Skip to main content

{{ root_page.title }}

Privacy notice for Education Welfare Service (Kingston and Richmond)

Introduction

This privacy notice explains what types of personal data we may hold about you, how we collect it, how we use and who we may share information with. We are required to give you this information under data protection law. This privacy notice should be read in conjunction with the corporate privacy notice.

Who we are

Achieving for Children is a community interest company created in 2014 by the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and London Borough of Richmond upon Thames to provide children’s services. In August 2017 the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead became co-owner of Achieving for Children.

Achieving for Children delivers children’s services and the local authority statutory responsibilities relating to children aged up to 25 years across the boroughs of Kingston, Richmond and Windsor and Maidenhead. Achieving for Children is registered as a controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), Registration number ZA045069, and is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.

Achieving for Children’s Education Welfare Service (EWS) supports schools, children and their families to raise achievement by promoting high levels of school attendance and punctuality, working to prevent truancy and disengagement from school. The service is responsible for discharging statutory duties on behalf of Kingston and Richmond Councils. The EWS collects and processes personal data relating to personal situations regarding a child or young person in matters relating to:

  • Addressing problems relating to absenteeism and school non-attendance
  • Ensuring regular school attendance including legal action
  • Elective home education
  • Children missing education
  • Child employment and children in entertainment regulations
  • Approving adult chaperones for children in performances
  • Statutory returns to the Department for Education

We are committed to being transparent about how we collect and use that data and meeting our data protection obligations.

What personal data do we collect?

In order to comply with the data protection legislation, we will inform you at the point of collection, whether you are required to provide certain personal information to us or if you have a choice in this. We collect personal data via a number of means including:

  • schools when a request for service has been made.
  • agencies request for a service
  • direct from parents.

We collect:

  • personal information (such as name, date of birth and address)
  • characteristics (such as gender and disability; we do not record ethnicity)
  • school attendance data from the attendance register
  • additional information we receive from schools and other agencies

Elective home education

Under the Education Act 1996, we have a statutory duty to ensure that all children who are of statutory school age who reside in the boroughs of Kingston and Richmond are in receipt of suitable education. Further information and guidance for parents/carers on elective home education is published here.

In the course of supporting elective home education and fulfilling our duty, we collect the following personal information which is provided to us through school’s duties to notify the local authority as well as through parents sharing this information with us:

  • personal details (such as name, gender, age, date of birth, address, contact details, language, nationality)
  • category characteristics (such as special educational needs)
  • educational history (such as schools previously attended and attendance, attainment, exclusions)
  • other professional involvement (such as EWS, Inclusion, Early Help, Social Care, SEN)
  • EHE history (communication with families, visit reports and evidence of suitable education)

We may also obtain personal information from other sources including personal details, characteristics, educational history and professional involvement, from previously attended schools, other local authorities, and other service providers.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • maintain a record of children who are known to be home educated
  • provide advice and guidance to home educating families
  • inform families about how to access to services and facilities from other agencies that would generally be delivered via school
  • advise and support families who request support with returning children to school or identifying a school place
  • make arrangements to establish the identities of children who are not registered at a school and are not receiving a suitable education otherwise
  • review the service provision and effectiveness and service involvement to support future service delivery planning.

To approve chaperones we collect:

  • name
  • address and contact details
  • references and information about your work experience
  • images and photographs
  • we also require a Disclosure & Barring Service check, for which we will need to see/retain for a short time personal documents, including passport, driving licence, birth or marriage certificate, bank statements and utility bills

Child employment

  • Child’s personal information, including birth certificate or passport and photo
  • Employers personal information
  • Parent’s name

Children in entertainment

  • Child’s personal information, including medical, birth certificate or passport and photo
  • Applicants personal information
  • Company employing child’s information
  • Parents’ details including email addresses

How we use this personal data

  • To ensure schools support children and monitor their school attendance
  • To respond to referrals received from schools, other agencies or the public
  • To make referrals to other agencies to support children’s wellbeing
  • To protect children in employment
  • To safeguard children when they are performing
  • To ensure our approved chaperones are safeguarded and safer recruitment thresholds are met
  • To assess the quality of our services
  • To evaluate and improve our policies, codes of conducts and procedures
  • To ensure that children are not missing from education
  • For purposes of carrying out our statutory duties relating to children of compulsory school age
  • To act in line with The Education (Penalty Notices) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 for the purposes of a fixed penalty notice being issued or prosecution in line with the Education Act 1996

Lawful basis for processing your personal data

We collect and use the information ensuring that we comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 requirements for processing through:

  • Article 6(1)(c) of the GDPR – compliance with legal obligation
  • Article 6(1)(e) of the GDPR – performance of a public task

To collect special category personal data we rely upon Article 9 (2)(g) of the GDPR – reasons of substantial public interest. In accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018, Schedule 1, Part 2, Paragraph 6, the condition is met for statutory and government purposes.

These articles under the GDPR and the DPA 2018 are supported by the following specific legislation:

  • The Education Act 1996
  • The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006
  • The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2016
  • The Children Act 1989
  • Crime and Disorder Act 1998
  • The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003
  • The Education Act 2005
  • The Education and Inspections Act 2006
  • The Education (Parenting Contracts and Parenting Orders) (England) Regulations 2007
  • The Education (Penalty Notices) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013
  • The Education and Skills Act 2008
  • Local Authority Employment of Children Bye Laws 1998
  • DfE School attendance guidance for maintained schools, academies, independent schools and local authorities, November 2016
  • DfE School attendance, parental responsibility measures. Statutory guidance for local authorities, school leaders, school staff, governing bodies and the police, 2015
  • DfE Children missing education statutory guidance for local authorities, 2016

How long your personal data will be kept

We only keep your personal data for as long as is required by law and in accordance with our retention schedule. This data is kept securely within an electronic system which must conform to Achieving for Children guidelines and policies.

Keeping your information secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Who we share your personal information with

We will only share information with these organisations where it is appropriate and legal to do so. Where this is necessary, we are required to comply with all aspects of the Data Protection Act 2018. We share your personal data between Achieving for Children departments and services so that we can keep our information up to date, provide cross departmental support and improve our services to you and your child.

The list below is non exhaustive, but some of the organisations that we share information with include:

  • Children’s Services
  • Early Help Services
  • Local authority officers
  • Legal Services and judicial agencies such as courts if there are legal proceedings

We do not share information about children referred to us with anyone without explicit consent, unless doing so in order to perform a public task, the legislation or our policies allow us to do so.

Your rights and access to information

Under data protection legislation you have the right to request access to the information that we hold about you. To request a copy of your data, please read the Individual Rights Requests page and then submit your request using your preferred method of contact.

You also have the right to:

  • object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress
  • have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed
  • prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing object to decisions being taken by automated means
  • in certain circumstances have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed; and
  • a right to seek redress, either through the ICO, or through the courts

If you have any questions or concerns about the way we process personal data, or would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, please contact our Data Protection Officer: [email protected]

If you want to make a complaint about how we handle your personal data, we ask that you give our Data Protection Officer the opportunity to respond in the first instance but you are not obliged to do this. You can make a complaint directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/