Service and Transformation of Education Information Systems Privacy Notice

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. Because 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 Education & Inclusion Service to fulfil our legal and statutory duties as a local authority. This information should be read in conjunction with the Council’s corporate privacy notice and any service specific privacy notices relevant to the services that you receive.

1. Who we are, what we do

Local authorities have many roles, responsibilities, legal and statutory duties in relation to the provision of education. Some of these duties are to:

• Assist the government in implementing initiatives and legislation relating to schools, children and families
• Ensure that there are sufficient school places are available by building or extending schools
• Balance the supply of school places across RCT
• Provide support services for schools
• Allocate finance to schools

In order to fulfil our statutory and legal obligations as a local authority and raise the standards of education in our schools we are required to collect, monitor, review, use and share personal information relating to children, young people and their families who attend our schools or receive services from us.

The Council’s Service Transformation & Education Information Systems Service is the central support team responsible for managing the data for and on behalf of the Education and Inclusion Service. The service gathers a lot of different information on pupils and schools, make sure it is accurate and share it with various different organisations such as Schools, Education Department managers and Welsh Government so that they can use it to raise standards and develop and improve the education given to pupils in Rhondda Cynon Taf. The service also provides technical advice, support and training to schools and council employees who use a variety of computer packages and management information systems.

2. What and whose personal information we hold?

The service holds and processes information on children, young people and their families.  This may include:

• Pupils who attend RCT schools
• Children, young people and their families who receive Education & Inclusion Services from the Council.
• Children of preschool age i.e. new born children and under 3’s

Typically, this will include information relating to some of all of the following:

• Name, date of birth and gender
• Unique Pupil Number (UPN) and Unique Learner Number (UPN) – these are individual numbers given to pupils to identify them on reports
• Ethnicity, race and national identity
• Free School Meal (FSM) status
• Child Looked After (CLA) status and Care authority (if they are being Looked After by another Local Authority)
• Language information such as English as an Additional Language (EAL) category and  first language
• School information such as enrolment status (if the pupil is registered in one or more school, school start date, full or part time, National Curriculum Year(NCY),  and class name
• Type of education such as mainstream, special school, special unit, Pupil Referral Unit or Elective Home Education
• Special Educational Need Code of Practice stage and special need
• Support needed in school such as group support, standard or specialised equipment, school based or external assessments
• Welsh language information such as fluency in Welsh, speaking Welsh at home and demand for Welsh in schools
• Exclusion information such as number of times excluded, dates and reasons
• Pupil’s performance in all subjects, National Standard Reading and Numeracy Tests and examinations from ages 3 to 19
• School attendance information such as sessions possible, sessions attended and authorised/unauthorised

3. Where does the service get my information from?

The service receives information from a wide range of sources including:

• Children, young people and their families when they receive services from us
• Schools
• Central South Consortium (CSC)
• Welsh Government
• Registrars – for example a list of all births within RCT
• Cwm Taf and Cardiff & Vale University Health Boards

4. What we will do with your personal information?

The service uses the information listed above to fulfil our legal and statutory obligations as a local authority from the provision of education. Specifically to:

• Support schools to raise standards and improve the education given to pupils in RCT
• To improve outcomes achieved by all children and young people in all schools and close the gap between the most disadvantaged children and their peers
• To develop and share good practice in Schools and council departments
• To support schools to use the best, most accurate data when reporting to parents
• To inform other departments and organisations, both inside and outside of Rhondda Cynon Taf, to help them to deliver their services in the best way.
• To use the information to help schools and managers predict challenges they may face in the future.
• To make sure more of our children attend school.
• To help provide high quality teaching
• To fulfil our statutory reporting requirements to Welsh Government

5. Does the service share my personal information with any other organisation?

For the service to carry out its legal and statutory duties we are required to share information with various organisations, such as:

• Schools

• Central South Consortium (CSC)

The CSC is a joint education service partnership that provides a school improvement service that challenges, monitors and supports schools to raise standards. The partnership comprises of:

• Central South Consortium
• Bridgend County Borough Council
• Cardiff County Borough Council
• Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council
• Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council
• Vale of Glamorgan County Borough Council

• Welsh Government

We are required by law to share information with Welsh Government so that they can carry our research and statistical analysis to improve the educational services that are provided to people in Wales.  Typically these reports will contain facts and figures and will not contain any personal identifiable information but some may provide identifiable information where required by law.

• Cwm Taf and Cardiff & Vale University Health Boards

For example, we will share basic pupil information such as pupil name, school, class year, DOB etc. with Health Boards so that they can arrange for pupils to receive vaccinations and health checks in school.

• Careers Wales

We will provide Careers Wales with basic pupil information in order to help them provide careers advice to Rhondda Cynon Taf pupils.

• Fischer Family Trust (FFT)

FFT is a non-profit organisation that is commissioned by the Council and the CSC to analyse information on pupils to help them achieve their full potential and schools to improve.

• We also use other trusted third party organisations to provide services for The Education & Inclusion Service e.g. charities that provide educational and family support services.

• Other departments in RCT County Borough Council as appropriate e.g. Electoral Services to identify potential young voters

To find out more about how the above organisations use personal information please visit the privacy notice sections on their individual websites

6. 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 basis for processing pupil information is to undertake our official Council duties and to satisfy our legal obligations under the following pieces of legislation:

• Education Act 2002
• Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC) Guidance 2018
• The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (Wales) Regulations 2007
• The Pupil Information (Wales) Regulations 2011
• The Education (Pupil Registration) (Wales) Regulations 2010
• Education & Inspections Act 2006
• The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice for Wales April 2002
• The Education (Areas to which Pupils and Students Belong) Regulations 1996
• Welsh National Tests Data Collection and reporting arrangements
• Welsh in Education Strategic Plans 2017
• Representation of the People Act 1983
• Representation of the People (England & Wales) Regulations 2001

7. How long will my information be kept?

Some of the information we use has to be retained for specific timescales under law. Other information is held only for as long as is necessary to provide services to you or the community.

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.

If you would like to know more about how the service uses your personal information please contact us in one of the following ways:

By email: edst@rctcbc.gov.uk

By telephone: 01443 281164

In writing: Director Of Education And Inclusion, Information and Systems Support Team, Ty Trevithick