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Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Service

The purpose of processing

The Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) 0-25 service is responsible for carrying out duties under the Children and Families Act 2014 in relation to statutory assessment processes, and the ongoing monitoring of children and young people who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This includes information and advice sought for initial assessment of SEND needs, annual review, dispute resolution or mediation processes and processes relating to appeals to the Special Educational Need and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST). We also receive and process requests for additional funding for children and young people in relation to the special educational provision they may require in their school or setting. We work together with other children and young people's services in B&NES Council and with partner organisations to ensure we deliver the best possible outcomes for children and young people with SEND in B&NES, and to ensure we are fully compliant with the Children and Families Act 2014 and its associated regulations and Code of Practice.

Data subjects

Children and young people
Parents and carers
Professionals from Health, Education and Safeguarding

Personal data

We collect information from parents or carers for children and young people below and within statutory school age, and from young people themselves if they are aged 16 or over.
In the course of the process of assessment for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), planning SEND support and providing the most suitable educational provision for children and young people with an EHCP, we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:
• Personal information (such as name, address, contact details, date of birth, parent/carer name(s) and contact details, gender).
• Details of special educational needs and disabilities.
• Ethnicity.
• Information about physical or mental health.
• Basic personal information including your name and your contact details such as your email address when you register to attend workshops, events or courses.
We also obtain personal information from the following other sources:
• Other organisations or teams that can provide us with advice and information (such as Adult or Children's Social Services, educational psychologists, health providers including doctors, school nurses and others)
• Schools or post-16 settings currently or previously attended
• Early education providers currently or previously attended (such as nurseries, pre-schools, childminders)

How is it used?

We collect, use, and store information and advice in relation to:
• Initial Assessments: For assessing SEND needs.
• Annual Reviews: To monitor and review the progress of children and young people with an EHCP.
• Dispute Resolution and Mediation: To manage and resolve disputes.
• Tribunal Processes: For appeals to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST).
• Additional Funding Requests: To process requests for additional funding required for special educational provisions in schools or settings.
We work closely with other children and young people's services within Bath and North East Somerset Council, as well as with partner organisations, to:
• Ensure the best possible outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
• Remain fully compliant with the Children and Families Act 2014, its regulations, and the Code of Practice.
To provide comprehensive support, we may share your information with relevant professionals, other council departments, and partner organisations involved in delivering services to children and young people with SEND.
We use your personal information to:
• Identify your child or young person's SEND needs
• Clarify your child or young person's needs
• Identify the support they require which will help them to achieve their outcomes
• Know who we need to speak to, so we can ask them to send us information and advice relating to your child
• Make decisions about whether to conduct an education, health and care needs assessment and following this whether to issue an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
• Make decisions about the content of an EHCP including the outcomes, placement and provision required
• Support the ongoing monitoring of the provision specified in an EHCP where one is issued
• Inform the EHCP annual review process and monitor your child's progress
• Keep you up to date on SEND related news and developments
• Support disagreement resolution or mediation processes and processes relating to appeals to the Special Educational Need and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST)
• Make decisions about whether to provide additional funding to the setting where your child is educated (such as Inclusion Support Funding in early years settings and SEND banded funding in schools and colleges)
• Help to resolve any disagreements
• Enable coordinated working with other teams and organisations, including teams who provide support to adults with previously identified SEND including adult social care
• Analyse service provision and effectiveness evaluate and quality assure the services we provide
• Assess for specialist equipment required to support a child or young person's SEND
• Inform future commissioned services and educational placements requirements
• Administer workshops, events or courses that you choose to attend (sending confirmation of workshop booking, evaluation forms to attendees following the workshop, collect data on the evaluation responses for further development of workshops)

Profiling and automated decision making

Not applicable

GDPR condition relied upon for processing personal data:

Article 6.1 c - legal obligation
Article 6.1 e - Exercise of official authority
Children and Families Act 2014

GDPR condition relied upon for processing special category data

Article 9.2 b - Social security/social protection
Article 9.2 f - Legal claims
Article 9.2 g - Substantial public interest
Article 9.2 h - Provision of health or social care
Article 9.2 j - Archiving, research, statistics

Sharing of personal data with external recipients

We will share your personal data with:
• Teams within B&NES Council or those working with B&NES Council to improve outcomes for children and young people
• Commissioned providers of local authority services (such as education or health services)
• Schools, colleges and early years providers as well as wider education or training providers to ensure children and young people can access timely assessment and support
• Educational Psychologists employed by the Local Authority to undertake work in our schools and settings to ensure children and young people can access timely assessment and support
• Partner organisations, where necessary, which may include NHS teams, health visitors, midwives, district councils, housing providers, Police, school nurses, doctors and mental health workers
• Other local authorities and social care or health providers outside of the Local Authority to ensure children and young people can access timely assessment and support if they move out of the local area
• Department of Education
• Providers of independent advice and guidance to ensure children and young people can access timely assessment and support
• Mediation services
• We share information that we have gathered as part of a statutory needs assessment to identify the setting to be named in section I of a child or young person's EHC Plan (this includes consulting in accordance with parental or young person choice as well as with those providers we feel would be suitable).
• We share information to resolve disagreements as part of formal and informal processes in relation to mediation, Ways Forward meetings or formal appeals through the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal.
• For people who have signed up to receive email updates we use email and The Hub to send communications to you.
• We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law.

How long is the personal data retained by the Council?

We keep children and young people's information from their date of birth until they reach the age of 25. Additionally, the SEND and Educational Psychology services keep information for 6 years after the date of last involvement, for those young people supported between the ages of 20 and 25. After this time the information is made inaccessible to system users and securely destroyed.

For online workshops, we will hold your personal information securely and retain it until the course attendance data and evaluation responses have been processed, after which the information is made inaccessible to system users or securely destroyed.

Records are retained within our secure system “Liquid Logic”.

Questions or concerns?

Please email data_protection@bathnes.gov.uk 

Appeals to the Information Commissioner’s Office

If you are unhappy about the way we have treated your personal data, or feel we have not properly respected your data subject rights, you have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and tell them about this.

You can also contact the ICO by phone on 0303 1231113.