Prevent Duty Data Sharing
Dear Acland Burghley School, London,
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
According to the Prevent Duty, public institutions should pay due regard to Prevent. Many make arrangements under safeguarding policies to share data with the police or local Prevent/Channel bodies.
This means that you should make arrangements for referring concerns to the local authority or police, usually entering into Data Sharing Agreements (DSA) with regards to Prevent and/or Channel. According to legislation, DSA’s should be entered into after a Data Protection Impact Assessment has been carried out. Any data processing should be covered by a Data Processing Contract.
Please clarify:
a: Does your school have a data sharing agreement for the purposes of sharing information on persons referred to Prevent and/or Channel?
b: If no to (a), do you enter into ad-hoc arrangements for sharing referral data? If so, please detail how this works.
Additionally, please release:
1: Any Data Sharing Agreement(s) made with regards to Prevent and/or Channel, or which otherwise meet your obligations under the Prevent Duty. If you use a generic safeguarding DSA, please release that.
2: Any Data Protection Impact Assessment done in relation to these Data Sharing Agreement(s).
3: Any Data Processing Contract(s) relevant to the Data Sharing Agreement(s).
Please also answer the following questions:
4: Where is Prevent-related data stored?
5: Is this a separate database to other databases you keep?
6: Who has access to this data?
7: For how long is the data retained?
8: Is consent sought from the subject before sharing this data?
9: Please list all the persons consulted on the decision to release the above information (only position and organization)
I note that a number of local authorities, including Prevent priority areas, have proactively made public their Information Sharing Agreements and Data Protection Impact Assessments that are attached to Prevent and Channel programmes.
This includes Hampshire County Counil, which has released its Information Sharing Agreement; Lincolnshire Police, which has released multiple Information Sharing Agreements signed between itself and public bodies in Lincolnshire; Camden Borough Council, which has released its Data Protection Impact Assessment, and Blackburn and Darwen, which has released its Memorandum of Understanding. London Multi-Agency Data Sharing Agreement for Safeguarding and Promoting the Welfare of Children is also publicly available.
I look forward to your reply.
Yours faithfully,
Sam Andrews
Dear Sam,
Thank you for your request for information dated 30 March 2023 about
Prevent referrals. We have dealt with this under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.
Response
The school holds some of the information requested, however we are
withholding some of the information because it is exempt as explained
below. We have explained where we are withholding information and what
exemptions apply. Please see the refusal notices at the end of the answers
which explain how and why they apply.
a: Does your school have a data sharing agreement for the purposes of
sharing information on persons referred to Prevent and/or Channel?
We do not hold a Data Sharing Agreement because we do not share
Prevent-related material often and there is very little amount of data to
share regarding such cases, so that any sharing can be done under ad hoc
arrangements. Data Sharing Agreements and associated documentation would
only be needed where there is a frequent amount of voluminous sharing. A
Data Sharing Agreement does not give the power to share: it merely records
the legal basis and terms and conditions already agreed for sharing.
b: If no to (a), do you enter into ad-hoc arrangements for sharing
referral data? If so, please detail how this works.
Yes, where appropriate. This is done on a case by case basis and
information is stored appropriately.
Additionally, please release:
1: Any Data Sharing Agreement(s) made with regards to Prevent and/or
Channel, or which otherwise meet your obligations under the Prevent Duty.
None held, as per the above.
2: Any Data Protection Impact Assessment done in relation to these Data
Sharing Agreement(s).
None held, as per the above.
3: Any Data Processing Contract(s) relevant to the Data Sharing
Agreement(s).
None held, as per the above.
Please also answer the following questions:
4: Where is Prevent-related data stored?
In a safeguarding referral spreadsheet that records all safeguarding
referrals made. Relevant details are also stored in an appropriate place
in the child's record. All school systems have full role based access
control to ensure that only those who need access will be able to access
these systems.
5: Is this a separate database to other databases you keep?
It is in the same spreadsheet as all other safeguarding referrals made are
stored.
6: Who has access to this data?
The Senior Leadership Team, Safeguarding Team, and Pastoral Team.
7: For how long is the data retained?
Child Protection Data is stored until the child's 25th birthday in line
with our document retention schedule.
8: Is consent sought from the subject before sharing this data?
Consent is not required this is because consent is not the legal basis for
sharing any data under prevent.
9: Please list all the persons consulted on the decision to release the
above information (only position and organization)
We have withheld this information under the absolute exemption in Section
40 (2). The information withheld is personal information because it allows
a living individual to be identified. We have considered the legitimate
public interest in disclosure against the interests of the data subject/s
and concluded that disclosure would contravene the principle in the
General Data Protection Regulation that personal data is processed fairly
and lawfully. In the circumstances of the case disclosure would not be
fair to the individuals particularly considering that Freedom of
Information responses are public documents and published to the world and
not provided just to the requester.
We are withholding the staff positions and the organisation which they
work for as we believe that if we were to release this information into
the public domain those individuals would be easily identifiable by
conducting a simple google search. We supply the names, positions and
contact details of senior staff all other staff would be classed as
relatively junior positions and they would have no expectation that their
details would be released into the public domain.
Your Rights
If you are not happy with how your response was handled you can request an
Internal Review within 2 months of this letter by email to
[1][email address] or post to Headteacher, Acland
Burghley School, Burghley Road, London NW5 1UJ. If you are not satisfied
with the Internal Review outcome you can complain to the Information
Commissioner’s Office at [email address], telephone 0303 123 1113, or
post to Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. The ICO website [2]www.ico.org.uk may be
useful.
Yours sincerely
Kat Miller
Kat Miller
Director of Operations
020 7485 8515
[3][email address]
[4]2018 _SCHOOLLOGOrightstrapCOLOUR
__________________________________
Acland Burghley School, London NW5 1UJ
[5]www.aclandburghley.camden.sch.uk
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References
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2. http://www.ico.org.uk/
3. mailto:[email address]
5. http://www.aclandburghley.camden.sch.uk/
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