You can also find out about the General Data Protection Regulations and Data Protection Act 2018 and your rights on our main privacy web page.
This page contains information about:
- Who we are
- Why we collect your personal information
- The legal basis for using your information
- Who we may share your information with
- How you can access the information we hold about you
- How long we keep information about you
- Further information and Data Protection Officer
Who we are
BCP Council will be the Data Controller for the personal information you provide. Personal information can be anything that identifies and relates to a living person. This could be your name and contact details. As the Data Controller BCP Council will use your information to provide you with our services.
Why we collect your personal information
We will collect enough personal information in order to provide you with services for the following purposes.
- To allocate your child a school place
- To process applications for home to school transport
- To safeguard and promote the welfare of children
- To operate a Fair Access Protocol to find places for the most vulnerable children
- To seek to offer guidance to all known home educated families in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole who request it
We are not permitted to collect information we do not need or will not use. This page covers information you have provided direct to the Council and information which has been shared with us by other organisations.
If we don’t need your personal information we will either keep your details anonymous, if we already have it for another service or we won’t ask you for it. If we use your personal information for research or analysis, we will always keep your details anonymous or use a fake name.
We don’t sell your personal information to anyone else.
The legal basis for using your information
According to the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, we must have a reason to collect and use your information.
This will be:
- To deliver services and support you
- To enable us to manage the services we provide
- To train and manage our workers who deliver those services
- To investigate any worries or complaints you may have about our goods or services
- To check the quality of our goods and services
- To help with research and planning of new services.
There are a number of legal reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information. For this service:
Legal obligation: it is required by law (School standards and Framework Act 1998, The Education Act 1996, Education and Inspections Act 2006)
Our service also needs to use sensitive personal data also called "special category data" which requires more protection to keep it safe. This is often information you would not want to be widely known and is very personal to you. It includes:
- Sexuality or sexual heath
- Religious or spiritual or philosophical beliefs
- Physical or mental health
- Criminal history
We will take extra care of this data. The legal reason for us to collect and use this personal information is:
- it is necessary to perform our statutory duties or it is required by law (School standards and Framework Act 1998, The Education Act 1996, Education and Inspections Act 2006)
- it is necessary to safeguard children
Who we may share your information with
We use a range of organisations to either store personal information or to help deliver our services to you. Sometimes we have a legal duty to provide your personal information to other organisations, for example the court service or HMRC.
We may also share your personal information with these organisations:
- Council Tax departments (in BCP Council and other applicable Local Authorities)
- Schools in and outside of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (including virtual schools for Looked After Children)
- Academy Trusts and other admission authorities for schools in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
- Other Local Authority School Admission Teams
- Housing and Landlord Services (In Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and other Local Authorities)
- Home to school transport departments (In and outside of BCP Council)
- Elective Home Education Teams (In and outside of BCP Council)
- Children Missing Education Teams (In and outside of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole)
- Children’s Information Service and other Customer Service departments (BCP Council and other Local Authorities)
- Democratic Services for the purpose of School Appeals and Home to School Transport Appeals (Both within and outside of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole)
- Special Education Needs departments within BCP Council and other Local Authorities relevant to your application
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (In and out of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole)
- Youth Offending Teams and Young Adults Drug and Alcohol Services (In and out of Bournemouth)
- Diocesan Boards (In and out of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole)
- Early Years departments (In and out of BCP Council)
- The Department for Education
- The Education Skills and Funding Agency.
When applying for a new school place (for example, when children are due to start school for the first time in Reception or move on to a Junior, Middle or Secondary School), parents can express a preference for up to four schools. If the Local Authority is unable to offer a place at a preferred school, we are legally obligated to allocate a school place at the nearest school with places available. To allocate a school place elsewhere, your data is shared with the identified school, and you may be contacted directly by that school.
When applying for a school place at other times (for example, moving into area during the school year), parents can express a preference for up to four schools. If BCP Council on behalf of admission authorities is unable to offer a place at a preferred school, we will provide information on schools with places available.
Your information will not be disclosed to any other organisations, except where we are required and allowed to by law.
Accessing the information we hold about you
You have the right to request, in writing, details of the information that is held about you and also the right to access a copy of the information. This may be by the Council providing copies of documents or by inviting you to view the records at one of its offices, if appropriate. Please see our webpage for further information about how to make a subject access request.
BCP Council will not charge a fee to access your information. Sometimes there may be information that we are not allowed to show you, such as:
- legal information or advice
- crime prevention and detection records
- information that we believe may be harmful to you and your well-being
- details about or provided by other people. This is called third party information (For example, information from the Police or Department for Work and Pensions)
You may also ask us to:
- stop processing your information if this causes or might cause damage or distress
- stop processing your information for direct marketing
- make decisions about you using your information by automated means (For example, using computers to decide on an entitlement)
- amend any of your data which you feel is inaccurate. You can also ask for information to be blocked, erased or destroyed.
- transfer your information electronically to another service provider.
- consider a claim for compensation for any damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection regulations.
If you give consent for us to use your information, you may withdraw this at any time. However, this may affect our ability to continue to provide you with a service.
How long we keep information about you
We will retain this information for 7 years as stated in our retention schedule and in accordance with The Limitation Act 1980.
Further information
If you have a concern about how we are using your information, we would ask you to contact us in the first instance using the address below:
School Admissions and Transport Team
BCP Council Civic Centre
Bourne Avenue
Bournemouth
BH2 6DY
Email: school.admissions@bcpcouncil.gov.uk
Data Protection Officer
The Data Protection Officer role for BCP Council is held by the:
Team Leader
Contracts, Commercial and Information Governance.
If you have any queries or concerns about how your personal information please contact us using our general enquiries form first, or by writing to or visiting us at:
information.governance@bcpcouncil.gov.uk
Information Commissioner
For further information about Information Rights legislation, please contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk or by telephone 0303 123 1113