SEND travel assistance privacy notice

This policy explains how the information we collect about you is used and your rights in relation to that information.

We work with children and young people who may be entitled to travel assistance because of their special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Travel assistance is not an automatic right, an assessment is always made of individual circumstances. We collect personal information via the travel assistance applications returned to us by parents, carers or from other internal council departments.

Your personal data is necessary for us to process your request for travel assistance. Whilst the majority of personal information you provide to us is mandatory, some of it is requested on a voluntary basis.

To comply with GDPR, we will inform you whether you are required by law to provide certain information to us; however, if you do have a choice where providing information is not mandatory, your explicit consent will be requested.

Controller DPO

Our controller Data Protection Officer (DPO) is the Head of Information Governance.

Contact the Data Protection Officer.

Information we collect

  • name, date of birth, gender, address, contact number, email address
  • details of parents or carers and additional emergency contact details
  • details of special educational needs and, or disabilities
  • educational provision
  • medical and health information
  • details of any risk factors
  • attendance, exclusions and behavioural information
  • details of transport requirement and days transport needed
  • information that other organisations tell us to help us understand your situation and needs to co-ordinate your transport services more effectively
  • written information about you in the form of assessments, support plans and reviews
  • any additional information about you given to us by your family and, or carers as part of the application process.

Purpose

  • enable us to carry out the provision of travel assistance
  • establish eligibility for travel assistance in line with our policies and statutory guidance
  • comply with Department for Education and other government departments’ research and statistical returns
  • produce statistics and reports that inform planning and decision-making - for example audits and strategies to develop sustainable travel and transport infrastructure to ensure the needs of our service users are best catered for. Statistics are used in such a way that individual children or adults can't be identified from them
  • account for our decisions and investigate complaints
  • evaluate, monitor and make sure the service you receive is efficient and effective.

Lawful basis

  • when you, or your legal representative, have given consent
  • when it is necessary to perform our statutory duties under relevant legislation and associated statutory guidance
  • when it is necessary in a contract for the supply of services
  • if we need to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights, including protecting public interests or in the exercise of official authority
  • it is necessary to protect someone in an emergency
  • it is necessary to deliver health or social care services
  • for law enforcement purposes, prosecutions and court or tribunal proceedings.

How long will we keep your personal information

We will keep information about you and the services we provide on your record. There is usually a legal reason for keeping your personal information for a set period of time - this ranges from months for some records to decades for more sensitive records.

Following the relevant retention period, we will securely destroy the information. In line with common practice, this data will be retained for 35 years following closure of records.

If you would like to know more about how we store your data, please contact transport@lambeth.gov.uk.

Recipients

  • education providers (for example schools, colleges and day-care providers)
  • Department for Transport, Department of Health and Department for Education and other agencies with whom we have a duty to cooperate with
  • other Lambeth Council teams so they can carry out their statutory roles and support our service (for example social care, housing, education, complaints, business intelligence, corporate finance, legal services)
  • transport contractors (taxi, bus and independent travel providers)
  • pre-paid financial services (where a reimbursement for travel costs has been agreed)
  • NHS
  • IT providers that support our transport functions (for example text messaging to parents and carers, and database and routing systems)
  • the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability)
  • relevant agencies and parties in relation to safeguarding and child protection matters
  • other local authorities (education, social care, relevant housing, employment and other services)
  • emergency and medical services (for example ambulance, school nurse or GP)
  • commissioned social care and/or health services

Rights

You have the right to access, rectify and delete personal information, in addition to other rights as explained in the full version of our privacy notice.

You have the right to contact us with a complaint if you’re unhappy with the way your personal data has been used.

We are committed to resolving complaints about our collection or use of personal information.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO if this issue is not resolved. You may at any time control access to and use of your personal information by contacting the Controller DPO.

Such control will include the ability to see what information we hold and to opt out of any use of your personal information and to prevent disclosure to any third party except as required by law or the order of a court of proper jurisdiction.

Additional information

Please visit the full version of our privacy notice.