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Privacy Notices in Kingston
Privacy Notices in Kingston
Early Years Settings, Schools, Local Authorities (LAs), the Secretary of State for Education and the Department for Education (DfE) (the government department which deals with education and children’s services), the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), and the National Assessment Agency (NAA) all process information on children and pupils in order to help administer education and children’s services and in doing so have to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998. This means (amongst other things) that the data held about children must only be used for specific purposes allowed by law. We are therefore writing to tell you about the types of data held, why that data is held, and to whom it may be passed on.
The Early Years Setting holds information on children in order to support their development, to monitor their progress, to provide appropriate pastoral care, and to assess how well the setting as a whole is doing. This information includes contact details, attendance information, equalities information such as ethnicity, special educational needs and any relevant medical information. From time to time Early Years Settings are required to pass on some of this data to LAs, the DfE and to agencies that are prescribed by law, such as QCA and Ofsted. In particular, at age five an assessment is made of all children (the Foundation Stage Profile) and this information is passed to the Local Authority and receiving maintained school.
The Local Authority (LA) uses information about children for whom it provides services to carry out specific functions for which it is responsible. For example, the Local Authority will make an assessment of any special educational needs the child may have. It also uses the information to derive statistics to inform various decisions. The statistics are used in such a way that individual children cannot be identified from them.
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) uses information about children to administer national assessments such as the Foundation Stage Profile. Any results passed on to the DfEF are used to compile statistics on trends and patterns in levels of development. The QCA can use the information to evaluate the effectiveness of the national curriculum and the associated assessment arrangements, and to ensure that these are continually improved.
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills and Ofsted do not routinely process any information about individual children. However, whilst Ofsted holds no records of individual children’s progress, it does use information about the achievement of groups of children to help inform its judgements about the quality of education in Early Years Settings.
The National Assessment Agency (NAA) uses information for those, relatively few, Settings undertaking the Foundation Stage Profile. The resulting data is passed on to the NAA which also uses information in working with schools, the QCA, and Awarding Bodies, for ensuring an efficient and effective assessment system covering all age ranges is delivered nationally.
The Secretary of State for Education and the Department for Education (DfE) collects information on individual children who are looked after by Local Authorities and will commence collection of information on individual children in need from April 2009. Local Authorities are required to collect this information each year, starting on 1 April 2008 for children looked after and on 1 October 2008 for children in need. The intention is that local authorities will supply the information to the Secretary of State after 31 Marcht on an annual basis.
The data collection on children who are looked after by Local Authorities is known as the SSDA903 return and the data collection on children in need will be known as the Children in Need (CIN) Census.
The data that will be collected will vary with each collection but will include personal characteristics and the details of services provided to the individuals involved. The name of the child will not be included in the returns, but where the child has a Unique Pupil Number (UPN) the UPN will be collected in each return. Collection of the UPN enables DfE to extract education information from the national pupil database held by DfE and to add it to the information in the returns submitted by local authorities. Although the national pupil database also contains the name of the child, DfE does not use the child’s name in processing or analysing the information in the returns or the composite data. Neither does DfE use the identifiable information to take any action in relation to individual children nor are individual children identified in any reports.
The DfE will use the data for policy development; for informing Spending Review bids and monitoring progress against Public Service Agreements; in local authority performance management (including providing indicators for the Performance Assessment Framework, the Annual Performance Assessment and the National Indicator Set); in allocating local authority resource; and in developing good practice. As indicated above, the DfE will use the data in conjunction with data in the national pupil database supplied by schools where that data is relevant to the purposes above.
The DfE may also disclose ‘anonymised’ individual child and pupil information to independent researchers who have a legitimate need for it for their research. In all these cases data items which could identify individuals will be removed. Any such disclosures will be approved and controlled by the Department’s Chief Statistician. Other disclosures may be made as required by law.
A link to a complete list of data items in SSDA903 and CIN can be found at the bottom of the page (for CIN see CIN Census 2008-09 Guidance Notes). A written copy can be obtained on request from:
The Data Development Unit
Data Services Group
Department for Education
Sanctuary Buildings
Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BT
Children, as data subjects, have certain rights under the Data Protection Act 1998, including a general right of access to personal data held on them, with parents exercising this right on their behalf if they are too young to do so themselves. If you wish to access the personal data held about you (or your child if you are a parent/carer) then please contact the relevant organisation in writing
- Local Authority - Records Manager and Data Protection Officer, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, Guildhall, Kingston-upon-Thames KT1 1EU
- QCA - Data Protection Officer at QCA, 83 Piccadilly, London W1J 8QA
- Ofsted - Data Protection Officer Ofsted, Alexandra House, 33 Kingsway, London WC2B 6SE
- NAA - NAA Data Protection Officer, 29 Bolton Street, London W1J 8BT
- DfE - Data Protection Officer at DfE, Caxton House, Tothill Street, London SW1H 9NA
In order to fulfil their responsibilities under the Act the organisation may, before responding to this request, see proof of the requestor’s identity and any further information required to locate the personal data requested.