Privacy notice

Our core data protection obligations and commitments are set out in the Council’s primary privacy notice.

This notice provides additional privacy information for Virtual School. It describes how we collect, use and share personal information about you in relation to this service. It also describes why we require your data, and the legal basis on which we do this.

This privacy notice should be read together with our primary privacy notice, which provides further information.

Purpose(s)

We use your personal data for the following reasons:

  • to ensure that if you are in the care of Trafford Council, wherever you live, you are receiving the appropriate support and guidance in your education, employment and training to enable you to achieve well, identify and pursue your aspirations and to progress into positive education, employment and training destinations at every stage
  • to enable us to comply with our obligations to bodies such as the Department of Education or Ofsted (our regulatory body) for example, by allowing an Ofsted inspector to visit our offices and review some of our records as part of an Ofsted inspection
  • to log and respond to any complaints you make about our services
  • in order to improve our service delivery, we may use personal information to create statistics which help us to see how our services are being used and how they should be funded. Wherever possible this data is anonymised.

Categories of personal data

The categories of personal information that we process includes:

  • personal identifiers and contacts (such as name, unique pupil number, contact details and address)
  • characteristics (such as language and gender)
  • safeguarding information (such as court orders and professional involvement)
  • education, employment and/or training status (including the name of which preschool, school or Post 16 provision you attend, whether you are currently without a school place, whether you are not currently in Post 16 education, employment or training)
  • contact details for key members of staff in your education, employment or training setting including a record of how to make any necessary payments to these settings
  • special educational needs (including the needs type and level)
  • attendance (such as sessions attended, number of absences, absence reasons and any previous schools attended)
  • assessment and attainment (such as Early Years Foundation Stage and Phonics Test results, key stage 1 and end of Key stage 2 results, end of Key Stage 4 results, Post 16 courses enrolled for and results achieved at the end of each academic year and/or on completion of short courses/programmes)
  • behavioural information (such as exclusions and any relevant alternative provision placements put in place)
  • your personal views, wishes and feelings about your care and education, employment and training experience at every stage, whilst in the care of Trafford, as expressed in your Personal Education Plan (PEP) and through your Care Plan and/or Pathway Plan reviews.

The personal information our service uses includes the following special category personal information:

  • race and ethnic origin
  • religious belief
  • health

It is important for us to know this information, as it helps us to provide the best service for you. For example, if you have a physical disability that makes it more difficult getting around, or you need additional time or support to help you understand information, we can factor this in to the way our services need to be delivered to meet your needs

Legal basis for processing

We will only use your personal data where it is necessary, and we are under a legal obligation to do so (Art 6(1)(c) of the General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’)), or where it is necessary in order to perform our public tasks and duties as a Local Authority (Art 6(1)(e) of the(GDPR)).

In some cases, we may be required to share your information where it is necessary to protect someone in an emergency (Art 6(1)(d) GDPR).

We will only use any special category personal data we hold where it is necessary and because there is a substantial public interest (such as to carry out a legal duty, for the prevention of crime) (Art 9(2)(g) GDPR), and where it is necessary to deliver social care services (Art 9(2)(h) GDPR).

We may also need to use special category data:

  • where it is necessary to protect someone in an emergency (Art 9(2)(c) GDPR)
  • where it is necessary for legal cases (Art 9(2)(f) GDPR)
  • where it is necessary for employment purposes (Art 9(2)(b) GDPR)
  • where it is necessary for archiving, research or statistical purposes ((Art 9(2)(j) GDPR)

If we do not have one of the lawful reasons above for using or sharing your personal information, but we still think it is appropriate to do so (for example to refer you to a voluntary service), we will ask you for your consent to do so. (Art 9(2)(a) GDPR).

Consequences if information is not provided

If you do not provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to provide the service to you or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations.

Information sharing / recipients

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

  • pre-schools, schools and Post 16 education, employment and training providers;
  • commissioned delivery partners who are delivering a service on our behalf;
  • other council departments;
  • health agencies;
  • Government agencies;
  • fostering and adoption agencies;
  • Third Sector/voluntary agencies;
  • other specialist agencies, such as targeted youth support and engagement service providers.

We do not share information about our children in need or looked after children with anyone without consent, unless the law and our policies allow us to do so.

Automated decisions

For this service all the decisions we make about you involve human intervention.

Data retention / criteria

Our Corporate Retention Schedule outlines how long we retain certain types of information. For further information on how long we retain your data in accordance with retention guidelines, contact data.protection@trafford.gov.uk

Rights of individuals

Information about:

  • exercising your rights
  • contacting our Data Protection Officer
  • raising a concern with us, or
  • making a complaint to the Information Commissioner

is accessible in our guide on exercising your rights, found on the Council’s data protection page.

If you wish to complain to the Information Commissioner the contact details are:

Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Updates (notice)

We may update or revise this Privacy Notice at any time so refer to the version published on our website for the most up to date details.