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:

• People accessing the Educational Psychology Service
• Partners and other organisations working with Oldham Council

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 obtain your personal information for the following purpose(s):

The Educational and Child Psychology Service (EPS) is responsible for writing advice to support the process of assessment towards an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan. We also work with staff on an individual, small group, whole class, whole year group and whole school basis. We support staff in education settings to problem solve solutions to difficult problems. We record this on consultation records or record of involvement summaries and review them with school staff as necessary. We do this as part of the assess-plan-do-review process to support schools to create positive difference and supports them to act within a graduated approach to meeting needs. 

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

Information which is considered special / sensitive is collected to inform next steps and to allow us to monitor access to the service to inform service delivery improvements. Involvement of other services is a part of collaborative working to process sensitive information required to deliver key services.

Legal basis for processing

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

• UK GDPR Article 6 (1)(e) – Public Task

We perform our services in accordance with the following statutory legislation and regulations:

• The Department for Education’s Special Educational Needs Code of Practice published in 2014 and the Children’s and Families Act 2014 underpin the statutory process for assessment for an EHC Plan.

• Within the Code, the graduated approach (5.40-5.48 EY and 6.61 Schools, 7.23 Colleges) details how SENCoS should request the involvement of specialists to support them in meeting needs in settings. Educational Psychologists are named within these documents to support meeting the needs of children with SEN.

Information sharing/recipients

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

• Schools/settings - to allow them to utilize the information to make effective provision for a child/young person
• Health professionals – to support their assessment processes
• Other local authority services such as the SEND team

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

• School/settings
• Local authority services
• Health services

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.

• 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.

This is in line with the Code of Practice which covers the needs of children/young people up to the age of 25 years; and so information is held for this period.

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