School Safeguarding and Attendance Team - Elective Home Education

1. The purpose for which we use your personal data

We use the information we collect for the purpose of ensuring that children in Carmarthenshire who are home educated receive an education, suitable to their age, aptitude and ability. We do this by:

• Maintaining a record of children in Carmarthenshire who are known to be home educated
• Providing advice, guidance and financial support (via grant funding) to home educating families 
• Informing families about how to access to services and facilities from other agencies that would generally be delivered via school
• Working with families to gather information about the education home educated children are receiving 
• Advising and supporting families who request support with returning children to school or identifying a school place 
• Establishing the identities of children who are not registered at a school and are not receiving a suitable education otherwise 

The lawful basis for the processing this information is to comply with our legal obligations under sections 437 to 443 of the Education Act 1996. This requires the Council to make sure that children receive a suitable education.   

We don’t therefore rely on consent as a basis for processing personal data.

We collect and use some special category (sensitive) personal data for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of the legislation referred to above.

2. What type of information do we use?

We collect the following information from parents and carers:

• Parents’ and child’s names
• Home address
• Child’s date of birth
• Child’s gender, including gender identification where this is relevant
• Your family composition
• Your social circumstances
• Images and photographs relating to child’s education - where parents choose to provide these 
• Any information relevant to safeguarding 
• Information about the education and learning needs of home educated children 
• Information about the education that is being provided to home educated children 
• Your bank details, where we need to process payments 

Where relevant, we use the following types of sensitive personal data (known as special category data):

• Your racial or ethnic origin
• Religious or philosophical beliefs

3. Do we use information received from other sources?

Yes. To provide this service, we collect information directly from you but also receive information from the following sources:

• Schools and education services
• Children’s Services
• The Police
• Other local authorities
• The Council’s Housing Services
• GP practices and Health services
• Members of the public

The following types of personal data are obtained:

• Parents’ and child’s names
• Home address
• Child’s date of birth
• Gender, including gender identification where this is relevant
• Unique Pupil Number (where applicable) 
• Information about the education and learning needs of children who are home educated 
• Information about the education that is being provided to home educated children 
• Any information relevant to safeguarding

4. Transferring your information abroad

We use Microsoft Office 365 to process all of our electronic documents under the terms of a strict agreement, which safeguards your information. This personal data is hosted on servers outside the UK, but only in EU countries which are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation.

5. Who has access to your information?

We share your personal data only when there is a need for us to do so. When we share information, we provide the minimum necessary in each case to the following recipients:

• Schools
• Other teams within the Council’s Education Services
• The Council’s Legal Services
• The Council’s Children’s Services
• The Council’s Financial Services, to process payments
• Children’s Services
• Other local authorities, where this is relevant
• Careers Wales
• HM Courts, in cases where we are in proceedings with parents

There are other specific situations where we may be required to disclose information about you, such as:

• Where the Council is required to provide the information by law
• Where disclosing the information is required to prevent or detect a crime
• Where disclosure is in the vital interests of the person concerned
• Where disclosure is in the vital interests of the person concerned

6. How long we will keep your information

We keep personal data on the children and families referred to our service for 21 years after each case is closed.

Your Data Protection rights

You have the right to:

• Obtain access to the personal data that is being processing about you – you can do this by making a request using the contact details provided below
• Have any inaccurate or incomplete information rectified (corrected)
• Withdraw your consent to processing, but only where this is the basis for the processing
• Make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the independent body in the UK which protects information rights

In some circumstances, you may have the right to:

• Object to the processing of your personal information
• The erasure of your personal data
• Restrict the processing of your personal information
• Data portability

Contact details

For more information regarding this privacy notice and your rights, please contact:

Data Protection Officer

Carmarthenshire County Council

County Hall

Carmarthen

SA31 1JP

Email: dataprotection@carmarthenshire.gov.uk

Contact details for the Information Commissioner’s Office along with further guidance on Data Protection legislation can be found on the ICO website: www.ico.org.uk

7. Your Data Protection rights

You have the right to:

• Obtain access to the personal data that Carmarthenshire Council is processing about you
• Have any inaccurate or incomplete information rectified (corrected)
• Withdraw your consent to processing, where this is the only basis for the processing
• Make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the independent body in the UK which protects information rights

In some circumstances, you may have the right to:

• Object to the processing of your personal information
• The erasure of your personal data
• Restrict the processing of your personal information
• Data portability

8. Contact details

For more information regarding this privacy notice and your rights, please contact:

Data Protection Officer
Carmarthenshire County Council
County Hall
Carmarthen
SA31 1JP

Email: dataprotection@carmarthenshire.gov.uk

Contact details for the Information Commissioner’s Office along with further guidance on Data Protection legislation can be found on the ICO website .