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KentChoices privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and it was last updated in October 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.

KentChoices is a service run by Kent County Council’s commissioned provider The Education People to support young people to progress into and through post 16 education. We use First Media to deliver the software that supports this service, which is a post 16 education search and apply system, enabling students to find and apply for appropriate education.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of providing access to post-16 education opportunities we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

  • supporting information, such as your skills, career objectives, and personal circumstances, if it’s relevant to the course you’ve applied for
  • your National Insurance number (when this is required by course providers who offer ‘learn while you earn’ schemes)
  • you may be asked for details of your religious beliefs (if you apply to a course and training provider with a religious ethos)
  • details of any disabilities you have, to make sure your chosen course and training provider can meet your needs and provide appropriate support.

We also obtain personal information from KCC’s school census to pre-populate the system with:

  • your name, date of birth and contact details
  • your address covering the last three years
  • the school(s) you have previously attended
  • special category characteristics:
    • ethnicity
    • special educational needs (SEN) information.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • provide you with access to post-16 education and training opportunities
  • undertake our statutory duties around education and training of pupils aged 16+ to support and reduce those Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET). If you would like more information about how we do this read the staying in touch and supporting young people privacy notice.
  • undertake our statutory duty to track, collect and report on the September Guarantee, Intended Destination and post 16 destinations of 16 to 17 year olds
  • comply with the law regarding what to do after you leave school
  • contact you to see whether you need support accessing work, training opportunities or careers advice
  • evaluate and quality assure the services we provide
  • inform future service provision and the commissioning of services.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will hold your personal information securely and retain it from the child /young person’s date of birth until they reach the age of 25, after which the information is made inaccessible to system users or securely destroyed.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

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

  • Article (6)(1)(c) - Legal obligation: the processing is necessary to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations)
  • 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)

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

  • Article 9(2)(f) - Legal claims or judicial acts
  • Article 9(2)(g) - Reasons of substantial public interest. We rely on the equality of opportunity or treatment purpose condition from Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 when relying on Article 9(2)(g) to process your special category data.
  • Article 9(2)(h) - Health or social care

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

  • The Education Act 1996
  • The Localism Act 2011
  • The Education and Skills Act 2008

If you are asked for details of your religious beliefs (if you apply to a course and training provider with a religious ethos), this is dependent on your consent.

Who we share your personal information with

We share your personal information with:

  • your current school so that they can support your post 16 transition
  • teams within KCC working to improve outcomes for children and young people
  • commissioned providers of local authority services (such as education services)
  • the training provider or school who has posted the course listing you have applied for
  • other local authorities if you apply for a course outside of the KCC area
  • the Department for Education (as part of statutory returns about NEETs, pupil destinations and September Guarantee).

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 Commissioner's Office
  • withdraw consent (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 UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) 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 Information Commissioner, who may be contacted via the Information Commissioner's website or call 03031 231113.

Read our corporate privacy statement.