Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council is committed to protecting your privacy when you use council services. This Privacy Notice below explains how the Council (as a Data Controller) collects, uses and protects the personal data that we hold.
Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council is the data controller. This means it decides how your personal data is processed and for what purposes
Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,
Town Hall,
Brighton Street,
Wallasey,
Wirral.
CH44 8BD.
Personal Data
Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession.
Issues of how data is handled are dealt with by the Council's Data Protection Officer Jane Corrin who can be contacted by email at DPO@wirral.gov.uk or by writing to:
Data Protection Officer, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council, Treasury Building, Cleveland Street, Birkenhead, Wirral, CH41 1AH
As a public authority, we must comply with all relevant legislation relating to data handling.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is the supervisory authority in the United Kingdom established to ensure that your data rights are upheld. See 'Formal Resolution' below for the ICO address.
Obtaining, recording, holding and dealing with personal information is known as 'processing'.
In the cases of School Admissions
Wirral Council processes your personal admissions data in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and The School Admissions (Admission Arrangements and Co-ordination of Admission Arrangements) (England) Regulations 2012.
The information you provide on your preference form will be used by Wirral Local Authority and Governing bodies of primary or secondary schools as Admission Authorities. They will apply the information to their published admission policies in order to allocate school places for children.
Where there is a need to co-ordinate admission arrangements with neighbouring local authorities, pupil data may also be shared to ensure the efficient allocation of school places. Information about your child may also be shared with Members of Parliament or Councillors, if you ask them to act on your behalf.
Proof of address, special category information (Education Health and Care Plan), Looked After status or free school meal eligibility may be required. This might mean that we have to share the information you have provided with schools, other departments of the Council or relevant government agencies or external bodies to verify information.
In relation to the arrangements for selective testing, we will require a photograph of your child's face to enable us to confirm the identity of children sitting the test. This photograph will be used only for the purposes of selective testing and will not be shared with the selective test or marking provider or with any third party not connected to the selective testing process.
The Admissions Team intends to, where a lawful basis exists use your information for other legitimate purposes and will share (where necessary) with other Council departments and external bodies responsible for administering services to children and young people.
Reasons for sharing information with the internal and external bodies will be; to enable the processing of school applications, to fulfil the council’s safeguarding duty and comply with the Prevent Strategy, and to provide Central Government bodies with mandatory data returns, the Home Office to notify of potential illegal immigration, and the Police who may request information as part of a criminal investigation.
We intend to share the provided information as necessary with:
- any of your preferred schools and any school at which your child is allocated a place
- where you have requested that your child is entered for the selective tests, grammar schools and the relevant selective test and marking providers
- members of the Independent Appeal Panel in accordance with the School Admission Code and the School Admissions Appeals Code
- other Local Authorities in relation to applications for school places in accordance with the Schools Standards and Framework Act 1998
- Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Trust to assist with the administration and management of the Child Health Information Systems and for school health visits and checks
- teams within Wirral Council working to improve outcomes for children and young people; this may include Social Care and Attendance teams
- central Government bodies such as the Department for Education, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, the Education and Skills Funding Agency and the Office of the Schools Adjudicator; this includes any equivalent bodies performing a similar function now or in the future
- we will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law
Transfers outside the European Economic Area
We do not regularly share personal information beyond the European Economic Area (EEA). Transferring personal data to a country beyond this area can only take place if the destination has been the subject of an adequacy decision that it meets certain criteria set by the European Commission. What this means is we could only send information to a country if it meets very strict standards or your consent to this transfer is provided.
If ever a situation arose that your personal information might be transferred outside of the EEA, you would be notified beforehand and consent sought if required and recorded, providing that does not conflict with a legal obligation imposed upon the Council.
How long we keep your data
Unless specified otherwise, we will hold your personal information securely and retain it from the child or young person’s date of birth until they reach the age of 25. After that the information is archived or securely destroyed.
Your data rights
You have certain rights over your data as described in Data Protection legislation.
Right to be informed
We must be completely transparent with you by providing information 'in a concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language'. This privacy notice is one of the ways we try and let you know how data is handled.
Right of Access
You have the right to access your personal information except where:
- it contains confidential information about other people and the Council has to balance the rights of other individuals
- includes information a care professional thinks will cause serious harm to your or someone else’s physical or mental wellbeing
- information which may prejudice an investigation if disclosed
For details on how you can access your personal information see our Data Protection Policy.
Right to Rectification
You have the right without undue delay to request the rectification or updating of inaccurate personal data.
The Information Commissioner regulates data handling by organisations in the UK and work to uphold the data rights of citizens and the Information Commissioner's website provides more information on the rights available to you.
The right to complain about data handling
The Council sets very high standards for the collection and appropriate use of personal data. We therefore take any complaints about data handling very seriously. We encourage you to bring to our attention where the use of data is unfair, misleading or inappropriate and we also welcome suggestions for improvement.
Informal resolution
In the first instance we would ask that you try and resolve data handling issues directly with the relevant department before applying for a formal resolution.
Formal resolution
If you are dissatisfied with the resolution of your informal complaint you can request a review by the Data Protection Officer by emailing Jane Corrin at DPO@wirral.gov.uk
If you remain dissatisfied following an internal complaint, you can lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Changes to our Privacy Notice
We regularly review our privacy notice and encourage you to check it from time to time. This notice was last updated in January 2023.