Children's Records

PRIVACY NOTICE – DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998

What Wirral Council does with pupils' and children’s data (October 2011)

Parents, carers and children and young people have a legal right under the Data Protection Act to know what information schools and others hold about you and your child(ren). This Privacy Notice (previously known as a Fair Processing Notice) is designed to do this. This notice gives details about the organisations with whom data is shared, what they use it for and with whom they may share that data as well under the Data Protection Act.

If you have any comments, queries or concerns about any data aspects, you can contact the Council's Information Manager at the following address:

Information Manager
Wirral Council
Municipal Buidling
Cleveland Street
Birkenhead
Wirral
CH41 6BU

E-mail: informationmanager@wirral.gov.uk

Wirral Council uses information about children for whom it provides services, to enable it to carry out specific functions for which it is responsible, such as the assessment of any special educational needs the child may have, and to support and provide services to children in care or children in need . It also uses the information to derive statistics to inform decisions on (for example) the funding of schools, and to assess the performance of schools and services and set targets for them. The statistics are used in such a way that individual children cannot be identified from them.

You can find out more about how we use information in the leaflet Information about you, or about Data Protection and the Council by visiting the Data Protection page of this website.

Department for Education (DfE)
The Council is obliged to supply pupil, looked after children and children in need information to the DfE, including some personal characteristics and assessment data. The DfE uses information about children and young people for research and statistical purposes, to inform, influence and improve education and social care policy and to monitor the performance of the education and children’s services as a whole. More information about how the DfE uses pupils’ and children’s data is available on the Department for Eduction website.

Primary Care Trusts (PCT)
Wirral Council has an information sharing protocol with NHS Wirral and will share information in accordance with that protocol. PCTs use information about pupils for research and statistical purposes, to monitor the performance of local health services and to evaluate and develop them. The statistics are used in such a way that individual pupils cannot be identified from them.

Information on the height and weight of individual pupils may however be provided to the child and its parents and this will require the PCTs to maintain details of pupils’ names for this purpose for a period designated by the Department of Health following the weighing and measuring process. PCTs may also provide individual schools and local authorities with aggregate information on pupils’ height and weight.

The Council will share known children data with the PCT to enable the production of more accurate forward planning statistics. The Council will share information on its pupils and parents with the PCT to enable them to carry out dental and other surveys in the most effective fashion and to maintain the accuracy of the PCT databases. Any such surveys will still require the your consent as the parent for the survey to be undertaken for your child(ren). More information can be found at the NHS Wirral website.

NHS Wirral
Old Market House
Birkenhead
Wirral
CH41 5AL

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service
Wirral Council has an information sharing protocol with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service and will share information in accordance with that protocol. The protocol supports the process of information sharing in relation to the Community Safety Department (Youth Engagement) within Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service.

Children and young people may be offered the opportunity of participating in a Youth Engagement course such as Princes Trust, Duke of Edinburgh Award, etc. Where necessary MFRS may ask Wirral Council to verify some of the basic demographic details for a young person, such as name, date of birth, address including postcode and telephone number. For more information on how MFRS uses personal data please contact:

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service Corporate Information Sharing Officer Tel. 0151 296 4474
E-mail: dataprotection@merseyfire.gov.uk

Youth Support Services (for Secondary school aged pupils only)
For pupils aged 13 years and over, the school is legally required to pass on certain information to the provider of youth support services in their area. This is the Council’s support service for young people aged 13 to 19 in England. The school must provide both the name and address of the pupil and their parents and any further information relevant to the support services’ role. In addition, the date of birth of the pupil is supplied.

Until pupils are aged 16 or older, their parent(s) can ask that no information beyond their children’s name, address and date of birth (and their own name and address) be passed to the youth support services provider. This right transfers to the pupil on their 16th birthday. Pupils and/or parents will need to inform the school if this is what they wish.

The Council may supply to providers of youth support services information that they have about children. However, they will not pass on any information they have received from the school if parents (or the children themselves if aged 16 or over) have notified the school that the support service should not receive information beyond name, address and date of birth. For more information about young peoples’ services locally visit the Connexions website.

Children and young people, as data subjects, have certain rights under the Data Protection Act, including a general right to be given access to personal data held about them by any data controller. The presumption is that by the age of 12 a child has sufficient maturity to understand their rights and to make an access request themselves if they wish. A parent would normally be expected to make a request on a child’s behalf if the child is younger. If you wish to access your personal data, or that of your child, then please contact the school, the Council or the relevant organisation in writing. See the Information about You leaflet for further details. You can also see more information about accessing your social care record by visiting the My Social Care Record page of this website.