EHCP Casework Service Privacy Notice

How we used your information for EHCP Casework Service

What our service does

The Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) Casework Team is responsible for statutory duties in relation to SEND as detailed in the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice 2015 for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) across the 0-25 pathway.

This includes statutory Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessments, maintaining EHC plans, providing advice and guidance to families and settings, and coordinating multi-agency input.

Who is the Data controller

Oxfordshire County Council is the Data Controller for the data we collect about you as an individual.

You may contact the council’s Data Protection Officer as follows:

Information Services
Oxfordshire County Council
County Hall
New Road
Oxford
OX1 1ND

Use our webform to contact Oxfordshire County Council’s Data Protection Officer .

What information does Oxfordshire County Council collect

Oxfordshire County Council will collect personal data about you.

This information will include:

your child’s personal information (name, address, date of birth, school/ early years setting, Year Group) and characteristics (such as gender)
your personal information (name, address, email, relationship to child) and characteristics (parental responsibility status, service family indicator)
your and your child’s views, interests and aspirations (such as details about play, health, schooling, independence, friendships, further education and future plans including employment (where practical)
the supporting evidence you provide relevant to your child’s assessment

Oxfordshire County Council may also collect special data such as:

Information about your child’s health and support needs
Your child’s special educational needs
Your child’s health and social care needs which relate to their SEN
Your child’s ethnicity

Why does Oxfordshire County Council process personal data

Oxfordshire County Council processes your data under Article 6 of the UK-GDPR, adhering to the principles outlined in Article 5, which include lawful, fair, and transparent processing, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity and confidentiality, and accountability.

The lawful basis for processing your data in accordance with legislation is.

Legal Obligations

Oxfordshire County Council processes your personal data to comply with our legal obligations. This means that we are required by law to process certain data. The legislation that the SEND service is required to process data under is:

Children and Families Act 2014
SEND Code of Practice 2015
The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014
Local Authority duties to assess, plan, fund and review SEND provision

Public Task

Oxfordshire County Council processes your personal data to perform a task carried out in the public interest. This includes processing necessary for us to carry out our functions as a public authority. For example, we may process your data to provide public services or to carry out our statutory duties.

Oxfordshire County Council can also process special data under Article 9 of the UK-GDPR. The legal basis for processing your special data in accordance with legislation is:

Processing is necessary to fulfil obligations or exercise specific rights in the field of employment, social security, or social protection law.
Processing is necessary for preventive or occupational medicine, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment, or the management of health or social care systems and services.

In accordance with Article 10 of the UK-GDPR, any processing of personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences will be carried out only under the control of official authority or when authorised by applicable laws providing for appropriate safeguards for the rights and freedoms of data subjects.

Who we share your personal data with

Oxfordshire County Council may share relevant personal data with various entities to fulfil our obligations and provide services effectively. We will not share your personal data unless it is legally necessary or is essential to carry out our stated purposes. Information sharing is vital to support an effective assessment and planning process which fully identifies needs and outcomes and the education, health and care provision needed by your child.

We share your personal data with the following teams and services to fulfil our statutory duties:

Internal OCC services including education, SEND, Adults and Children’s social care, transport, Educational Psychology, Virtual School and other OCC teams where appropriate
Schools, early years providers, colleges and training providers including alternative education providers
NHS providers including integrated Care Boards, CAMHS, GPs, health visitors, therapists, school nursing

We also seek advice from the Oxfordshire Youth Justice and Exploitation Service (YJES), if your child is detained in a Young Offender Institution or if they are serving their sentence in the community we will seek such advice from there, where we consider it appropriate.

Any other advice and information which we consider appropriate for a satisfactory assessment and to update the EHCP.

We are required by law to share data with the DfE around the annual SEN2 statutory return. This data sharing underpins funding and educational attainment policy and monitoring. To find out more about the data collection requirements placed on us by the DfE, or to find out more about the pupil information we share with the DfE for the purpose of data collections, view Data collection and censuses for schools (.gov).

If you or your child moves to another local authority, we must transfer the EHC plan to the ‘new’ authority. We will also share information with neighbouring and wider Local Authorities if your child requires a placement in another Local Authority school.

Information is also shared with the HM Courts & Tribunals Service, Special Educational Needs & Disability in relation to the appeal process, if initiated by families

How do we protect your personal data

At Oxfordshire County Council (OCC), we prioritise the security of your personal data. We employ a range of technical measures such as encryption and access controls to safeguard your data from unauthorised access. Additionally, our organisational measures include regular training for all employees to ensure they understand their responsibilities in protecting your data. Our physical security measures, such as secure facilities and secure disposal methods, further ensure that your data is always protected.

Where we use any AI based tools to help with admin functions they do not make decisions and do not process your data in a way not compatible with legislation.

How long do we keep your data for

SEND case records are retained per OCC Corporate Retention Schedule. Often until age 31 or 6 years after last involvement, per SEND norms; OCC policy prevails.

Once the data is no longer needed, it will be securely deleted to ensure your privacy is protected.

Your rights

Under data legislation (The UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018) you have certain data subject rights to:

be informed via Privacy Notices such as this.
withdraw your consent if we are relying on your consent to process your data.
access the personal information the council holds about you, by making a data subject request to the council, with valid identification and where necessary authority for children or other persons.
rectification, to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
erasure, to delete your personal data unless there is a legal obligation to process your personal information.
restrict processing, to reduce the information processed about you or prevent certain processing in future.
data portability, to have your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable form when asked.
object, to your personal data being used for profiling, direct marketing or research purposes, or any automated decision-making or profiling, to reduce the risk that a potentially damaging decision is taken without human intervention.

For more information about your rights and about how the Council processes information, please see our corporate privacy notice and access to information.

You can also complete the online complaints form on our website.

You also have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office which is the UK regulatory authority for data protection issues:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire
SK9 5AF