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Privacy

Privacy notice

City of York Council (CYC) current data protection notification is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) – reference Z5809563. We regularly review this privacy notice, and it was last updated in February 2024.

CYC is committed to ensuring that personal data is handled in accordance with the principles set out in data protection legislation and guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when we collect personal information about you.

CYC is the controller for this information unless we specifically state otherwise in this privacy notice.

You can contact the council’s Data Protection Officer at email: [email protected], telephone: 01904 554145, or write to:

West Offices
Station Rise
York
YO1 6GA

This privacy notice should be read in conjunction with other relevant CYC privacy notices and/or policies and procedures.

When appropriate we will provide a ‘just in time’ notice to cover any additional processing activities not mentioned in this document.

We get information about you from the following sources:

  • completion of the Request for Statutory Assessment, either electronically or a paper copy
  • gathering of information in a SEN Support Plan
  • meetings with you, and your child/young person
  • consultation with other professionals
  • professional/relevant service reports or council databases
  • post, email, online forms and telephone conversations as appropriate
  • Section 23 notifications from health partners
  • other local authorities where appropriate

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We process the following personal data:

  • names
  • contact details
  • any special educational needs
  • why the referral has been made
  • school history
  • progress, attainment, attendance, any exclusions
  • medical information
  • NHS patient number
  • UPN (unique pupil number)
  • information relating to relevant social care needs
  • information about family, household and/or carers of the child or young person
  • any relevant criminal conviction or offence information

It will also include the details of other professionals working with your child, including the details of the SEN coordinator in setting or their counterpart.

We will use your information to:

  • monitor the usage of our website
  • respond to your enquiries or referrals
  • ensure that services and practitioners understand how they can best help you.
  • support our work with your child in his/her school or setting, or in your home or another setting for those children who are unable to attend school because of ill health
  • complete the detail needed in an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) to describe your child’s needs, the provision, outcomes and actions from planning meetings
  • consult education settings to ask if they can meet your child’s needs, prior to naming a school, early years setting or college in an EHCP
  • keep photographs and/or video recordings of your child for record keeping and assessment arrangements. These would be used in relation to your child’s assessment. They will not be used for any other purpose without asking for your additional explicit and informed consent first
  • provide the child or young people with appropriate services
  • ‘sign post’ the child, young person and family to appropriate support
  • contact you if you have chosen to take part in our “Get involved in developing services” and / or send you updates about our services if you have asked for these. You can decide at any time that you no longer want to take part or receive information from us. You can do this by email: [email protected]

We may use information to create reports and statistics that are anonymous and cannot be linked back to you, your family, or individuals such as:

  • statistical analysis
  • statutory returns
  • audit framework
  • see how the council and its partners are supporting families and individuals
  • help design better services
  • inform funding decisions
  • inform performance management
  • inform development of good practice
  • contribute to national surveys and government returns, for example, to the Department for Education (DfE)

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We do not carry out any automated decision-making as part of this service.

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Please see our Cookies Policy for further information about the information we collect automatically when you use our website.

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Where we provide services directly to children or young people, the information in the relevant parts of this notice applies to children and young people, as well as adults.

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Any personal data including special category data that we process about individuals using our services is done so in accordance with Article 6, 9 and 10 of the UK GDPR and Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018).

The legal basis for processing your personal data is in accordance with the following:

  • Article 6(1)(a) your consent
  • Article 6(1)(c) so we can comply with our legal and statutory duties including, but not limited to, those which apply under the legislation shown below
    • Children and Families Act 2014.
    • Children and families act 2014
    • SEND Regulations 2014
    • SEND Code of Practice 2014
  • Equalities Act 2010
  • Article 6(1)(d) in order to protect your vital interests or those of another person
  • Article 6(1)(e) for the performance of our public task
  • Article 6(1)(f) for the purposes of our legitimate interest

Where the information we process is special category data, for example your health data, the additional bases for processing that we rely on are

  • Article 9(2)(a) your explicit consent
  • Article 9(2)(b) which relates to carrying out our legal obligations and the safeguarding of your fundamental rights including, but not limited to, those which apply under the legislation shown below
    • Children and Families Act 2014.
    • SEND Regulations 2014
    • SEND Code of Practice 2014
    • Equalities Act 2010
  • Article 9(2)(c) to protect your vital interests or those of another person where you are incapable of giving your consent
  • Article 9(2)(g) – where processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest

Where we process personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences, this is also under Article 10 UK GDPR that covers processing in relation to criminal convictions and offences or related security measures. In addition, section 11(2) of the DPA 2018 specifically confirms that this includes personal data relating to the alleged commission of offences, or proceedings for an offence committed or alleged to have been committed, including sentencing.

Some of the Schedule 1 conditions for processing special category data and criminal convictions and offence data require an Appropriate Policy Document (APD) to be in place, that sets out and explains the procedures for securing compliance with the principles in Article 5 and policies regarding the retention and erasure of such personal data. This document explains this processing and satisfies the requirements of Schedule 1, Part 4 of the DPA 2018 and supplements this privacy notice. You can find this at Our Appropriate Policy Document.

We will always ask for your consent to take part in surveys or to get your feedback, about our services such as “Get involved in developing our services”.

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We will only keep your information for as long as is necessary and then we will delete or destroy it securely.

We only keep your personal data up to the age of 25 years for non-statutory files and 35 years from closure for statutory files (such as Education, Health and Care Plans).

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We share information about you/your child or young person with other relevant professionals who are already involved, or who become involved, to ensure support is co-ordinated and to improve multi-agency working.

We regularly share information with the following organisations:

  • educational settings
  • vocational settings
  • York Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Specialist Services
  • professionals from Health, Social Care and Early Help teams

We are required by law to pass on some personal data to the DfE and other Government departments who use it to help inform:

  • funding
  • policy development

Where required, we will discuss with you the reasons for sharing information and ask for your explicit consent.

We may be required or permitted, under data protection legislation, to disclose your personal data without your explicit consent, for example if we have a legal obligation to do so, such as for:

  • safeguarding
  • law enforcement
  • fraud investigations
  • regulation and licensing
  • criminal prosecutions
  • court proceedings

We will always satisfy ourselves that we have a lawful basis on which to share the information and document our decision-making.

Additionally, we are required under the Public Records Act 1958 (as amended) to transfer records to the City or National Archives (TNA) for permanent preservation. Full consideration will be given to Data Protection and Freedom of Information legislation when making decisions about whether such records should be open to the public.

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Where we have third parties providing parts or all of our services for us, we have contracts in place with them. These are listed below:

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We do not routinely transfer personal data outside of the UK but when this is necessary, we ensure that we have appropriate safeguards in place and that is done in accordance with the UK data protection and privacy legislation.

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We're committed to keeping your information safe and secure. There are several ways we do this, such as:

  • IT security safeguards such as firewalls, encryption, and anti-virus software
  • on-site security safeguards to protect physical files and electronic equipment
  • training for all staff and elected councillors
  • policies and procedures

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When we collect your personal data, we'll tell you how we are going to use it. Where we process your personal data, you have several rights under data protection law.

The right to be informed

You have the right to be told how your personal data will be processed. This right applies whether you supply your personal data to us, or whether we obtain your data from a third party. We'll inform you how we're processing your data using privacy notices, to explain what we are doing with your personal data and why.

The right of access to your personal data

You have the right to request access to personal data held about you ; this is also known as making a 'Subject Access Request' (SAR).

The right to rectification of your personal data

If your personal data is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to ask for this to be rectified. We'll always comply with a request for rectification, unless there is a legal reason why we can’t (for example, if the information held is for evidential purposes and was accurate at the time of collection). Where we can’t rectify your information, we'll provide an explanation.

The right to have your personal data erased

You have the right to ask for any information held about you to be erased - sometimes referred to as the “right to be forgotten". We must legally erase any information where there is no compelling reason for us to be processing it. Where we cannot comply with a request to erase your information, we'll provide an explanation.

The right to restrict the processing of your personal data

You have the right to ask for the processing of your personal data to be blocked or suppressed. This right is like asking for your data to be erased, but in this instance, it means that we can only store/hold your information and can’t process it in any other way. For example:

  • where you have contested the accuracy of your information and processing is restricted until its accuracy is verified
  • where you have objected to processing and we are considering the legal implications of complying with your request
  • where we no longer require the information, but you have specifically asked that we keep it to enable you to seek legal advice or for legal proceedings

Where we cannot comply with a request for restriction of processing because there is a legal reason not to, we'll provide an explanation.

The right to object to certain types of processing

You have the right to object to certain types of processing of your personal data. If you object to the processing of your information and there is a legal reason why we cannot comply we'll provide an explanation.

The right to ask for your data to be sent to another organisation - data portability

There are some limited circumstances where you have the right to ask us to transfer your personal data to another organisation. However, to exercise this right the following criteria must apply:

  • you must have given your information to us directly
  • we must only be processing your data solely on the basis that you have given your consent, or we are processing it to fulfil a contract (if we're processing your information to fulfil a public task, this right does not apply)
  • the processing of the data is carried out by automatic means (only by a computer system with no human intervention)

We do not believe that any type of processing that we carry out would fall within these criteria. However, we'll always comply with requests to provide your data where possible, and if we cannot, we'll provide an explanation.

The right to object to automated decision-making - including profiling of you

Automated decision-making is purely carried out by a computer system with no human intervention. For example, when you apply for credit, a computer system may decide that you're not eligible. We very rarely carry out automated decision-makings without any human intervention. However, where we have made an automated decision about you, you have the right to object to this. We'll tell you where we are making automated decisions about you.

The right to raise a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Officer

If you have a concern about the way we handle your personal data, contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). If the ICO thinks we have not complied with legal obligations, they can give us advice and ask us to solve the problem. The ICO cannot award you compensation, their main aim is to improve the information rights practices of organisations. The ICO will not usually investigate concerns where there has been an undue delay in bringing it to their attention and so you should raise your concerns with them within 3 months of your last contact with us about your concern.

There are some circumstances where other laws prevent us from complying with some of your rights and where this is the case, we'll provide an explanation.

Find out more about your legal rights from the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

Exercise your legal rights

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, want to exercise any of your legal rights, or if you have a complaint about how your information has been used, please contact us by:

  • email: [email protected]
  • telephone: 01904 554145
  • write to:
    Data Protection Officer, Corporate Governance Team, City Of York Council, West Offices, Station Rise, York, YO1 6GA

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We are the sole owner of the information collected via our website. It does not store or capture personal data of users with general public access but does log the IP address of a visitor. This enables us to determine which pages are being viewed and helps us to improve our services. It does not use cookies for the general running of the SEND Local Offer website but does use them to enable requested services (for example, payments) and to remember choices during the visit.

Anonymous information about page visits is collected using Google Analytics.

Our website privacy notice does not cover external websites; we encourage you to read the privacy notices on any other websites you visit.

Our website also lists email addresses for external organisations (those addresses that don't contain 'york.gov.uk'); we cannot guarantee what will happen to your personal data if you email an external organisation.

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By using our website, you are consenting to certain types of cookie being placed on your device. See our Cookie Policy.

Where our website links to external resources or websites, these may add their own cookies. These are outside our control. Cookies can be disabled by changing the settings in your browser, but you may need to re-enter information at times.

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Emails that we send to you, or you send to us, may be retained as a record of contact and your email address stored for future use in accordance with our record retention schedules. If we need to email sensitive or confidential information to you, we may perform checks to verify the correct email address and may take additional security measures.

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You will not receive unsolicited paper or electronic mail as a result of sending us any personal data while using our website, unless you have given us permission to do this.

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We do not pass personal data to third parties for marketing, sales or any other commercial purposes without your prior explicit consent.

If we have to share your personal data externally, we require any third party to comply with the principles of data protection legislation, and our procedures and instructions, when they use your information on our behalf.

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Terms and conditions