How We Use Your Information:

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Central School Attendance and Welfare Service LTD (CSAWS) supports schools to improve children’s attendance.  Your child’s school has commissioned CSAWS to monitor attendance and provide interventions that will help reduce the number of persistent absent pupils and improve school attendance. 

Your child may be referred to one of our Attendance and Welfare Officers if their attendance or punctuality is causing concern.   We take data protection and information sharing very seriously and the following document explains how we use your information and why.

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The Information We Collect and Store:

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We collect, use and store attendance information about pupils and families and will receive information from schools, parents and children. 

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The information we keep regarding attendance includes pupil name, address and date of birth, Parents name, address and date of birth, contact details, attendance records, late records and any relevant information such as special educational needs and health needs.

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The Legal Basis For Processing Personal Data: 

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Organisation must have a valid Lawful basis for processing personal data. CSAWS basis for processing data to improve and secure regular attendance is “legitimate interest”. 

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CSAWS processes data to benefit children, families and schools in improving school attendance. Children have a legal right to an education and parents of compulsory school aged children enrolled at a school have a legal responsibility to secure their child’s regular attendance at school. The government expects schools to and promote good attendance and reduce absence, including persistent absence, Ensure every pupil has access to full-time education to which they are entitled and act early to address patterns of absence.  As part of these responsibilities schools commission CSAWS. It is necessary for CSAWS to process data to be able to undertake the range of monitoring activities, support and interventions to improve school attendance for pupils.

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We understand the need to protect individuals interests and in particular the interests of children.  Data will not be used in an intrusive manner or in any way that could cause harm.

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Who We Share Information With And Why:

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We will treat information sensitively and only share what is necessary and proportionate 

A child’s welfare and safety is paramount at all times and will be at the centre of our practice and the basis of any decisions made.

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The information that CSAWS collects about children and families may be shared with other agencies to improve and secure regular school attendance. 

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These agencies include:

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• The school a child is on roll at that commissions a service from CSAWS to improve school attendance.  

• The Local Authority where a child attends school who have the responsibility for enforcing school attendance. 

• The information we will share will include:

• Reasons for absences from school 

• Reasons for poor school attendance and/or punctuality

• Levels of engagement with the allocated Attendance and Welfare Officer 

• Details of conversations relating to school attendance

• Changes in address/contact details 

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The named Attendance and Welfare Officer allocated to a school may also need to share information to access services, remove barriers to school attendance, and to support parents in improving your child’s/your attendance.   These agencies may include:

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• Doctor/health services

• Child and adolescent Mental Health Services

• Children Social Work Services

• Local Authority

• Youth Offending Team

• Early Help services

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We will only share information with the above services with parents; consent and will ask parents to complete a consent form to enable us to do so.    The exception to this is when we will share information without consent to protect a child/young person’s safety. 

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How Long We Keep Your Information For

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We will not keep your data longer than is necessary to secure sustained regular school attendance and/or punctuality.  CSAWS has a retention scheduled that explains how long different data is kept for.  Pupil and parent’s data will be kept by CSAWS until the end of the following academic year that the last CSAWS intervention was undertaken, at which point it will be disposed of securely.

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Individual Rights:

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Everyone we store, collate or use data about has rights.  These rights are detailed on the Information Commissioner website 

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/

 

These rights include the right to access your information and requests should be made in writing to enquires@csaws.co.uk.

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How we keep your Information Safe: 

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We keep information on computer systems and sometimes on paper.  There are strict controls in place as to who can see personal information.

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All officers working for CSAWS have enhanced DBS checks and received training on data protection and information sharing.

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All information is stored securely.

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Need to know more about how we process your information?:

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If you need more information about how CSAWS uses information, please contact the CSAWS data protection controller Joanne Sierzega at enquires@csaws.co.uk.

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If you have a concern about how your information is been handled by CSAWS then please contact us to discuss.  You may also raise any concerns with the Information Commissioners Officer. The ICO helpline number is 0303 123 1113.