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Sensory and Physical Disability Service privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and was last updated in March 2025.

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 Sensory and Physical Disability service, delivered by our Specialist Teaching and Learning Services (STLS) provides education support services for children and young people (0 to 19 years) with sensory and physical disabilities, or complex needs.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of our work to provide advice and support to learners, families and school, we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

  • personal information (such as name, address, contact details, date of birth, gender, ID numbers)
  • details of family relationships, including those of extended family
  • information about finances
  • information on care leavers including education status, employment status, type of accommodation
  • care assessments and information relating to Social Care involvements.

We also collect the following special category data (personal data which is more sensitive and is treated with extra care and protection) when you provide it to us:

  • information about your racial or ethnic origin
  • information about health conditions, disabilities or carers responsibilities that may apply to you
  • information about assessments and support related to health conditions

We also obtain personal information from other sources as follows:

  • details of any young person reported missing from home, from the police
  • referral and involvement information from partner organisations
  • attendance and exclusion information (such as sessions attended, number of absences, reasons, details to support statutory processes), pupil characteristics, and unique pupil number, from your child’s school
  • involvement with other KCC children’s services teams from our existing records
  • court decisions relating to our statutory legal duties.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • safeguard and support children and young people with sensory impairments or physical disabilities and complex medical needs, and to monitor their progress
  • enable integrated working with other teams and organisations to ensure you receive the right support at the right time
  • plan and provide the most appropriate level of support to you and your family
  • support you to access relevant support and advice, services and groups
  • gather your feedback from reviews to evaluate and quality assure the services we provide, and improve our policies
  • use your feedback to inform future service provision and the commissioning of services
  • inform you about forthcoming events and activities, if you have agreed for us to do so
  • request and arrange installation of specialist equipment for you if required to meet your needs
  • monitor equality, to help us to commission and manage services effectively, helping us to meet our Public Sector Equality Duty.

The sharing of information facilitates a joined up approach with partner agencies, to provide you with the best possible care and support.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

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

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

When we collect your ‘special categories of personal data’, (such as health, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation) we rely on the following legal bases:

  • Article (9)(2)(a) - the individual has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes.
  • Article (9)(2)(f) - processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity.
  • Article (9)(2)(h) – processing is necessary for the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services.

We rely on the health or social care purposes condition from Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 when relying on Article(9)(2)(h) to process your special category data.

We take the following appropriate safeguards in respect of your special category data when relying on the conditions above:

  • We have a retention schedule which explains how long data is retained.
  • We maintain a record of our processing in our ‘Record of Processing Activities’ and record for any reasons deviating from the periods in our Retention Schedule.

Sometimes we will ask people to complete feedback forms so that we can improve how we provide services. This is entirely optional and we rely on consent to collect any personal information given in feedback.

While there is an opportunity to provide your contact details if you wish to be contacted further about your feedback, you are not obliged to provide any personal information and your feedback will not be treated any differently.

How long your personal data will be kept

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 which the information is made inaccessible to system users or securely destroyed.

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 and settings
  • partner organisations signed up to the Kent and 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
  • Ofsted (in the event of a local authority inspection of children’s or Local Area services).

We will share personal information with our legal and professional advisers in the event of a dispute, complaint, or claim.  We rely on Article 9(2)(f) where the processing of special category data is necessary for the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity.

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

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. 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, 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

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 Information Commissioner, who may be contacted via the Information Commissioner's website or call 03031 231113.

Read our corporate privacy statement.