Education privacy notice

Hackney Education is the education department of The London Borough of Hackney. This privacy notice sits beneath our top level privacy notice and provides information about how personal data is used by Hackney Education in providing education services, including:

• school admissions (including admissions appeals)
• pupil benefits (eg school clothing grants and free school meals)
• early years support services (including children’s centres and integrated health services)
• special educational needs and disability support services
• safeguarding and wellbeing in education support services
• school improvement services
• home to school transport services
• adult learning services

Please see our main privacy notice for details on your rights and who to contact about use of personal data.

 

What personal information do we collect and handle?

Information we may collect includes:

• personal information such as your or your child’s name, address and postcode, date of birth, ethnicity, telephone details, email address
• information about your financial situation and/or receipt of benefits to assess eligibility for pupil benefits (eg free school meals, school clothing grants, free childcare support)
• safeguarding and child welfare information (such as proof of parental responsibility, details of court orders, other agencies involvement)
• information about a pupil’s special educational needs including physical and/or mental health, medical conditions, disabilities, professional assessments, etc to assess or plan for special educational needs and disability support and ensure access to other specialist services for children with disabilities
• school attendance information (such as school sessions attended, number of absences and reasons for absence)
• information about behaviour, such as details of exclusions or any relevant alternative provision put in place
• information about academic performance, pupil assessment and attainment (eg key stage and attainment results)

This list isn’t exhaustive. However, any processing of personal data by Hackney Education will always be proportionate to the public interest tasks we undertake and our public authority duties under the law.

What legally allows us to collect and handle information about you?

The lawful bases for processing personal data are specified in Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The lawful bases that Hackney Education processes personal data under the GDPR are:

• legal obligation
• public task
• vital interests
• legitimate interests

Some of this data processing may involve ‘special category data’, formerly known as sensitive personal data. Hackney Educations lawful bases for processing special category data under are specified in Article 9 of GDPR as:

• compliance with employment and social security law
• vital interests of the data subject
• substantial public interest

The majority of the data processing that Hackney Education undertakes relates to its legal obligations as a local authority and education service.

These are illustrated in the list below, although this isn’t exhaustive as data requirements may change from time to time. To meet its legal obligations as a local authority, Hackney Education processes personal data to:

• ensure that efficient primary, secondary and further education is available to meet the needs of all pupils attending maintained schools, academies and free school in the London Borough of Hackney
• promote high standards while ensuring fair access to opportunity for education and learning
• promote the fulfilment of learning potential
• secure sufficient schools for providing primary and secondary education for children in the London Borough of Hackney
• support the improvement of standards in Hackney’s schools
• strategically plan its education services
• provide education welfare services (eg school attendance monitoring services, child performance and employment licensing services)
• make arrangements to identify children not receiving education and exercise its powers to ensure such children receive education
• improve attendance where schools report absence
• investigate the whereabouts of pupils who have poor attendance and are at risk of being deleted from the schools’ admission register
• administering and enforcing requirements and protections for those below compulsory school leaving age taking part in employment or performances
• provision and administration of clothing grants where such expenditure is not supported by grant
• provision of music tuition or other activities which provide opportunities for pupils to enhance their experience of music
• enable pupils to enhance their experience of the visual, creative and performing arts other than music
• provide outdoor education including environmental and field studies

Other data processing relates to the performance of Hackney Educations public task of supporting the learning and wellbeing of pupils and adult learners in the London Borough of Hackney.

How we use your personal information

Hackney Education uses personal information to deliver the following services:

• admissions and pupil benefits
• the attendance service
• educational psychology service
• disabled children’s services
• the education health and care planning  (EHCP) services
• inclusion and specialist support services
• early years support services
• portage services
• SENDIAGS (SEND information, advice and guidance service)
• the safeguarding and wellbeing in education service
• school improvement services
• SEND travel assistance service
• Travellers education service
• the Virtual School
• adult learning services
• children’s integrated speech and language therapy services

If you have any queries relating to how your personal data may be processed in relation to the services listed above, please contact dataprotection@hackney.gov.uk.

Who do we share your information with?

When we have a clear reason under the law, or otherwise with your consent, we may share information with:

• police
• health partners
• other departments of the Council
• other councils
• other government departments such as HMRC; DWP and the Cabinet Office (as part of the National Fraud Initiative)
• residential care providers
• education providers
• mental health services
• local government
• police, fire and rescue services
• probation services
• community rehabilitation services

This list isn’t exhaustive, however, unless we have your explicit consent we’ll only share your personal information with a third party where the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act (2018) allow it or if otherwise required to do so by law. Hackney Education will not pass your personal data to any third parties for marketing, sales or any other commercial purposes.

Your or your child’s personal information may be shared with internal departments of the Council or with external partners and agencies involved in delivering statutory and other services.

Special category information (as defined by the General Data Protection Regulation) may also be shared for the purpose of delivering statutory services in addition to education services such as social care, the protection of vulnerable children and the support of public health and wellbeing where the Data Protection Act (2018) allows.

Hackney Education must protect public funds and may use personal information and data matching techniques to detect and prevent fraud, and ensure public money is targeted and spent in the most appropriate and cost-effective way.

To achieve this, information may be shared with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds including the Audit Commission, the Department for Work and Pensions, other local authorities, HM Revenue and Customs and the Police.

Sharing information with The Department for Education (DfE)

Hackney Education has a ‘legal obligation’ as defined within the General Data Protection Regulation to share information about pupils within our local authority area with the Department for Education (DfE).

Under section 3 of The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013, we collect pupil level data from schools securely and within a clearly defined framework which is then securely transferred to the DfE.

The pupil data that we lawfully share with the DfE through these 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 (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 a pupil’s school years

Find out more about the data collection requirements placed on us by the DfE.

What rights do you have?

Please see our main privacy notice for more details on your right to:

• be informed
• access your personal data
• rectify your personal data
• restrict our processing of your personal data