Education privacy policy

The Education and Lifelong Learning Directorate is part of Cardiff Council who is the Data Controller for the purposes of the data collected. This privacy policy will explain how our organisation uses personal data.

What data do we collect?

The Education and Lifelong Learning Directorate may obtain the following categories of your personal data for:

Children & Young People (and Adults in some instances)

General categories:

Immediate personal information e.g. full name, date of birth, gender, etc...
Contact details, e.g. address, etc...
Demographic data, e.g., Ethnicity, First Language, etc...
Educational records
Medical records where relevant to a school placement or Special Education Needs (SEN) / Additional Learning Needs (ALN)
Social Care and Health records where relevant to a school placement and /or SEN / ALN, along with the safeguarding and wellbeing of pupils

Subcategories:

Parents / Carers / Applicant details (including any relatives and / or persons with legal responsibility for children and young people)
School Attainment
School Attendance
School Exclusions
School History information
SEN / ALN
Records considered to be relevant to the admission of a child into School and / or an educational setting
Records considered to be relevant to Catering, Elective Home Education (EHE), Governors (as part of SLA Online), Into Work Service, Music Service, MyConcern (in relation to any safeguarding and wellbeing concerns raised on pupils, e.g. bullying, etc.), Passenger Transport, SLA Online (for School staff), and / or Youth Service
Vulnerable Characteristics, e.g. Children Looked After (CLA), Free School Meals (FSM), Asylum Seekers, Travellers, English/Welsh as an Additional Language (EAL), Service Children, Young Carers, etc.

How do we collect your data?

You directly provide The Education and Lifelong Learning Directorate with most of the data we collect. We source, collect and process data from the following:

127 Cardiff Council Maintained Schools and a Pupil Referral Unit
Benefits Service (in relation to FSM)
Birth Registrations
Early Years (including Flying Start)
Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS)
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
Childrens Services (where necessary)
Clearsprings Ready Homes Ltd (in relation to Asylum Seekers)
Community Teaching
Connect 2 Cardiff (C2C)
Council Tax
Education Welfare Service (EWS)
Elective Home Education (EHE)
Governor Services
Inclusion Service (including SEN / ALN)
Into Work Service
Looked After Children Education
Other Local Authorities, Schools and / or educational settings that form part of your child's educational history
Passenger Transport Service
School Admissions
Schools and educational settings within the City of Cardiff
Schools and educational settings residing outside of Cardiff but relevant in forming your child's educational history (e.g. Education Other Than At School (EOTAS) and SEN / ALN)
School Organisation Programme
Services to Schools
SLA Online
Youth Justice Service
Youth Service
Welsh Government Education and Schools Statutory Data Returns

How will we use your data?

The Education & Lifelong Directorate uses the information to achieve it's 10 year vision for Education for the Capital City, along with ensuring the participation, safeguarding and well-being of our pupils as well as the budgeting, financing, grants, data and statistical analysis in relation to the Education Directorate, our Schools and pupils.

The Education & Lifelong Directorate collects your data and information for the purpose of providing the following services, support, and training along with complying with legal and statutory obligations such as Welsh Government Statutory Data Returns:

Cardiff Commitment
Child Friendly City
Community Tuition
Education Other Than At School
Education Welfare
Ethnic Minority and Travellers
Elective Home Education
Engagement Services
Governor Services
Healthy Schools
Inclusion, consisting of:
Autism Support
Complex Learning Needs
Early Years & Disability
Education Psychology
Emotional Health & Wellbeing
Hearing Impairment
Planning Monitoring & Reviewing
Special Educational Needs / Additional Learning Needs
Speech & Language
Visual & Multi-Sensory Impairment
Into Work Service
Looked After Children Education
Performance & Governance
Services to Schools, consisting of:
Commercial Services
E-Learning
International School Links
School Catering & Meals
Music Service
Storey Arms
School Admission Placements
School Organisation Programme (as well as 21st Century Schools) that includes:
Commissioning
Planning
Strategy
School Transport
Youth Service that includes:
Early Intervention
Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET)

Who do we share your data with?

Your data is shared internally with different Service Areas within the Education & Lifelong Learning Directorate along with the following Directorates (See Service specific Privacy Notices):

Corporate Resources
Planning, Transport and Environment
People and Communities

Along with City of Cardiff Council Schools relevant to your child's educational history (See individual Cardiff Schools' websites for their Privacy Notices).

The agencies / organisations we share your data with externally include:

Alps (Online student performance analysis)
Careers Wales
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board (CAVCUHB)
Central South Consortium Joint Education Service (CSC / CSCJES)
Estyn
Fischer Family Trust (FFT: Education analysis, literacy & research)
Police / Courts (under lawful basis - See Sharing personal data with law enforcement authorities)
Relevant Local Authorities forming part of your child's educational history (See individual Local Authorities / Councils within England and Wales for their Privacy Notices)
Relevant non City of Cardiff Council Schools and educational establishments forming part of your child's educational history (EOTAS Service Privacy Notice)
Welsh Government (Data collection and information management for Schools)
Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA)

How do we store your data?

The duration of which the Cardiff Council retains information is determined through statutory requirements or best practice. For the purpose of the Education & Lifelong Directorate:

Pupil records / files will be held securely until your child's 25th Birthday
SEN Statement maintained under the Education Act 1996 - Section 324 will be held securely until your child's 30th Birthday
Proposed or amended SEN Statement will be held securely until your child's 30th birthday
ALN documentation, including reviews and Individual Learning Plans will be held securely until your child's 25th Birthday
Advice and information to parents regarding ALN will be held until closure plus 12 years
Children ALN Files will be held until closure plus 35 years

Once this time period has expired, the information will be disposed of safely and securely.

What are your data protection rights?

The Education & Lifelong Learning Directorate would like to make sure you are fully aware of all your data protection rights. You have a right to access and obtain a copy of the personal data that the Council holds about you and to ask the Authority to correct your personal data if there are any errors or it is out of date. In some circumstances you may also have a right to ask the Council to restrict the processing of your personal data until any errors are corrected, to object to processing or to transfer or (in very limited circumstances) erase your personal data.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights or have any queries or concerns regarding the processing of your personal data, please contact the Data Protection Officer as indicated below.

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.

Our lawful basis

The Council holds personal data about you in its capacity as data controller. Our legal basis for our use of your personal data will generally be one or more of the following:

we need to process your personal data to satisfy our legal obligations as the Local Authority
we need to process your personal data to carry out a task in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority in our capacity as a public body
processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interested of the data subject or of another natural person
you have given clear to process your personal data for a specific purpose.

See Education Act 1996 and 2002 for details of the Council's legal reasons for using your information.

Changes to our privacy policy

The Education & Lifelong Learning Directorate keeps its privacy policy under regular review and places any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated November 2022.

How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at [email protected].

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO's address:

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

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

Contacting Data Protection

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, the data we hold on you, or you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Please contact the Data Protection Officer for further information.

Data Protection Officer
Information Governance Team
County Hall
Atlantic Wharf
Cardiff
CF10 4UW

[email protected]