Data Controller and Purpose
The information provided by young people, education providers and public bodies will be used by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets’ Young Workpath Service.
We have a legal responsibility to encourage, enable and assist young people aged 16-19 year olds (or up to 25 year olds with SEND) who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) to participate in education, employment or training.
We are also responsible for reporting monthly to the Department of Education (DfE) with regards to Raising the Participation Age (RPA) data. The RPA relates to the requirement for all young people in England to continue in education or training until their 18th birthday.
In addition, we report on young people who receive an offer under the September Guarantee, the Activity (destination) Survey of young people who complete compulsory education, and every month the rates of young people who are participating, those who are NEET, young people whose destinations are unknown (not known), and combined NEET/not known.
Local authorities must report to the Department for Education’s (DFE) National Client Caseload Management Information System (NCCIS) by using their Local Client Caseload Information System (CCIS).
Tower Hamlets Council is the Data Controller.
We process your data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and if you have any concerns the council’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted on DPO@towerhamlets.gov.uk.
Condition for processing personal data
The information we hold is to support the provision of education, employment and training for young people. The information is provided by young people, education providers and public bodies.
Some of the information we hold are personal, such as your name, address, contact details, date of birth, gender, ethnicity, unique pupil number (UPN), qualifications, contact(s) with us, including actions plans. We also hold information on what course, job or training placement you do after Year 11. Some of the information we hold could be sensitive, such as your health record, SEND status, problems you have had at school or home, housing difficulties or periods of unemployment if applicable.
It is necessary for us to process your data under the GDPR.
Section 68 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 places a duty on local authorities to encourage, enable and assist young people aged 16-19 year olds (or up to 25 year olds with SEND) who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) to participate in education, employment or training.
Section 10 places an additional duty on local authorities under Raising the Participation Age (RPA) to promote the effective participation in education and training of 16 and 17 year olds in their area with a view to ensuring that those persons fulfil the duty to participate in education or training, and to identify 16 and 17 year olds who are not participating in education or training.
Local authorities must make arrangements – i.e. maintain a tracking system.
Tracking young people’s participation successfully is a key element of this duty. This may be through the supply of information by education providers, other services within the local authority area and public bodies such as health, youth offending teams and Jobcentre Plus, as well as through direct contact with young people.
Section 72 requires education providers to provide relevant information about students to local authorities to enable them to carry out their duties under section 68. There is an equivalent duty under Section 14 that requires education providers to supply information to local authorities to enable local authorities to carry out their RPA duties (i.e. notify a local authority when a 16 or 17 year old has ‘dropped out’ and therefore no longer meeting their duty to participate).
Section 77 provides additional data sharing powers (i.e. supply of information by other services within the local authority and public bodies) to support local authorities to deliver their duties under section 68.
We only share relevant information about young people, with their explicit consent with professionals who have a legitimate interest in their progress, such as their current or previous education provider, other advisers, the local authority and potential employers and education providers.
A delay in you providing the information requested may result in a delay in providing appropriate services.
How long do we keep your information?
We will only hold young people’s information for as long as is required by law and to provide them with the necessary services. Records are archived for 12 months following the upper limit of the cohort age (age 19 or up to 25 with SEND) and then fully deleted from the database.
We may also anonymise some personal data provided to us to ensure that individuals cannot be identified and use this for statistical analysis of data to allow the Council to effectively target and plan the provision of services.
Information sharing
Your personal information may be shared with internal departments or with external partners and agencies involved in delivering services on our behalf.
The council has a duty to protect public funds and may use personal information and data-matching techniques to detect and prevent fraud, and ensure public money is targeted and spent in the most appropriate and cost-effective way. Information may be shared with internal services and external bodies like the Audit Commission, Department for Work and Pensions, other local authorities, HM Revenue and Customs, and the Police. This activity is carried out under social protection law.
We have a duty to improve the health of the population we serve. To help with this, we use data and information from a range of sources including hospitals to understand more about the nature and causes of disease and ill-health in the area. This data would normally be anonymised and never used to make decisions on a specific individual or family.
Your Rights
You can find out more about your rights on our data protection page and this includes details of your rights about automated decisions, such as the ranking of Housing Applications, and how to complain to the Information Commissioner.