Knowsley Educational Psychology Service privacy notice

Find out about Knowsley Educational Psychology Service privacy notice here

Who Will Be Responsible for My Data Once it is Collected?

Knowsley Council will be responsible for your personal data.

Why Do You Need My Information?

We collect and obtain your personal information for the following purpose(s):

  • To confirm your identity regarding who holds parental responsibility for
    the child/young person (aged 0 to 18 years)
  • To identify children/young people who may be eligible for help and support from the EPS within the age range of 0 to 25 years
  • To understand and help meet the SEND needs of children/young people who have been identified
  • To meet our legal responsibilities, e.g., EHC Needs Assessments; safeguarding
  • To work with and/or signpost to other organisations and agencies, depending on the level of need and risk, to coordinate services with the focus on children and young people with the most pressing and complex needs
  • Where data is used in local and/or national research for statistical or evaluative purposes, Knowsley EPS will ensure that it is fully anonymised

What Information Do We Collect?

We only collect information about individuals which is necessary to provide the service or meet legal obligations to support the child/young person.

We process both personal and special category (sensitive) data.

Personal data includes:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Contact details
  • Date of birth

Special category (sensitive) data includes:

  • Ethnicity
  • Religion
  • Medical information
  • Gender
  • Reasons for support (e.g., concerns about learning, areas for development that require support)

In providing a service, we may also obtain personal information from other Knowsley Council services, external organisations and individuals including but not limited to:

Schools/settings (including Early Years and Post-16 provision):

  • Information about a child/young person’s progress
  • The reason a child/young person needs support
  • What the school/setting have done to support the child/young person
  • What plans have been written
  • Assessment information (e.g., further details of barriers to learning, strengths and needs; observation records; interventions; next steps to support outcomes)
  • Images (e.g., of assessment information), digital and paper records that support our work. Images are NOT of children/young people

Partner organisations or those professionals working with you either in school or part of multi-agency work, such as:

  • Various health sectors, e.g.
    • Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
    • Speech and Language Therapists (SaLT)
    • Occupational Therapists (OT)
    • Community Paediatrics
    • GPs
  • Social Care (where relevant)
  • Youth Justice Service (YJS)
  • Extended family members
  • The Police
  • Third Sector organisations (e.g., charities and voluntary organisations such as Barnardo’s and Listening Ear, with permission and within the best interest of the child/young person)

What Allows You to Collect My Information?

Knowsley EPS works with children and young people when schools and other settings request further guidance to support progress. This could be via case work with various educational settings as part of their Service Level Agreement with the Educational Psychology Service or through carrying out statutory duties under the Children and Families Act 2014 and the Department for Education’s Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice 2014 (SEND CoP) which underpins, for example, an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Needs Assessment.

Within the SEND CoP, the graduated approach (which covers Early Years providers, schools and colleges) details how Special Educational Needs and Disability Coordinators (SENDCos) should request the involvement of ‘specialists’ to support them in meeting children’s/young people’s needs in their setting.

Educational Psychologists are named within these documents to support meeting the needs of children/young people with SEND.

Personal Data:

The lawful basis for processing and holding your Personal data UK General Data Protection Legislation (GDPR) Articles:

  • 6(1) (a) Consent: the individual has given clear and informed consent for Knowsley EPS to process their personal data for a specific purpose. Depending on their age, this may be by the person/people who hold Parental Responsibility and/or the child/young person themselves
  • 6(1) (c) Legal Obligation: the processing is necessary for Knowsley EPS to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations)
  • 6(1) (e) Public Task: the processing is necessary for Knowsley EPS to perform a task in the public interest or for official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law

Special Category (Sensitive) Data:

Where we need to collect special category (sensitive) data, this is processed under UK GDPR:

  • Article 9(2) (a) Explicit Consent: the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes, except where Union or Member State law provides that the prohibition referred to in paragraph 11 may not be lifted by the data subject
  • Article 9(2) (g) Reasons of Substantial Public Interest: the ‘safeguarding of children and of individuals at risk’ and ‘equality of opportunity or treatment’
  • AND Data Protection Act 2018 Sch 1 Part 2
    • (6) Statutory and government purposes
    • (8) Equality of opportunity and
    • (17) Counselling
    • (18) Safeguarding of children and individuals at risk
    • (10) Preventing or detecting unlawful actions
    • (16) Support for individuals with a particular disability or medical condition

Who Will My Data Be Shared With?

We may need to share your personal information with different organisations (see below for examples) but will only do so if there is a lawful basis:

  • Teams within Knowsley Council who are working to improve outcomes for children/young people
  • A child’s/young person’s educational setting
  • Partner organisations or those professionals working with you. This may include Health, Social Care, Police, Youth Justice and the voluntary sector
  • Other professionals who have been asked to contribute advice or information to your child’s EHC Needs Assessment
  • To complete audit reports and evaluate our service
  • Law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law
  • Pseudonymised data may be shared with GL Assessment Limited and Pearson Clinical Assessment (only if we assess your child with the British Ability Scales 3 and Q Interactive to obtain scores)

We usually discuss this with you, so that you are aware of information sharing. However, in certain circumstances, such as safeguarding or law enforcement, we are legally required to share information in line with the relevant protocols. When this is necessary, we have procedures in place that allows this to be carried out in a sensitive, secure and confidential manner.

Do I have to provide this information and what will happen if I don’t?

If you do not provide your personal data, we will not be able to provide you with the service.

How Will My Data Be Stored?

Your information will be held by the EPS within Knowsley Council using secure methods:

  • Paper notes are sometimes taken about children/young people during our involvement. However, once a report has been written these are securely destroyed, unless we are required to keep these, e.g., for safeguarding purposes
  • In the case of official assessment record sheets or when the original handwritten notes are required these are scanned and saved electronically (see below) before hard copies are securely destroyed
  • Electronic information (including the child’s/young person’s reports) is saved on the Educational Psychology Service’s shared storage areas within the Council’s secure ICT systems
  • Reports and consultation records are also sometimes linked to the Early Help Module data management system including the Education and Early Years (EYEs) module, as well as software used by the team to manage the Service
  • Pseudonymised data may be shared with GL Assessment Limited Pearson Clinical Assessment (only if we assess your child with the British Ability Scales 3 and Q Interactive to obtain scores)

Where the Council has commissioned work from an Associate Educational Psychologist, this private practitioner is subject to the same rules of data protection and must be registered with the Information Commissioner in their own right as a holder of personal information.

How Long Will My Data Be Kept?

Data will be held for as long as necessary to achieve the relevant purpose. This is usually from the date the child/young person becomes known to the service until the age of 25 years unless we are legally required to retain it for a specific period. For example, if the child/young person is adopted or has been Looked After by Knowsley Council, we must keep information for 100 years and 75 years respectively and then it will be securely destroyed.

Will this information be used to take automated decisions about me?

No

Will my data be transferred abroad and why?

No Knowsley Council will not transfer your data abroad however our processors GL Assessment and Pearsons may do so.

What rights do I have when it comes to my data?

Under the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018/ UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), you have the following rights with regards to your personal data:

  • The right to subject access – you have the right to see a copy of the personal data that the council holds about you and find out what it is used for
  • The right to rectification – you have the right to ask the council to correct or remove any inaccurate data that we hold about you
  • The right to erasure (right to be forgotten) you have the right to ask the council to remove data that we hold about you
  • The right to restriction – you have the right to ask for your information to be restricted (locked down) on council systems
  • The right to data portability – you have the right to ask for your data to be transferred back to you or to a new provider at your request
  • The right to object – you have the right to ask the council to stop using your personal data or to stop sending you marketing information or complain about how your data is used
  • The right to prevent automated decision making – you have the right to ask the council to stop using your data to make automated decisions about you or to stop profiling your behaviour (where applicable)

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
Westmorland Road
Huyton
L36 6GA

Or email: Inforights@knowsley.gov.uk

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
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: -

The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45

Website: www.ico.org.uk

Chat with us