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Data Protection

The Data Protection Act 1998 was replaced by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 on the 25th May 2018. GDPR brings with it a new responsibility to inform parents and stakeholders about how we are using personal data and who it is being used by.

Data Controller

Attain Academy Trust is registered as a ‘Data Controller’ with the Information Commissioner’s Office (Reg. No. Z6544921).

Our Data Protection Officer is Mrs Ellwood

What does GDPR mean for the Trust?

GDPR requires organisations to identify the lawful basis for processing and storing personal data, to audit information already held and to take a ‘data protection by design and default’ approach to personal data. It also introduces new individual rights relating to personal data.

At Attain Academy Partnership, we take our GDPR obligations seriously. We will ensure that your personal data is processed fairly and lawfully, is accurate, is kept secure and is retained for no longer than is necessary. Our pupils, parents, carers, staff, governance members and stakeholders have the right to be right to be informed, to object, to rectification, to erasure, to restrict processing and to data portability.

A great deal of the processing of personal data undertaken by the schools will fall under the specific legal basis ‘in the public interest’. As it is in the public interest to operate schools successfully, specific consent will not be required in the majority of cases in schools. Explicit consent must be given however to anything that isn’t within the normal business of the school, especially if it involves a third party.

The documents below detail how Attain Academy Partnership uses and protects your personal information. Simply click the links below to find out more.

Privacy Notices

Policies

Please click here for policies

Further Information

GDPR Parent Handout

Contact

If you have any queries, please get in touch with our Data Protection Officer, who can be contacted at dpo@attain.essex.sch.uk.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why we use personal information / What is personal information?
We may need to use some information about you to:
- deliver services and support to you;
- manage those services;
- train and manage the employment of our workers who deliver those services;
- help investigate any worries or complaints you have about your services;
- keep track of spending on services;
- check the quality of services; and
- to help with research and planning of new services.
Personal information is often records that can identify and relate to a living person. This can include information that when put together with other information can identify a person or determine their location.
What are our legal reasons for processing personal information?
There are a number of legal reasons why we need to collect and use personal data. The privacy notices listed on this page explains for each service which legal reason is being used. Generally we collect and use personal information in the following circumstances:
- Where you, or your legal representative, have given consent
- Where you have entered into a contract with us
- Where it is necessary to perform our statutory duties
- Where it is necessary to protect someone in an emergency
- Where it is required by law
- Where it is necessary for employment purposes
- Where you have made your data publicly available
- Where it is necessary to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim
- Where it is in the substantial public interest
- Where it is necessary to protect public health
- Where it is necessary for archiving public interest material, research, or statistical purposes
Where we are using your consent to process your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. If you wish to withdraw your consent, please contact DPO@attain.essex.sch.uk so that your request can be dealt with.
What are special categories of persona information?
This is personal information that needs more protection due to its sensitivity. This information is likely to include:
- sexuality and sexual health
- religious or philosophical beliefs
- ethnicity
- physical or mental health
- trade union membership
- political opinion
- genetic/biometric data
How do we limit the use of personal information?

Where necessary Attain academy Partnership and its academiesl process personal data to deliver our services effectively; but wherever possible, the data that we process will be anonymised, pseudonymised or de-personalised. This means the information can no longer identify a person.

When using personal data for research purposes, the data will be anonymised/pseudonymised to avoid the identification of a person, unless you have agreed that your personal information can be used for the research project.

We do not sell personal data to any other organisation for the purposes of selling products.
Your Privacy Rights
The law provides you with a number of rights to control the processing of your personal information.

Accessing the information we hold about you -

You have the right to ask for all the information we have about you. When we receive a request from you in writing, we must normally give you access to everything we have recorded about you. However, we will not let you see any parts of your record which contain:
- Confidential information about other people; or
- Data an information professional thinks will cause serious harm to your or someone else's physical or mental wellbeing; or
- If we think that the prevention or detection of crime may be adversely affected by disclosing data to you.
This applies to paper and electronic records. If you ask us, we will also let others see your record (except if one of the points above applies). If you cannot ask for your records in writing, we will make sure there are other ways you can apply. If you have any queries regarding access to your information please contact DPO@attain.essex.sch.uk or 01245 442031.

Changing information you believe to be inaccurate -

You should let us know if you disagree with something written on your file. We may not always be able to change or remove the information; however, we will correct factual inaccuracies and may include your comments in the records. Please use the contact details above to report inaccurate information.

Asking for your information to be deleted (right to be forgotten) -

In some circumstances you can request the erasure of the personal information used by the Organisation, for example:
- Where the personal information is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was collected
- Where you have withdrawn your consent to the use of the information (where there is no legal basis for processing)
- Where there is no legal basis for the use of your information
- Where erasure is a legal obligation
Where personal information has been shared with others, the Organisation shall make every reasonable effort to ensure those using your personal information comply with your request for erasure.

Please note that the right to erasure does not extend to using your personal information where:

It is required by law
- It is used for exercising the right of freedom of expression
- It is in the public interest in the area of public health
- It is for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes, or statistical purposes where it would seriously affect the achievement of the objectives of the processing
- It is necessary for the establishment, defense or exercise of legal claims
Restricting what your information is used for -

You have the right to ask us to restrict what we use your personal data for where one of the following applies:
- You have identified inaccurate information, and have notified us of this
- Where using your information is unlawful, and you wish us to restrict rather than erase the information
- Where you have objected to us using the information, and the legal reason for us using your information has not yet been provided to you
When information is restricted it cannot be used other than to securely store the data, and with your consent, to handle legal claims, protect others, or where it is for important public interests in the UK.

Where restriction of use has been granted, we will inform you before the use of your personal information is resumed.

You have the right to request that the Organisation stop using your personal information for some services. However, if this request is approved this may cause delays or prevent us delivering a service to you. Where possible we will seek to comply with your request, but we may need to hold or use information in connection with one or more of the Organisation's legal functions.
Computer based decisions about you and if you are 'profiled'

Computer based decision making refers to a decision which is taken solely on the basis of automated processing of your personal data. The Trust does not normally make decisions by automated means. However, if you are a prospective Free School Meals (FSM) claimant, we may use the third party LGfL FSM Eligibility Checker to determine eligibility. This uses automated decision-making with the equivalent of legal effect based on the Department of Education and Department of Work and Pensions policies.

You have the right to object about decisions being made about you by automated means (by a computer and not a human being), unless it is required for any contract you have entered into, required by law, or you have consented to it. You also have the right to object if you are being ‘profiled’. Profiling is where decisions are made about you based on certain things in your personal information.

If you have concerns regarding automated decision making, or profiling, please contact the DPO or your Academy who will advise you about how your information is being used.
Who we share your personal information with?
We use a range of companies and partners to either store personal information or to manage it for us. Where we have these arrangements there is always a contract, memorandum of understanding or information sharing protocol in place to ensure that the organisation complies with data protection law. We complete privacy impact asessments before we share personal information to ensure their compliance with the law.

Sometimes we have a legal duty to provide information about people to other organisations, e.g. Child Protection concerns or Court Orders.

We may also share your personal information when we feel there is a good reason that is more important than protecting your confidentiality. This does not happen often, but we may share your information:
- To find and stop crime or fraud: or
- If there are serious risks to the public, our staff or to other professionals; or
- To protect a child
The law does not allow us to share your information without your permission, unless there is proof that someone is at risk or it is required by law. This risk must be serious before we can go against your right to confidentiality. When we are worried about physical safety or we feel that we need to take action to protect someone from being harmed in other ways, we will discuss this with you and if possible, get your permission to tell others about your situation. We may still share your information if we believe the risk to others is serious enough to do so.

There may also be rare occasions when the risk to others is so great that we need to share information straight away. If this is the case, we will make sure that we record what information we share and our reasons for doing so. We will let you know what we have done and why as soon as or if we think it is safe to do so.

We are required by law to share certain information with the Department of Education; for more details on how they use personal data please click here.

We are also required to share some infomation with Essex County Council; for more details on how they use personal data please click here.
How do we protect your personal information?
We will do what we can to make sure we hold personal records (on paper and electronically) in a secure way, and we will only make them available to those who have a right to see them. Our security includes:
- Encryption allows information to be hidden so that it cannot be read without special knowledge (such as a password). This is done with a secret code or cypher. The hidden information is said to encrypted.
- Pseudonymisation allows us to hide parts of your personal information from view so only we can see it. This means that someone outside of ECC could work on your information for us without ever knowing it was yours.
- Controlling access to systems and networks allows us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal information from getting access to it.
- Training for our staff allows us to make them aware of how to handle information and how and when to report when something goes wrong.
- Ways for us to access your information should something go wrong and our systems not work, including how we manage your information in event of an emergency or disaster.
- Regular testing of our technology and processes including keeping up to date on the latest security updates (commonly called patches)
View our policy on Data Protection here.

If your information leaves the country -

Sometimes, for example where we receive a request to transfer Organisation records to a new Organisation, it is necessary to send that information outside of the UK. In such circumstances additional protection will be applied to that data during its transfer, and where the receiving country does not have an adequacy decision, advice will be sought from the Information Commissioners Office prior to the data being sent.
Cookies and how you use this website?
To make this website easier to use, we sometimes place small text files on your device (for example your iPad or laptop). These are known as 'cookies'. Most big websites do this too.

They improve things by:
- remembering the things you have chosen, so that you don't have to keep re-entering them whenever you visit a new page
- remembering data you've given (for example, your address) so that you don't have to keep entering it
- measuring how you use the website so that we can make sure it meets your needs
By using our website, you agree that we can place these type of cookies on your device. We do not use cookies on this website that collect information about what other websites you visit (often referred to as privacy intrusive cookies).

Our cookies aren't used to identify you personally. They're just here to make the site work better for you. Indeed, you can manage and/or delete these files as you wish.

To learn more about cookies and how to manage them, visit AboutCookies.org or watch a video about cookies.

Turning off Cookies -

You can stop cookies being downloaded on to your computer or other device by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. If you do this, however, you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.

There is more information about how to delete or stop using cookies on AboutCookies.org. If you wish, you can opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics.

Further guidance on the use of personal information can be found at ico.org.uk.
How long do we keep your personal information?

For each reason why we use your personal information there is often a legal reason for why we need to keep it for a period of time. We try to capture all of these and detail them in what is called a 'retention schedule'. This schedule lists for each service how long your information may be kept for.

Please click here for more information.
Where can I get advice?

You can contact our Data Protection Officer at DPO@attain.essex.sch.uk or by calling 01245 442031

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number.

Alternatively visit ico.org.uk or email casework@ico.org.uk

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