Information Governance

Personal information is often records that can identify, and relate to, a living person. This can also include information that, when put together with other information, can identify a person, for example, online identifiers or location data.

This is personal information that needs more protection due to its sensitivity.  This information is likely to include:

• sexuality and sexual health;

• religious or philosophical beliefs;

• ethnicity;

• physical or mental health;

• trade union membership;

• political opinion;

• genetic/biometric information.

DET and its Schools use personal information to deliver education effectively; but, wherever possible, the information that they process is anonymised, pseudonymised or de-personalised.  This means that the information can no longer identify a person. 

When using personal information for research purposes, the information is anonymised/pseudonymised to avoid the identification of a person, unless you have agreed that your personal information can be used for the research project.

DET and its Schools do not sell personal information to any other organisation for the purposes of selling products. 

DET and its Schools use personal information to help them run the Trust/School effectively, deliver a quality education, and safeguard pupils and staff.  Please see the DET service specific notices, which explain how DET/its Schools use personal information for each of their activities.

The law provides you with several rights to control the processing of your personal information:

Accessing the information held about you

You have the right to ask for all the information that DET and its Schools have about you. When DET/School receives a request from you, they must normally give you access to everything they have recorded about you. However, they do not let you see any parts of your record which contain:

• Confidential information about other people; or

• Information that professionals think will cause serious harm to your or someone else’s physical or mental wellbeing; or

• If DET/its Schools think that the prevention or detection of crime may be adversely affected by disclosing information to you.

This applies to paper and electronic records. If you request it, DET/its Schools also let others see your record (except if one of the points above applies).  If you have any queries regarding access to your information, please contact:

• Chase High School – gdpr@chasehigh.org;

• Hogarth Primary School – gdpr@hogarth.essex.sch.uk;

• Kelvedon Hatch Community Primary School - gdpr@kelvedonhatch.essex.sch.uk;

• Larchwood Primary School – gdpr@larchwood.essex.sch.uk;

• St. Martin’s School – gdpr@st-martins.essex.sch.uk.

Changing information that you believe to be inaccurate

You should let DET/School know if you disagree with something written on your file. DET and its Schools may not always be able to change or remove the information. However, they correct factual inaccuracies and may include your comments in the records. Please use the contact details above to report inaccurate information.

Asking for your information to be deleted (right to be forgotten)

In some circumstances, you can request the erasure of the personal information used by DET/its Schools, for example:

• Where the personal information is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was collected;

• Where you have withdrawn your consent to the use of your information and there is no other legal basis for the processing;

• Where there is no legal basis for the use of your information;

• Where erasure is a legal obligation.

Where personal information has been shared with others, DET and its Schools make every reasonable effort to ensure that those using your personal information comply with your request for erasure.

Please note that the right to erasure does not extend to using your personal information where:

• It is required by law or to deliver the statutory duties of DET and its Schools;

• It is used for exercising the right of freedom of expression;

• It is in the public interest for public health;

• It is for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes, or statistical purposes where it would seriously affect the achievement of the objectives of the processing;

• It is necessary for the establishment, defence or exercise of a legal claim.

Restricting what your information is used for

You have the right to ask DET and its Schools to restrict what they use your personal information for where one of the following applies:

• You have identified inaccurate information, and have notified DET/School of this;

• Where using your information is unlawful, and you wish DET/School to restrict rather than erase the information;

• Where you have objected to DET/School using the information, and the legal reason for DET/School using your information has not yet been provided to you.

When information is restricted, it cannot be used other than to securely store the information, and with your consent, to handle legal claims, protect others, or where it is for important public interests of the United Kingdom.  Where restriction of use has been granted, DET and its Schools inform you before the use of your personal information is resumed.

You have the right to request that DET/School stop using your personal information in some circumstances, for example, where they are relying on your consent.  However, DET and its Schools are required by law to use personal information to deliver education services, so, for those purposes, they cannot grant your request.

Computer-based decisions about you and if you are ‘profiled’

You have the right to object about decisions being made about you by automated means (by a computer and not a human being), unless it is required for any contract that you have entered, required by law, or you have consented to it. You also have the right to object if you are being ‘profiled’. Profiling is where decisions are made about you based on certain details in your personal information.

If you have concerns regarding automated decision making, or profiling, please contact the School, using the above contact details, who can advise you about how your information is being used. 

As explained in the DET service specific notices, DET and its Schools use a range of companies and partners to either store personal information or to manage it for them. Where they have these arrangements, there is always a contract, memorandum of understanding or information sharing protocol in place to ensure that DET/its Schools comply with information protection law. DET and its Schools complete Privacy Impact Assessments before they share personal information to ensure compliance with the law.

Sometimes, DET/its Schools have a legal duty to provide information about people to other schools, for example, child protection concerns or statutory returns to the Department for Education, for example, the school census.

DET and its Schools may also share your personal information when they feel that there is a good reason that is more important than protecting your confidentiality. This does not happen often, but your information may be shared:

• to find and stop crime or fraud; or

• if there are serious risks to the public, DET/School staff or to other professionals; or

• to protect a child.

The law does not allow DET and its Schools to share your information without your permission, unless there is proof that someone is at risk, or it is required by law.  This risk must be serious before they can go against your right to confidentiality.  When they are worried about physical safety or they feel that they need to act to protect someone from being harmed in other ways, they discuss this with you and, if possible, get your permission to tell others about your situation. DET/its Schools may still share your information if they believe that the risk to others is serious enough to do so. 

There may also be rare occasions when the risk to others is so great that DET/its Schools need to share information straight away. If this is the case, they ensure that they record what information they share and their reasons for doing so. DET/its Schools let you know what they have done, and why, as soon as possible or if they think that it is safe to do so.

DET and its Schools are required by law to share certain information with the Department for Education; for more details on how they use personal information, please click here.

DET and its Schools are also required to share some information with Essex County Council or Southend City Council; for more details on how they use personal information please click on the relevant Council name.

If you live or attend school in the Southend City Council area, you can find its Privacy Notice here.

If you live or attend school in the Essex County Council area, you can find its Privacy Notice here.

If you live or attend school in the Thurrock Council area, you can find its privacy notice here.

DET and its Schools do what they can to ensure that they hold personal records (on paper and electronically) in a secure way, and they only make them available to those, who have a right to see them.  DET/its Schools’ security measures include:

• Encryption - this allows information to be hidden so that it cannot be read without special knowledge (such as a password). This is done with a secret code or cypher. The hidden information is said to be encrypted.

• Controlling access to systems, networks and buildings allows DET and its Schools to stop people, who are not allowed to view your personal information, getting access to it.

• Training for DET/School staff makes them aware of how to manage information and how and when to report when something goes wrong.

• Ensuring that there are ways for DET/School to access your information should something go wrong and their systems not work, including how they manage your information in event of an emergency or disaster.

• Regular testing of DET/School technology and processes, including keeping up to date on the latest security updates (commonly called patches).

If your information leaves the country

Sometimes it may be necessary to send information outside of the UK.  In these rare cases, additional protection is applied to that information during its transfer by:

• Only transferring your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data; or

• Ensuring that suppliers sign specific contracts approved for use in the UK, which require them to give personal data the same protection that it has in the UK.

This ensures that your personal data is protected and that you have the same rights as you would if the data remained in the UK.

The DET Retention Schedule lists how long your information may be kept for different purposes.  A copy of the DET Retention Schedule can be requested from each School Office.

You can contact the DET/School Data Protection Officer at IGS@essex.gov.uk or by calling 0333 032 2970.

For independent advice about information protection, privacy and information sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at:

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

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate)

Online: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/contact-us-public/

Website: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/

To make this website easier to use, DET/its Schools sometimes place small text files on your device (for example, your iPad or laptop). These are known as ‘cookies’. Most big websites also do this.  Where DET and its Schools do this, they ask for your consent when you visit the Trust or School website.

‘Cookies’ improve things by:

• remembering the things that you have chosen, so that you do not have to keep re-entering them whenever you visit a new page;

• remembering information that you have given (for example, your address), so that you do not need to keep entering it;

• measuring how you use the website, so that DET/School can ensure that it meets your needs.

DET and its Schools do not use cookies on their websites that collect information about what other websites you visit (often referred to as privacy intrusive cookies).

DET/School cookies are not used to identify you personally. They are here to make the site work better for you, and you can manage and/or delete these files as you wish.

To learn more about cookies and how to manage them, visit AboutCookies.org or watch a video about cookies.

Other people’s cookies

DET and its Schools sometimes use videos from YouTube and feeds from other websites, such as Facebook and Twitter. These websites place cookies on your device when watching or viewing these pages.

Below are links to their cookie policies:

• Google and YouTube

• Facebook

• Twitter

Turning off cookies

You can stop cookies being downloaded to your computer or other device by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. If you do this, however, you may not be able to use the full functionality of websites.

There is more information about how to delete or stop using cookies on AboutCookies.org. If you wish, you can also opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics.

Further guidance on the use of personal information can be found at ico.org.uk.