School governance privacy notice

1. Council contact details

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

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. This Privacy Notice explains how we use information about you and how we protect your privacy.

West Northamptonshire Council (NNC) 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

School Governance is part of West Northamptonshire Council and provides services in the following areas:

Early Education
Schools and Education
Special Educational Needs and Disability

We have a governor support team who support schools in fulfilling the local authority's statutory responsibilities to:

appoint parent governor representatives to LA committees dealing with education
appoint LA governors to all maintained school governing bodies
provide training and information for school governors
set up temporary governing bodies for new maintained schools

In addition, our Governor Development Advisors work alongside a number of governing boards of maintained schools in a supportive manner; this has reduced the number of schools requiring an Ofsted grade of improvement or inadequate.

2. Information that we hold

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

In the course of delivering these services, we will collect the following information:

Personal information including your name, email address, telephone number, date of birth, area of county that you live in
Attendance at WNC provided training
Current school appointed to as a governor
School Governorship history
School tier preference (eg primary, secondary)
Governing Body Details
Governor type and term of office
Improvement Evaluation Reports
Details of Governor training booked and attended

3. How the information is obtained

3.1. How do we collect this personal information?

Online form
Email

3.2. There are a number of reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information. Generally, we collect and use personal information where it is necessary to meet our legal obligations.

For what purpose is this personal information collected?

The legislations that govern and direct the delivery of services is as follows:

Children and Young Persons Act 2008
Education and Inspections Act 2006

4. What we do with the information

4.1. How we use this personal information?

To enable service delivery
To enable official reporting
To fulfil our statutory duty regarding school governance
Perform a Statutory Duty
To enable schools to fill governor vacancies
To improve governance in schools
To maintain a governor database
To send out our regular ‘Governor Newsletter’ to the boards who pay for this service
To contact governors regarding statutory changes in legislation and details of training opportunities
To ascertain local authority governor vacancies to be filled (statutory role)
To assess and report on vacancies across the county
To plan future training requirements

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.

4.2. Who we will share your information with

Maintained schools
North Northamptonshire Council (business support for this area is being hosted by West Northamptonshire Council)

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 and in accordance with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

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

5.1 How long will your personal information be held?

We keep your personal information for the purpose of this fulfilling our statutory duty regarding school governance in line with the council’s retention schedules.

Category of Information	Retention Period
All records relating to the appointment of and reappointment of School Governors	Retain from termination of service as a school governor for 6 years

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 on the council’s systems in electronic format. The Council’s servers are based in the UK.

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.

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 06 July 2023