowsley Council and Establishments who are sharing personal information under this agreement will hold information in line with their Records Management Policies and Retention schedules considering any statutory requirements regarding retention unless subject a legal hold:
- For Primary Establishments this will be up until the pupil leaves the establishment.
- For Secondary Establishments this will be until pupils 25th birthday.
- SEN or EHCP information will be retained until the student reaches the age of 25 plus an additional six years.
Establishments will justify their retention periods and disposal methods.
Knowsley Council will hold information in line with their Records Management Policies and Retention schedules considering any statutory requirements regarding retention:
- Education data – held until a pupils 25th birthday.
- Social Care data held for 75 or 100 years depending on the type of record type.
Should you require further information on how long your information will be retained please contact us at Inforights@knowsley.gov.uk
We also ensure that only members of staff with a legitimate reason to access the information have permission to do so. The information will only be kept to comply with statutory requirements, after which it will be securely destroyed.
Your Rights
Under data protection law, you have a number of rights, including the right to:
Access your data.
- Request correction or deletion.
- Object to processing.
- Restrict processing.
- Lodge a complaint with the Information Commission’s Office (ICO).
These rights are listed in more detail on Knowsley Council’s Privacy and Data Protection webpage.
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.
Further information
To find out more about your rights under the DPA 2018/UK GDPR, please visit the Information Commissioner’s website.
To request a copy of your data or ask questions about how it is used, please download a copy of our form and send it to:
Data Protection Officer
Knowsley Council
Nutgrove Villa
Westmorland Road
Huyton
L36 6GA
Or email:Inforights@knowsley.gov.uk
For further information on how to request access to personal information held centrally by the Department for Education (DfE), please see the How Government uses your data section of this notice.
Who can I complain to if I am unhappy about how my data is used?
You can complain directly to the Council’s Data Protection Team by writing to: -
Data Protection Officer
Knowsley Council
Nutgrove Villa
Westmorland Road
Huyton
L36 6GA
Or email:data.protection.officer@knowsley.gov.uk
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office using the following details:
ICO Head Office
4th Floor, No. 3 Circle Square
5 Hawkshaw Street
Manchester
M1 7BL
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.org.uk
How Government uses your data
The pupil data that we lawfully share with the Department for Education (DfE) through data collections:
- Underpins school funding, which is calculated based upon the numbers of children and their characteristics in each school.
- Informs ‘short term’ education policy monitoring and school accountability and intervention (for example, school GCSE results or Pupil Progress measures).
- Supports ‘longer term’ research and monitoring of educational policy (for example how certain subject choices go on to affect education or earnings beyond school).
Data collection requirements
To find out more about the data collection requirements placed on us by the Department for Education (DfE) (for example; via the school census) go to the web page here.
The National Pupil Database (NPD)
The NPD is owned and managed by the Department for Education (DfE) and contains information about pupils in schools in England. This information is securely collected from a range of sources including schools, local authorities and awarding bodies.
The data in the NPD is provided as part of the operation of the education system and is used for research and statistical purposes to improve, and promote, the education and well-being of children in England.
The evidence and data provide DfE, education providers, Parliament and the wider public with a clear picture of how the education and children’s services sectors are working in order to better target, and evaluate, policy interventions to help ensure all children are kept safe from harm and receive the best possible education.
To find out more about the NPD, visit the web page here.
Sharing by the Department for Education (DfE)
DfE will only share pupils’ personal data where it is lawful, secure, and ethical to do so. Where these conditions are met, the law allows the Department for Education (DfE) to share pupils’ personal data with certain third parties, including:
- Schools and local authorities.
- Researchers.
- Organisations connected with promoting the education or wellbeing of children in England.
- Other government departments and agencies.
- Organisations fighting or identifying crime.
For more information about the Department for Education’s (DfE) NPD data sharing process, please visit here.
Organisations fighting or identifying crime may use their legal powers to contact the Department for Education (DfE) to request access to individual level information relevant to detecting that crime.
For information about which organisations the Department for Education (DfE) has provided pupil information, (and for which project) or to access a monthly breakdown of data share volumes with Home Office and the Police please visit here.
How to find out what personal information the Department for Education (DfE) hold about you
Under the terms of the UK GDPR, you’re entitled to ask the Department for Education (DfE):
- If they are processing your personal data.
- For a description of the data, they hold about you.
- The reasons they are holding it and any recipient it may be disclosed to.
- For a copy of your personal data and any details of its source.
If you want to see the personal data held about you by the Department for Education (DfE), you should make a ‘subject access request. Further information on how to do this can be found within the Department for Education’s (DfE) personal information charter that is published here.
To contact the Department for Education (DfE): https://www.gov.uk/contact-dfe