Educational Psychology Services privacy notice

Find out how Stirling Council uses personal data by checking the Council’s website at the following address:

https://www.stirling.gov.uk/privacy-statement/

Our website contains a Register of Data Processing which lists all the different ways
in which the Council uses personal data.

This Privacy Notice provides more information about just one of those processes.

The Council has a Data Protection Officer to make sure it is complying with data protection laws.

They can be contacted at:

Data Protection Officer
Stirling Council
Old Viewforth
14-20 Pitt Terrace
Stirling
FK8 2ET

Email: dataprotection@stirling.gov.uk
Telephone: 01786 404040

Stirling Council needs to collect, store, use, share and dispose of personal data in order to deliver services as a local authority. 

Stirling Council collects information about children and families to provide an Educational Psychology Service.

The Council is legally required to provide an Educational Psychology Service under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, with the service providing statutory functions. 

This Privacy Notice tells you why the Educational Psychology Service needs to collect data and what we do with it.

We obtain personal data when our service is contacted in order to provide advice & consultation, assessment, training, research or intervention. 

We will ensure that a parent/carer’s verbal consent has been gained when our service is contacted. For a child of 12 years or over, verbal consent should also be gained, if the child has the capacity to provide this. 

Schools and early years’ provisions are the main group who request assistance from our service however we do have requests from other partners and also from parents/carers. 

Personal data might include contact details, records of consultations, assessments, interventions, observations, reports and correspondence.

Data gathered for research purposes will be anonymised i.e. we will remove any details that could identify a child or person for statistical or other purposes. Research that is published will contain anonymised information.

When we process personal data, we must comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. 

The processing of data is necessary for us to provide an Educational Psychology Service. We carry out this task in relation to the public interest, taking into account both the legitimate and vital interest of individuals.

You don't have to give personal data however without the correct information we will not be able to provide an Educational Psychology Service which you are entitled to.

Personal data is gathered via data subjects, as part of service delivery and from related sources close to the data subject (e.g. parent/carers, families, schools or early years establishments, partners such as NHS) and from Education, Children & Families and other service areas within the Council. 

Personal data is stored electronically on databases and on the council network. Case file information is held currently in paper format in secure, lockable filing cabinets.

When a parent/carer, a school or early year’s representative or other service seeks advice from our service about a child or general concern, we will store a written summary for 1 year. The data will then be destroyed.

Information and data that is part of a research project will be securely held no longer than 5 years.

When our service completes work in relation to a child or young person, the data is stored in a case file, which is held by Stirling Council for 5 years after your child leaves school.

For children & young people who are currently or have been Looked After & Accommodated by the local authority, data will be kept indefinitely in line with the requirements and recommendations of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

The Educational Psychology Service may be asked to share information for example by other Council Services such as Education & Social Work. We will only do so where this is necessary to allow us to provide an Educational Psychology Service.

Information will be shared with Social Security Scotland in order to support an individual’s entitlement and application for disability assistance.

The only information we would share with other Council Services & outside bodies would be relevant information contained in reports, consultations & letters as part of the Scottish Government's Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) initiative.

If asked to share data, the Educational Psychology Service will use their professional judgement to identify which information is appropriate & necessary to share with other professionals involved, in order to inform decision making & assessment.

You have the following rights under data protection laws. If you have a request under any of these rights, you can make a subject access request.

• The right of access – You have the right to request information we hold about you. This is known as a subject access request and is free of charge. We must respond within one month, although this can be extended to three months if the information is complex.
  
  
• The right to rectification - You are entitled to have your information rectified if it is factually inaccurate or incomplete. We must respond to your request within one month. If we decide to take no action, we will tell you why and let you know about your right of complaint to the UK Information Commissioner
  
  
• The right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to delete your information or stop using it. It will not always be possible for us to comply with your request, for example, if we have a legal obligation to keep the information. If we decide to take no action, we will tell you why and let you know about your right of complaint to the UK Information Commissioner.
  
  
• The right to restrict processing - You have the right to restrict how your data is processed in certain circumstances, for example, if the information is not accurate. If a restriction is applied, we can retain just enough information to ensure that the restriction is respected in future. We must tell you if we decide to lift a restriction on processing.
  
  
• The right to data portability – You have the right to object to processing, if we are processing your personal data with your consent, and it is held in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable form, you have a right to ask us to transmit it to another data controller so they can use it. This right does not apply if we process your personal data as part of our public task.
  
  
• The right to object - You can object to your information being used for profiling, direct marketing or research purposes.
  
  
• You have rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling - to reduce the risk that a potentially damaging decision is taken without human intervention.

If you want to complain about or comment on how we have processed your personal information, you should email dataprotection@stirling.gov.uk

If you are still unhappy with how the council handled your complaint, you can contact the UK Information Commissioner's Office at:

The Information Commissioner,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Phone: 0303 123 1113

You can find further information on the Information Commissioners Office website.