WSCC delivers education to adult learners and is funded by Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), an executive agency for the Department for Education (DfE).
This privacy notice covers the collection of data used to provide courses and workshops and will explain:
- how personal information is going to be used by WSCC and ESFA
- who it might be shared with and why
- how long it is kept.
The information you provide helps us deliver our services effectively.
Personal and special category data
The categories of personal data we are processing are:
- name, date of birth and contact details
- employment and benefit status (to confirm eligibility for fee remission and ESFA funding)
- identification details, including driving licence and ID card
- health information, such as learning difficulties, disabilities and health
- equality, diversity and inclusion information (ESFA requirement)
- prior academic attainment
- identification details, including driving licence and ID card
- employment and educational details, including learning support needs, learning and destination and progression outcomes
- learner records and financial details
- emergency contact details
- your views on your experience of our services.
Data Controller
West Sussex County Council (WSCC) is registered as a ‘Data Controller’ with the Information Commissioner’s Office (Reg. No. Z6413427).
You can find details for the WSCC Data Protection Officer (DPO) on our Privacy Policy.
We ensure that your personal data is accurate, processed fairly and lawfully, kept secure and retained for no longer than is necessary.
WSCC is also a ‘data processor’ for the adult education and apprenticeship data that they send to ESFA. A data processor is an organisation that processes personal data on behalf of another data controller, in this case ESFA. Details on what personal data is shared with DfE is included in ‘Who we share your information with’.
The legal basis for processing personal data
We process data to perform a public task and provide the learning services to you.
We also process special category data (often called sensitive data), which is required by ESFA to ensure equality of opportunity and treatment.
Please also see the ESFA Privacy notice. The ESFA contractually define the data which is required to enable services to be provided by the County Council.
If a child or other person is at risk of significant harm, people working with you will have a duty of care to share the information with the relevant services without consent.
How we use your personal information
Our Privacy Policy determines how we use personal data. We use it in:
- determining eligibility and age appropriateness for courses
- administration of courses
- reporting of statutory data to the ESFA in line with our funding contract and funding rules so that courses can be provided
- providing any additional support to learners and ensure that learners can gain access to learning venues
- responding to queries
- removing any barriers to learning
- service planning and improvement
- research.
Who we share your information with
Enrolment forms completed by the learners are processed by a dedicated member of staff within the Council. Information required by the ESFA (a department within the central government Department for Education) is shared with them via a secure system.
This includes:
- personal contact details
- date of birth
- data and information about your learning, including your courses and assessments
- your equality, diversity and inclusion information
- your health, including disabilities and special educational needs.
Any further sharing of personal data is always done:
- on case-by-case basis
- using the minimum personal data necessary
- with the appropriate security controls in place
- in line with legislation.
This may include:
- internal departments
- exam awarding bodies
- other government agencies
- partner agencies that provide services on our behalf.
Information is only shared with those agencies and bodies who have a "need to know" or where you have consented to the sharing of your personal data to such persons.
We may use the information we hold about you to assist in the detection and prevention of crime or fraud. We may also share this information with other bodies that inspect and manage public funds
See our Privacy Policy if you require more information about how we use this data.
How long we keep your personal data
Personal data will be kept for six years after the end of the financial year in which the academic year concludes or concluded.
Your rights
See our Privacy Policy for more information on your rights.
Complaints
See our Privacy Policy for information about making a complaint.