Duke of Edinburgh’s Award privacy notice
We keep this privacy notice under regular review and was last updated in March 2022.
Kent County Council respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
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.
As a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) licence holder, we are contractually bound to use the DofE online digital recording system, therefore we also adhere to the DofE privacy statement which affects participants completing DofE activities, adults helping them, DofE employees and those who support the charity. Please see the DofE privacy notice.
The KCC DofE team is part of KCC Early Help team within the Children, Young People and Education directorate which comprises of a range of services that offer universal, additional, intensive and specialist support to children, young people and families. We work in an integrated way with other children’s services teams in KCC and with partner organisations to ensure we deliver the best possible outcomes for children, young people and families in Kent.
The DofE supports young people to successfully navigate adult life. 14 to 24-year-olds can complete a DofE programme at one of three progressive levels which, when successfully completed, leads to a Bronze, Silver or Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. They involve helping the community/environment, becoming fitter, developing new skills, planning, training for and completing an expedition. Any young person can do their DofE – regardless of ability, gender, background or location.
The DofE licenses organisations that work with young people to run DofE programmes, such as schools, colleges, youth groups and clubs. Through the Licensed Organisation (LO) young people (or their parents / carers) are supported by Leaders who support them through their programmes, helping them to choose their activities, set their objectives and achieve their Award.
Personal information we collect and use
Information collected by us
In the course of providing advice and support for a young person to complete their DofE award we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:
- personal information (such as name, address, contact details, date of birth, gender)
- special category characteristics (such as ethnicity and disability)
- assessment and course information
- details of events and services that participants access through us
- for Leader’s, personal details and details of their qualifications
We may also obtain personal information from the following other sources:
- schools
- Youth Offending Service
- youth hubs.
How we use your personal information
We use your personal information to:
- support you through the DofE Awards process
- enable integrated working with other teams and organisations to ensure you receive the right support at the right time
- answer enquiries or as part of our fundraising and commercial programmes
- negotiate special offers and opportunities relevant to all DofE stakeholders (including participants, leaders, volunteers and parents)
Reasons we can collect and use your personal information
We collect and use your personal information to carry out tasks with your consent and under our public task. 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.
- Article (6)(1)(e) - Public task: the processing is necessary to perform a task in the public interest or for official functions (task or function has a clear basis in law).
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.
How long your personal data will be kept
We keep your information securely in line with the retention periods shown below, after which time it is made inaccessible to system users or securely destroyed.
| Category | Retention Period |
|---|---|
| Name, date of birth and activities undertaken | Life of participation in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme |
| Database of participants and leaders | Date of birth of the youngest participant in the event plus 25 years |
| Leader Qualifications database | Life of qualification plus a minimum of 3 years |
| Paper enrolment forms, documentation relating to the management of individual trips | Current year plus 6 years |
Who we share your personal information with
We share your personal data with:
- teams within KCC working to improve outcomes for children and young people
- commissioned providers of local authority services
- schools
- partner organisations signed up to the Kent & Medway Information Sharing Agreement, where necessary, which may include health visitors, midwives, housing providers, Police, school nurses, doctors, and mental health workers
- Department for Education and other government departments as required
- the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award head office.
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 Commissioners Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under UK GDPR.
If you would like to exercise a right, please contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk.
Your right to withdraw your consent
Where we rely on your consent to process your personal information, you can withdraw your consent to our use of your data at any time.
You can do this by emailing 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.
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.
UK GDPR also gives you right to lodge a complaint with Information Commissioner, who may be contacted via the Information Commissioner's website or call 03031 231113.
Read our corporate privacy statement.