Children's Services (home educated children) privacy notice

What this document is for

This privacy notice provides details on how we, Norfolk County Council (the County Council), use your and your child's personal information for the purposes of home education.

By 'use' we mean the various ways your personal information may be processed including storing and sharing the information.

Further details

We also provide the following details in our general privacy notice on our website:

Who we are
How long we use your information for
Your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (the GDPR) and
How to exercise them

This privacy notice is in addition to the Childrens Services (Education) privacy notice on our website which sets out how the County Council's Children's Services department uses your child's personal information for educational purposes.

You can also ask us for a copy of the privacy notices.

What we use your information for

We may use the information about you and/or your child:

To identify children in Norfolk who are being educated at home, to identify whether they are receiving suitable education in line with the County Council's duty under the Education Act 1996 (Section 436A) and to take appropriate steps to ensure suitable education is provided
To provide you with additional support and information that may help you to provide a suitable education to your child
To assist:
- the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) to collect information on the height and weight of reception and year 6 children by providing name and contact details to the Children and Young People's Health Service Norfolk (part of Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust)
- Public Health England's immunisation programme for children under the National Health Act 2006 by providing name and contact details to the Children and Young People's Health Service Norfolk (part of Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust)
- the County Council's Public Health Norfolk in dental surveys as part of a programme of work to help improve the dental health of people in Norfolk by providing name and contact details

We also use this information to assess the quality of our services and evaluate and improve our policies and procedures.

We may also use information in other ways compatible with the above.

What personal data we collect and use about you

We will collect and use:

Your child's personal details - name, date of birth, gender, age, address
Your name, address, email, telephone number and relationship to the child
Contact details for other adults with parental responsibility for the child
Personal identifiers - unique pupil number, unique learning number, NI number, case management system references
Reasons for elective home education
Your plans for home education for your child
Educational details - including schools attended, attendance and exclusions, assessment information, public exam results, special education needs information and intended post 16 education/training provider
Family details
Family history and social relationships generally
Personal history including safeguarding reports
Educational history including any additional needs
Support and services provided to your child

We may also collect and use information about:

Racial and ethnic origin
Religious or philosophical beliefs
Health data including disabilities and special educational needs

This information is classed as "special category data" under the GDPR. We may only collect these data when it is relevant and for the purposes described above.

We also collect information concerning criminal convictions and offences.

The GDPR includes safeguards to protect the use of your special category data and criminal conviction data. Further details can be found on our website in the document named 'Special category data and criminal offences data policy' which sets out our procedures for compliance with the principles of the GDPR and the retention and erasure of this information.

Who provides this information

We receive most of this information from you, but we may also obtain some of this data from:

Your child's previous school
Other public bodies and organisations providing educational services to your child
The County Council Children's Services department

Who we share your information with

We may need to share your information with:

Other departments in the County Council's Children's Services
Your child's school, if they return to school
Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust for the NCMP and the immunisation programme (name and contact details only)
County Council's Public Health Norfolk (or their service providers) for dental surveys (name and contact details only)
Norfolk Office of Data and Analytics (NODA). (For projects such as 'working together to reduce serious crime'). You can find out more about NODA and their work on our website.

Any information which is shared will only be shared on a need to know basis, with appropriate individuals. Only the minimum information for the purpose will be shared.

How the law protects you and the legal basis for processing your information

We have legal grounds under the GDPR to process this information because it is necessary:

For the performance of a task carried out in the public interest and the task or function has a clear basis in law. These statutory powers and duties are:
- the Education Act 1996 (Section 436A)
- various Public Health regulations
- the Health & Social Care Act 2012

We have legal grounds to process (including share) special category data and criminal convictions data because it is necessary for reasons in the substantial public interest and in the exercise of a statutory function. The statutory functions are the same as the statutory powers and duties referred to above.

How long will we keep your personal information for

We will retain information for 10 years after statutory school leaving age (or for 75 years for Looked After Children). Information no longer needed for the above purposes will be securely deleted.

If we need to use your information for research or reports, your information will be anonymised and any information taken from notes (handwritten or typed) during any consultation sessions will be securely destroyed. The information will continue to be used in a summarised and anonymised form in any research reports or papers that are published. The anonymised information in the papers may be of historic interest and may be held in public archives indefinitely.

How we keep your information

The information is stored electronically, on the County Council's records management system. Additionally, information is securely stored in other mediums, including in paper files.

We do not process your information outside of the UK and European Economic Area.

Automated decision making

We do not make automated decisions about you or your child.

Changes to this notice

We may amend this privacy notice at any time so please review it frequently. The date below will be amended each time this notice is updated.

This notice was updated in November 2024.