School travel assistance privacy notice

This privacy notice tells you what to expect us to do with your personal information to deliver travel assistance to children and young people.

• What information we collect, use, and why
• Who we share information with
• Lawful bases and data protection rights
• Where we get personal information from
• How long we keep information
• Data used in automated decisions and AI
• How to complain
• Contact details

Applications, appeals, general enquiries and providing travel assistance

For additional details on Cash Grants and Personal Travel Budgets, please see the end of the privacy notice.

What information we collect, use and why

We collect the following personal information when assessing a child’s eligibility for travel assistance. This includes any appeals submitted should your initial application be declined. The following details what information we will collect, use and the reasons for doing so.

Information about the parents/carers/guardians:

• Name and address
• Information about health conditions or disabilities if you want us to take this into consideration when assessing an application or appeal on the grounds of parental disability
• Financial details such as expenditure and income if you want us to take this into account when assessing an application or appeal on the grounds of financial hardship
• Any exceptional circumstances you wish to be considered as part of your application or appeal requesting us to depart from its policy

Information about the child/ren:

• Name, address and date of birth
• The educational establishment attended
• Characteristics including gender, special educational needs and/or disability (SEND) where this is not already detailed in the child or young person’s Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This will be used when parents/carers have requested that the child’s SEND are considered when assessing an application or appeal. Additional information will need to be submitted with the application or appeal in the event that a child does not have an EHCP
• Details about physical or mental health difficulties where this is not already detailed in the child or young person’s Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This will be used when parents/carers have requested that the child’s physical or mental health difficulties are considered when assessing an application or appeal. In the event the child does not have an EHCP, the medical information will be submitted with the application or appeal and will usually be from a GP, consultant or someone in a similar professional field
• Religious or other beliefs where this information is not already known by us. This will be used when a parent/carer/guardian has expressed a preference that their child attend a particular school on the grounds of religion or other belief and therefore would like this considering as part of the application or appeal

In the event that the application or appeal is from the young person themselves:

• Name, address and date of birth
• The educational establishment attended
• Information about health conditions or disabilities if you want us to take this into consideration when assessing an application or appeal on the grounds of parental disability
• Financial details such as expenditure and income if you want us to take this into account when assessing an application or appeal on the grounds of financial hardship
• Any exceptional circumstances you wish to be considered as part of your application or appeal requesting us to depart from its policy
• Characteristics including gender, special educational needs and/or disability (SEND) where this is not already detailed in the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This will be used when it has been requested a young person’s SEND is considered when assessing an application or appeal. Additional information will need to be submitted with the application or appeal in the event the young person does not have an EHCP
• Details about physical or mental health difficulties where this is not already detailed in the child or young person’s Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This will be used when parents/carers have requested that the child’s physical or mental health difficulties are considered when assessing an application or appeal. The medical information will be submitted with the application or appeal and will usually be from a GP or consultant
• Religious or other beliefs where this information is not already known by us. This will be used when the young person has expressed a preference to attend a particular school on the grounds of religion or other belief and therefore would like this considering as part of the application or appeal

This information is submitted by the young person themselves, the parent/guardian/carer, school or other person who has been given advocacy on the application or appeal form. At times, where information is unclear or insufficient to make a decision, the officers will need to contact other parties to ensure they have made full consideration of the individual circumstances. The officer can contact:

• The parent/guardian/carer or young person themselves to ask for clarification on any details. This can include:
  • address where this contradicts the information on our systems
  • any changes of name where this contradicts the information on our systems
  • educational establishment details where this contradicts the information on our systems
  • further information about any special educational needs and/or disabilities where this information is not already held by us and it has been requested that these difficulties are taken into consideration
  • further information about any physical or mental health difficulties where this is not already held by us and it has been requested that these difficulties are taken into consideration
  • confirmation of religious or other beliefs where this is not already held by us and there has been a preference made for a child’s attendance at a particular setting
  • confirmation of financial information where this is not clear on the application form or appeal and where there has been a request for this to be taken into consideration
• The educational placement attended where the information on the application or appeal is unclear, insufficient or contradicts with any information currently held by us
• Health Service providers, including the NHS where the appeal/application wants any medical conditions to be considered and there is unclear or insufficient information submitted
• Other departments, including:
  • The SEN Team where a child has an EHCP and the application form or appeal requests that the child’s SEND is taken into consideration
  • Social Care where the information in the application form or appeal indicates that there is involvement from these teams and that this constitutes exceptional circumstances which should be taken into consideration
  • Relevant housing services where the application form or appeal states that the family have had support from these services and that this constitutes exceptional circumstances which should be taken into consideration
  • Benefits agencies where the application form or appeal indicate that the child receives Free School Meals or that the family are in financial hardship and confirmation of their benefits received is required to determine whether they meet the eligibility criteria on extended rights
• Law enforcement agencies where this is referred to on the application form or appeal and involvement from these teams constitutes exceptional circumstances which should be taken into consideration
• Other local authorities where the child is a child in care placed in the borough of Cheshire West and Chester. The Corporate Parent would have more information on the agreement of the residential placement and educational setting which may not be attained from the carer/guardian

When a child or young person has been assessed as eligible for travel assistance and will be using a contracted vehicle, public transport or school bus we will use the information to:

• plan and deliver an efficient service delivery transporting children from home to school, making improvements for all individuals using the service. The child’s home address, date of birth, educational establishment, any SEND, physical or mental health difficulties or medical needs will be used to plan these routes
• ensure that the travel assistance is suitable for the child or young person. Where a child or young person has any SEND, physical or mental health difficulties or medical needs, the type of travel assistance offered and whether a passenger assistant is required on the vehicle will be determined by the severity of those needs
• handle and respond to any queries, complaints or complements that are sent into us to ensure they are responded to appropriately and correctly. This information can also contribute to improving the planning and delivery of the service
• assess eligibility for the reduction of travel costs on the grounds of low income where a child or young person is not eligible for free travel assistance and either a spare seat or a charge has been applied
• assess the suitability of the proposed travel arrangements in the event that a child or young person has complex SEND, physical or mental health difficulties and/or medical needs to determine the need for additional training for the driving staff or passenger assistant, where appropriate. In the event that the child has a medical condition that requires a Health Care Plan, parents/carers/guardians will be asked for a copy of this to ensure that drivers are fully aware of the signs and symptoms and what to do in a medical emergency

Who your information will be shared with

In order to deliver an efficient service, we will need to share your information with other partners. The information shared will be restricted to what is necessary to ensure that we adhere to its Data Protection duties as well as its duty to provide suitable and sustainable travel assistance to meet the needs of the children and young people.

We will share your information with the following:

• Transport providers:
  • For children using mainstream contracted services, a public bus or school buses this will be a child’s name, pick-up/drop-off locations and educational establishment. In the event that a child’s location means that there are no safe pick-up points along the route, a home address will be shared with the transport provider as the pick-up/drop-off location
  • For children with SEND, the transport provider will be provided with the child or young person’s name, address for pick-up and drop-off purposes, any SEND or physical difficulties to ensure the vehicle is accessible and details on how best to support that person in the vehicle. In the event that the child or young person has medical needs, additional information about condition and how to support the child or young person will be provided to ensure that we are safeguarding those children/young people. This will usually take the form of the Health Care Plan
• School/colleges will be provided with list of contracts and the children or young people using each contract. This is to support them to ensure children with SEND board the correct vehicles at the end of the school day
• Where a child is a child in care or the family has support from social care teams, information about their travel arrangements will be shared with the appointed case worker in the event that there is a change in the support required, difficulties on the transport or where there is a potential change in residential placement or school setting
• Where a child or young person has an EHCP, travel assistance is reviewed annually alongside their EHCP. Details of the travel arrangements will be shared once the review has been submitted by the school/college. Travel arrangements will also be shared with the SEN Team where there may be difficulties on the transport to determine whether the correct support is in place, the mix of children, length of travel and mode of travel offered is suitable
• In the event travel assistance is provided on extended rights (low income/financial hardship), we will share information with this team annually to confirm continued receipt of the benefits used to be eligible for the travel assistance

We will also share information with other services where there is a legal obligation to do this in order to carry out a public task or there is a legal obligation. This will include the following services or teams:

• Other departments within the Council, such as education teams, SEN Team, social care, relevant housing services where the information is paramount to those teams in carrying out their public tasks
• Other local authorities where the child is a child in care
• Law enforcement agencies where there has been a request from the service for any details on the child/young person and their travel arrangements, in the event that there is an investigation into any criminal activity
• First Tier Tribunal for SEND or mediation services, where there has been a request that information about a child’s travel arrangements form part of the case for either the mediation or Tribunal
• Health service providers, where there has been a request from the service

Our lawful bases for the collection and use of your data

Our lawful bases for collecting and using personal information are:

• Public task - we have to collect or use information to carry out a task laid down in law, which the law intends to be performed by an organisation
  • The Education Act 1996 clearly outlines the requirements placed on Local Authorities to assess whether children and young people are eligible for travel assistance to and to make the necessary provisions
  • The School Travel (Pupils with Dual Registration) (England) Regulations 2007 outlines the duties placed on a local authority for a child who is on dual role as a result of being unable to attend one school fulltime
  • Public Service Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 2000 outlines that vehicles over the size of 8 seats should be accessible. We will use personal data to ensure that the travel arrangements for children and young people are suitable to meet their needs
  • Equality Act 2010 states that an admission authority must not discriminate on the grounds of disability; gender reassignment; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; or sexual orientation, against a person in the arrangements and decisions it makes as to who is offered admission as a pupil
  • Schools Standards and Frameworks Act 1998 make new provisions with respect to the education of children and young people. Eligibility for travel assistance is based on whether a child is attending their nearest setting that could have offered a place
  • European Convention of Human Rights applies when respecting a person’s human rights, specifically the freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs, which is taken into consideration when assessing travel assistance to a school of a parent/carer’s school choice
  • The School Information (England) Regulations 2002 states the duties a local authority has to make when publishing information about school admissions and eligibility for travel assistance
• Legal obligation – we have to collect and use your information to comply with the law. The above legislations also applies
• Substantial public interest – we collect or use your information because the information helps us to safeguard the fundamental rights and interests of the data subject (child/young person)

Where we collect our information from

Please see the section ‘What information we collect, use and why’ for a detailed description of where we collect our information from.

How long we keep information

Information is retained in accordance with our data retention schedule. We will only use your person information whilst delivering the service and to deal with any questions, queries or complaints that we receive. Our retention schedule is 7 years after a child/young person finishes their education. For most young people the age at which they are in education or training will be considered to be 18. For those young people with an EHCP, they may be in education until they are 25 years old. Information is destroyed after 7 years.

Automated decision making and AI

Assessments are not carried out using AI or automated decision making.

The Data Controller

We are the Data Controller.

Protecting your information

Your information will be securely stored on our network in the UK.

Will my personal information be accessible outside the UK?

Should the transfer of personal information outside of the UK become necessary, it will only take place if permitted by law, and then only where there are appropriate safeguards in place to protect the personal information.

Your rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

• your right of access - you have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information
• your right to rectification - you have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete
• your right to restriction of processing - you have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances
• your right to object to processing - you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances
• your right to data portability - you have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

To make a request follow the instructions on our Data protection for you page.

How to complain if you are unhappy about how your data is used

You can complain directly to our Data Protection team online or by post.

• Online: Contact the DPO
• By post: Data Protection Officer, The Portal, Wellington Road, Ellesmere Port, CH65 0BA

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office:

• Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) website
• By post: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
• Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Cash Grants and Personal Travel Budgets

The above information in rest of the privacy notice applies in these cases where parents/guardians/carers of eligible children and young people have been offered and accepted a Cash Grant or Personal Travel Budget. In addition to the details above, financial details will need to be provided in order to process the payments. These will need to be sent on BASCS form and signed by the account holder, along with an agreement, which also needs to be signed, accepting the terms and conditions of the Cash Grant or Personal Travel Budget payment. The BACS forms will be kept for one year so that if a parent/guardian/carer wants to renew their personal travel budget for the following year, the details are available to cross-check with the renewal forms and to help reduce any potential fraudulent claims. Thereafter, the BACS forms will be destroyed.

A record of all payments made to parents/guardians/carers will be kept in line with the above retention schedule (7 years after the child/young person ceases to be in education) for financial reporting purposes.