Privacy notice - childcare options

Middlesbrough Council helps families to access free childcare and information about childcare options.

We collect ‘personal data’ directly from parents/carers including names, address, email address, contact numbers, dates of birth, family makeup, National Insurance Number or National Asylum Support Service reference number, other information to prove your entitlement to live and work in the UK, income and benefits, children’s gender, information about special education needs or education health and care plan status, whether the child in care and care arrangements, and information about citizenship for non-UK citizens. We collect ‘special category data’ including racial or ethnic origin. We also collect information from Government departments, childcare providers, schools/academies, and other local authorities.

We use personal data to help us with our ‘legal obligations’ and ‘public tasks’. The law that mainly gives us these duties and powers is the Childcare Act 2006. We use ‘special category data’ where there is a ‘substantial public interest’ and for ‘statutory or government purposes’ in the Equality Act 2010.

We use personal data to provide you with information and advice about the childcare that is available in your local area, check eligibility and process applications and claims, provide updates to childcare providers from changes in your application, to detect and prevent fraud, and to create statistical information for the Childcare Sufficiency Assessment. We use special category data to ensure that access to our services is equal.

We share personal data with childcare providers and schools/academies, other local authorities, Government departments and agencies including the Department for Education, Department for Work and Pensions, and His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and Ofsted.

We use the following measures to ensure that your personal data is secure: data protection and security policies, information security incident reporting, data and device encryption, system and data access controls, user accounts and passwords, physical and environmental security, staff vetting practices, staff training and awareness, data back-ups, ICT network penetration testing, and business continuity and disaster recovery plans.

We only keep your data for as long as the Law requires it and this is set out in our ‘Records Management Retention Schedules’.

No, your personal data is processed and stored only in the United Kingdom.

We do not use or share your personal data for direct marketing purposes. We do share your information with childcare providers and schools/academies to help us with our legal obligation to provide you with one-time communication about information and advice about childcare options in your specific local area. We may also send you information about Family Hub services and support.

Your Information Rights are set out in law and, subject to some exceptions, you have the:

• Right to rectification - to ask for information to be corrected
• Right to erasure - to have your personal data deleted
• Right to object - to how your data is used
• Right to restriction - to request limits on how your data is used
• Right to portability - to request that we move your data to another organisation
• Right of subject access - to request a copy of data the Council holds about you

If you have any concerns 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. Visit the website of the Information Commissioner's Office at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice or your information rights, please contact:

The Data Protection Officer
Middlesbrough Council
PO Box 500
Middlesbrough
TS1 9FT

Phone: 01642 245432

Email: dataprotection@middlesbrough.gov.uk