Overview

Central Bedfordshire Council is the data controller for the information we collect from you and other sources to provide the EHE Service which means we control how your personal information is processed in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018.

The Elective Home Education (EHE) service provides support, advice and guidance to home educators living in the area.

Why do we need your personal information and what do we do with it?

As a local Authority we have a legal obligation to make sure all children in our authority are receiving a suitable education. Information about children who are removed from School roll may come from schools (which are legally obliged to inform the local authority if a child is taken off-roll), it may be supplied voluntarily by parents or via referral from other services and local authorities.

We use this information to make contact with families about Elective Home Education. 

Why register with Central Bedfordshire Home Education Team?

By registering we can offer advice and support on preparing your plan to home educate and beyond, but you can opt out of receiving this advice and support at any time by contacting the team.

If you do not inform us when your contact details or situation changes then we will not be able to work in partnership with you and assist you during your child’s educational journey. More importantly, we would not be able to satisfy ourselves that your child is receiving a suitable education and, should their whereabouts become unknown, your child could be classified as a ‘child missing education’.

What information are we collecting?

In order to meet our statutory obligations we collect the following personal information:

• personal details (such as name, gender, age, date of birth, address, contact details, language, nationality, country of birth)
• special category characteristics (such as ethnicity and special educational needs)
• educational history (such as schools previously attended and attendance and exclusion information)
• other professional involvement such as NHS, Access and Inclusion, Early Help, Social Care, SEN)
• EHE history (communication with families, contact reports and evidence of suitable education).

How long will we keep personal information?

We will hold your personal information securely and retain it from the child /young person’s date of birth until they reach the age of 25, after which the information is securely destroyed unless there is a legal reason to retain it.

Our legal basis for processing

Processing your personal information is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest by the council.

If we need to collect special category (sensitive) personal information, we rely upon reasons of substantial public interest (equality of opportunity or treatment).

We have the appropriate security measures in place to protect personal information. We limit the access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

Who might we share your information with?

We may share information with;

• internal partners such as our Youth Support Team (Year 10+)
• teams within CBC working to improve outcomes for children and young people
• commissioned providers of local authority services (such as education services)
• schools
• schools and In-Year Fair Access (IYFA) panels, when a school a place is required at the request of the parent or when a suitable education is not being provided and a school needs to be identified for the purpose of a School Attendance Order
• post-16 education and training providers
• partner organisations signed up to the district Information Sharing Agreement, where necessary, which may include NHS, health visitors, midwives, police, doctors and mental health workers
• the Health Service who are responsible for the screening and immunisation programmes for the health and wellbeing of your child (if you do not wish your child to take part in these programmes, let us know, this will not affect your child being entitled to access any additional services offered)
• the Department of Education, and other government departments, as required
• we may share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities or agencies if required by applicable law and is lawful to do so.

We will only share information which is necessary and proportionate and where possible only anonymised information will be shared.

The Children and Young People (CYP) Integrated Data Set

The CYP Data Set is owned and managed by CBC and contains personal data and special category information about children attending CBC schools, and matches additional personal data from multiple data sources within CBC to the pupils.

The aim of the dataset is to allow statistical analysis and research to;

• support and inform council transformation by ensuring the holistic characteristics and needs of the child population are fully understood
• provide appropriate levels of insight, evidence and evaluation in order to embed knowledge and understanding of children and young people’s needs and issues into service programmes and projects, including the commissioning of new services
• inform future service delivery planning and integrated working in order to improve outcomes for children and young people.

We have robust processes in place to ensure the confidentiality of our data is maintained and there are stringent controls in place regarding access and use of the data. The child-level data set is not shared outside of CBC. All personal data is stored in secured electronic files with restricted access. Only pseudonymised data is used for analysis. Outputs and analysis take the form of aggregated data, and are for the purpose of CBC teams and partners working to improve outcomes for children and young people.

Your rights under data protection law

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulations you have the following rights:

• the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you or a child under your parental responsibility. These rights extend to a child over the age of twelve
• the right to request a copy of your personal information held by the Council
• the right to request rectification of inaccurate information
• the right to object to the processing of personal information (the data would be restricted whilst the authority is considering the balance of our grounds for the processing which may delay or prevent us from delivering a service to you)
• you have the right to withdraw consent/ opt-out of receiving relevant EHE information notifications that we think will be useful to you
• you have the right to request the erasure of data about you or your child. (Please note that we can refuse a request for erasure if the information is still required.)

Our general privacy notice can be found at https://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/terms

Should you have any queries regarding personal data, or this privacy notice please contact the information governance team in the first instance.

Telephone: 0300 300 5765
Email: information.governance@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk

If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice relating to the EHE service, please contact ehe@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk.

For independent advice about data protection, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (national rate).

Alternatively, visit the ICO's website or email casework@ico.org.uk.