Privacy Notices - Educational psychology service Privacy Notice

Swindon Borough Council collects and processes personal data relating to the involvement of the Educational Psychology Service (EPS) with individual children and young people. We are committed to being transparent about how we collect and use that data and meeting our data protection obligations.

A Privacy Notice is a statement issued by an organisation such as the Council which explains how personal and confidential data about individuals is collected, used and shared.

Swindon Borough Council will act as a “Data Controller” for any personal data that you provide to us. We will ensure that the data given to us is processed in line with our Data Protection Act 2018 /and the UK General Data Protection Regulations.

To find out more about Swindon Borough Council’s data protection policies please contact our Data Protection Officer. dataprotection@swindon.gov.uk or in writing to Data Protection Officer, Civic Offices, Euclid Street, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN1 2JH.

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of data is governed by the UK GDPR and DPA 2018

We collect a range of data about you for the purposes of Educational Psychology involvement with you (16-25 year olds) or your child (parents/carers).

This includes:

• your name, address and telephone number
• your child’s name and date of birth
• your child’s school/setting
• other services/agencies involved with you or your child
• if your child is going through the Early Help/TAC processes
• the name and contact details of any other individual with parental responsibility
• details of your/your child’s special educational needs, safety and wellbeing
• school attainment and progress data

We collect this data using our ‘Consent for Educational Psychology Involvement’ form (completed by the parents/carers or young person aged 16-25) and our ‘Request for EP Involvement’’ (usually completed by the school SENCO). 

We may also collect further data on you /your child as part of our information gathering and assessment work, such as family background, developmental history and further details about your child’s strengths and special educational needs. We may collect this information in some or all of the following ways: discussion with you and your child, discussion with school staff and other professionals, observation of your C/YP in their school/setting or home and direct individual work with your C/YP.

Personal data will be stored electronically in a secure location on the SBC network. Any paper-based forms will be scanned and uploaded to your child’s electronic file, then disposed of into confidential waste.
 

Swindon Borough Council complies with its obligations under the UK GDPR by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

We will use the information we have collected about you to:

• plan and deliver appropriate services and support to your child
• contact you in relation to the work we are carrying out with your child
• provide a written report for you and for anyone else with parental responsibility for your child
• seek feedback and comments from you and/or your child about our service and how we can improve it
• be able to collate (anonymised) information for internal EPS reviews
• be able to respond appropriately to safeguarding concerns

There are a number of legal, legitimate or lawful reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information.

We collect and use personal information in circumstances where:

• it is necessary to perform our statutory duties
• you have given your consent for involvement with the EPS
• it is necessary to protect someone in an emergency

If we have consent to use your personal information, you have the right to remove it at any time. If you want to remove your consent, contact DataProtection@Swindon.gov.uk and tell us which service you are using so we can deal with your request.

We use a range of organisations to help deliver our services to you. Where we have these arrangements there is always an agreement in place to make sure that the organisation complies with data protection law.

Sometimes we have a legal duty to provide personal information to other organisations (e.g. providing information to courts for care proceedings).

We may also share your personal information when we feel there is a good reason that is more important than protecting your privacy. This does not happen often and the risk must be serious before we can decide to override your right to privacy, reasons including for example:

• In order to find and stop crime and fraud; or if there are serious risks to the public, our staff or to other professionals
• To protect a child
• To protect adults who are thought to be at risk, for example if they are frail, confused or cannot understand what is happening to them.

We will share information and data where this is essential to support your child/ young person’s needs. We will only share information with professionals who are directly involved in supporting your child’s needs within an education, health or social care setting.

This would normally involve some of the following professional groups:

• Speech & Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, TaMHS (Targeted Mental Health Service), CAMHS (Children & Adolescent Mental Health Service, Health Visitors, Paediatricians, Schools, nurseries, educational settings, Social Care Workers, Social Workers, EWOs, Specialist Teaching Services, hospital teams and specialist services (e.g. Ophthalmology), interpreters present at meetings to support families (interpreters are governed by their own Code of Ethics which will be very strict on confidentiality rules and data protection), other teams within Swindon Borough Council (for example, SEND Service).

We will always ensure we hold records about you (on paper and electronically) in an appropriately secure way, and we will only make them available to those who have a right to see them.

Examples of our appropriate security include:

• Encryption, meaning that information is hidden so that it cannot be read without special knowledge (such as a password). This is done with a secret code, or what is called a 'cypher'. The hidden information is said to then be 'encrypted'.
• Controlling access to systems and networks allows us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal information from getting access to it
• Training for our staff allows us to make them aware of how to handle information and how and when to report when something goes wrong. Regular testing of our technology and ways of working including keeping up to date on the latest security updates (commonly called patches).
• Educational Psychologists (EPs) may temporarily hold paper copies of information they need to carry out their work with children or young people during the short time period they are actively working with them (for a few weeks approximately). Once the direct work has come to an end, the EP will scan relevant paper documents to be stored electronically within a secure system, then the paper copies will be disposed of and destroyed using the SBC confidential waste system. When carrying sensitive paper documents outside of SBC buildings (i.e. travelling to or working within schools/settings/homes),

EPs will take necessary precautions to ensure the documents are as secure as possible, for example by keeping them in a closed bag, on their person at all times.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools

The Educational Psychology Service may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, such as Microsoft Copilot, to support the drafting of written reports about children and young people. AI is used solely to assist with the clarity, structure, grammar, and tone of written documents. It is not used to inform assessment outcomes, professional judgements, decision-making, or psychological formulation.

When using AI tools no personally identifiable information (such as full names, dates of birth, addresses, school names, or unique identifiers) is entered. The use of AI does not replace professional expertise or accountability. The Educational Psychologist remains fully responsible for the content, conclusions, and recommendations within all reports.

In accordance with the Information & Records Management Society, Retention Guidelines for Schools, we keep data, electronically on Children and Young People (CYP) until they are at least 25 years old. In some circumstances, data may be kept for longer than this period.

Records for CYP who are no longer involved with our service before the end of their time in formal education are kept as a minimum until the child is age 25 or for 12 years, following discharge (whichever is the later date) and then deleted/destroyed. Once the relevant time period has elapsed, any paper copies of data and records for CYP will be destroyed via a secure disposal system and electronic data will be erased from our computer systems.

Unless subject to an exemption under GDPR you have a number of rights with respect to your personal data. You can:

• Access and obtain a copy of your data on request (Subject Access Request)
• Require the Council to change incorrect or incomplete data
• Require the Council to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing
• Object to the processing of your data where the Council is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer, Civic Offices, Euclid Street, Swindon SN1 2JH or email DataProtection@swindon.gov.uk.

If you believe that the Council has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner at www.ico.org.uk.

Further information about the EPS can be found via Swindon Local Offer - Swindon Educational Psychology Service

In the event that you wish to complain about the way that your personal data has been handled by Swindon Borough Council, you should write to the Data Protection Officer and clearly outline your case. Your complaint will then be investigated in accordance with our customer complaint procedure.

If you remain dissatisfied with the way your personal data has been handled, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ICO.org.uk. You may refer the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office whose contact details are below:

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

Email: casework@ico.org.uk

This website also contains information on data protection and your rights and remedies.
 

Please note that not providing your personal data may lead to you or your child being unable to utilise services provided by the Educational Psychology Service.

A yearly audit will take place on personal data to ensure that we remain legally compliant in accordance with current data protection legislation.

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