1. The JESS Cluster takes its obligations under the Data Protection legislation very seriously. The main laws are the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation. The information you provide to The JESS Cluster will be subject to rigorous measures and procedures to make sure that it cannot be seen, accessed or disclosed to anyone who should not see it. Our service also needs to use sensitive personal data relating to you (also called “special category data”) which requires more protection by us to keep it safe. Leeds City Council are the owner (data controller) of this information and therefore obliged to fully comply with the relevant Data Protection laws and regulations.
2. Any personal and sensitive information you provide will be collected, used, shared and held by Leeds City Council Cluster for the purposes of providing support to you and your family. Usually, we collect and hold your information to enable us to comply with a legal obligation, or because we are acting in the public interest or exercising a public task in our official authority. Please note, we would like you to fully engage with us, however there may be circumstances where may use and share your information without your agreement, as we are legally required to do so.
3. Where appropriate and in order to make the best decisions for children and young people, The JESS Cluster will share your information with other services in Leeds City Council (such as social care or the Families First programme etc) and also with other relevant organisations, such as the NHS, schools and the Police etc. We may also give some information about you to relevant government departments, such as the Department for Education or the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for reporting purposes and in order to make the services of Leeds better.
4. There may be cases where we need to liaise with foreign authorities, for example when a child with links to a foreign country is missing education or becomes the subject of a child protection plan, or requires immediate protection, however we will ensure the safeguards are in place to protect the data
5. We are required by law to keep records for varying lengths of time depending on individual circumstances. This information is set out in our retention schedule. More information can be given to you on request or can be found on our website, www.leeds.gov.uk
6. You have rights in respect of the information we hold about you, including the right to ask for access to your information or to withdraw from this process. Further information in respect of your rights is available at https://www.leeds.gov.uk/opendata/your-rights. To exercise any of your rights, please speak to a member of cluster staff in the first instance or contact: dpfoi@leeds.gov.uk; any One Stop Centre or send to Information Management & Governance, PO Box 837, LS1 9PZ, and we will advise you of the procedure.
7. The Council’s corporate privacy notice, which includes details of the authority’s Data Protection Officer (see the above contact details) is available at: https://www.leeds.gov.uk/privacy-statement/privacy-notice. A paper copy of this information is available on request. In addition you can contact the Information Commissioner if you have any concerns at www.ico.org.uk
