Privacy Notice-GDPR

New Data Protection Regulation – Important Notice to Parents and Carers

The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect on May 25, 2018. We would like to make our parent aware of the following:

Why Do We Collect And Use Children’s Information?

BLUEBIRDS DAY NURSERY holds the legal right to collect and use personal data relating to children and their families, and we may also receive information regarding them from their previous setting, LA and/or the DfE. We collect and use personal data in order to meet legal requirements and legitimate interests set out in the GDPR and UK law, including those in relation to the following: 

• Article 6 – ‘the rights of data subjects’ under the Data Protection Act 1998 and Article 9 – ‘processing of special categories of personal data’ under the GDPR – from May 2018.
• Education Act 1996
• Regulation 5 of The Education (Information About Individual Children) (England) Regulations 2013.

We use this data to:

• Support children’s learning
• Make assessments on children’s development
• Safeguard the children in our care in accordance with relevant legislation
• Comply with Government legislation
• Comply with the law regarding data sharing 
• Assess the quality of our service 

Which Data Is Collected?

BLUEBIRDS DAY NURSERY collects, hold and share two kinds of records on children attending our setting.

Developmental records

These include:

• Developmental information collected prior to the child starting at the setting
• A copy of the child’s Two Year Old Progress Check
• Observations of children in the setting, photographs, video clips, samples of work and developmental assessment records.
• A summary of the child’s EYFS profile report.

Personal records

These include:

• Personal details – including the information provided on the child’s registration form and any consent forms and characteristics (Special Categories of data) such as ethnicity, language and nationality.
• Contractual matters – including the child’s days and times of attendance, a record of the child’s fees and/or funding entitlement, any records of fee reminders and/or disputes
• Emergency contact details – including those people, other than parents/guardians with authorisation to collect the child from the setting.
• Children’s health and well-being – including discussions about every day matters regarding the health and well-being of the child with the parent/guardian, records of accidents and medication records.
• Safeguarding and child protection concerns – including records of all welfare and protection concerns and our resulting actions, meetings and telephone conversations about the child and any information regarding a Looked After Child.
• Behavioural information – support for behavioural issue etc
• Early support and SEN – including any focussed intervention provided by our setting, a record of the child’s IEP and, where relevant, their Statement of Special Education Need.
• Correspondence and reports – including letters and emails to and from other agencies and any confidential reports relating to specific children

Collecting Information

Whilst the majority of information you provide to us is mandatory, some of it is provided to us on a voluntary basis. In order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation, we will inform you whether you are required to provide certain information to us or if you have a choice in this.

Storing Children’s Data

We ensure that access to children’s files is restricted to those authorised to see them such as the manager, deputy, designated person for child protection, the child’s key person or the setting SENCo. These confidential records are stored in a locked cupboard in the manager’s office and on encrypted device, for example, desktop computer, laptop and memory sticks.

Photographs of children taken by the nursery cameras are deleted after use for the purpose of children’s assessment and tracking of their development.

We retain children’s records for three years after they have left the setting, except records that relate to an accident or child protection matter. These are kept until the child reaches the age of 21 years or 24 years respectively.

Sharing Information

The information that you provide to us, whether mandatory or voluntary, will be regarded as confidential. We do not share information about your child with anyone without consent unless the law and our policies allow us to do so.

We routinely share information without consent with:

• schools or settings that children attend after leaving us
• our local authority for the purposes of FFEE and the Early Years Census
• the Department for Education (DfE) as part of statutory data collections.

We are obliged to share confidential information without authorisation from the person who provided it, or to whom it relates, when:

• there is evidence that the child is suffering or is at risk of suffering significant harm.
• There is reasonable cause to believe that a child may be suffering, or is at risk of suffering, significant harm
• It is to prevent significant harm arising to children, young people or adults, including the prevention, detection and prosecution of serious crime.

Please be aware that we use a nursery management software company called, Instant Nursery Manager, to manage the day-to-day running of the nursery in a database. For example, daily attendance register, invoices, birthday reminders and so on. Their software processes our children’s data and they are GDPR complaint too.

Further information regarding information sharing and confidentiality can be found in our Data Protection Policy. These can be accessed through our website or at the parent waiting area in the nursery.

Requesting Access To Your Personal Information

Under data protection legislation, parents/guardians, children and young people have the right to request access to information about them that we hold. Where a child is too young to give ‘informed consent’ the parent is the ‘subject’ of the file and has a right to see the information held.

Children’s developmental records are shared regularly with parents/guardians and formal requests to access these is not required.

To make a request for your personal information, contact Renix Agbaje, following the procedure detailed in our access to records policy.

You also have the right to:

• be informed about how we use your personal data
• request access to the personal data that our setting holds about you and your child.
• object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress
• prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing
• object to decisions being taken by automated means
• in certain circumstances, have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed.

Where the processing of your data is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw this consent at any time.

If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, please contact Renix Agbaje.

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance or directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/