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School Admissions and Transport Appeals - Appellants privacy notice

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

The Independent Appeal Panels consider parental cases were children have been refused either a school place or Home to School Transport Assistance. Parents can appeal to an Independent Appeals Panel who consider their cases in line with the Admission Appeal Code and for Transport, KCC’s Home to School Transport Policy.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of managing appeals related to school admissions and home-to-school transport we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

  • Name, contact information (address, email, telephone number) of parents / guardians.
  • Details of the child – date of birth, gender, address (potentially including special category data, such as race, ethnic origin, religion, or health, if this is relevant to the Appeal – Transport or Admissions Appeal).
  • Educational achievement information – Kent Test scores and other evidence of academic ability.
  • Personal details of family members or other close associates if relevant to the appeal.
  • Special category data is only used as part of the appeal process when it is provided by you because you think it is relevant to the appeal.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • make necessary arrangements for the hearing of the appeals via admission appeal panels or transport appeals (via the Regulation Committee)
  • allow us to keep in contact with you about your appeal and to make appropriate records of the appeal
  • share the information, you have provided in support of your appeal, with panel members and clerks to allow for appropriate consideration.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

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

  • Article (6)(1)(c) - Legal obligation: the processing is necessary to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations)
  • 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)

KCC is required under the Education Act 1996 and the Home-to-School Transport and Post-16 Transport to Education and Training Statutory Guidance to consider Home-to-School Transport.

It is therefore in the public interest to use a formal appeal process, which requires the collection and use of personal data. As we have a statutory basis for collecting your personal data if you do not provide any personal data, we will not be able to hear your appeal.

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 ‘statutory and government purposes’ purpose condition from Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 when relying on Article 9(2)(g) to process your special category data

The provision of any additional special category demographic information is not required from you unless it is relevant to your appeal. If you feel it is relevant and have supplied it as part of your appeal, the processing of this data will be considered as part of your appeal where appropriate. If you do not provide relevant special categories of personal data where they are relevant to your appeal, this may affect your appeal.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will hold your personal information for the following:

  • School admission appeals: personal data of appellant - 2 years after the appeal process has been resolved prior to being securely destroyed.
  • School admission appeals: case papers - If the appeal is successful, case papers are held for 25 years from the child’s date of birth prior to being securely destroyed. If the appeal is unsuccessful, this data will be deleted 1 year after the resolution of the case prior to being securely destroyed.
  • Transport appeals – correspondence and other files will be securely destroyed during the year in which the child reaches Year 13 (subject to review pending any Local Government Ombudsman involvement).
  • Transport appeals - records from the hearing and the details of attendees (name and role within the appeal) will be kept for a minimum of 100 years under Local Government Act 1972 and the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012 as they feature as part of formal Local Government meetings (Regulation Committee Appeal Panel) and will be archived for democratic accountability and historical purposes.

Who we share your personal information with

We routinely share:

  • names and date of birth of the child with the other parties involved in your appeal (School, Appeal Clerks (employed by KCC) and Appeal Panel Members). Names and details of the appeal will be published as formal agenda papers for Regulation Panel Appeals but these are not made public
  • any representation from parents, teachers or other witnesses will be shared with the Panel and Clerks at the appeal and will be recorded in the minutes
  • personal details of the child (name, date of birth, educational attainment) may be shared with KCC Education department for the checking of accuracy of our records.

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

We will share personal information with our legal and professional advisers in the event of a dispute, complaint or claim. We transfer your data to the following countries or organisations outside the UK: The Netherlands. This is based on an adequacy decision authorised by Part 3, Schedule 21 to the Data Protection Act 2018 (as amended).

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.

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.

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, 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 may be contacted via their website or on 03031 231113.

Read our corporate privacy statement.