School Admissions - Privacy notice

What personal information is being processed and what for

The School Admissions team processes personal data to allocate school places fairly and in accordance with the School Admissions Code 2021.

Personal information is required to ensure all applications are considered in accordance with the schools published oversubscription criteria. Where appropriate, ensuring those who are refused a place are offered their right of appeal

We process personal data, which is relevant to individual cases which may include, but is not limited to, the following personal data:

• Personal identifiers (such as name, date of birth, gender, contact details and address)
• School preferences.
• Reasons for requesting a school place.
• Reasons for appealing against the refusal of a school.
• Supplementary information if required by individual school admission policies including baptism certificates and church attendance records.
• Parent name and contact details.
• Details of siblings.
• Current or last education provision.
• Child looked after status or adoption. Sometimes referred to as Cared for status
• Whether the child has an Education, Health and Care Plan.
• Whether the child has been permanently excluded or suspended.

Additional information as required under the council's Fair Access Protocol.

Why we are allowed to use your information

The lawful basis we rely on to process your personal data is article 6(1)(e) of the UK GDPR, which allows us to process personal data when this is necessary to perform our public tasks as a Local Authority.

This is supported by the following legal framework:

• The School Admissions Code 2021
• The School Admission Appeals Code 2022
• The School Admissions (Admission Arrangements and Co-ordination of Admission Arrangements) (England) Regulations 2012
• Children’s Act 2004

If the information you provide to us contains special category data (such as health ethnicity or religion) data, the lawful basis we rely on to process this is Article 9(2)(g) of the UK GDPR - necessary for reasons of substantial public interest. 

Who we share your information with

To process your application, we will share your personal information within the Local Authority, with other relevant local authorities and with relevant schools. Relevant local authorities include your home local authority i.e. the authority where you live and local authorities where the schools named on the application form are located; relevant schools include the schools listed as preferences and the current or most recent school.

We also have a duty to work with other organisations to support and improve services for children and young people in the area, and your personal information may be shared with other bodies responsible for administering services to children and young people within the local authority including School Transport, Social Care and Health and also partners in Public Health.

The Council also has a duty to protect the public funds it administers. This may necessitate sharing information with other local authorities, government departments and law enforcement agencies.

Where we get your information from and how we verify it

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you. We may also obtain your information indirectly from other sources, such as:

• other persons acting on your behalf
• schools and educational departments
• internal council departments
• other public authorities
• school appeal panels
• religious bodies for schools designated as having religious character (“faith schools”)
• NHS Trusts
• Department for Education

In order for us to verify the information provided in addition to the sources listed above we may also access publicly available sources such as Companies House, property sale websites and social media.

How long we will keep your personal information

We are required by law to keep records for varying lengths of time depending on individual circumstances. Full details of the retention periods for different types of data are contained in the Council’s Information Asset Register.

How your information is stored

All admissions information is kept on secure electronic systems. These are all only accessible to appropriate Cheshire East Council Officers, and secured by passwords and, where appropriate, encryption. 

Applicants who choose to make their applications on the paper form will have their details entered electronically by Cheshire East Council officers.

What happens if you don't provide us with your information

If you do not provide sufficient information, we will be unable to process your application.

Will your information be used to make automated decisions

We use an automated system to allocate school places, based on each school’s admissions policies, Cheshire East admissions policy and coordinated scheme, after checks are completed.

Your rights

You have a number of rights regarding your personal data, including withdrawing your consent where we have asked for it. You can also ask for a copy of the information we hold about you and ask us to correct anything that is wrong. For detailed information about your rights please see our privacy notice at www.cheshireeast.gov.uk

Please see the privacy notice for Cheshire East Council.