Virtual school

This privacy notice explains what personal information is collected, what it is used for and who it is provided to. It also describes why we require your data, and the legal basis on which we do this.

This privacy notice relates to our Virtual School Service. It provides additional information that specifically relates to this particular service, and should be read together with our general privacy notice, which provides more detail.

The categories of personal information that we process includes:

• personal identifiers and contacts (such as name, unique pupil number, contact details and address)
• characteristics (such as language and gender)
• safeguarding information (such as court orders and professional involvement)
• education, employment and/or training status (including the name of which preschool, school or Post 16 provision you attend, whether you are currently without a school place, whether you are not currently in Post 16 education, employment or training)
• contact details for key members of staff in your education, employment or training setting including a record of how to make any necessary payments to these settings
• special educational needs (including the type needs and level)
• attendance (such as sessions attended, number of absences, absence reasons and any previous schools attended)
• assessment and attainment (such as key stage 1 and phonics results, end of Key stage 2 results, end of Key Stage 4 results, Post 16 courses enrolled for and results achieved at the end of each academic year and/or on completion of short courses/programmes)
• behavioural information (such as exclusions and any relevant alternative provision placements put in place)
• your personal views, wishes and feelings about your care and education, employment and training experience at every stage, whilst in the care of Manchester, as expressed in your Personal Education Plan (PEP) and through your Care Plan and/or Pathway Plan reviews.
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The personal information our service uses includes the following special category personal information:

• race and ethnic origin
• religious belief
• health.
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It is important for us to know this information, as it helps us to provide the best service for you. For example, if you have a physical disability that makes it more difficult getting around, or you need additional time or support to help you understand information, we can factor this in to the way our services need to be delivered to meet your needs.

We use your personal data for the following reasons:

• to ensure that if you are in the care of Manchester City Council, wherever you live, you are receiving the appropriate support and guidance in your education, employment and training to enable you to achieve well, identify and pursue your aspirations and to progress into positive education, employment and training destinations at every stage
• to enable us to comply with our obligations to bodies such as the Department of Education or Ofsted (our regulatory body) for example, by allowing an Ofsted inspector to visit our offices and review some of our records as part of an Ofsted inspection
• to log and respond to any complaints you make about our services
• in order to improve our service delivery, we may use personal information to create statistics which help us to see how our services are being used and how they should be funded. Wherever possible this data is anonymised.
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We will only use your personal data where it is necessary, and we are under a legal obligation to do so (Art 6(1)(c) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (‘UK GDPR’)), or where it is necessary in order to perform our public tasks and duties as a Local Authority (Art 6(1)(e) of the(UK GDPR)).

In some cases, we may be required to share your information where it is necessary to protect someone in an emergency (Art 6(1)(d) of the UK GDPR).

We will only use any special category personal data we hold where it is necessary and because there is a substantial public interest (such as to carry out a legal duty, for the prevention of crime) (Art 9(2)(g) of the UK GDPR), and where it is necessary to deliver social care services (Art 9(2)(h) of the UK GDPR).

We may also need to use special category data:

• where it is necessary for legal cases (Art 9(2)(f) of the UK GDPR)
• where it is necessary for employment purposes (Art 9(2)(b) of the UK GDPR)
• where it is necessary for archiving, research or statistical purposes ((Art 9(2)(j) of the UK GDPR)
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If we do not have one of the lawful reasons above for using or sharing your personal information, but we still think it is appropriate to do so (for example to refer you to a voluntary service), we will ask you for your consent to do so. (Art 9(2)(a) of the UK GDPR).

Some of the personal information we may hold will come directly from you when you contact us or use our services. We may also receive information from other organisations and services, for example:

• other departments within the Council;
• other local authorities where you or your family have previously lived, who may hold personal information about you;
• information from your GP or NHS about your medical history;
• information from Educational Psychologists about your education needs;
• information from a pre-school, school or Post 16 education, employment or training provider;
• information from services who may be working to support you including targeted youth support and engagement service providers;
• information from the police, rehabilitation services or youth justice services.
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Your personal data is shared securely where it is both necessary and appropriate to do so. We share personal data with the following:

• pre-schools, schools and Post 16 education, employment and training providers;
• commissioned delivery partners who are delivering a service on our behalf;
• other council departments;
• health agencies;
• Government agencies;
• fostering and adoption agencies;
• Third Sector/voluntary agencies;
• other specialist agencies, such as targeted youth support and engagement service providers.
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We do not share information about our children in need or looked after children with anyone without consent, unless the law and our policies allow us to do so.

Our retention schedule sets out how long we keep personal information for.

Automated decision making and profiling:

Your personal data is not subjected to automated decision making or profiling. 

You can find out more about your rights regarding the personal information used for this service. Your rights apply to the information held by the Council as a data controller, and the information we hold on behalf of the other data controllers.

We may change this privacy notice from time to time. Tell us if you want to know when we change this notice, or any related documents. 

If you have any questions or concerns about how we use your personal information, please contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you're unhappy about how we process your information.