- How we use your data
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At Stoke-on-Trent City Council we take your privacy seriously and will only keep and use your personal information for reasons the law requires or allows. We are a data controller for the personal information we hold about you in relation Children’s Social Care. In order to comply with data protection legislation, we must be sure you understand how we use this information.
The children's social care division processes personal information about children and young people and may receive this information from themselves, parent/carers, current and previous educational/care settings, city council teams, other local authority (LA) children’s teams, the Department for Education (DfE) and other external professional agencies.
This information will include the child or young person’s contact details, parents or other persons with parental responsibility and family contact details, any health/medical information, any social care information and any personal characteristics such as their religion and ethnic group. In order to provide funds we may need to hold bank account details..
We hold this data to:
- consider and possibly conduct a statutory joint educational, health and care needs assessment
- consider if top-up funding is required for children/young people with identified SEN
- include in an Education, Health and Care Plan (if applicable)
- consult with transitioning educational/care settings for future placements
- provide education support for children and young people with special educational needs
- to provide the following support services (via the commissioning of external providers):
- secure transport for children and young people
- an independent service for looked after children in secure accommodation
- therapists to work with children and young people
- a range of external assessments of children, young people and families including (but not limited to) psychological, fostering and parenting assessments.
- family group conferences for children and their families
- supervised contact sessions for children and their families
- positive activities for children and young people
- family mediation, advocacy and mentoring services for children and families
- occupational therapy services for children
- speech and language therapy for children
- return home interviews
- be able to monitor, review and report on progress
- ensure the safeguarding of children and young people
- ensure the medical health, safety and wellbeing of children and young people
Our lawful basis for processing information is:
- legal obligation where our processing is required to comply with the law (SEND Code of Practice) Section 19 of the Children and Families Act 2014 (Article 6(1)(c) UK GPDR)
- public task where processing is necessary to perform a task in the public interest (Children and Families Act 2014) (Article 6(1)(e) UK GPDR)
- processing of special categories of data is necessary to deliver social care services (UK GDPR Article 9(2)(h)
We are required, by law, to pass certain information about children/young people to the Department for Education (DfE) for the school census and the SEN2 statutory return.
Organisations we are most likely to share personal data with are:
- other Stoke-on-Trent City Council teams (admissions, early help, early years, education welfare service, free school meals, schools finance, home to school transport (TRACS), adult social care, Learning Pathways, careers)
- other LA children’s teams (if moving in or leaving Stoke-on-Trent)
- National Health Service
- other health professionals
- other external professionals
- External commissioned providers of support services, including but not limited to, therapeutic interventions, assessments, supervised contact, mediation, secure transport, return home interviews, positive behaviour support, advocacy, mentoring and advice, positive activities.
- Department for Education (DfE)
- Ofsted
To ensure personal information is kept safe we have the following controls in place:
- the information will be held within secure systems/locations, with appropriate levels of security, that comply with current standards
- the information will only be shared for lawful purposes and with an appropriate level of security that complies with current standards
- the information will not be held for longer than is necessary, after which it will be securely destroyed in line with the city council’s retention policy
- the information will be processed in accordance with Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation.
Data protection law provides you with certain rights, but not all of these rights will be available to you in all situations. Where we are under a legal duty to use data for a particular purpose you will not have the right to prevent it being used in that way.
- you can ask to see the information we hold about you
- you can ask what is being done with the information we hold about you
- you can ask to have some of the data we hold about you deleted
- you can ask us to review a decision made about you by a computer, and ask for a new decision to be made by a person
- you can ask us to stop processing the data we hold about you
- you can ask us to make changes to data about you that you believe is inaccurate
- in some circumstances you can ask us to help you move your information to another organisation
- you can ask us to restrict or limit what we do with your data, for example if you believe the data we hold is inaccurate, or if you believe the processing in unlawful
- Who to contact if you have questions
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If you wish to contact us in relation to any of your information rights, email foi@stoke.gov.uk or write to Information Rights Team, Floor 2, Civic Centre, Glebe Street, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 1HH, or you can complete our online form.
If you wish to complain about how your personal information has been handled by Stoke-on-Trent City Council, contact the information rights team in the first instance using the details above. If you are not satisfied you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, or call 03031231113, http://ico.org.uk/