Education Department Privacy Notices

For personal information under the UK (GDPR) the basis is:

Article 6(1)(e) 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;

Article 6(1)(e) legal obligation

For special category information eg ethnicity, health, religion, the lawful basis is Article 9(2)(g) of the UK GDPR, which also relates to our public task and the safeguarding of your fundamental rights and Schedule 1 part 2(6) of the DPA2018 which relates to statutory and government purposes.

The relevant legislation includes:

• Education Act 1996
• Additional Learning needs and the Educational Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018
• Social Services and Well-being Act 2014
• Equality Act 2010
• The Education (school information) (Wales) Regulations 2011
• The Education (pupil information) (Wales) Regulations 2011
• The Education (school performance and absence targets) (Wales) Regulations 2011

Education Department Privacy Notices

This notice sets out what Gwynedd Local Authority Education Authority does with children’s and young peoples, personal and performance information.

The collection of personal data

The Department collects information about children, young people and their parents or legal guardians when they go to a new school, they also collect information at other times during the school year. Information is also received from other schools when pupils transfer.

The Local Authority will also receive information on children/young people from the school / education establishment.

Upon receipt of the information the School and Local Authority become the data controller.

What is the lawful basis for processing your information?

What information is held?

Personal and special category information that will be collected includes:

• Name
• Address
• Date of birth
• Sex
• Ethnic group
• Disability status
• Other health information
• Additional Learning Needs information
• National assessment and examinations results
• Attendance
• Information in relation to your education at school

The information collected is used to safeguard children and young people and to ensure appropriate contact details are available to contact parents / guardians and also for the following purposes:

• The provision of educational services to individuals;
• Monitoring and reporting on children / young people’s educational progress;
• The provision of welfare, pastoral care, and health services; additional educational needs, inclusion and transport requirements; exclusions, attendance and nursery data;
• The giving of support and guidance to children, young people, their parents and legal guardians;
• The organisation of educational events and trips;
• Planning and management of the school;
• Recording of monetary payments to and from pupils/students and parents/guardians;
• Organisation of Transport
• Administration of school meals

We may use your information for automated decision making, including profiling. This is where we may make a decision automatically about you without human intervention.

Information is sent to Welsh Government on children and young people directly from schools and the Local Authority normally as part of statutory data collection which consists of the following:

• Post-16 data collection
• Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC)
• Educated other than at school (EOTAS) pupil level collection
• National data collection (NDC)
• Attendance collection
• Welsh National Tests (WNT) data collection
• School Workforce Annual Census

We will also be sending information about school staff to the Welsh Government as part of the above census. For more information about this data collection exercise see the School Workforce Annual Census (SWAC): Privacy notice (opens in new tab)

Information held by the Local Authority on children and young people and their parents or legal guardians may be shared with other organisations when the law allows, for example with;

• Other education and training bodies, including schools, when pupils are applying for courses, training, school transfer or seeking guidance on opportunities;
• Bodies doing research for the WG, LA and schools, so long as steps are taken to keep the information secure;
• Social services and other health and welfare organisations where there is a need to share information to protect and support individual children and young people;
• Various regulatory bodies, such as ombudsmen, inspection authorities and Government fraud initiatives, where the law requires that information be passed on so that they can do their work;
• The Council is required by law to protect the public funds it administers and so may use any information you have provided for the prevention, detection and investigation of fraud and irregularity, for the performance of a contract, or, task carried out in the public interest, or to comply with a legal obligation. Part 6 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 and the Accounts and Audit (Wales) Regulations are the Legal basis.

Gwynedd Local Authority Education Service will retain and destroy the information in line with their retention schedules, these can be obtained from the contact details below.

Your rights under GDPR

You have the right to:

• Have access to the personal information that the school and Local Authority are processing about you;
• Require the schools or Local Authority to rectify inaccuracies in that information;
• The right (in some circumstances) to object to processing on grounds relating to your particular situation;
• The right to restrict processing (in some circumstances);
• Lodge a complaint with the information commissioner who is the independent regulator for data protection;

For further information about the information which Gwynedd Local Authority Education Service holds and its use, or if you wish to exercise your rights under the UK GDPR, please see contact details below:

SwyddogDiogeluData@gwynedd.llyw.cymru (opens in new tab)

Data Protection Officer, Research and Information Services, Corporate Support, Department, Cyngor Gwynedd, Stryd y Jêl, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, LL55 1SH

To contact the Information Commissioner’s Office, please see details below:

Information Commissioners Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Telephone helpline: 029 2067 8400 (Wales helpline) or 0303 123 1113 (UK helpline)

Website: www.ico.org.uk (opens in new tab)

Purpose and lawful basis of processing

Personal information is shared for the purpose of giving home educated children an opportunity to receive careers advice from Careers Wales. It will also allow the Council the opportunity to keep an up to date list of pupils who are home educated. A key element of the sharing is to meet the requirements of the NEET (not in education, employment or training) agenda.

The lawful basis we rely on to process your personal data is article 6(1)(e) of the UK GDPR, which allows us to process personal data when this is necessary to perform our public tasks.

This is underpinned by guidance to support local authorities in exercising their functions under section 436A of the Education Act 1996 and Elective Home Education Guidance document number 292/2023 issued October 2023

Personal information shared

• Name
• Address
• Date of Birth

Retention period
The information is retained on the Elective Home Education register for 3 years after the child’s education has concluded.

Your rights
For further information about your rights and the Data Protection Officer’s contact details visit Privacy notices and cookies (llyw.cymru)

Why we need your information

Your information will be collected and processed to facilitate the sharing of information to identify children who are electively home educated between Cyngor Gwynedd/Isle of Anglesey County Council. and BCUHB. The reason for sharing is to ensure that the authority can identify children not known to local authority who are home educated in accordance with EHE statutory guidance introduced in May 2023. In addition, BCUHB can then also identify those whom are home educated and eligible for school nursing provisions such as immunisations and screening.

Justification for using your Information

We are using your information because we have a legal duty under article 6 (1) (e) of UK GDPR- processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority assigned by the controller.

Where we need to comply with our legal obligations under the following laws:

• The Education Act 1996 - section 436A
• Social Services and Wellbeing Act (Wales) 2014
• Children’s Act 1989

We collect and use your personal information to carry out tasks in the public interest. We will also process personal data for official purposes such as providing returns to the Welsh Government, and to enable us to contribute to the commitments made by the Welsh Government in its guidance titled Elective Home Education 2023.

We will not use your information for automated decision making or profiling.

Sharing your information

We will share the information with the following organisations:

• Cyngor Gwynedd
• Isle of Anglesey County Council
• BCUHB

The Council will not transfer your personal information to another country.

How long we keep your information and your rights

The information you supply will be kept for:

• EHE register by Cyngor Gwynedd for 3 years after education has concluded.
• With the exception of information in relation to Statement of Educational Needs, ALN and Welfare is retained for a period of 35 years on ALN system by Cyngor Gwynedd.
• BCUHB will store information on SharePoint to be kept for a period of 12 months, the same information will also be updated on Cypris System.

For further information about your rights and the Data Protection Officer’s contact details visit

Data Protection and Privacy notices (Gwynedd)

Data Protection Policy and Privacy Notice (Anglesey)

You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues:

• Address: Information Commissioner’s Office (Wales), 2nd Floor, Churchill House, Churchill Way, Cardiff, CF10 2HH
• E-mail: mailto:casework@ico.org.uk
• Tel: 0330 414 6421