Education Inclusion Service (EIS): Elective Home Education

Privacy Notice

Why do we collect and use this information?

Hampshire County Council is the Data Controller for the purpose of collecting and using information from parents/carers and schools/academies to carry out our statutory responsibilities in relation to children who are educated at home.

We collect information about your child, you as their parent/carer, alongside details around their school. We hold this personal data securely and use it to:

  • develop our policy statement on elective home education which is clear, transparent and easily accessible
  • offer a visit from an Education Consultant to each home educating family
  • manage enquiries around our EHE service and communicate with home educating families
  • make arrangements for paying for GCSE (or equivalent) examination fees for electively home educated young people who would be in the Year 10 or 11 age group and who meet the criteria set
  • seek to offer guidance to all known home-educating families in our area and provide advice and support for parents who request it
  • obtain information about the education parents are providing to assist us in reaching a properly informed judgement on the suitability of the education being provided
  • make arrangements to establish the identities, so far as it is possible to do so, of children in our area who are not receiving a suitable education
  • contribute to the serving of school attendance orders, where required
  • contribute to the core education record of your child held by the County Council
  • undertake statistical forecasting and planning
  • undertake wider County Council statutory duties in support of your child’s education and welfare
  • ensure compliance with our obligations under the accuracy principle of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (Article (5)(1)(d)), making sure our records about you and your family are up to date

CAPITA plc is a data processor for this information acting on our instructions for the purpose of delivering a contract to the County Council around the hosting and supporting of the CAPITA One system, which the County Council uses to store the information provided to us, as identified under this privacy notice. This includes accessing the CAPITA One system to fix any technical issues to ensure the system is fit for use.

The following sections provide further detail around the information we process setting out what allows us to do this (lawful basis), who we may share it with, how long we keep it for (the retention period), alongside identifying any rights you may have and who to contact if you think we’re not handling your information in the right way.

The categories of information that we collect, hold and share

The following personal and special category information is processed:

  • your child’s personal information (name, address, date of birth)
  • information about your child’s home education (such as context, activities, opportunities, topics) and their health information
  • your personal information (name and address, telephone number, email address) and your health information

The lawful basis on which we use this information

We collect and use the information ensuring that we comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA2018) requirements for processing through:

  • Article 6(1)(e) – the processing is necessary to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law
  • Article 9(2) (g) – Necessary for reasons of substantial public interest on the basis of Union or Member State law which is proportionate to the aim pursued and which contains appropriate safeguarding measures
  • Sch.1, Pt.2, 1 – Substantial public interest conditions, for processing under the DPA2018

These articles under the UK GDPR and the DPA2018 are supported by the following specific legislation:

  • Sections 436A and sections 437 to 443 Education Act 1996
  • Section 10 and 11 of the Children Act 2004
  • Equality Act 2010

Under this lawful basis we do not require your consent to process this information but we are required, through this privacy notice, to ensure you are fully informed of why we are collecting this information and what we will do with it.

Please note that no automated decision making (decisions taken without a person involved) occurs for any parts of these activities controlled by the County Council and that the County Council does use profiling as part of the service.

Storing and securing data

The information provided to us will be held within the County Council’s CAPITA One system, which we use to provide our EIS case management system. The information held within CAPITA One will be kept in line with our retention schedule and then disposed of as appropriate. The County Council’s CAPITA One system is hosted by CAPITA plc in secure data centres based in the UK. Information is encrypted when in transit between County Council users of the system and the data centre the information is hosted within.

Forms sent electronically (paper forms will be scanned to create an electronic record) will be stored within the County Council’s Document Management System (DMS). The file will be linked to the record created in CAPITA One by the use of a reference identifier. The information held within the County Council’s DMS and the original paper record will be kept in line with our retention schedule and then disposed of as appropriate. The County Council’s DMS is hosted by the County Council in secure UK based data centres, which are on site.

The County Council takes its data security responsibilities seriously and has policies and procedures in place to ensure the personal data held is:

  • prevented from being accidentally or deliberately compromised
  • accessed, altered, disclosed or deleted only by those authorised to do so
  • accurate and complete in relation to why we are processing it
  • continually accessible and usable with daily backups
  • protected by levels of security ‘appropriate’ to the risks presented by our processing

The County Council also ensures its IT Department is certified to the internationally recognised standard for information security management, ISO27001.

Who do we share information with?

We do not share information with anyone unless there is a lawful basis that allows us to do so.

We are required by law to share information with Health Services, in particular health visiting and school nursing services fulfilling our statutory duty in support of them meeting their duties and powers.

Depending on the individual circumstances of each situation, we may have to share this information with other teams within the County Council to fulfil other duties and powers to support our work. These might include our Youth Support Service (for ensuring the participation of young people); Children Missing Education (for ensuring the provision of full time education); Virtual School (for support of children looked after); and/or Social Care (supporting welfare, safeguarding and corporate parent functions). We may also share information through the County Council’s role in the Hampshire Safeguarding Children Partnership (HSCP) to comply with their statutory duties.

Requesting access to your personal data and your rights

Under data protection legislation, individuals have the right to request access to information about them that we hold. To make a request for your personal information, or someone you have responsibility for, please contact the Children’s Services Department’s Subject Access Request (SAR) Team.

You also have the right to:

  • prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing
  • object to decisions being taken by solely automated means
  • in certain circumstances, have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed
  • claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection regulations

Please note that under the UK GDPR, there is also a right to erasure but the right to erasure does not provide an absolute ‘right to be forgotten’. Where the data being processed is for the purpose of ‘performing a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law’ (Article 6(1)(e))’, this right does not automatically apply.

Further information

The above information is the specific privacy notice for this service. For more information about your rights in relation to your personal data, see the County Council’s general privacy notice.

You have some legal rights in respect of the personal information we collect from you. See our Data Protection page for further details.

You can contact the County Council’s Data Protection Officer by email [email protected].

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance or directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office.