PN046 - Home Education Privacy Notice

Torfaen County Borough Council is committed to protecting your privacy when you use our services. This Privacy Notice is designed to give you information about the data we hold about you, how we use it, your rights in relation to it and the safeguards in place to protect it.

TCBC Service Area: Children & Family Services
Work area: Education Welfare Service
Contact Details: Rachael Williams
Privacy Notice Name: Home Education

Data Controller: Torfaen County Borough Council, c/o Civic Centre, Pontypool, NP4 6YB

If you wish to raise a concern about the handling of your personal data, please contact the Data Protection Officer on 01495 762200 or email dpa@torfaen.gov.uk

The Education service has a duty to collect information on the numbers of pupils who are Home Educated living in the authority that parents have consented to us knowing and provide data on Home Education as subscribed by the Welsh Government statutory requirements.

Who provides your data to the Council?

The personal information we process is provided to us directly by you as you have elected to home educate your child.

AND

We receive personal information indirectly from school if the pupil has previously been on a school roll.

How does the Council collect this information?

  • Parent information submitted to the LA (via reports/telephone calls/emails)
  • School databases e.g. SIMS (where child was previously on roll at a school)
  • Home education form (electronic via email)

What information does the Council collect about you?

The ALN Team collects:

  • Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Current National Curriculum Year
  • National Curriculum Year when home education commenced
  • Age
  • Last School/education provision name
  • Date last on roll at a school/provision
  • Start date of home education
  • Reason for home educating (if provided)
  • Contact details
  • Additional Learning Needs status (when home education commenced, and current – if known)
  • Gender
  • First Language
  • Details of Local Authority contact/engagement with you
  • Information relevant to case
  • Communication with families
  • Date of return to school (if applicable)

Why does the Council process your personal data?

Under Article 6 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful basis we rely on for processing this information is:

(e) We need it to perform a public task.

Special categories of personal data:

We collect the following special category data

  • personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin
  • data concerning health

We collect this under Article 9 of the UK GDPR.

We do not collect criminal data

Who has access to your data?

Your data is shared internally only with the appropriate staff where it is necessary for the performance of their roles.

Anonymised data is shared with Data Cymru using a secure transfer tool. This enables Data Cymru to produce aggregate statistics that will allow local authority Directors of Education and lead EHE officers, the WLGA and Welsh Government to better understand the Elective Home Education cohort, to inform discussion, and identify needs and issues locally and across the EHE community.

Apart from where previously stated, we do not pass your details to third parties unless we are lawfully required do so.

Is the Data transferred out of the UK?

No

How does the Council keep your data secure?

The Council has internal policies in place to ensure the data it processes is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed. Access to this data is restricted in accordance with the Council’s internal policies and in compliance with the UK GDPR.

Data will be stored securely in:

  • In Secure pupil files on the Council’s education directory on a secure drive or via the Capita ONE secure database

How long does the Council keep your data?

The Council will hold your personal data only for the period that is necessary and will follow organisational and Local Authority standards in this area. At the end of the retention period the Council will securely destroy or dispose of the data in line with retention schedules.

  • The ALN Service retain records for Home Educated pupils in line with the Council policy of the child’s date of birth plus 25 years.

Are we making automated decisions/profiling with your data?

No

Your rights

You have a number of Rights you can exercise:

  • Access - to obtain a copy of your data on request
  • Rectification – to require the Council to change incorrect or incomplete data
  • Object, Restrict or Delete - under certain circumstances you can require the Council to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing
  • Data portability – to receive and/or transmit data provided to the Council to other organisations (this applies in limited circumstances))
  • Withdraw your consent at any time (where consent has been given)
  • To know the consequences of failing to provide data to the Council
  • To know the existence of any Automated Decision-making, including profiling, and the consequences of this for you.
  • To lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (Information Commissioners Office)

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact Rachael Williams, Elective Home Education officer, rachael.williams@torfaen.gov.uk

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office (Wales), 2nd Floor, Churchill House, Churchill Way, Cardiff, CF10 2HH. Telephone 0330 414 6421 or e-mail Wales@ico.org.uk

Last Modified: 03/10/2023 Back to top