School Appeals Service (Appellants) Privacy Notice

When City of York Council (CYC) collects and uses your personal data, we are the “controller” and comply with data protection and privacy legislation. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and our registration number is Z5809563.

This privacy notice was completed in October 2022 and we will keep it under review to make sure it is accurate and up to date. This privacy notice should be read in conjunction with the council’s main privacy notice.

The Schools Appeals Service is part of the Council’s Legal Services team. By law:

if you are refused a place at your preferred school; or
if your child is permanently excluded from school and if the governors at that school uphold the head teacher's decision;
if your child is refused free home to school transport and you feel there are other circumstances that should be considered

then you have the right to appeal against that decision to an independent panel.

The School Appeals Service supports the work of the independent appeals panel (for admissions and exclusions) and Home to School Transport Appeals Committee (for home to school transport).

Collecting personal data
Our legal basis for using personal data
Sharing personal data
How we store your information
Retaining personal data
Your rights

Collecting personal data

Information relevant to an appeal is submitted to the School Appeals Service by the parents or carers of a child who has been refused a place at their preferred school, excluded from their school, or denied home to school transport.

The basic information will include:

name
address
age
details of current school
reasons for submitting an appeal

The service may also require additional supporting information which can include supporting letters and details of academic achievement.

The service may also be required to process special category information, particularly medical information, if relevant to the appeal.

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Our legal basis for using personal data

Personal data is processed based on legal obligations that the Council is subject to. The Council processes special category data for the above purposes as it considers processing to be in the substantial public interest (legal obligations). The main legislation and statutory guidance the Council relies on is:

Admission Appeals:
- s.94 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (the SSFA);
- the School Admission Appeals Code issued under s.84 of the SSFA; and
- the School Admissions Code issued under s.84 of the SSFA.
Exclusion Reviews:
- The School Discipline (Pupil Exclusions and Reviews) (England) Regulations 2012;
- s.51A of the Education Act 2002;
- statutory guidance - School Suspensions and Permanent Exclusions.
Transport:
- the Education Act 1996; and
- statutory guidance - Home-to-School Travel and Transport (2014).

Together with such further legislation and/or statutory guidance as may be introduced from time to time in relation to admission appeals, exclusion reviews or home to school transport appeals.

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To deliver the School Appeals Service, we will need to share your personal data, using secure methods, with:

the school
the Admission Authority (for example, the relevant Academy Trust or Governing Body)
the members of the independent panel
the home to school transport appeals committee
any other parents (with parental responsibility) or named carers of the child on whose behalf an appeal has been made
other City of York council services
the Department for Education (DfE)
other local authorities (where appropriate and necessary)
professionals from health, social care and Early Help teams (where appropriate and necessary)
our Business Intelligence Unit
auditing services

We will not pass on your personal data to any third parties for marketing, sales or any other commercial purposes without your prior explicit consent.

We may use the information we collect from you for reporting, research and statistical purposes. When we do this, it will be anonymised which means the information will be turned into a form that cannot be linked back to you and does not identify individuals.

We may be required or permitted, under data protection legislation, to disclose your personal data without your explicit consent, for example if we have a legal obligation to do so, such as for:

law enforcement
fraud investigations
regulation and licensing
criminal prosecutions
court proceedings

How we store your information

We will keep the information you give us in the council’s secure network and make sure nobody has access to it, who shouldn’t.

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Retaining personal data

We will only keep your personal data for as long as we need it, for example:

Admissions appeals	2 years after panel decision
Exclusion reviews	5 years after panel decision
Home to school transport appeals	6 years after committee decision

We will securely and confidentially delete and destroy it when we no longer have a need for it.

At the end of the retention period, we may pass any relevant information to the City Archives where it is required or appropriate to do so.

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Your rights

To find out about your rights under data protection law, you can go to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

You can also find information about your rights online.

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.

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