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Adult learning privacy notice

1 Council Contact Details

1.1 Adult Learning Service
West Northamptonshire Council
Registered Office:
One Angel Square
Angel Street
Northampton
NN1 1ED

Tel: 0300 126 7000

Email: [email protected]

The following privacy notice applies to Northamptonshire Adult Learning Service (NALS). NALS provides learning opportunities to the residents of both North and West Northamptonshire unitary authorities. The service is funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) with the lead authority being North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council being the receiver of services.

As a training provider funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency we will endeavour to ensure all learners have also seen the following ESFA privacy notice as part of their enrolment processes, as set out in Appendix F of ESFA ILR Specification 2021 to 2022.

2 Information that we hold

2.1 Information collected

  • Name
  • Address
  • DoB
  • Contact details
  • Ethnicity
  • Disability/Additional needs
  • Education/Qualification information
  • National Insurance
  • Employment status
  • Benefit status
  • Gender
  • Residency status
  • Household situation

3 How the information is obtained

3.1 Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:

  • You have enrolled on to an adult learning course
  • You have requested information, advice and guidance from the service
  • You have taken part in a course delivered by one of our partner organisations and have agreed for them to share your information with NALS
  • You have registered to take an exam through NALS
  • You have registered your interest in one of our courses, or joined a waiting list and asked to be contacted about specific learning opportunities
  • You have taken part in the delivery of one of our courses as a volunteer

We also process your information as a part of our legal obligation under Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 to create and maintain a unique learner number (ULN) and a personal learning record (PLR).

3.2 Purpose for processing:

  • Service delivery
  • Service improvement
  • Prevention/detection of crime/fraud
  • Research (anonymised data only)
  • Provide data for our funders in order fulfil contractual requirements

4 What we do with the information

4.1 We use the information that you have given us in order to:

  • complete Individualised Learner Record (ILR) returned to ESFA to fulfil the statutory requirements of grant funding;
  • complete registration to exam boards to support learners pursuing accreditation; and
  • obtain learner destination and progression information to meet funding requirements

To assess the effectiveness of service delivery in terms of:

  • Northamptonshire adult learning strategy
  • fulfilling aims, objectives and requirements of key stakeholders such as Ofsted, ESFA, SEMLEP, NNC, WNC
  • meeting the learning requirements of Northamptonshire residents and local enterprise

4.2 Agencies we will share the information with:

  • Ofsted
  • Education and Skills Funding Agency
  • Awarding organisation for accredited provision
  • North Northamptonshire Council
  • NCS Futures
  • West March Systems
  • other partners, including public sector bodies, children’s centres and other providers of services to West Northamptonshire Council

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law. Any information sharing is undertaken in accordance with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. We have mechanisms in place to share information lawfully and securely.

4.3 ALS do not partake in any systems that use automated decision making. Remitted fee concessions are available on certain courses to learners based on ESFA funding rules. This is made clear in our fee policy.

4.4 ALS do not use profiling to make predictions or decisions about learners. As an education provider curriculum staff have an obligation to support learner progression and may make relevant referrals based on a learner’s prior attainment or circumstance. This will only be offered if judged to be in the learner’s interest and might entail referral to a partnership organisation such as Futures – NCS.

5 How long we keep your information for and how we securely dispose of it after use

5.1 We keep your personal information for all aspects of processing in line with the council’s retention schedules.

More information about ESFA retention periods can be found within the ESFA privacy notice.

5.2 We will securely dispose of your information in line with the Council's Retention Schedules.

6 How we store your information

6.1 Your information is securely stored by the provider of our MIS Software, West March Systems. Hard copies of some learner files will be stored at our office for an initial period of processing typically up to 6 months. Records will then be archived using our document management service. Documents are stored securely in line with outlined retention schedule.

7 Your data protection rights

7.1 The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how we can use it. Please see section 15 of the council’s Privacy Policy for further information.

7.2 Please be aware that your rights may differ depending on the lawful basis for processing your personal data.

7.3 The right to withdraw consent. You can ask that we no longer use your details for this processing. If you wish to exercise this right, please contact the Data Protection Officer detailed in section 8.1 below.

8 Who to contact

8.1 If you would like further information about how we use your personal information, or you wish to exercise one of your data rights or you wish to complain about the use of your personal information please contact the Data Protection Officer.

8.2 If you are still dissatisfied once you have contacted the Data Protection Officer, you have the right to complain to the ICO.

The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

9 Changes to this privacy notice

9.1 Privacy notices are live documents, which will be updated or revised in line with legislation.

Last updated 02 April 2024