CONFIDENTIALITY & DATA PROTECTION POLICY

1.              INTRODUCTION

The work within Senseability brings staff and  volunteers into contact with confidential information. We believe children and parents are entitled to expect courtesy and prompt, careful attention to their needs and wishes. Our intention is to work in partnership with parents and the community generally and we welcome suggestions on how to improve our group at any time.

2.              RESPECTING CONFIDENTIALITY

To ensure that everyone using or working at Senseability can do so without fear of breach of confidentiality, we will respect confidentiality in the following ways:

  •   All information regarding the children and their families will be kept in a safe place.
  •  When not in use, the information will be locked away securely with access only with permission from the Owner / Deputy Supervisor.
  •   Staff, volunteer helpers, and anyone else attending meetings will sign a document saying they have read and understood their role in relation to the Confidentiality Policy.
  •  Any information held is held in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act. Information regarding this is in separate file and quick access information is also on the staff notice board
  •  Parents / guardians will only have access to the information on their own children, unless the child is deemed to be at risk of harm.
  • Staff and volunteer helpers will not discuss individual children or families outside of the group.
  •  All discussions on the children or their families should only have the purpose of group management or curriculum planning.
  •  Information that is given to parents / guardians will not be passed on to anyone else without permission from the parent / guardian
  •  All employment matters will be kept confidential and will only be dealt with by those personally involved with the relevant bodies.
  • Any member of staff whose training involves child observations must ask the permission of the Owner who will seek parent permission beforehand.
  • For when staff become concerned about a child’s personal safety: see Safeguarding Children Policy
  •  Old information on children will be held securely as recommended by Ofsted or passed to parents / guardians as the child leaves the group or disposed of by means of shredding.

            DATA PROTECTION

  • Senseability intends to comply fully with the requirements and principles of the Data Protection Act (1998).
  •  All data is collected fairly and lawfully. Informing all data subjects of the reasons for the data collection, the purposes why the data is held and the rights of access.
  • Names, photographs, addresses and telephone numbers are particularly vulnerable to abuse as they can identify living people if published in the press, internet or media. Senseability  will never give this information to any one without prior written permission.
  •  The information will be held as up to date as is reasonably possible. Checks will be made by the Owner to ensure that the information is not excessive to need and that the data has not been tampered with or that data has gone missing.
  •  The owner will also ask for updates to data when needed.
  • Data will not be kept longer than necessary in accordance with data protection guidelines.

Authorised Disclosures:

  • We will only disclose data about individuals with their consent. However there are circumstances under which we may need to disclose data without explicit consent for that occasion. These circumstances are strictly limited to:
    • Child’s data disclosed to authorised recipients of a child’s health, safety and welfare;
    • Child’s data disclosed to authorised recipients related to education and administration necessary for us to perform its statutory duties and obligations;
    • Child data disclosed to parents in respect of the child’s progress, achievements, attitude and behaviour whilst at senseability
    • Staff data disclosed to relevant authorities in respect of payroll and administrative matters.

  Personal data: Only authorised staff are allowed to make external disclosures of personal data.

Legal Disclosure: Data used within senseability by  staff will only be made available where the person requesting the information is a professional legitimately working with us, who needs to know the information in order to do their work. Should a safeguarding concern/issue arise, both pupil and personal data will be shared as detailed in the Safeguarding Children Policy and Procedures. Senseability will not disclose anything on pupils’ records which would be likely to cause serious harm to their physical or mental health.

Data Security: We undertake to ensure the security of personal data with regard to all measures mentioned in this policy. Any queries or concerns about security of data  should in the first instance be referred to the owner.

Physical Security: The owner will ensure that the following security measures are in place:

  • Locks on filling cabinet, access given to authorised persons only;
  • Disks, tapes and printouts are locked away securely when not in use.
  • Visitors are required to sign in and out, where appropriate accompanied.
  •  Individual members of staff can be personally liable in law under the terms of the Data Protection Act. They may also be subject to claims for damages from persons who believe that they have been harmed as a result of inaccuracy, unauthorised use or disclosure of their data.
  •  A deliberate breach of this Data Protection Policy will be treated as disciplinary matter, and serious breaches could lead to dismissal.

Disposal of information: All personal details, when no longer required, will be disposed of by use of a shredder.