How we use your personal information within the Access & Inclusion Service
The Council provides services for local communities and the people who live in them. Undertaking this work means that we must collect and use information about the people we provide services to and keep a record of those services. As we collect and use personal information about individuals we must make sure that they know what we intend to do with their information and who it may be shared with.
In this privacy notice, we have summarised some of the key ways in which we use your personal information within the Access & Inclusion Service. This information should be read in conjunction with the Council’s corporate privacy notice here.
1. Who we are, what we do
The Access and Inclusion Service works with and provides support to children and young people who have special educational needs (SEN)/ additional learning needs (ALN) or are vulnerable learners.
Our aim is to ensure that children and young people with SEN/ALN or barriers to learning are provided with opportunities to reach their potential in a supportive environment that prepares them well for adult life and allows them to:
- Be healthy
- Stay safe
- Enjoy and achieve
- Make a positive contribution
- Achieve economic well-being
The Service provides 3 key areas of support:
- Educational Psychology Service (EPS) (including Children Looked After (CLA) Team)
Works with children and young people to support their development, wellbeing, resilience, learning and achievement in a range of situations and settings. They use a range of approaches with individuals, groups, schools and wider systems such as LAs and the community. Working in partnership with parents/guardians, families and others is important to ensure that any approach taken is the same by everyone involved. EPS are child/young person-centred, taking care to listen to and promote the voice of the child/young person.
- Learner Support Service (LSS) including Learning, Multi Ethnic Achievement Service (MEAS) and Behaviour Support Service (BSS)
Works in partnership with children/young people, families, schools and professionals from other agencies in supporting children/young people with SEN/ALN. These include visual impairment, hearing impairment, autistic spectrum disorders, speech and language difficulties, complex learning difficulties and specific learning difficulties (Dyslexia) and Social, Emotional and Behaviour difficulties and children/young people with English as an additional language.
- Additional Learning Needs Administrative Service (ALNAS)
Works closely with the EPS and LSS to provide administrative support to schools, parents/guardians, pupils and other professionals in respect of children/young people with SEN/ALN.
Access & Inclusion Panels/Forums
As part of the Local Authority’s decision making process specialist panels/forums meet to discuss individual cases. These meetings always include Access & Inclusion professionals. They may also include other professionals for example Headteachers, specialist teachers and health specialists. The role of the panel/forum is to discuss the child/young person’s SEN/ALN or barriers to learning in order to agree the most appropriate response to meet their needs.
(This is a general overview of Access & Inclusion panels/forums – if you require information on a specific pane/foruml then please contact Access & Inclusion Service for more details – please see Section 9)
Further details on the service are available on website:- https://www.rctcbc.gov.uk/EN/Resident/SchoolsandLearning/AccessandInclusiontoEducation
2. What and whose personal information we hold?
The types of information we hold and process will typically include:
Information on the person (i.e. child/young person):
- Contact details, including name, address, telephone number
- Date of birth
- Gender
- Children Looked After status (if applicable)
- Information on educational performance (e.g. examination results), safeguarding and wellbeing (e.g. concerns regarding safety)
- Activities relating to the professional development of staff members who support the child/young person (e.g. video, testimonials, interventions, etc)
We also hold information which is classed as special category data, this includes
- Health information (e.g. medical conditions, genetics)
- Ethnic Origin
- Religion
- Race
- Sexual orientation/sex life (only when provided by the child/young person)
Information about the child/young person’s parents/guardians or carer:
- Contact details, including name, address, telephone number, email address,
- Date of birth
- Gender
3. Where does the service get my information from?
We hold information past and present on children/young people who have been referred to the Service for specialist support, guidance or advice regarding SEN/ALN.
The above information will be provided by a range of services including:
- Child/young person directly (e.g. during support sessions)
- Parents/guardians (e.g. when we consult with them about the child/young person’s referral to the service and discuss the support the child/young person requires etc.)
- Schools (e.g. progress in class, how any additional learning needs are affecting school, support required)
- Other services within the Local Authority (e.g. Children’s Services)
- Health Services, GP, Consultants (e.g. information on any medical diagnosis, physical disabilities etc)
- Child/young person’s previous schools (e.g. progress in class, how a learning need affected school, support provided)
- Other Local Authorities (e.g. SEN/ALN file if the child/young person has moved into RCT from out of the area)
- We also generate our own information as part of our involvement with the child/young person (e.g. panel/forum outcomes, assessment, progress reports, correspondence with parents/guardians and agencies).
4. What we will do with your personal information?
We will use this personal information to:
- Identify, assess, support and review a child/young person’s SEN/ALN or barriers to learning. The types of involvement could include:
- Reviewing / assessing a child/young person’s SEN/ALN.
- Obtaining information from GP’s, local Health Board etc. about the child/young person’s medical needs to help us make our assessment.
- Working with parents/guardians to identify and agree the best possible way to support the child/young person.
- Arranging support for the child/young person at school
- Regularly reviewing the child/young person’s progress and assess how well they are doing.
- Providing advice and guidance to schools about how they can support the child/young person to help them to reach their full potential.
- Discussing the child/young person’s SEN/ALN at various appropriate panels, forum’s and surgeries (e.g. SEN/ALN panel, Advisory panel, early year forum).
- Liaise with training providers and examination boards to assist with the professional development of staff.
Please note that above is not an exhaustive list.
5. What is the legal basis for the use of this information?
Data Protection law says that we are allowed to use and share personal information only where we have a proper and lawful reason for doing so.
Our lawful bases for processing personal information for the above purposes are:
Legal obligation
- To comply with our legal obligations under The Education Act 2002, Special Educational Needs Code of Practice for Wales 2004 and Additional Learning Needs Act 2018.
- When processing data which has been produced from consented referrals, involvement and interventions etc.
Public Task
- To carry out a task in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority in our capacity as a public body.
Consent
- Specialist outside professionals:
Occasionally, in order for us to make an informed decision about an assessment of a child/young person we may need to obtain information from specialist outside professionals such as private health and educational professionals that may have been involved (other than a statutory assessment).
Where we need to obtain such information from these specialist outside professionals we will seek consent of the child/young person/parent/guardian (as appropriate) to do so.
- Children under the age of two:
Our lawful basis for processing personal information relating to children under the age of 2 is consent which we will obtain from the parent/guardian.
- Young person 16 years and over
Young person will be requested to provide consent before discussing potential ALN
- Professional development:
To assist in the professional development of Access & Inclusion staff e.g. examination boards, training facilitators, etc
6. Does the service share my personal information with any other organisation?
For the Service to undertake its duties in providing support in line with current education law, we are required to share information with the following:
Other Council Services:
- Children’s Service professionals (e.g. social workers)
- Access & Inclusion Service professionals (e.g. specialist teachers)
- Youth Offending Service
- Commissioned agents / agencies (e.g. Locum Educational Psychologists, private speech therapists, private physiotherapists etc)
- Appeals panels (e.g. school exclusions)
Other Organisations:
- Schools
- Advocacy Services (e.g. SNAP Cymru).
- Health Services (e.g. GP, Consultant)
- Other Local Authorities
- Police
- Careers Wales
- Tribunals (e.g. Special Educational Needs Tribunal Wales (SENTW), Education Tribunal Wales (ETW))
- Training/examination bodies relating to staff professional development
In circumstances concerning the wellbeing and safeguarding of a child/young person, it may be necessary to share information without a parent/guardian’s consent or knowledge.
7. How long will my information be kept?
In line with the Access & Inclusion Service retention policy we keep records until the child/young person reaches their 50th birthday.
8. Your information, your rights
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gives you important rights, including the right to access the personal information the services hold about you.
Click here https://www.rctcbc.gov.uk for further information on your information rights and how to exercise them.
9. Contact us
If you have any concerns or would like to know more about how the service using your personal information please contact us in one of the following ways:
By email: A&Iservice@rctcbc.gov.uk
By telephone: 01443 744344
In writing: Access & Inclusion Service, Ty Trevithick, Abercynon, Mountain Ash, CF45 4UQ