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York SEND Local Offer Privacy Notice

York SEND Local Offer 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 October 2025.

CYC is committed to ensuring that information 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 process your information.

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 555719, or write to:

West Offices
Station Rise
York
YO1 6GA

 

This privacy notice should be read in conjunction with other CYC privacy notices that are available in our Privacy Notice and/or CYC 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:

  • directly from you
  • from third parties acting on your behalf such as family member(s)
  • from other local authorities, health partners, professions where appropriate
  • from our conmissioned partners or contractors who undertake work on our behalf

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We will only process the information that is necessary such as:

  • 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

We will ask for your consent:

  • to take part in surveys, consultation or other events to get your comments, feedback and opinions such as our “Get involved in developing services”  about the service and support you and your family has received
  • to take your photo, video and audio record. You can find more information about how the council uses photos, videos and audio recordings in the Communications Team including photos, filming and recording Privacy Notice
  • to take 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]

When you complete an online form on the council’s website, or websites managed by CYC such as York SEND Local Offerand you have provided your email address, we will send you a copy of your completed online form.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

We may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to support or enhance council services. Where AI is involved in a process that directly affects your interaction with us, we will inform you before your user journey begins. This ensures transparency and helps maintain trust in how we use AI.

Our use of AI complies with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), including the principles of lawfulness, fairness, transparency, accountability, and accuracy. We conduct Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) where AI systems are likely to result in high risks to individuals’ rights and freedoms, such as automated decision-making or profiling.

If generative AI tools are used, we do not use personal or end-user data to train AI models. This helps ensure compliance with the purpose limitation and data minimisation principles under UK GDPR.

AI for Staff Productivity and Accessibility

Where AI tools are used solely by staff to assist with drafting, research, or accessibility—for example, to improve writing efficiency or summarise information—these uses do not form part of a business process that affects service delivery or decision-making. As such, no specific notification will be provided for these internal productivity uses.

These uses are considered low-risk and do not involve automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects. They are also subject to internal governance and safeguards to ensure responsible use.

Examples include:

  • Drafting internal reports or meeting notes
  • Summarising lengthy documents for quicker review
  • Assisting with spelling, grammar, or formatting tasks

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 of our SEND Local Offer services.

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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).

Article 6(1)
(a) Consent: the individual has given clear consent for the council to process their personal data for a specific purpose.
(c) Legal obligation: the processing is necessary for the council to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations).
(e) Public task: the processing is necessary for the council to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.
(f) Legitimate interests: the processing is necessary for the council’s legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, unless there is a good reason to protect the individual’s personal data which overrides those legitimate interests. (This cannot apply if you are a public authority processing data to perform your official tasks.)

Article 9(2) 
(a) Explicit consent
(b) Employment, social security and social protection (if authorised by law)
(g) Reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law)

This is supported by Schedule1, Part 2 (6) of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the following legal framework:

  • Children and Families Act 2014.
  • SEND Regulations 2014
  • SEND Code of Practice 2014
  • Equalities Act 2010

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 and criminal 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.

Our Appropriate Policy Document – City of York Council provides further information about this processing.

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We will only keep your information for as long as is needed and then it will be securely and confidentially deleted or disposed of.

You can find details on how long the council keeps records at Council retention schedule – City of York Council

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We will only share your information where it is appropriate to, with:

  • other CYC services
  • other councils, government departments and agencies
  • other organisations such as NHS
  • third parties including our data processors, partners or contractors, who undertake work on our behalf
  • internal and external auditors

In some circumstances, such as under a court order or safeguarding, we are legally obliged to share your information.

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

When we have third parties providing parts or all of our services, systems, software, platforms, applications (apps) etc for us, we have contracts or agreements in place with them. These include

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We do not routinely transfer personal data, special categories of personal data or criminal offence data outside of the UK but when this is necessary, we ensure that we have appropriate safeguards in place and that it 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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To find out about your rights under Data Protection law, you can go to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) For the public | ICO.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, want to exercise your rights, or if you have a complaint about how your information has been used, please contact us at [email protected] or on 01904 555719, or write to the:

Data Protection Officer
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