Privacy notice for DurhamLearn

Who we are and what we do

DurhamLearn provides a broad range of adult education and training provision to encourage personal development, support health and wellbeing, as well as provide opportunities to gain skills and qualifications to aid further education and employment. DurhamLearn works in partnership with voluntary and community organisations, public health and employers to ensure it meets the needs of our local community.

For the purposes of Data Protection, Durham County Council is the Data Controller for your information.

The type of personal information we collect and how we collect it

You may be asked to enter personal data on one of our forms or asked to give personal information if you contact us. Personal data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.

Personal data we collect:

• full name
• gender
• date of birth
• unique learner number and personal learning record
• contact details (address, telephone number, mobile number, email address)
• national insurance number
• emergency contact details
• ethnicity, nationality, residency information
• learning difficulties, disabilities and health problems and any additional support needs
• employment status, including any benefits you receive
• information about your career, workplace, employer
• data and information about your learning, including courses and qualifications you are taking or have taken
• outcomes of your English, Maths, and ICT initial assessments
• declaration regarding criminal convictions
• declaration if you are a care leaver or looked after child
• proof of identity
• proof of residency status (if applicable)
• proof of low wage (if declared)
• your attendance to courses (such as sessions attended, number of absences and absence reasons)
• safeguarding information (such as court orders and professional involvement)

For learners with special education needs we also collect:

• declaration if you have a current Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) and information about any current EHCP
• doctor's name, surgery address and contact details
• name and contact details of advocate or appointee

We collect information about you in the following ways:

• when you contact DurhamLearn via telephone or email
• when you submit an online enquiry form through the council website
• face to face, for example at events or in a classroom
• via online video conferencing software, for example Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Canvas
• through both paper and electronic enrolment forms, individual learning plans and risk assessments
• when you complete learner evaluations/surveys on paper or online via Microsoft Forms

What our lawful basis is to obtain and use your personal information

When we collect and use your personal information, we rely on one of the following:

• Consent: You or a legal representative have given consent.
• Vital Interests: It is necessary to protect someone in an emergency.
• Public task: The processing is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions to provide education services to the community.

When we collect special category personal information, we rely on the following:

• Substantial Public Interest: The processing is necessary to benefit society as a whole.

How we use your personal information

DurhamLearn collects and processes information about you for the following purposes:

• To meet our contractual obligations with the Department for Education (DfE), the North East Combined Authority (NECA) and the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). This helps NECA and ESFA to ensure that public money distributed through themselves, is being spent in line with government targets. It is also used for education, training, employment and well-being purposes, including research.
• To provide you with our adult education services and to develop and improve the service.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of the service via an external provider to conduct learner surveys and determine learner destinations.

Reasons we may share your personal information

We do share your personal information. Sharing information is required to enable us to provide you with a range of training opportunities and to provide you with relevant support. 

When we share your information, we do it with the following organisations:

• Department for Education (DfE)
• North East Combined Authority (NECA)
• Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)
• Learning Records Service (LRS)
• Student Loans Company (SLC)
• Ofsted
• Other colleges and education providers
• BKSB, who provide an initial assessment and learning platform for our English, Maths, and digital skills courses
• E-signature companies to provide online enrolments and other learner documentation; these are currently Signable and iPEGS Ltd
• The Skills Network, who provide an online enrolment and learning platform for a selection of our courses
• QualsDirect and Smart Assessor/OneAdvanced, who provide an e-portfolio system
• Canvas, who provide an online virtual learning platform
• PICS/OneAdvanced, who provide our management information system
• Awarding bodies for examinations
• The Flash Academy, a digital platform to support with our ESOL courses
• Other partner organisations we contract with for the collection of learner destination data and evaluation services, for example we have used a partner organisation J2 Research for this purpose in the past.

There are other times, not linked to your care and support, where we may need to share your information lawfully. These include:

• where there is a serious risk of harm to you or to others
• where there are concerns for the welfare of a child
• for the prevention or detection of crime
• where a court order requires us to share information about you.

How your information is kept secure

The security of your personal information is important to us. This is why we follow a range of security policies and procedures to control and safeguard access to and use of your personal information.

Controlling access to systems and networks allows us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal information from getting access to it. Training for our staff allows us to make them aware of how to handle information and how and when to report when something goes wrong. We undertake regular testing of our technology and ways of working including keeping up to date on the latest security updates (commonly called 'patches').

How long we keep your information for

After we deliver a service to you, we have to keep your information as a business record of what was delivered. The type of service will determine how long we have to keep it.

Our corporate retention guidelines on our Privacy notices and data protection page show how long we keep information for different services. This ranges from months for some records to decades for more sensitive records.

The retention periods for this service are as follows:

• For 6 years from the end of the financial year in which the last payment is made for your course to us, in line with our agreement with NECA and/or ESFA.
• Where learner records data is used as match on the 2014-20 ESF programme, we must retain your data securely until 31 December 2034.

Processing personal information outside of the UK/EU

Your personal data is stored on our IT infrastructure and shared with our data processors, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. It may be transferred and stored securely in the UK and European Economic Area (EEA). If your data is stored outside of the UK and EEA, it will have equivalent legal protection through Model Contract Clauses.

Marketing

At no time will your information be used or passed to others for marketing or sales purposes, or for any commercial use without your express consent.

Your information rights

Your information rights are set out in the law. Subject to some legal exceptions, you have the right to:

• access your personal data
• have any inaccuracies corrected
• have your personal data erased
• place a restriction on our processing of your data
• object to processing, and
• to request your data to be ported (data portability)

To exercise your rights, you can apply online or download an application form from our Privacy notices and data protection page or you can contact the data protection team at inforights@durham.gov.uk.

To learn more about these rights please see Information Commissioner's Office: Individual rights - guidance and resources.

Further information

Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) provides help and guidance to make sure we apply the best standards to protecting your personal information. If something goes wrong with your personal information, or you have questions about how we process your data, please contact our Information Governance team at inforights@durham.gov.uk or write to:

DPO
Chief Executives Services
Council Offices
Green Lane
Spennymoor
County Durham
United Kingdom
DL16 6JQ

If we have not been able to deal with your complaint, you can also contact the .

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

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745