Local authority and school – privacy notice

Portsmouth City Council (the Local Authority or LA) uses information about children for whom it provides services, to enable it to carry out specific functions for which it is responsible, such as the assessment of any special educational needs the child may have and provision of services.

It also uses the information to derive statistics to inform decisions on (for example) the funding of schools, and to assess the performance of schools and set targets for them. The statistics are used in such a way that individual children cannot be identified from them.

The LA transfers some of the information into the Portsmouth Children’s Hub which is shared by partners in the Portsmouth Children’s Trust. Details of the Children’s Trust can be found at this link.

http://www.portsmouthchildrenstrust.org/

If you wish to opt out of this arrangement please send a written request to the Local Authority using the Information Services postal address or email address given below.

The LA will pass information to the Library Service to enable them to issue all Reception year pupils with their own library card. The LA may share information about pupils with other local public services such as the PCT (see below), police and emergency services, in order to assess needs, commission services and meet its safeguarding duties.

Primary Care Trusts (PCT) use information about pupils for research and statistical purposes, to monitor the performance of local health services and to evaluate and develop them. The statistics are used in such a way that individual pupils cannot be identified from them. Information on the height and weight of individual pupils may however be provided to the child and its parents and this will require the PCTs to maintain details of pupils’ names for this purpose for a period designated by the Department of Health following the weighing and measuring process. PCTs may also provide individual schools and LAs with aggregate information on pupils’ height and weight.

For pupils aged 13 years and over, the school is legally required to pass on certain information to the provider of youth support services in their area. This is the local authority support service for young people aged 13 to 19 in England. The school must provide the name and address of the pupil and their parents and any further information relevant to the support services’ role. In addition, the date of birth of the pupil is supplied. Youth Support services pass on some of the information they collect to the Department for Education (DfE) to enable them to assess the local authorities’ performance and determine the destinations of young people after they have left compulsory education.

Until pupils are aged 16 or older, their parent(s) can ask that no information beyond their children’s name, address and date of birth (and their own name and address) be passed to the youth support services provider. This right transfers to the pupil on their 16th birthday. Pupils and/or parents will need to inform the school if this is what they wish. If you require more information about how the DfE store and use your information then please go to the following website:

How DfE share personal data

Online information, advice and support on a range of issues affecting young people can be found on the Directgov Young People page at:

www.direct.gov.uk/en/YoungPeople/index.htm

With access to trained helpline advisers, via SMS text message, telephone, webchat and email.

For LA services for young people go to the LA website

http://www.iyssportsmouth.info/

This notice provides information about how pupils’ information is used by the Local Authority and should be read in conjunction with the Privacy Notices provided by your/your child’s school and by the Department for Education (DfE).

For a copy of the school’s Privacy Notice please contact the school. The DfE’s Privacy Notices are available at http://education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/datatdatam/privacynotices.