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Children's University privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and was last updated in September 2021.

This notice explains what personal data (information) we hold about you, how we collect, how we use and may share information about you.  We are required to give you this information under data protection law.

Who we are

Kent County Council (KCC) collects, uses and is responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). We are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

KCC’s Kent Children's University™ (KCU) team aims to promote exciting learning opportunities and experiences outside normal school hours for children aged 5 to 14. At the heart of its work is the ambition to raise aspirations, boost achievement and foster a love of learning, so that young people can make the most of their abilities and interests. We work with schools, parents, carers, children and young people as well as relevant learning partners, to support schools and families to raise attainment.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of administering the KCU we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

School membership (collected and held by the school)

  • The names and genders of the children

Family membership

This includes:

  • your personal information (such as name, address, contact details)
  • your child’s personal information (such as name, address, date of birth)
  • current school (if applicable)
  • opt-in request to receive eNewsletters and notifications from KCU about services on offer
  • worldPay/FuturePay agreement numbers and payment log

We also obtain personal information from other sources

This includes:

  • names and current school year group for children in care in Kent and Medway (aged 7-12), along with the names and postal addresses for their carers, from Virtual School Kent
  • quality assurance, CU-activity-related marketing and contact details are collated as part of the validation process for working as a partner with KCU. This validation process is set by the National Children’s University Trust

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • register schools, children, young people and learning partners with Kent Children’s University
  • send postal and e-notifications (including eNewsletters) regarding KCU developments and opportunities
  • issue certificates to schools or families of those who Electively Home Educate (EHE)
  • monitor the award levels that the children are working towards and have previously achieved
  • market learning partners on the National Children’s University website and free app

How long your personal data will be kept

We will hold your personal information securely and retain it from the point you join Kent Children’s University until you decide to leave. We will delete electronic and hard copies of the child/young person (and associated details) one month after termination.  The 4-week period is to allow families the chance to renew if required.

Consent forms for historic and future KCU activities will be held on record until the young person reaches the age of 25, after which the information is made inaccessible to system users or securely destroyed

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

We collect and use your personal information to carry out tasks under consent.We rely on the following legal bases under UK GDPR:

  • Article (6)(1)(a) - Consent: the individual has given clear consent to process their personal data for a specific purpose

When we collect or share special category personal data, we rely upon the following legal bases under UK GDPR:

  • Article 9(2)(g) - Reasons of substantial public interest. We rely on the ‘equality of opportunity or treatment purpose’ condition from Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 when relying on Article 9(2)(g) to process your special category data.

Who we share your personal information with

We share your personal information with:

  • the child’s current school including Independent schools
  • virtual School Kent (purely for work directly relating to our work with their children in care)
  • National Children’s University (purely for opted-in partners who have been quality assured by KCU)

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have rights which you can exercise free of charge which allow you to:

  • know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it
  • ask to see what information we hold about you (subject access request)
  • ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you
  • object to direct marketing
  • make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office
  • withdraw consent at any time (if applicable)

Depending on our reason for using your information you may also be entitled to:

  • ask us to delete information we hold about you
  • have your information transferred electronically to yourself or to another organisation
  • object to decisions being made that significantly affect you
  • object to how we are using your information
  • stop us using your information in certain ways

We will always seek to comply with your request however we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties. Please note, your request may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you.

For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under GDPR.

If you would like to exercise a right, please contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk.

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Who to contact

Please contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk to exercise any of your rights, or if you have a complaint about why your information has been collected, how it has been used or how long we have kept it for.

You can contact our Data Protection Officer, Benjamin Watts, at dpo@kent.gov.uk, or write to: Data Protection Officer, Sessions House, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1XQ.

UK GDPR also gives you right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner, who can be contacted via their website or by calling 03031 231113.

Read our corporate privacy statement.