Children's services privacy notice

Purpose for processing your information

We work in a coordinated way with other children and young people’s services in Westminster City Council (WCC) and with partner organisations to ensure that we deliver the best possible outcomes for children and young people with SEND and to ensure we are fully compliant with the Children and Families Act 2014. The Data Protection Act 2018 states that before we collect your personal data we must have a lawful basis or reason. There are six permissible reasons and we must have at least one of these reasons. For the SEND data we are relying on Article 6(1)(c) of the UK GDPR where processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the council must comply as well as the condition under Article 9(2)(h) to process special category personal data. This data is necessary to:

• enable us to carry out the provision of travel assistance
• produce statistics and reports that inform planning and decision-making - for example audits and strategies to develop sustainable travel and transport infrastructure to ensure the needs of our service users are best catered for. Statistics are used in such a way that individual children or adults can't be identified from them
• account for our decisions and investigate complaints
• evaluate, monitor and make sure the service you receive is efficient and effective.

We collect the following information

We collect information from parents or carers for children and young people below and within statutory school age, and from young people themselves if they are aged 16 or over and no longer in compulsory education.

In the course of assessing and planning SEND support and providing the most suitable educational provision, we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

• pesonal information (such as name, address, contact details, date of birth, parent/carer name(s) and contact details, gender)
• details of special educational needs and disabilities
• ethnicity
• information about physical or mental health
• We also obtain personal information from the following other sources:
• other organisations or teams that can provide us with advice and information (such as Adult or Children’s Social Services, educational psychologists, mental health services, doctors, General Practitioners (GPs), school nurses and other NHS providers)
• schools or post-16 settings currently or previously attended
• early education providers currently or previously attended (such as nurseries, pre-schools and childminders)

Your personal information is only used for a specified purpose(s) but if we intend to use it for any other new purposes we will normally ask you first.  For instance in some cases, the Council may wish to use your information for another purpose such as related to improving and developing services, or to prevent or detect fraud.  In any event our processing will always have a demonstrable lawful basis.  Where practicable and reasonable we will always seek to inform you of any significant proposed changes to how we process or intend to process your personal data, in order to ensure full transparency over how we handle your information

How we collect your information

We collect information in a number of ways, for example, by letter, email, face-to-face, telephone, online forms, surveys.

Who the information is shared with

• education providers (for example schools, colleges and day-care providers)
• Department for Transport, Department of Health and Department for Education and other agencies with whom we have a duty to cooperate with
• other Council teams so they can carry out their statutory roles and support our service (for example social care, housing, education, complaints, business intelligence, corporate finance, legal services)
• transport contractors (taxi, bus and independent travel providers)
• pre-paid financial services (where a reimbursement for travel costs has been agreed)
• NHS
• IT providers that support our transport functions (for example text messaging to parents and carers, and database and routing systems)
• relevant agencies and parties in relation to safeguarding and child protection matters
• other local authorities (education, social care, relevant housing, employment and other services)
• emergency and medical services (for example ambulance, school nurse or GP)
• commissioned social care and/or health services

Details for transfers

It may sometimes be necessary to transfer personal information overseas. When this is needed, information may be transferred to countries or territories around the world. Any transfers made will be in full compliance with all aspects of the DPA’18.

How long do we keep your information?

We will only keep your information for as long as is required by law and to provide you with the necessary services in line with our stated retention policy.  In general information related to:

Information is only held for as long as it is needed. We will not keep your information for longer than is required to by law. Your information will be disposed of in a controlled and secure manner in accordance with the councils’ policy. The council’s IT security and confidentiality policies ensure that your information is protected, and accessed only by staff directly involved in your case.

We may also anonymise some personal data you provide to us to ensure that you cannot be identified and use this data to allow the Council to effectively target and plan the provision of services.

• pesonal information (such as name, address, contact details, date of birth, parent/carer name(s) and contact details, gender)
• details of special educational needs and disabilities
• ethnicity
• information about physical or mental health

Your rights and access to your information

You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. 

The new Data Protection Act 2018 also gives you additional rights that refer to how the council holds and uses your information.

Consequently, under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• withdraw consent and the right to object and restrict further processing of your data; however, this may affect service delivery to you.
• request to have your data deleted where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing and provided that there are no legitimate grounds for retaining it.
• request your data to be rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete
• have your data transferred or copied should you move to another authority
• not be subject to automated decision-making including profiling

More information about how to submit a subject access request.

Please visit our web pages for further details on how the council complies with the Data Protection Act 2018

If you have any concerns

Please contact us if you would like to know more about the information we hold about you and how we use it - [email protected] or Call 020 7361 3623

You have a right to complain to us if you think we may not have complied with our obligations as to how personal information should be handled; please see our fair processing notice.

If you are not satisfied with the Council’s response you have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).  You can report a concern by visiting the ICO website.

Changes in your circumstances

You must notify us immediately if there are any changes in your circumstances and personal details so we can maintain an accurate and up to date record of your information.