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Health and social care

Children's Social Care Privacy Notice

City of York Council (CYC) current data protection notification is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) - reference Z5809563.

We regularly review this privacy notice, and it was last updated in May 2025.

CYC is committed to ensuring that personal data is handled in accordance with the principles set out in data protection legislation and guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when we collect and use your information. It applies to Children’s Social Care Services.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice contact the council’s Data Protection Officer.

This privacy notice should be read in conjunction with other CYC privacy notices that are available in our Privacy Notice and/or CYC policies and procedures.

When appropriate we will provide a ‘just in time’ notice to cover any additional processing activities not mentioned in this document.

How we collect your information

We may collect information about you from the following sources:

  • directly from you
  • from third parties acting on your behalf such as family members, advocates
  • from our partner organisations, commissioned partners, providers or contractors who undertake work on our behalf
  • from the police
  • from schools, academies and education providers
  • from our existing children’s services records
  • from court decisions relating to our statutory legal duties
  • details of any child or young person in care placed in York by other local authorities

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What personal data we process and why

We will process some or all of the following personal data and special categories of personal data:

  • name including any previous names
  • address including any previous addresses
  • contact details such phone number and email address
  • age and/or date of birth
  • disability
  • race
  • religion or belief
  • sex
  • sexual orientation
  • details of any young person reported missing from home
  • attendance and exclusion information (such as sessions attended, number of absences, reasons, details to support statutory processes), pupil characteristics, and unique pupil number
  • other personal identifiers such as NHS numbers and Port-Reference and Home Office numbers
  • details of family relationships, including those of extended family and friends
  • reasons for support - such as what is working well and what you are worried about
  • assessment and plan information for children in need - such as further details of your strengths and what you are having difficulties with, and how we are going to work together to bring about the changes required
  • information gathered during child protection processes - during Section 47 of Children Act 1989 enquiries/investigations and Child Protection Conferences
  • episodes of being looked after (such as important dates and information on placements), and information gathered during these episodes (such as reviews)
  • outcomes for looked after children, such as, your achievements and attainment, whether health and dental assessments are up-to-date, strengths and difficulties questionnaire scores and personal education plans
  • adoption information, including dates of court orders and decisions and information relating to post-adoption support provided
  • information on care experienced young people, including their; education, attainment, employment status, achievements and the type of accommodation they are living in
  • information gathered as part of preparing for adulthood and transition planning from children social care to adult social care
  • your comments, feedback and opinions if you choose to take part in our surveys, consultation or events your photo, video and audio recordings with your consent
  • information relating to criminal convictions and offences, including details of any past criminal convictions or offences

We use your information to provide specialist support for a child, young person and their family such as:

  • safeguard and support children, and to monitor their progress
  • enable integrated working with other teams and organisations to ensure you receive the right support at the right time
  • plan and provide the most appropriate level of support to you and your family
  • support you to access relevant support and advice, services and groups, including supporting parents with parenting and/or with difficulties they are facing such as domestic abuse, substance misuse including alcohol, poor emotion wellbeing and/or mental health
  • undertake our statutory duties to refer young people and families as required to local housing authorities to reduce homelessness
  • support the provision of free bus passes to children in care and care leavers
  • refer you, your child or family to other services so that additional support can be accessed easily
  • inform you about forthcoming events/activities that may be of interest to you, if you have consented for us to do so
  • when you attend a virtual appointment, event, meeting, briefing or training session
  • preparing for adulthood and transition planning from children social care to adult social care
  • prepare information for the courts as required
  • evaluate and quality assure the services we provide and improve our policies on children’s social care. This will include seeking your feedback on the services you and your family have received
  • inform future service provision and the commissioning of services
  • analyse service provision and effectiveness, and model patterns of service involvement to support future service delivery planning
  • support the provision of professional staff learning, development and training
  • emergency and resilience planning

We may use your information to create reports and statistics that are anonymous and cannot be linked back to you, your family, or individuals such as:

  • statistical analysis
  • statutory returns
  • audit framework
  • see how the council and its partners are supporting individuals
  • help design better services
  • inform funding decisions

When you complete an online form on the council’s website and you have provided your email address, we will send you a copy of your completed online form.

We will ask for your consent:

You can withdraw your consent at anytime by contacting us on email: information.governance@york.gov.uk.

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Automated decision-making

We do not carry out any automated decision-making in Children’s Social Care Services.

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Collecting information automatically

Please see our Cookies Policy for further information about the information we collect automatically when you use our website.

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Children’s information

Where we provide services directly to children or young people, the information in the relevant parts of this notice applies to children and young people, as well as adults.

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Lawful basis for processing your personal data

Any personal data including special category data and criminal offence data that we process about individuals is done so in accordance with one or more of the following Article 6, 9 and 10 of the UK GDPR and Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018).

Article 6(1):

  • (a) Consent: the individual has given clear consent for the council to process their personal data for a specific purpose
  • (b) Contract: the processing is necessary for a contract the council has with the individual, or because they have asked the council to take specific steps before entering into a contract
  • (c) Legal obligation: the processing is necessary for the council to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations)
  • (d) Vital interests: the processing is necessary to protect someone’s life
  • (e) Public task: the processing is necessary for the council to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law
  • (f) Legitimate interests: the processing is necessary for the council’s legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, unless there is a good reason to protect the individual’s personal data which overrides those legitimate interests (This cannot apply if you are a public authority processing data to perform your official tasks)

Article 9(2):

  • (a) Explicit consent
  • (b) Employment, social security and social protection (if authorised by law)
  • (c) Vital interests
  • (g) Reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law)
  • (h) Health or social care (with a basis in law)

This is supported by Schedule 1, Part 2 (6) of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the following legal framework:

Where we process personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences, this is also under Article 10 UK GDPR that covers processing in relation to criminal convictions and offences or related security measures. In addition, section 11(2) of the DPA 2018 specifically confirms that this includes personal data relating to the alleged commission of offences, or proceedings for an offence committed or alleged to have been committed, including sentencing.

Some of the Schedule 1 conditions for processing special category and criminal offence data require an Appropriate Policy Document (APD) to be in place, which sets out and explains the procedures for securing compliance with the principles in Article 5 and policies regarding the retention and erasure of such personal data. This document explains this processing and satisfies the requirements of Schedule 1, Part 4 of the DPA 2018 and supplements this privacy notice.

Our Appropriate Policy Document provides further information about this processing.

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How long we keep your personal data

We will only keep your information for as long as is necessary and then we will delete or destroy it securely.

You can find more details about how long the council keeps records in the council retention schedule.

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Data sharing

We will only share your information where it is appropriate to, with:

  • other CYC services
  • other councils, government departments and agencies such as Department of Education, Department of Work and Pensions, the Home Office, His Majesty's Courts and Tribunal Service other organisations such as the Police, NHS
  • charities and other voluntary sector organisations
  • third parties including our data processors, commissioned partners or contractors, who undertake work on our behalf such as Independent Foster Care Agencies, Children’s Homes, Semi-Independent accommodation Providers, Supported Lodgings Providers, Residential Special Schools and Secure accommodation).
  • internal and external auditors
  • schools, academies and education providers
  • Ofsted (in the event of a local authority inspection of children’s services)
  • The Share-Foundation

In some circumstances, such as under a court order or safeguarding, we are legally obliged to share information.

We will always satisfy ourselves that we have a lawful basis on which to share the information and document our decision-making and satisfy ourselves we have a legal basis on which to share the information.

Additionally we are required under the Public Records Act 1958 (as amended) to transfer records to the City or National Archives (TNA) for permanent preservation. Full consideration will be given to Data Protection and Freedom of Information legislation when making decisions about whether such records should be open to the public.

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Data processors and/or third parties

Where we have third parties providing parts or all of our services for us, we have contracts or agreements in place with them. These include:

Where we provide information in British Sign Language via the City of York Council YouTube channel please read YouTube Privacy Settings and Google Privacy Policy.

The Children and Young People (CYP) Integrated Children System

The CYP Integrated Children System is owned and managed by CYC and contains personal data and special category information about children attending CYC schools and matches additional personal data from multiple data sources within CYC to the pupils.

The aim of the dataset is to allow statistical analysis and research to:

  • support and inform council transformation by ensuring the holistic characteristics and needs of the child population are fully understood
  • provide appropriate levels of insight, evidence and evaluation to embed knowledge and understanding of children and young people’s needs and issues into service programs and projects, including the commissioning of new services
  • inform future service delivery planning and integrated working to improve outcomes for children and young people

The council has robust processes in place to ensure the confidentiality of our data is maintained and there are stringent controls in place regarding access and use of the data. The child-level dataset is not shared outside of the council. All personal data is stored in secured electronic files with restricted access. Only pseudonymised data is used for analysis.

Pseudonymised data means where we use your information in such a way that it can no longer identify a specific person without the use of additional information. That additional information is always kept securely and separate from pseudonymised data.

Outputs and analysis take the form of aggregated data and are for the purpose of CYC teams and partners working to improve outcomes for children and young people.

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Transfers of personal data

We don’t routinely transfer personal data outside of the UK but when this is necessary we ensure that we have appropriate safeguards in place and that is done in accordance with the UK data protection and privacy legislation.

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How we protect your information

We're committed to keeping your information safe and secure. There are several ways we do this, such as:

  • IT security safeguards such as firewalls, encryption, and anti-virus software
  • on-site security safeguards to protect physical files and electronic equipment
  • training for all staff and elected councillors
  • policies and procedures

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Your rights in relation to this processing

To find out about your rights under data protection law, you can go to the Information Commissioner's Office website.

You can also find information about your rights in our Privacy Notice.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, want to exercise your rights, or if you have a complaint about how your information has been used, please contact us on email: information.governance@york.gov.uk, or on telephone: 01904 554145, or write to:

Data Protection Officer
City of York Council
West Offices
Station Rise
York YO1 6GA

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Also see

Data Protection Officer

West Offices, Station Rise, York, YO1 6GA

Telephone: 01904 554145

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