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Children and Families Information Service (CFIS) privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and was last updated in August 2021.

This notice explains what personal data (information) we hold about you, how we collect, how we use and may share information about you.  We are required to give you this information under data protection law.

Who we are

Kent County Council (KCC) collects, uses and is responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). We are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

The Children and Families Information Service provides support to the public in relation to setting up as registered childcare, finding registered childcare and in accessing the Government’s Early Education and Childcare Entitlements for two, three and four year-olds. The services are delivered by The Education People (TEP) on behalf of Kent County Council.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of providing advice and support for families and members of the public, we collect the following personal information about you or your child when you provide it to us:

  • personal information (such as name, address, contact details, date of birth, gender)
  • details of your child’s special educational needs and disabilities
  • information about your child’s physical or mental health
  • information relating to your financial and personal circumstances
  • information relating to your entitlement to the government’s early education and childcare schemes
  • current and previous attendance at nursery, preschool or at a childminder.

We may also obtain personal information about you or your child from the following other sources:

  • Kent County Council’s Management Information Team
  • professionals involved with the family

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • provide support and information to you regarding your Early Education and Childcare entitlements including processing appeals and complaints
  • provide support and information to you in relation to access to childcare
  • provide information, support and signposting services to you in relation to concerns over the quality of childcare provision
  • provide support for those wishing to become a childcare provider
  • evaluate and quality assure the services we provide
  • analyse the provision of childcare.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will hold your personal information securely and retain it for a period of 7 years after which it will be securely destroyed. Sensitive information collected during the processing of Early Education and Childcare appeals will be retained for a period of 4 years following the close of the appeal, after which it will be securely destroyed.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

We collect and use your personal information to carry out tasks in the public interest and to comply with our legal obligations. We rely on the following legal bases under UK GDPR:

  • Article (6)(1)(e) - Public task: the processing is necessary to perform a task in the public interest or for official functions (task or function has a clear basis in law).
  • Article (6)(1)(c) - Legal obligation: the processing is necessary to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations).

When we collect or share special category personal data, we rely upon the following legal bases under UK GDPR:

  • Article 9(2)(g) - Reasons of substantial public interest. We rely on the ‘safeguarding of children and individuals at risk’ and ‘equality of opportunity or treatment’ purposes condition from Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 when relying on Article 9(2)(g) to process your special category data.

These legal bases are underpinned by acts of legislation that dictate what actions can and should be taken by local authorities, including:

  • Childcare Act 2006
  • Childcare Act 2016
  • Children and Families Act 2014
  • Equality Act 2010

Who we share your personal information with

  • teams within Kent County Council processing the funding for the Early Education and Childcare Entitlement
  • teams within Kent County Council working to improve outcomes for children and young people
  • Ofsted
  • The Education People (TEP) who are commissioned by KCC to provide Education services for KCC including most of the CFIS services
  • other commissioned providers of call centre and website-related services
  • other local authorities or agencies for the purposes of fraud detection and keeping children safe.

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have rights which you can exercise free of charge which allow you to:

  • know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it
  • ask to see what information we hold about you (subject access request)
  • ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you
  • object to direct marketing
  • make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office
  • withdraw consent at any time (if applicable)

Depending on our reason for using your information you may also be entitled to:

  • ask us to delete information we hold about you
  • have your information transferred electronically to yourself or to another organisation
  • object to decisions being made that significantly affect you
  • object to how we are using your information
  • stop us using your information in certain ways

We will always seek to comply with your request however we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties. Please note, your request may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you.

For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the Information Commissioners Office on individuals’ rights under UK GDPR.

If you would like to exercise a right, please contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk.

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Contact

Please contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk to exercise any of your rights, or if you have a complaint about why your information has been collected, how it has been used or how long we have kept it for.

You can contact our Data Protection Officer, Benjamin Watts, at dpo@kent.gov.uk, or write to: Data Protection Officer, Sessions House, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1XQ.

UK GDPR also gives you right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner, who may be contacted via the Information Commissioner's website or call 03031 231113.

Read our corporate privacy statement.