Special Educational Needs (SEN) Service

Why do we collect and use this information?

Hampshire County Council is the Data Controller for the purpose of collecting and using information from you, your child and your family, as well as from our partner organisations such as schools/academies/colleges, early years settings, educational psychologists and health services (including paediatricians, psychiatrists, nurses and allied health professionals such as occupational therapists, speech and language therapists) to carry out our statutory functions in relation to disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs (SEN).

We collect information about your child as well as information about you as their parent/carer and other individuals within your family. We hold this personal data securely and use it to:

• determine whether an education, health and care (EHC) needs assessment is necessary and communicate the decision to you
• conduct an EHC needs assessment, if necessary
• take into account your views, wishes and feelings and those of your child
• liaise with key partners as identified later in this notice around who we share information with
• liaise with Educational establishments regarding supporting your child including through the SEN Support line available to these establishments
• provide you with advice and information relevant to your child’s SEN
• process your child’s Education, Health and Childcare Plan (EHCP) including assessing information provided and communicating draft and final versions of the EHCP with you
• maintain your child’s EHCP
• support review meetings
• liaise and secure wider County Council services where assessed as being necessary, for example securing social care provision if it has been assessed as being necessary, liaising with the Virtual School Head (VSH) for looked after children
• assist in preparation for adulthood and independent living, where appropriate
• manage enquiries around the EHCP
• manage resolution of disagreements, provide mediation, handle complaints and contribute to tribunals, as required
• support the preparation and delivery of a personal budget, where requested
• contribute to the core education record of your child held by the County Council
• undertake statistical forecasting and planning
• complete statutory returns
• assist in providing information, advice and support and developing our local offer
• evaluate and improve our services
• assist in developing joint arrangements for commissioning services to improve outcomes for 0 to 25-year-old children and young people who have special educational needs (SEN) or disabilities, including those with Education Health and Care (EHC) plans
• 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 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.

Enhance EHC Ltd is a data processor for this information acting on our instructions for the purpose of delivering a contract to the County Council around the production of EHC plans. More information about Enhance EHC Ltd.’s privacy statement can be found by viewing: Privacy Policy of enhanceehc.co.uk

IDOX 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 Open Objects EHC Hub, which the County Council uses to process the information provided to us, as identified under this privacy notice. This includes accessing the EHC hub to fix any technical issues to ensure the system is fit for use. More information about IDOX’s privacy statement can be found by viewing: Policies (idoxgroup.com)

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, school/ early years setting, Year Group) and characteristics (such as gender)
• your personal information (name, address, email, relationship to child) and characteristics (parental responsibility status, service family indicator)
• your and your child’s views, interests and aspirations (such as details about play, health, schooling, independence, friendships, further education and future plans including employment (where practical)
• your child’s special educational needs
• your child’s health and social care needs which relate to their SEN
• information around the outcomes being sought for your child
• the supporting evidence you provide relevant to your child’s assessment

The lawful basis on which we process this information

We collect, store, use and share the information ensuring that we comply with the 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 GDPR and the DPA2018 are supported by the following specific legislation:

• Sections 19(c), 23, 25, 26(3), 28 and sections 36-50 of the Children and Families Act 2014
• Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014 and associated regulations - The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014
• The Special Educational Needs (Personal Budgets) Regulations 2014
• The Special Educational Needs and Disability (Detained Persons) Regulations 2015
• The Children and Families Act 2014 (Transitional and Saving Provisions) (No 2) Order 2014
• The Care Act 2014
• Section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970
• Sections 17, 20 and 47 of the Children Act 1989
• Section 2 of the Children Act 2004
• National Health Service Act 2006 (Part 3, section 75 and 14Z2)
• Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007
• Equality Act 2010 (including disability equality duty under s149)
• Health and Social Care Act 2012
• The Education Act 1996
• The Crime and Disorder Act 1998
• The Apprenticeship, Skills and Learning Act 2009
• The Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007
• The Tribunal Procedure (First Tier Tribunal) (Health, Education and Social Care Chamber) Rules 2008

Under this lawful basis we do not require your consent to process this information once a request for assessment has been received 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.

Note that no automated decision making (decisions taken without a person involved) occurs for any parts of these activities controlled by the County Council. The County Council does use profiling as part of this process but only for compliance with the definitions and specific age ranges requirements established under the ‘Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years’. This is the statutory guidance for organisations which work with and support children and young people who have special educational needs or disabilities.

Storing and securing data

The information provided to us though the County Council’s EHC Hub, which is provided under contract (as described above), will also store the information we use to process our education, health and care (EHC) needs assessments, write EHC Plans and conduct Annual Reviews of EHC Plans.

Information provided to us will also be held within the County Council’s CAPITA One system, which is we use to provide our service 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. No information leaves the European Economic Area (EEA) and the information is encrypted when in transit between County Council users of the system and the data centre the information is hosted within.

Any relevant paper based documentation, including any supporting evidence you provide will be scanned to create an electronic record and stored within the County Council’s Document Management System (DMS), with the paper version being destroyed. 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 will be kept in line with our retention schedule and then deleted as appropriate. The County Council’s DMS is hosted by the County Council in secure UK based data centres, which are on site. No information leaves the European Economic Area (EEA).

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. Information sharing is vital to support an effective assessment and planning process which fully identifies needs and outcomes and the education, health and care provision needed by your child.

As far as possible, we aim to put in place a ‘tell us once’ approach to sharing information during the assessment and planning process so you, your child and your family do not have to repeat the same information to different agencies, or different practitioners and services within each agency.

As part of the EHC Assessment, we are required by law to provide the following agencies with copies of any representations made by you, and any evidence submitted by you, when we seek the following required advice and information from them:

• educational advice and information from the manager, headteacher or principal of the early years setting, school or post-16 or other institution attended by your child
• if your child is either vision or hearing impaired, or both, educational advice and information provided after consultation with a person who is qualified to teach pupils or students with these impairments
• medical advice and information from health care professionals with a role in relation your child’s health
• psychological advice and information from an educational psychologist. The educational psychologist should consult any other psychologists known to be involved with your child
• social care advice and information, including, if appropriate, children in need or child protection assessments, information from a looked after child’s care plan, or adult social care assessments for young people over 18. If your child already has a statutory child in need or child protection plan, or an adult social care plan, information will be drawn for the EHC needs assessment
• if you child is Year 9 or above, advice and information from services related to provision to assist your child in preparation for adulthood and independent living
• advice and information from any person you have requested us to gather it from, where we consider it reasonable to do so. For example, you may suggest consulting a GP or other health professional
• advice from the youth offending team, if your child is detained in a Young Offender Institution or if they are serving their sentence in the community we will seek such advice from there, where we consider it appropriate
• any other advice and information which we consider appropriate for a satisfactory assessment, for example Early Help Assessments or in the case of children of members of the Armed Forces, from the Children’s Education Advisory Service; in the case of a looked after child, from the Virtual School Head in the authority that looks after the child and the child’s Designated Teacher and the Designated Doctor or Nurse for looked after children

In the drafting of EHC plans, the County Council will share this information under contract with Enhance EHC Ltd for this sole purpose. All information is sent securely and returned in the same way. Once the information has been processed it is stored by Enhance EHC Ltd until the draft EHC plan is completed, and is then securely deleted.

We are required by law to share data with the DfE around the annual SEN2 statutory return (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/special-educational-needs-survey). This data sharing underpins funding and educational attainment policy and monitoring. To find out more about the data collection requirements placed on us by the DfE, or to find out more about the pupil information we share with the DfE for the purpose of data collections, view Data collection and censuses for schools (.gov).

If you or your child moves to another local authority, we must transfer the EHC plan to the ‘new’ authority. We must also transfer any opinion we have received under the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986 as to whether your child is disabled. We will also share information with neighbouring and wider Local Authorities if your child requires a placement in another Local Authority school.

Information is also shared with the HM Courts & Tribunals Service, Special Educational Needs & Disability in relation to the appeal process, if initiated.

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 teams such as our Youth Support Service (for ensuring the participation of young people); Inclusion Service (such as HIAS and Educational Psychologists); 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).

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, contact the Children’s Services Department’s Subject Access Request (SAR) Team, whose contact details alongside further information around this process can be found by viewing: Access to your records (hants.gov)

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

Note that under the 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.

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you can raise your concern with us in the first instance or you can go directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office, as the supervisory authority. See: Make a Complaint (ico.org).

Contact Details

If you would like more information about these services, view our special needs website: SEN

For further information on how we handle personal information, your data rights, how to raise a concern about the way we are processing your information and the County Council’s Data Protection Officer, see our General Privacy Notice.

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.