Education: Inclusion and Attendance Privacy Notice

This privacy notice is regularly reviewed and may be updated or revisited at any time. It was last updated in December 2025. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes.

  1. Introduction
  2. What personal data do we collect?
  3. How we use personal data
  4. Legal Basis for processing
  5. Who do we share personal data with?
  6. How long do we keep personal data?
  7. Automated decisions
  8. Your rights
  9. Data Protection Officer.

Introduction

Our core data protection obligations and commitments are set out in Wigan Council Primary Privacy Notice.

This notice provides additional privacy information for:

  • Attendance Services
  • Children Missing Education
  • Elective Home Education
  • Engagement Centres
  • Inclusion
  • Virtual School.

The Inclusion Service works to ensure that all children and young people in Wigan have equitable access to education and the support they need to achieve positive outcomes. This includes services for School Attendance, Children Missing Education, Elective Home Education, Engagement Centres, Education Safeguarding and the Virtual School for children with a social worker or in care. We process personal data to fulfil statutory duties, coordinate support, and work in partnership with parents/carers, schools and other agencies to promote inclusion and safeguard wellbeing.

What personal data do we collect?

To carry out activities and obligations as a Education services supporting Inclusion and Attendance we process the following personal data:

  • Name
  • Date of birth
  • Address
  • Telephone number
  • Email address
  • Gender
  • Marital status/civil partnerships
  • Family relationships including siblings, where relevant
  • Academic attainment and progress
  • Attendance records
  • Previous education settings
  • Reason for Home Education
  • Immigration/Residency status
  • Reasons for suspension, exclusion, and behaviour logs, where relevant
  • Looked after and previously looked after children status
  • Involvement with UK Border Agency, where relevant
  • Other service involvement.

We also process the following special category data:

  • Health-related data including any Special Educational Needs and Disability
  • Information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs.

We also process the following criminal offence data:

  • Involvement with police and/or probation including any offences, alleged offences and convictions.

How we use personal data

The main purposes for processing your personal data are:

  • To administer the service, we have entered into with you including making decisions about the support you receive from us
  • To check age and residency status to ensure that the children and young people who are referred to us are eligible for the services we provide and to meet our statutory responsibilities
  • To ensure children and young people have access to appropriate educational provision which is a statutory obligation of the Local Authority
  • To identify if your child is registered at a school, or registered as Electively home educated and is receiving a effective, suitable full-time education
  • To identify if your child is at risk of or is missing education due to not being registered, unsuitable home education, unable to determine the provision in place, unauthorised absence, exclusions or a because they have a reduced timetable in school
  • To make timely and effective enquiries to find out where your child is, if school and the Local Authority are unable to locate them
  • To take steps, where appropriate, if children and young people are not receiving a suitable education, including making decisions about whether to use legal powers if your child has irregular school attendance without a good reason, is not on roll at a school or not receiving a suitable education
  • To offer guidance, advice on good practice and resources for parents who request it
  • To make arrangements for alternative provision for children and young people in order to meet our statutory duties under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996
  • To ascertain appropriate school place offer for children who are being allocated a place using the Fair Access Protocol
  • Where the Council is corporate parent for children looked after, to monitor and support their education
  • To offer appropriate advice and guidance to meet your child’s educational needs for children previously looked after or those supported by a Social Worker.

Legal Basis for processing

The lawful bases we rely on for processing your personal data are:

  • Compliance with a Legal Obligation
  • Performance of a Task in the Public Interest.
  • The legal gateways include, but are not limited to:
    • Education Act 1996
    • Education Act 2002, Children Act 1989
    • Children and Families Act 2014
    • DfE Departmental Guidance for Local Authorities.
    • Working together to improve school attendance 2024
    • Children missing education: statutory guidance for local authorities and schools 2025
    • Elective home education: Departmental guidance for local authorities 2019
    • Suspension and permanent exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England, including pupil movement 2024
    • Arranging education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs 2023
    • Summary of responsibilities where a mental health issue is affecting attendance 2023
    • Arranging Alternative Provision 2025
    • Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025
    • Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010.
  • Consent – we also rely on consent in relation to Engagement Centres, referrals for provision under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 and primary intervention places at Three Towers Alternative Provision Academy.

The condition we rely on for processing your special category data is:

  • Reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law): Statutory etc and government purposes as it is necessary to provide meaningful equal opportunities monitoring and reporting, to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, identify children at risk of harm and to ensure provision of appropriate and person-centred support.

The condition we rely on for processing your criminal data is:

  • Reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law): Statutory etc and government purposes.

Who do we share personal data with?

In addition to the general reasons for data sharing described in the Council’s Primary Privacy Notice, we share data with and collect data from the following when required:

  • Other teams within Wigan Council
  • Other local authorities
  • Government departments and agencies including but not limited to Department for Education, UK Border Agency, Home Office, Department of Health and Social Care and other agencies with whom we have a duty to co-operate (e.g. Ofsted, HMRC)
  • Health service providers including GPs and others who deliver health services and programmes on our behalf
  • Educational establishments, including Schools, free schools, academies, independent schools, alternative education providers, Diocesan boards
  • Police
  • Courts
  • Youth Justice system
  • Adoption agencies
  • Any other person or organisation exercising functions or are engaged in activities in relation to children and adults in the authority’s area.

This is not an exhaustive list as we are required to share information with other agencies or public bodies where there are safeguarding concerns raised about a child and in order to discharge the Council’s statutory duties.

How long do we keep personal data?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any future legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

We must continue to retain necessary data in accordance with our corporate records policy to fulfil legal, statutory and regulatory requirements.

Automated decisions

All the decisions we make about you involve human intervention.

Your rights

More information on how to seek advice to exercise your rights, raise a concern or complain about the handling of your personal data by the council can be found in at Wigan Council Primary Privacy Notice.

Data Protection Officer

If you wish to raise a concern or seek clarification about any aspect of this notice, please contact our Data Protection Officer. Please provide documents to prove your identity along with a description of your concern.

We will respond to all requests within one month.

If you are unhappy with the way that we handle your concern you may complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) (external link).

Document information

Owner: Cath Pealing, Assistant Director Education

Author: Charmaine Tarring, Service Lead Virtual School Head and Inclusion

Version and date: V1.0 December 2025