Privacy Notices - Children, families and community health services Privacy Notice

Introduction

Why organisations keep and share information about you and your child

Swindon Borough Council provides a range of community health, social care and early help services such as family centres and the youth engagement service, as well as education support services. This in an integrated children’s service and is named children, families and community health services.

This service holds information on paper and on an electronic database about your family if you are referred to us and if you go on to receive a service. Once your information is on the database, other professionals within Swindon Borough Council's children, families and community health services will be able to see which services you are involved with and any relevant case information. Staff need this information so they can give the best advice possible and offer support.

Individual case information will not be shared outside of the service unless consent has been given, or there is a potential risk of significant harm to a person. Relevant information will also be shared with partners at contact stage through our MASH (multi agency safeguarding hub) which is operated by Swindon Borough Council.

The categories of this information that we collect, process, hold and share include:

  • personal information (such as name, unique pupil number, address and contact details including email and phone numbers)
  • characteristics (such as ethnicity, language and free school meal eligibility)
  • school attainment and attendance data
  • Case information if you are in receipt of services from children, families and community health. Case information relating to children and their families will include contact, referral, assessment, plans, reviews, outcomes, images, recordings and case information notes for all of the below services:
    • Social care services for children in need, children on child protection plans, children looked after and care leavers
    • Early help and education services including:
      • Community health services (health visiting, family nurse partnership, school nursing, speech and language therapy, paediatric therapy)
      • SEND services (special educational needs)
      • Schools admissions
      • Early years (pre-school and nursery provision including payment to providers)
      • Education welfare and exclusions
      • Education psychology
      • Parent partnership
      • Youth engagement service
      • Family Intervention and support services
      • Aiming High
      • Early Help Hub
      • TAMHS (Targeted mental health services)
      • Alternative provision and reintegration team
      • Safeguarding education.
      • Virtual school for looked after children

Why we collect and use this information

We use children and young person’s data to:

  • enable us to carry out specific functions for which we are responsible
  • meet statutory reporting  and case recording requirements for Social Care, Early Help, Virtual School, Exclusions and Reintegration, Education Safeguarding and Special Educational needs service provision
  • derive statistics which inform decisions such as the funding of schools,
  • assess performance and to set targets for the services we provide
  • provide commissioning services with aggregate data so that we can be held accountable for the services we are commissioned to provide
  • complete statutory returns on children in receipt of social care and health and Early Help services and these datasets can include unique identifiers such as a National Health Number.

The lawful basis on which we use this information

We collect and use this information under Article 6 (lawful processing), and Article 9 (special categories of data), of GDPR 2018:

Article 6 of GDPR:

Public task: the processing is necessary for the local authority to perform a task in the public interest or for official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law in terms of Health and Social Care Provision.

For those early help services where the above does not apply:

Consent: the individual has given clear consent for the local authority to process their personal data for a specific purpose.

Article 9 (2) of GDPR – Special Categories of Data and lawful processing of:

(h) processing is necessary for the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine, for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services on the basis of Union or Member State law or pursuant to contract with a health professional and subject to the conditions and safeguards referred to in paragraph 3;

The Data Protection Act 2018 (12, Schedule 1, part 2 specifically outlines the responsibilities in relation to processing data for the purposes of safeguarding children and individuals at risk.

Collecting this information

Whilst the majority of children and young person’s information you provide to us is mandatory, some of it is provided to us on a voluntary basis. In order to comply with the data protection legislation, we will inform you whether you are required to provide certain information to us or if you have a choice in this.

Storing this information

We hold children and young person’s data for set periods of time based on statutory requirements and the Council’s data retention policy.

The Local Authority (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. Swindon Borough Council holds child level information on a database for children and families who are in receipt of Education, Health and Social Care Services. It also uses the information to derive statistics to inform decisions on (for example) the funding of schools, and to assess the performance of service delivery and identify where improvements are required.

Who we share this information with

We routinely share children and young person’s information with:

  • Department for Education (DfE) - on a statutory basis under section 3 of The Education (Information about Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013
  • Department of Education (Social Care) – under the Children’s Act 1989 which requires us to complete statutory reporting requirements for children in receipt of social care
  • Youth support services – under section 507B of the Education Act 1996, to enable them to provide information regarding training and careers as part of the education or training of 13-19 year olds.
  • NHS provision – mandatory data collection for The Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS). This dataset contains record-level data about the care of children, young people and adults who are in contact with mental health, learning disabilities or autism spectrum disorder services.
  • RCSLT (Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists), National ROOT database for Speech and Language Therapy, Therapy Outcome measures (TOMS)
  • Speech and Language Therapy - we may wish to use recordings and images of children and young people during therapy for Education and Training purposes for other health and social care professionals. You will be asked for your consent before any recordings and images are taken and if you are willing for them to be used for this purpose. You may withdraw your consent for this at any time and the recording and/or image will no longer be used and deleted as per the SBC data retention policy.

Education and training

We hold information about young people living in our area, including about their education and training history. This is to support the provision of their education up to the age of 20 (and beyond this age for those with a special educational need or disability).  Under parts 1 and 2 of the Education and Skills Act 2008, education institutions and other public bodies (including the Department for Education (DfE), police, probation and health services) may pass information to us to help us to support these provisions. 

Pupils aged 16+

We will also share relevant information about pupils not in education, training or employment (such as their contact details) aged 16+ with the provider of youth support services as they have responsibilities in relation to the education or training of 13-19 year olds under section 507B of the Education Act 1996.

This enables them to provide the following services:

  • post-16 education and training
  • careers advice

MASH (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub)

Swindon Borough Council like many other authorities operates a MASH team which helps provide a joined up service at the point of contact to children services. In order for the team to offer you the best advice and service, colleagues within the MASH (Health, Social Care and Police), may share relevant information. Consent will always be sought with families first, but there may be some cases where information is shared without consent if it is in the best interest of the child/children referred to us.

Supported Families Programme

Personal information will be matched within Swindon Borough Council e.g. Housing Benefit and also to those held within other organisations such as the police,  probation, and schools, Carers Centre, and Job Centre Plus to identify families who may potentially benefit from the government led troubled families initiative and this information is held on the integrated children services database. Outcomes for families included in the programme will also be recorded. If you are currently in receipt of support from a service team working within the programme, this will also be recorded on the integrated children services database. Basic demographics such as name, address and vulnerability factors will also be shared with the Department for Communities and Local Government for research purposes.

More information is available at GOV.UK - helping troubled families website.

CP-IS (Child Protection Information Sharing) System

This is a national system which was introduced during 2015.

If your child is subject to a child protection plan or a child in care this will be flagged on the CP-IS system which is national health system. This system can be accessed by health providers in hospital emergency departments and health providers to let them know your child in on a child protection plan or in care. Your social worker will also receive an automatic notification that your child has been admitted to hospital.

ATV (Adoption Thames Valley)

Adoption Thames Valley provides adoption services to the Borough and recruit and match adopters to children. We share relevant case information in relation to the children who have adoption in their best interest in order to complete the adoption process.

Relevant information will also be shared between Adoption Thames Valley and Coram i who collate data on adoption and special guardianship nationally on behalf of the Department of Education.

CHIS (Child Health Information Service)

The Child Health Information Service is responsible for the health records for all children. We share information in relation to the demographics and school relating to children to make sure immunisations are delivered effectively and that children under aged 5 receive the visits and support required as part of the National Healthy Child Programme delivery.

Eligibility for two-year-old early years funding

A dataset is received from DWP identifying parents/carers whose child is eligible for two-year-old funding for pre-school sessions. This entitles two-year-olds to a fully funded place. This address and parent is matched to our children’s database to identify the name and date of birth of the child entitled, and the council will then contact you in writing to advise you of your eligibility.

Post-16 providers attended by Swindon learners

We will share demographics and personal characteristics of a young person with post-16 Swindon providers where those providers may be able to offer choices to the young person which could improve their life chances and enable them to make a positive contribution. The information will also be shared as part of the September Guarantee Process, which is a statutory obligation for Children Services to ensure that all young people are offered appropriate learning opportunities.

Virtual School

The purposes for sharing information between Swindon Borough Council’s Virtual School for Children in Care and schools, academies and Education and Learning Providers are:

  • The purpose of sharing information is to safeguard the welfare of children in care through monitoring of attendance
  • Schools and learning providers have the basic information about pupils on their roll, additional information about care status and the professionals that support the child in care is shared to support partnership working
  • Information about the child in care’s education attainment and progress will be shared with the current education provider to support improved educational outcomes and to ensure appropriate support for learning
  • Ensure sufficient and appropriate learning provision is available to meet the needs of young people up to the age of 18 years old
  • Support in the short and long term strategies to reduce young people NOT in employment, education or training (NEET) and those who are ‘Unknown’ to the local authority
  • Enable all learning providers to utilise data to enhance their current learning provision and offer young people appropriate learning provision.

Education Safeguarding

The purposes for sharing information between Multi-Agency partners and schools, academies and Education and Learning Providers are:

  • to facilitate the exchange of personal and sensitive information in the interests of protecting children and young people from actual or potential harm
  • to prevent crime
  • for investigations under Safeguarding Children procedures
  • to make an assessment of the service user's needs so that appropriate services can be provided
  • for the early identification, prevention, and investigation of abuse and neglect

We may share your data with an appropriate third party to process your information on our behalf. In this case a contract will be in place to ensure that the processing of your data will meet the standards of the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018.

Exclusions and Reintegration

The purpose of sharing information between SBC, schools, pupil referral units (PRU’s) and alternative education providers is to ensure SBC fulfils its statutory responsibility of ensuring that provision is made for those pupils unable to access education, either because of permanent exclusion or because they are unable to access mainstream schools for medical reasons. 

Appropriate child level case information is also shared between SBC, schools and PRUs regarding pupils who are not attending an educational placement on a full time basis.  This is in line with requirements of the Ofsted framework and evaluation schedule.

Appropriate child level case information is shared with Fair Access Panel and or Gaps in Provision Panel to ensure all pupils secure a suitable education placement.

Why we share this information

We share children and young person’s data with the Department for Education (DfE) on a statutory basis under section 3 of The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013. This data sharing underpins school funding, educational attainment policy and monitoring and enables them to; produce statistics, assess our performance, determine the destinations of young people after they have left school or college and to evaluate Government funded programmes.

We share relevant case information with practitioners who are working with children and families when it is necessary for service provision and in the best interests of the child.

We do not share information about children and young people without consent unless the law and our policies allow us to do so.

Data collection requirements

To find out more about the data collection requirements placed on us by the Department for Education go to:

The National Pupil Database (NPD)

The NPD is owned and managed by the Department for Education and contains information about pupils in schools in England. It provides invaluable evidence on educational performance to inform independent research, as well as studies commissioned by the Department. It is held in electronic format for statistical purposes. This information is securely collected from a range of sources including schools, local authorities and awarding bodies.

The law requires us to provide information about our pupils to the DfE as part of statutory data collections. Some of this information is then stored in the national pupil database (NPD). The legislation that requires this is the Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013.

To find out more about the NPD, go to: 

The Department may share information about our pupils from the National Pupil Database with third parties who promote the education or well-being of children in England by:

  • conducting research or analysis
  • producing statistics
  • providing information, advice or guidance

The Department has robust processes in place to ensure the confidentiality of our data is maintained and there are stringent controls in place regarding access and use of the data. Decisions on whether DfE releases data to third parties are subject to a strict approval process and based on a detailed assessment of:

  • who is requesting the data
  • the purpose for which it is required
  • the level and sensitivity of data requested: and
  • the arrangements in place to store and handle the data

To be granted access to pupil information, organisations must comply with strict terms and conditions covering the confidentiality and handling of the data, security arrangements and retention and use of the data.

For more information about the department’s data sharing process, visit:

For information about which organisations the department has provided pupil information, (and for which project), visit:

To contact DfE:

Requesting access to your personal data

Under data protection legislation, parents and pupils have the right to request access to information about them that we hold. To make a request for your or your child’s personal information, please contact DataProtection@Swindon.gov.uk Telephone: 01793 445500

You also have the right to:

  • object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress
  • 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
  • claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection regulations

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we request that you raise your concern with us in the first instance. Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Further information

We have a Data Protection Officer who makes sure we respect your rights and follow the law. If you have any concerns or questions about how we look after your personal information, please contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer, at DataProtection@swindon.gov.uk or by calling 01793 445500 and asking to speak to the Data Protection Officer.

You have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office about the way in which we process your personal data. For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at:

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