Guide for young people and parents: Data Processing in the YPS

What is the Young People's Service?

The Young People's Service (YPS) is part of Lancashire County Council. The YPS provides services, including Connexions services, to young people aged 11-25 in the community, so that you may have:

• Somewhere to go, such as youth clubs and projects;
• Something to do, such as sports, arts, volunteering and educational visits;
• Someone to talk to and Information, Advice and Guidance.

The YPS may also have contact with children and adults outside of the 11-25 age range in its work with other agencies and community groups.

Visit our website: www.lancashire.gov.uk/yps

What Information do we hold?

We collect up-to-date information from you and receive information about you from other organisations, such as schools, colleges, training providers and other Connexions services.

We hold information to enable us to identify you and keep in touch with you, including:

• Your name
• Your date of birth
• Your address
• Your telephone number

We also hold information which will help us to know what you are doing at the moment and which may help us to give you any support you might need, including:

• Qualifications and other achievements
• Gender, ethnic origin and special educational needs
• Your school/college or employment status

Where necessary we hold other information to help us give you the right support at the right time, for example, about housing or health needs. This data is only recorded when it is appropriate to you getting the support you need.

Why do we need information about you?

We are also required by law to hold some information about you. We record and store this and other information to help us to:

Ensure you are safe and well:

If you are involved in any activities with the YPS, we will need to know your contact details and emergency contact details and perhaps any medical information, such as if you need to use an inhaler.
We also are required to hold information about you if you are at risk or in need of protection from harm.

Provide you with the right support at the right time:

It may be that you need information advice and guidance at different times – we want you to be able to have access to such support when you need it and we may contact you about this;
You may come to us to ask for support, such as through a YPS InfoCentre or Youth and Community Centre. Information about you will 'help us to help you' in such circumstances.

Give you access to opportunities, such as positive activities, training, education, volunteering and work:

You may access our website or centres for information about new opportunities, such as being involved in a Youth Council or applying to college. We need to ask for some information here to keep in touch with you and to let you know of such opportunities.

Report on and improve the way we work:

We want to offer a wide range of high quality positive activities and support services that will enable you to develop socially, personally and achieve what you want to do. 

We need to monitor and evaluate how we do as a Service – this helps us plan better services for the future. For this reason, we may include anonymous information about your involvement in the YPS in reports to show, for example:

• How many young people the YPS has contact with in Lancashire
• How many young people are in employment, education or training
• How many young people gain accreditations through the YPS
• How many young people there are from different ethnic groups in Lancashire
• How many young people have been on residentials in the previous year.

We may also undertake research or allow others to do so, to help us gain feedback on how well we are doing – in these circumstances, information that identifies you, such as name and address, will not be used without your consent.

How do we process and protect information about you?

We are required by law to protect the personal and sensitive nature of your information. Everyone working for the YPS is under a legal duty to keep your records confidential.

We store your information in paper and electronic records, which is kept confidentially and securely to prevent any unauthorised access or use. We aim to make sure that all information about you is accurate and as up-to-date as possible, which is why we will check it with you when we see you.

If you have a complaint about how we use your information, you should contact:

Catherine McManmon
Strategic Development Officer for Planning and Performance
YPS
2nd Floor Eastcliff JDO
Preston PR1 3JT
Email: catherine.mcmanmon@lancashire.gov.uk

Who sees my Information?

Only authorised staff may see your information. All staff that use the YPS database systems have been trained in using those systems within the law and within rules applied by Lancashire County Council on data security and information sharing. All employees are aware of how to handle paper and electronic records securely.

One of our databases is shared with those organisations that provide Connexions services in Lancashire, (CX Limited, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool Councils) whose staff are bound by the same level of legal and organisational duties about processing your data. Please see below for more information about these organisations.

Who else may we share your information with and what do we share?

As mentioned previously, some information about you is shared in reports as statistical information. These reports do not identify you.

We will not share any identifying information about you with anyone outside of YPS or Lancashire County Council without your consent, unless the law says we must.

This could be when there is a risk to your or another person's wellbeing or to prevent crime and disorder, or when required to by law.

Anyone who receives information from us is also under a legal duty to keep it in a secure and confidential manner. 

If you are under 12 years of age, or in some other situations we may need to ask your parents or whoever cares for you to give their consent to the sharing of any of your information.

Connexions Services in Lancashire

The joint data controllers for Connexions Services in Lancashire are Lancashire County Council, Blackpool Borough Council, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and CXL, (CXL is the trading name for CX Limited which is a company under the control of those 3 Local Authorities).

Local Authority (LA)

A Local Authority such as Lancashire County Council uses information about children and young people for whom it provides services, to enable it to carry out specific functions for which it is responsible, such as the assessment of any special educational needs the young person may have or to ensure that young people are engaged in education.

It also uses the information to derive statistics to inform decisions on (for example) the funding of services, to assess the performance of services and set targets for them.  The statistics are used in such a way that individuals cannot be identified from them.
 
Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) and ContactPoint

Since the new Government formed on 11 May 2010, the Department known as the DCSF became known as the Department of Education on 12th May 2010, (see below).

ContactPoint Implementation Halted

The roll-out of ContactPoint has been temporarily put on hold with effect from 20th May 2010, pending further instruction from the Department for Education (DfE).

All statutory guidance and legislation linked to the DfE website continues to reflect the current legal position unless indicated otherwise, but may not reflect Government Policy.  As soon as the future direction of ContactPoint is known, more information will be made available.

Department of Education

The Department of Education uses information about young people for research and statistical purposes, to inform, influence and improve policy and to monitor the performance of the services for children and young people. 
The YPS shares information that does not identify any individuals with the Department of Education, in order to provide information on young people's education, employment or training status.
Can I see my records?

You are entitled to know what information we hold about you. If you find that any of your information is wrong, tell us so that we can correct it.

If you need any further information about how we process your information or if you would like access to your information you can either send us a letter or an email. Applications should be sent to:

Processing your Information: Our Commitment to you

• Any personal or sensitive information about you will be stored securely in electronic or in paper form.
• We will protect your information from being misused and treat your information with the highest standards of confidentiality
• Your records will be updated with any changes to ensure information about you is as accurate and up-to-date as possible. We need your help to do this.
• We will ask for permission to share your information in the majority of cases.
• Information about you will only be shared without consent when there is a risk to your or another person's wellbeing; to prevent crime and disorder, when it is required by Law. You will be informed if this happens whenever possible.
• We will inform you why we are using your information - and we will only use it for those purposes.
• We will not ask you about anything which is not relevant to your involvement and participation in the Service or the support you need at the time.
• We will respect your rights under the Data Protection Act 1998 - this includes your right to see information that has been recorded about you
• We keep personal records for some time after you have stopped participating within the services we offer.  This is so that you can restart later if you chose to or to report on things that have happened in the past.
• Your records will be safely archived or destroyed according to YPS Retention and Archiving policy.