Controlling your data
The Data Controller for the information you provide on your school place application form is:
Cornwall Council,
New County Hall,
Treyew Road,
Truro TR1 3AY.
Data Protection Registration Number: Z1745294.
Where to get help
If you need help with completing the school place application form please contact the School Admissions Team:
- Telephone: 0300 1234 101
- Contact the School Admissions Team
Why we are collecting information about you and your child
The information collected on your school place application form allows us to allocate a school place. This is in accordance with the requirements of the School Admissions Code 2021 and local policies.
Without this information we will not be able to allocate a school place for your child.
The Council’s legal basis for processing your information for these purposes is under Article 6(1)(c) of the UK General Data Protection Regulations for compliance with a legal obligation.
Information we need
The questions on the school place application form help us to gather the information we need to process your application using the agreed admissions policies.
We strongly recommend that you read the information and guidance:
- available at cornwall.gov.uk/admissions; or
- available on request from the School Admissions Team.
This will help you to understand how your information will be used during the allocation process.
As part of the school place allocation process we may need to refer to information that is already held about your child by:
- Cornwall Council; and
- your child’s current or previous school/s.
Information we collect could include details about behaviour, attendance or safeguarding.
How your data and information will be used
The information you provide on your school place application form and any supporting papers will be used to:
- process your application;
- allocate school places in accordance with admissions law;
- consider and process admission appeals;
- populate or update our education database and allocation process databases; and
- contact you in relation to your application.
We may also use the information you provide for the following purposes:
- For the prevention and/or detection of crime or fraud.
- To follow up on safeguarding or education welfare concerns.
- To send you information on local and national child health initiatives. For example:
- health screening and child immunisation programmes
- any other initiatives that may be beneficial to your child in their new school
- Forward planning as part of budget, forecasting and reorganisation proposals. Data will be anonymised.
- To assist in the development of policy proposals, where data will be anonymised.
- For research and statistical purposes, where data will be anonymised.
How we will contact you
- By email, if you provide an email address on the application form;
- By letter in the post, only if you ask us to or if we cannot contact you by email;
- By telephone, if we need to.
Who we will share the data and information with
The information you provide will be shared with prospective schools. This will be both during and on completion of the allocation process.
The information you provide may also be shared as follows:
- Additional information that Cornwall Council and your child’s current or previous school/s already hold about your child may be shared with prospective schools. This is only where it is relevant to the admissions process.
- Your application form and any supporting information will be shared with Cornwall Council’s Education Appeals department if you submit an appeal against a school place refusal.
- If you are making an application for school places outside Cornwall we will need to share the information with the relevant other local authority/authorities.
- We may share information with the Children’s Health and Wellbeing Service in Cornwall Council’s Together for Families Directorate. This would be to support the delivery of local and national health initiatives, for example health screening and child immunisation programmes. It may include the name, date of birth, address and school attended or due to attend of the child who is the subject of the application form. The sharing would be subject to an Information Sharing Agreement.
- Information that you provide on and in addition to your application form may be used for matters connected with your child’s education. For example, school transport and school meals. It may also be used to update any other records which either Cornwall Council or schools hold about your child.
- The information may also be shared with other Cornwall Council services and professionals in relation to the Council’s safeguarding and education welfare duties.
- We may share the information you provide with Cornwall Council’s Transport Coordination Service. This is so that they can fairly assess and award your child’s current and future eligibility for travel assistance. The information may also be shared with your child’s previous, current or proposed school and other Cornwall Council services and professionals. This is to help determine eligibility and/or travel assistance requirements. Some of the relevant information you provide will also be shared with Cornwall Council’s approved transport providers if transport is agreed. This is for the purpose of procuring suitable transport provision.
How we will store and transfer the data and information
Your application form and supporting information will be held in secure electronic storage by the School Admissions Team.
We have a contract with The Access Group (data processor) to securely store data relating to social care, community health, education and youth services in systems provided by them. You can find more information about The Access Group on their website.
Any data shared outside Cornwall Council will be transferred in a secure electronic format.
How long we will keep this data and information
Data and information relating to your application will be retained until the end of the calendar year in which your child reaches the age of 19.
About your data rights
Your personal information belongs to you and you have the right to:
- be informed of how we will process it;
- request a copy of what we hold about you and in commonly used electronic format if you wish (if you provided this to us electronically for automated processing, we will return it in the same way);
- have it amended if it is incorrect or incomplete;
- have it deleted, where we do not have a legal requirement to retain it;
- restrict how we process it;
- object to us using it for marketing or research purposes;
- object to us using it in relation to a legal task or in the exercise of an official authority;
- request that a person reviews an automated decision where it has had an adverse effect on you.
Further information
Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) provides help and guidance to make sure we apply the best standards to protecting your personal information. If something goes wrong with your personal information, or you have questions about how we process your data, please contact our Data Protection Officer at dpo@cornwall.gov.uk.
If we have not been able to deal with your query, you can also contact the Information Commissioner's Office:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
0303 123 1113
www.ico.org.uk