What is the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998?
The Act protects the personal data about you by setting rules and conditions which apply to all users of personal information, such as Havering Council ("the Council"). The Act refers to users of personal information "Data Controllers" who must work within the requirements of the Act when obtaining and using information about you. It is anticipated that staff, and young people over the age of 12 with the maturity to make their own decisions, should generally be able to request to see their personal information themselves under the Subject Access Provisions (S.7) of the DPA. For children under 12, their parents will act on their behalf. In any event, it will be for the school, as data controller, to assess whether the child is capable of understanding the personal information in question, and so decide whether the parent needs to make the request on the child's behalf.
What information is held about you?
- Under the DPA 1998, everyone has the right to know what information is being held about them, how it is recorded and why.
- Each school holds personal information on each pupil
- Parents of pupils under 12 and pupils over 12 must be told via a Privacy Notice that this information is being used.
- School staff and children in need/looked after by the local authority (LA) will also be told via a Privacy Notice about the information being used.
- The LA and/or the Department for Education (DfE) will need to make hard copies of their website information available to those without web access.
The LA uses information about children for whom it provides services, to enable it to carry out specific functions for which it is responsible, such as the assessment of any special educational needs the child may have. It also uses the information to derive statistics to inform decisions on (for example) the funding of schools, and to assess the performance of schools and set targets for them. The statistics are used in such a way that individual children cannot be identified from them.
Who has access to this information:
- The LA
- Primary Care Trust (PCT)
- The DfE
- Connexions
- Ofsted
- Examination Boards
- The Training and Development Agency
- General Teaching Council for England
- Managing Information Across Partners (MIAP)
How is this information used?
The LA will use information about its school workforce for research and statistical purposes, and to evaluate and develop education policy and strategies. The statistics are used in such a way that individual staff cannot be identified from them. The LA may also use it to support and monitor schools regarding sickness and recruitment of staff.
For information on how the LA, PCT and Connexions use this data or what the Department for Education does with the data it obtains, please browse the documents found in the 'Downloads' section. Additional information from the Department for Education (DfE) can be found via the links supplied in the 'See Also' section.
The above information is taken from the DfE website.
If you wish to access the personal data which DfE hold about your child, then please contact the Public Communications Unit, Department for Education (DfE) via the details shown in the 'Contact details' section.