What this privacy notice is for

Our core data protection obligations and commitments are set out in the council’s primary privacy notice at: 

• Data Protection

This notice provides additional privacy information for:

• The Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) service is responsible for carrying out duties in relation to statutory assessment processes, and the ongoing monitoring of children and young people who have Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans.
• This includes information and advice sought for annual review, tracking information, disagreement resolution or mediation processes and processes relating to appeals to the Special Educational Need and Disability Tribunal.

Updating our privacy notices

We may update or revise our privacy notices at any time so please refer to the version published on our website for the most up to date details.

What we use your information for

We use your personal information for the following purpose(s):

• identify your child’s SEND needs
• clarify the child or young person’s needs
• identify the support they require which will help them to achieve their outcomes
• know who we need to speak to, so we can ask them to send us information and advice relating to your child
• make decisions about whether to conduct a statutory needs assessment or issue an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan
• make decisions about the content of an EHC Plan including outcomes, placement and provision
• support the ongoing monitoring of the provision specified in an EHC Plan where one is issued
• inform the EHC Plan annual review and monitor your child’s progress
• support disagreement resolution or mediation processes and processes relating to appeals to the Special Educational Need and Disability Tribunal (SENDT)
• help to resolve any disagreements
• enable coordinated working with other teams and organisations
• evaluate and quality assure the services we provide
• assess for specialist equipment
• inform future commissioned services and educational placements requirements

What categories of personal information we use

Personal information can be anything that identifies and relates to a living person. This can include information that when linked with other information, allows a person to be uniquely identified. For example, this could be your name and contact details.

The law treats some types of personal information as ‘special’ because the information requires more protection due to its sensitivity. This information consists of:

• Racial or ethnic origin
• Sexuality and sexual life
• Religious or philosophical beliefs
• Trade union membership
• Political opinions
• Genetic and bio-metric data
• Physical or mental health
• Criminal convictions and offences

In order to carry out these purposes we collect and obtain the following personal information.

Legal basis for processing

The legal basis for processing and or sharing your personal information is: 

• Children and Family Action 2014 (Part3)
• Children Act 2004 (Section 11)
• SEND Code of Practice 2014

Information sharing/recipients

We may share personal information about you with the following organisations/types of organisations:

• teams within the council working to improve outcomes for children and young people
• commissioned providers of local authority services (such as education or health services)
• schools, colleges and early years providers as well as wider education or training providers
• local multi-agency forums which provide SEND advice, support and guidance
• educational psychologists
• other local authorities and social care or health providers outside of the Local Authority
• Department of Education
• mediation services

As well as information collected directly from you, we also obtain or receive information from:

• 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)

Data Transfers beyond European Economic Area

We do not transfer any of your personal information outside the European Economic Area (‘EEA’).

Automated Decisions

All the decisions we make about you involve human intervention.

Our Guide to Exercising Your Rights outlines the procedure to ask us for an automated decision to be reviewed by an appropriate officer. This can be found at: 

• Your Data Rights

How long we keep your data

We will only keep your personal information for as long as the law specifies or where the law does not specify this, for the length of time determined by our business requirements.

We keep children and young people’s information from their date of birth until they reach the age of 25.

Additionally, the SEND and Educational Psychology services keep information for 6 years after the date of last involvement, which will go beyond the age of 25 for those young people supported between the ages of 20 and 25. After this time the information is archived or securely destroyed.

Where can I get advice

More information on how to seek advice in order to exercise your rights, raise a concern or complain about the handling of your personal information by the council can be found in the council’s privacy notice which can be found at:

• Data Protection