Purpose for processing your information
The school admissions team is the coordinator body for the application process for schools and academies and the initial contact point for school admissions related enquiries.
The lawful basis for processing personal information
The lawful basis for processing personal data is found under Article 6(1)(e) of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.
We collect the following information
Information we request from you is for the purpose of processing your school application. We request the full name of your child, date of birth, home address, parent or carers full name, address, if different from your child, your contact details including phone numbers and email address, council tax number, current or previous education provision, professional supporting documents if relevant to your application, background education history if applying for as an in-year admission, country of origin if a new arrival to the country and length of stay in the UK.
This information is only used for the intended purpose but if we intend to use it for any other purpose we will normally ask you first. In some cases, the council may use your information for another purpose if it has a legal duty to do so, to provide a complete service to you, to prevent and detect fraud, or if there is a risk of serious harm or threat to life.
How we collect your information
The initial application for a school place can either be submitted online or a hard copy paper. Additional information will be requested either by letter, email, telephone or face-to-face.
Who the information is shared with
The admissions team may also use your information for other legitimate purposes and may share (where necessary) with other council departments and external bodies responsible for administering services to children and young people. Reasons for sharing information with the internal and external bodies will be to enable the processing of school applications to fulfil the council's safeguarding duty and comply with the Prevent Strategy, to provide central government bodies with mandatory data returns, to notify the Home Office of potential illegal immigration and the police may request information at any time as part of a criminal investigation.
Internal bodies are the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Service, the Virtual School, the Data Team, the Family Support Service, the Multi-Agency Support Hub (MASH) Team and Safeguarding Service, the Early Years' Service, and governance and legal services.
External bodies are schools/academies (previous, current and applied for), other councils or boroughs and the police. Central government bodies comprising of the Department for Education, the Local Government Ombudsmen and the Office of the School Adjudicator; the Home Office and the Department of Work and Pensions, Translation and Interpretation service.
For the purpose of validating proof of address, the school admissions team will refer to data held by any of the services mentioned above, internal council tax records, the housing team and fraud team.
How long do we keep your information?
The admissions team will keep your application record for the period of school phase applied for. After this time, it will be deleted unless there is a new application for the next phase of education, that is, a primary child whose application for a secondary place has been received.
Your rights and access to your information
You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you.
The new General Data Protection Regulation also gives you additional rights about the information we hold about you and how we use it, including the right to:
- Withdraw consent and the right to object and restrict further processing of your data; however, this may affect service delivery to you.
- Request to have your data deleted where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing and provided that there are no legitimate grounds for retaining it.
- Request your data to be rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
- Have your data transferred or copied should you move to another authority.
- Not be subject to automated decision-making including profiling.
To submit a subject access request, email: school.admissions@lbhf.gov.uk.
If you have any concerns
Please contact us if you would like to know more about the information we hold about you and how we use it. The school admissions team can be contacted on 020 8753 1085 between 9am and 1pm, Monday to Friday.
You have a right to complain to us if you think we have not complied with our obligation for handling your personal information please email school.admissions@ lbhf.gov.uk. Your concerns will be investigated through the council's complaints procedure.
If you are not satisfied with the council's response you have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). You can report a concern by visiting the ICO website.
Changes in your circumstances
You must notify us immediately if there are any changes in your circumstances and personal details so we can maintain an accurate and up to date record of your information.