School Travel Assistance (STA) and Transport Co-ordination

The London Borough of Hounslow is a Data Controller and we are responsible for collecting and processing your personal information. Processing includes the organisation, retrieval, consultation, use and deletion or destruction of information and its disclosure to other agencies.

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when the Council collects personal information. This privacy notice covers contact with the Council and its officers directly, through email, telephone and this website.

The processing of your personal information is necessary for compliance with the statutory obligation contained in the Home to School Travel and Transport Guidance (July 2014), the Post 16 Transport to Education and Training Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities (February 2014) and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years (January 2015).

The London Borough of Hounslow as Data Controller will be responsible for:

collecting and processing the majority of the Health and Social care information that you provide us under Lawful Processing Article 6(1)(e) ‘… necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority …’ and Article 9(2)(g) ‘... for reasons of substantial public interest…’ of the General Data Protection Regulations.

The details of your child’s needs will fall under special categories of personal data for the safe transportation of a child/young person if relevant to your application

If you have any questions regarding this privacy notice, please contact schooltravelassistance@hounslow.gov.uk

Purpose for processing your information

The London Borough of Hounslow’s School Travel Assistance (STA) service is the assessment team for the processing of applications for assisted transport provision to education establishments and the initial contact point for assisted passenger transport enquiries.

The London Borough of Hounslow’s Transport Co-ordination service is the coordinator for arranging passenger transport provision to educational establishments and the contact point for transport queries once instruction for provision is received from the STA team.

We collect the following information:

Information we request from you is for processing your assisted transport provision application and to assess your child’s eligibility against the Council’s Policy for Assisted Passenger Transport to ensure appropriate travel assistance is put in place. These are:

Full name of your child,
Date of birth,
Home address,
Parent/carers full name and address if different from your child,
Your contact details including phone numbers and email address
Information on the child’s siblings
Details of your child’s needs

This information is only used for the intended purpose but if we intend to use it for any other purpose; we will normally ask you first. In some cases, the Council may use your information for another purpose if it has a legal duty to do so, to provide a complete service to you, to prevent and detect fraud, or if there is a risk of serious harm or threat to life.

How we collect your information

The initial application for a school travel assistance can either be submitted online or can be e-mailed to you for completion. Additional information will be requested by STA or Transport Co-ordination during the assessment process and thereafter once travel assistance is in place either by letter, email, telephone or face- to-face and shared with:

Council’s Drivers and Attendants
External contractors who provide transport on the Council’s behalf and where necessary their Drivers and Attendants.
Educational establishments and medical professionals.

Who we share your information with (internally and externally)

The STA and Transport Co-ordination services may also use your information for other legitimate purposes and may share (where necessary) with other Council departments and external bodies responsible for administering services to children and young people. Reasons for sharing information with the internal and external bodies will be; to enable the processing of travel assistance, to fulfil the council’s safeguarding duty and comply with the Prevent Strategy, to provide Central Government bodies with mandatory data returns, The Home Office to notify of potential illegal immigration and the Police may request information at any time as part of a criminal investigation.

Internal bodies are; the SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) Teams, the Management Information Team, the Early Help Service, the MASH team and Safeguarding Services, the Early Years’ Service and Drivers and Attendants.

External bodies are; transport suppliers (private minicab and minibus operators) and their drivers and attendants, schools/academies/nurseries (previous, current and applied for); health professionals, other Councils/boroughs and the Police. Central Government bodies comprising of the Department for Education, the Local Government Ombudsmen; the Home Office and the Department of Work and Pension.

For validating proof of address, the STA team will refer to data held by any of the services mentioned above, internal Council Tax records, the Housing Team, Parking Services and the Fraud Team.

How we store and transfer the data and information

Your application form and supporting information will be stored securely by the STA and Transport Co-ordination Teams both electronically and in hard copy. Any data shared outside the Council will be transferred in a secure, electronic format or be password protected. Data and information will be retained in line with our retention schedule which can be provided upon request.

Changes in your circumstances

You must notify us immediately if there are any changes in your circumstances and personal details, so we can maintain an accurate and up to date record of your information.

Travel Assistance Appeals

Personal data is held to ensure that all information relevant to an appeal is available to enable a fair judgement to be made.

The Council’s appeals process is set out within the School Travel Assistance Policy and accessed via the link below.

Your data protection rights

The Council tries to be as open as it can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. Individuals can find out if we hold any personal information by making a Subject Access Request

You can make a request to the Council for any personal information we may hold about you by:

Completing the online form

Emailing the Customer Relations team

The data protection law also gives you the following rights:

The right to be informed
The right to rectification
The right to erasure
The right to restrict processing
The right to data portability
The right to object
Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

Depending on the lawful basis on which the Council relies on for processing your personal data you may not always be able to exercise some of these rights. For more information about your rights please visit the ICO's website.

Data Protection Officer

The Council’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted on:
Email: InformationGovernance@hounslow.gov.uk

Information Governance Team
London Borough of Hounslow
Hounslow House
7 Bath Road
Hounslow
Middlesex
TW3 3EB

Information Commissioner’s Office

The Information Commissioner is the UK's independent body set up to uphold information rights.

If you would like to know more about your rights under the Data Protection law, and what you should expect from us, visit the Information Commissioner’s website.

If you have any concerns regarding our privacy practices or about exercising your Data Protection rights, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745
Email: casework@ico.org.uk