Education, health and care privacy notice

1 Council Contact Details

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

Tel: 0300 126 7000

This notice explains what personal data (information) we hold about you, how we collect it, how we use it and how we may share information that we hold about you in order to deliver our services. We are required to give you this information under data protection law. West Northamptonshire Council is committed to protecting your privacy when you use our services. The Privacy Notice below explains how we use information about you and how we protect your privacy.

West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) complies with data protection legislation (the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and is registered as a 'Data Controller' (Reg. No. ZA896620).

1.2 Who We Are

The Education, Health and Care Service carries out the local authority duties regarding the support for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities as defined in the Children and Families Act 2014.

This requires the team to consider requests for assessment, co-ordinate the multi-agency assessment if one is agreed and write and maintain Education, Health and Care Plans if issued following assessment.

An EHC plan identifies a child's special educational needs, and where relevant, brings together education, health and care services to achieve agreed outcomes. An EHC plan will only be written for an eligible child on the completion of a SEND needs assessment. 

Children, young people and families are at the centre of the assessment and planning process and the focus is very much on what is important for the child or young person – what they want to achieve now and in the future.​ West Northamptonshire Council is responsible for making sure the plan is well co-ordinated.

2 Information that we hold

2.1 What personal information do we collect to deliver this service?

In the course of delivering these statutory services, we will collect the following personal information (these lists are not exhaustive):

• Personal information such as your name, address, contact details, date of birth, gender, photographs and language.
• Special category information such as ethnicity, religion, disabilities, immigration status, mental health information
• Assigned professional/practitioner details
• Attendance at WNC provided training
• Child in Care status, Care Order details, care history
• Education information/history/exclusion details
• Early Years Foundation Stage Profile
• Funding LEA
• Family composition and contact details of parents/carers
• GP Details
• Home to school transport details
• Pupil Premium details
• Current school/schools applied for
• Short break allocation/number of nights used
• Unique Pupil Reference Number

We may also collect the following information from schools/education provider:

• Details of payments to schools
• DFE number (setting)
• Ofsted category
• Bank details
• Student numbers on roll

Where lawful to do so under the applicable legislation we will seek information from other sources including:

• Other West Northamptonshire Council Departments
• Your GP in regard to your health
• Assigned professional/practitioner
• School
• Ofsted
• education provider/school 
• other local authorities
• other involved professionals 

3 How the information is obtained

3.1 How do we collect this personal information?

We collect personal information in the following ways:

• Face to face
• Assessment/Report
• Telephone
• Email
• Statutory Referrals

3.2 There are a number of reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information.

For what purpose is this personal information collected?

• Assessments
• Service delivery
• Service improvement
• Service Planning/Research

What is the legal basis for the collection and use of your personal information?

We collect and use your personal information in order to:

• Perform a Statutory Duty
• Perform a Public Duty
• Perform a Regulatory Duty
• To enable service delivery
• To enable official reporting
• Management of funding and grants
• Voluntary basis (for example, parents/carers that wish to home school)

The additional legal bases that govern and direct the delivery of services is as follows:

• Children and Families Act 2014
• Education Act 2002
• SEND Code of Practice 2015

4 What we do with the information

4.1 How we use this personal information

• To consider if a statutory assessment is required
• To undertake a statutory assessment if required
• To draw up an EHC plan if required
• To maintain the EHC plan for as long as it is required
• To monitor workloads to ensure there is capacity to meet statutory timelines
• To evaluate and quality assure the services we provide and to ensure that they are outcome and child/young person centred

4.2 Who we may share your information with

If required we will share your information with other West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) departments such as:

• Adults, Communities and Wellbeing
• Northamptonshire Children’s Trust
• Education and Universal Services
• LGSS Legal

We may also share your information outside of WNC with the following organisations (this list is not exhaustive):

• North Northamptonshire Council
• Commissioned Delivery Partners
• Department for Education
• Department for Work and Pensions
• Health Services
• Independent Education providers
• Judicial agencies
• Local Authorities
• Other involved professional practitioners
• Ofsted
• Police
• Training providers
• Voluntary and third sector providers
• Youth Offending Service

Why do we share this information?

In order for the service to fully carry out its legal duties and to deliver its service it is a necessary requirement to share this information.

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law.

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 by the Education, Health and Care Service in line with the council’s retention schedules.

How long will your personal information be held?

The information will only be used for the purposes stated when it was collected. Information will not be sold, rented or provided to anyone else, or used for any other purpose than that for which it was originally collected unless required to by law.

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 How is this information stored?

We hold data securely for the set amount of time detailed in our records Retention Schedule. For more information in regards to this and how we keep your information safe please check our Records 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.

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:

Tel: 0300 126 7000

Email to [email protected]

Or you can write to:
Data Protection Officer
One Angel Square
Angel Street
Northampton
NN1 1ED

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 08 July 2024