Children and young people: Information held by local authorities

The UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018: How we use your information

We use information about children and young people to enable us to carry out specific functions for which we are responsible. We also use this personal data to derive statistics which inform decisions we make (e.g.) regarding the funding of schools, to assess their performance and set targets for them. These statistics are used in such a way that individual children cannot be identified.          

Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) use information about pupils for research and statistical purposes, to develop, monitor and evaluate the performance of local health services. These statistics will not identify individual pupils. It is necessary for certain health information about children (e.g. such as their height and weight) to be retained for a certain period of time (designated by the Department of Health) and requires these PCTs to maintain children’s names and addresses for this purpose. PCTs may also provide individual schools and LAs with aggregated health information which will not identify individual children.    

Education and training: we hold information about young people living in our area, including about their education and training history. This is to support the provision of their education up to the age of 20 (and beyond this age for those with a special education need or disability).  Education institutions, (including colleges and training providers) and other public bodies (including the Department for Education (DfE), police, probation and health services) may pass information to us to help us to do this (under the Education and Skills Act 2008, parts 1 and 2). 

We share some of the information we collect with the Department for Education (DfE) to enable them to: produce statistics, assess our performance, determine the destinations of young people after they have left school or college and to evaluate Government funded programmes.

We may also share information with post-16 education and training providers to secure appropriate support for them.  We may also share data with education establishments which shows what their pupils go on to do after the age of 16. 

For children under 16, a parent or guardian can ask that no information other than their child’s name, address and date of birth (or their own name and address) be passed to a local authority. This right transfers to the child on their 16th birthday. Pupils and/or a parent/guardian will need to inform the school/LA if this is what they wish.

DfE may share individual level personal data that we supply to them, with third parties. This will only take place where legislation allows it to do so and it is in compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018. 

Decisions on whether DfE releases this personal data to third parties are subject to a robust approval process and are based on a detailed assessment of who is requesting the data, the purpose for which it is required, the level and sensitivity of data requested and the arrangements in place to store and handle the data. To be granted access to pupil level data, requestors must comply with strict terms and conditions covering the confidentiality and handling of data, security arrangements and retention and use of the data.

For more information on how this sharing process works, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-pupil-database-apply-for-a-data-extract

For information on which third party organisations (and for which project) pupil level data has been provided to, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-pupil-database-requests-received

If you require more information about how we and/or DfE store and use your personal data please visit:

Children and Family Wellbeing Service: Effective support for children, young people and families requires secure handling of any personal and sensitive information about families. How that information is managed or shared can be seen in more detail if you visit: Children and Family Wellbeing Service Privacy Notice - Lancashire County Council

If you want to see a copy of information about you that we hold, please contact: