This privacy notice explains how your personal information is going to be used, what for, who it might be shared with and why.

Coventry City Council complies with the Data Protection Act and the UK GDPR and is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a Data Controller.

Why we process personal information about you

We need to collect and hold personal information about you so that we can:

  • So that can meet our legal duties set out in Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEN Code of Practice 2014
  • Understand your needs so that we can provide the right services
  • Deliver services to you
  • Support you/your child

What information do we collect from you?

  • Personal data e.g. name, address, date of birth
  • Details of special educational needs and/or disabilities
  • Details of Educational providers
  • Medical information
  • Details of the services we provide to you

How we use the information 

We collect and hold personal information relating to children, young people, parents, carers, and other family members. Sometimes the Department for Education, Schools and other Local Authorities may provide us with information. We use this information to:

  • Provide you and your child(ren) with services you want/need
  • Help us to develop and improve our services
  • Complete and send reports to Government departments

We have to pass some of the information about you to the Department for Education who use the information for things such as; Local Authority performance management and funding, development of good practice but the names of individual children are not provided.

We may also pass information to health authorities who use the information in the development of health services based on the needs within Coventry.

Who we share your information with

We may share data with

  • Other Coventry City Council departments
  • Other Councils
  • Other organisations that provide services on our behalf
  • The governing bodies of schools, including non-maintained special schools
  • The governing bodies of further education colleges and sixth form colleges
  • Academies (including free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools)
  • The management committees of pupil referral units
  • Independent schools and independent specialist providers approved under Section 41 of the Children and Families Act 2014
  • All early year's providers in the maintained, private, voluntary and independent sectors that are funded by the local authority
  • The National Health Service (NHS) Commissioning Board
  • Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs)
  • NHS Trusts
  • NHS Foundation Trusts
  • Local Health Boards
  • Youth Offending Teams and relevant youth custodial establishments
  • The First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability)
  • Agencies with whom we have a duty to co-operate, such as police
  • Other third-party organisations, where the Law allows us to.

How long will we keep your information?

We will only keep your information for as long as we need to, so we can give you the service you need, unless we must keep it for legal reasons. SEN Data will be retained until the service users 31st birthday in accordance with Children and Families Act 2014 s.46.  Information about children who are looked after this data will be kept until their 75th birthday.

Your rights

You have the right to:

  • be informed of data processing (covered by this Privacy Notice)
  • Ask to see the information that we hold about you (also known as a Subject Access Request)
  • withdraw consent (see below)
  • have any inaccuracies in your data corrected
  • have information erased
  • restrict processing of data
  • data portability (have your data transferred to another Authority)
  • intervention in respect of automated decision making
  • complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (information below)

To exercise any of these rights please contact Coventry SEND Support Service, PO Box 15, Coventry, CV1 5RR

Withdrawal of consent

Where personal data is collected and used because we have your consent, you will have the right to withdraw that consent. However, Coventry City Council may need to collect and use your personal data because the law says we must or to enable us to carry out tasks in the public interest.

Contact us and complaints

You have the right to complain if you are unhappy with the way your request is handled or disagree with a decision made by the council about your data. If you want to make a complaint you can contact the Data Protection Team (DPO) and request a review of the decision: DPOTeam@coventry.gov.uk

If you are not satisfied with any outcome from the DPO you may wish to apply to the Information Commissioner's Office at:

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