Special Educational Needs Support Services (SENSS) Privacy Notice

About our service

The Special Education Needs Support Services (SENSS) at Oxfordshire County Council are a team of teachers and support staff committed to supporting children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in learning and education, their families and settings.

Our aim is that children and young people make good progress, achieve well and enjoy learning, family and community life.  

The council is the data controller for personal information processed for providing the SENSS Service in Oxfordshire. The SENSS Team is responsible for managing this data. The Council is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and complies with all relevant data protection legislation.

For more information on how the Council handles your personal information, please access our corporate Privacy Notice Privacy notice | Oxfordshire County Council.

In SENSS, we

• ensure that the views, wishes, perspectives and experiences of the children and young people are fully reflected in their provision
• support, advise and empower staff in schools and settings to understand the needs of children and young people with SEND
• provide family-focused support from point of referral following identification of need
• provide assessment, training and advice in relation to the child/young person’s SEND
• support children and young people to develop a positive understanding of their own SEND
• work closely with other professionals as part of multi-agency teams
• support transitions
• incorporate evidence-based practice in our work
• provide direct teaching as appropriate
• provide specialist equipment as appropriate
• provide for children and young people with particular needs in a number of specialist Resource Bases attached to mainstream schools 

To achieve this, we keep detailed records of children who are referred to us and on our caseload. In addition, data is used to continually plan for the future, monitor and review our service delivery, its supporting documents and the evidence base.

What information do we collect?

The following information will be collected about your child, either directly from you or from other organisations such as the NHS, schools and early years providers:

• Name, address, and date of birth
• Local Authority where child is resident
• Parent’s/Carer’s name(s) and contact details – phone number(s) and email address
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Religion
• Home/first language, mode of communication and any interpretation needs
• Sibling details
• Referrer details
• Details of any Children’s Social Care involvement
• Special Educational Needs information and the type of support required
• Details of relevant medical information and assessments
• Early years provider/educational setting and attendance details including suspension and exclusion
• Any applicable funding details e.g. EHCP, free school meals, early years education entitlement
• Health professional details and Agencies involved
• NHS Number
• Child’s history, achievements, and aspirations

Lawful basis for using personal data

We use information in compliance with the data legislation, principally:

We process personal information under the following legal bases:

• UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e): Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority

Special Category data: 

• UK GDPR Article 9(2)(a) Explicit consent
• UK GDPR Article 9(2)(h) Health or social care

Data Protection Act 2018: Schedule 1 Parts 2 & 4, covering public interest and research/statistics

UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e): Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority

• the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA2018);
• the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR);
• the Data Use and Access Act 2025 (DUA 2025)

Why we collect and hold this information 

The personal data you have provided will be used in order to:

• Understand what help is needed and provide the child or young person with the appropriate coordinated approach to their individual needs
• In line with the SEND Code of Practice (DfE, 2015), assess a child’s strengths and areas of need, and support a graduated approach to supporting your child in their learning/education
• Contact you to keep you informed of relevant information as appropriate
• Obtain feedback to help us to understand the effectiveness of the service and to develop and improve future services
• Administer and protect public funds

We do so to comply with requirements set out under UK legislation including but not limited to the following:

• Keeping Children Safe in Education - Statutory guidance for schools and colleges
• Children and Families Act 2014 (Guidance for bodies named in section 77(1))
• SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years 2014
• Education Act 2002
• Local Authority Education Duties 2017
• School Standards and Framework Act 1998
• Disabled Children and the Equality Act 2010 for Early Years
• Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage 2014

Information we share

We share information with multi-agency partners (such as health, social care, educational settings, and voluntary services) for the purpose of working as a team around the child or for strategic planning. 

These include:

• Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
• Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• NHS trusts in neighbouring authorities

We share anonymised information when completing annual surveys for organisations including the National Deaf Children’s Society and Royal National Institute of Blind People.

Anonymised data will be shared with our partners in health and social care so that we can work together in the planning and delivery of local services for families in Oxfordshire.

We share relevant information to the bodies above to enable them to assist in planning or delivery of support or to fulfil their regulatory or advisory role. We will not share your personal information unless it is legally required or essential to carry out our stated purposes. 

Information security

The council applies appropriate technical and organisational measures to the collecting, processing, sharing, storage and retention of the information involved in the operation of these services.  This includes ensuring systems are secure, access to the systems and the information is controlled, appropriate firewalls and electronic securities and physical securities are in place; and that we maintain the same appropriate measures with our supply chain partners.  You/your child’s personal information is processed in the UK. 

Retention of data

In line with legislation and the council’s retention schedule, we retain your child’s personal information for 25 years from their date of birth, at which point their data will be securely destroyed.

Your child's data rights

In addition to your right to be informed about how we use information, you also have the right (free of charge) to request the following:

• access to personal information we hold about you or your child;
• to have information corrected if there are inaccuracies or if the information is incomplete;
• to restrict the processing of personal information in certain circumstances in accordance with applicable law;
• in some instances, to object to personal information being used at all due to special grounds relating to your particular situation - however, there may be compelling reasons why we may need to continue using information even in these circumstances;
• to be told if personal information is lost and if, as a result, your/your child’s privacy and rights may be at risk.

In addition to the above, if we have no legal basis to process personal information other than the fact that you gave us consent, then you have the following additional rights:

• to withdraw your consent to process your/your child’s information;
• in some instances, to ask for your/your child’s personal information to be sent to another organisation in a suitable format. For example, we can provide you with your information in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable form when asked;
• to withhold permission for your/your child’s information to be shared.

If you wish to see the information we hold, or if you believe that information we hold is out of date or inaccurate, or you have additional information that could affect any services we provide to you, please use the online form or telephone 01865 792422.

SENSS processes do not affect your data rights. If you have concerns about the processing of your data, you should first contact us at SENSS@oxfordshire.gov.uk.   If you remain unsatisfied, you should contact our council complaints team. Complaints, comments and compliments | Oxfordshire County Council. If you are still unsatisfied, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office www.ico.org.uk

For more information about your rights and about how the Council processes information, please see our Privacy notice | Oxfordshire County Council.