Privacy policy - SEND and Inclusion Hub

Your data

We have created this policy which covers how we:

• Collect
• Use
• Share
• Transfer
• Look after…

…. your data. The policy also gives you information on how to contact us, and lets you know your rights as a data subject.

Why we collect data

We collect data to allow us to monitor the support that is in place for your child, their rate of progress and what services may be able to support them. 

As Data Controller, our contact details are: 

Staffordshire County Council
County Buildings
Martin Street
Stafford
ST16 2DH

How we collect data

We request information from you, your child’s educational setting(s) and Staffordshire health, education and social care services as appropriate.

How we use your personal data

We will use the information you provide in order to contact you as part of the running of the Hub, and to allow us to identify your child on health and education databases.

How we share your data

We will share information with health, education and social services represented at the Hub, which might include educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, specialist and other teachers, alternative provision, family support and early help workers in order to monitor the support that your child is receiving and ensuring that they have the right support at the right time.

If the information we intend to share is of a sensitive and/or personal nature, we will only share it with partner organisations if we have obtained your consent or unless we are legally required to share it. We have an information sharing protocol with local partners under which our partners agree to similar commitments toward privacy, security and transparency.

Personal information about you may also be provided to other local authorities, for example, if you have moved from one local authority to another and the new authority requires confirmation of the services you were receiving.

At no time will your information be passed to organisations external to Staffordshire County Council or our partners for marketing or sales purposes, or for any commercial use.

How we look after your data

Under the General Data Protection Regulations, we have a legal duty to protect any information that we hold about you. We take measures to safeguard your data and apply security standards and controls to prevent any unauthorised access to it. Information which you have provided the council will be stored securely. It will only be used for the purpose(s) stated when the information was collected.

The amount of time data is kept before being disposed of will vary depending on why it was collected, how it is used, and various UK laws. Our retention and disposal schedules give details about how long we keep data. 

What are your rights?

You have the right at any time to withdraw your consent for your child to be discussed at the SEND & Inclusion Hubs.

You can withdraw consent by informing your child’s school SEND Coordinator. It is your child’s school obligation to manage consent and let data subjects know how they can withdraw it. This is standard on schools’ individual privacy notices.

Your child’s school can do something called ‘an anonymous request’ to The Hub. This means that your child's needs might be discussed, but specific, identifiable details about your child and circumstances will not be. By ‘identifiable’ details, we mean, that as a result of the conversation, The Hub will not be informed of:

• your child's name,
• age,
• address,
• family details,
• school / setting.

If you choose to decline consent and you do not want your child being discussed at The Hub, the disadvantages will be:

• that they are not stored and monitored on our database,
• their outcomes won't be captured, and
• the school may not receive the information, interventions, advice and ongoing support of the hub that might help them.

Under the General Data Protection Regulations, you, as the Data Subject, have the right to: 

• access the information we hold about you. This information is usually provided free of charge, but we may charge depending on the administrative costs of providing the information. You have the right to request this in machine-readable form so that it can, if required, be transferred to a third party
• request that we rectify any information about you that is incorrect. Simple inaccuracies, such as address changes will be made. Depending on the purpose for processing, records (including statements and opinions) may not be changed. However, there may be the option for you to provide a supplementary statement which will be added to the file
• request that records we hold about you are erased.
• restrict processing of the information we hold about you if you have an objection to that processing, whilst your objection is investigated.
• request that any information that you have provided to us is given back to you in a format that you can give to another service provider if required.
• object to processing of your personal information including automated decision-making and profiling.
• Make a complaint to a supervisory authority if you are not satisfied with how the information held about you has been handled.

Useful links

Staffordshire County Council privacy notice

Children and families service level privacy notice

How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you, or if you have a complaint about privacy or misuse of data.

Head of SEND: Halit Hulusi
Staffordshire County Council
Staffordshire Place 1
Stafford
ST16 2LP

Data Protection Officer: Information Governance Unit,
Staffordshire County Council
Staffordshire Place 1
Stafford
ST16 2LP
Email: dpo@staffordshire.gov.uk

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).