This privacy notice is to be read in conjunction with Ealing Council’s full privacy notice
This privacy notice sets out how the London borough of Ealing will use and process your information for free school meals.
Purpose for processing your information
Free school meals are a statutory benefit available to school-aged children from families who receive certain qualifying benefits. Younger children may also be eligible for free school meals if they attend a local authority nursery school or nursery class and are receiving nursery provision for a least 1 day a week.
Ealing Council undertake the free school meal checking process on behalf of the schools in the borough. We also provide food vouchers (from the Household Support Fund) to ensure families of children who are eligible for free school meals during term time can purchase food during the holidays to replace the meals their child would have received during the school day.
We collect the following information:
We need to collect your personal data in order to provide these services, which may include:
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your contact details (name, address, telephone number and email address)
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details about you (date of birth and national insurance number)
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details about your child (name, date of birth, gender and school)
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if you have declared a partner on your claim for benefits, we may also use details about them (date of birth and national insurance number) to ensure we have matched the correct family on our systems
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How we collect your information
If you apply for a free school meal online, you provide this information to us directly. Your school can also apply on your behalf.
Your personal information is only used for a specified purpose(s) but if we intend to use it for any other new purposes we will normally ask you first. For instance in some cases, the council may wish to use your information for another purpose such as related to improving and developing services, or to prevent or detect fraud. In any event our processing will always have a demonstrable lawful basis. Where practicable and reasonable we will always seek to inform you of any significant proposed changes to how we process or intend to process your personal data, in order to ensure full transparency over how we handle your information.
We use your personal data to:
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check whether your child is eligible for free school meals
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notify your child’s school of their entitlement to free school meals
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provide food vouchers to support families during the school holidays
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deal with any complaints or concerns
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detect fraud and protect public funds
Free school meal auto-enrolment
We will also carry out data matching exercises to identify children who might be entitled to free school meals. We use pupil records and benefits data to identify the children who might be entitled to a free school meal.
We will use your surname, National Insurance number and your date of birth so that we can check if you qualify for free school meals. When we use your information, the government’s electronic free school meals checking service gives us a simple reply – yes or no. This is how we check to see if you qualify for free school meals. If you are found to qualify for a free school meal we will write to you to confirm this and your child school will be able to view their entitlement online.
The data matching exercise does involve the processing of your personal data. This will mean we can ensure more children receive the free school meals they are entitled to.
Legal basis for processing your information
Under data protection law, we need to have a lawful basis to process personal data. We are required by law to provide free school meal to eligible children in the borough under Section 512 of the Education Act 1996. The local authority has the “general power of competence” under Section 1 of the Localism Act 2011 to auto-enrol children eligible for free school meals.
Under the UK GDPR, the lawful basis that applies to the processing of personal data in relation to these services is Article 6(1)(e) Public task. The condition to process sensitive data (special category under GDPR) will be Article 9(2)(g) reasons of substantial public interest. The relevant substantial public interest condition under the Data Protection Act 2018 is Schedule 1, Part 2 Para 6: statutory etc and government purposes.
Who the information is shared with
We will share information with:
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your child’s school or early years provider to let them know that your child has been awarded a free school meal
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The Department for Education’s Free School Meals checking service
If you move to a different local authority, we may also need to share information with them. This is to confirm that your child was awarded free school meals in the borough.
How long do we keep your information?
We hold personal data in line with the council’s retention schedule. We keep your personal data as long as your child remains eligible for free school meals, and then for a further six years. We need to keep your information for this long to comply with anti-fraud legislation.
At the end of the retention period, the information is reviewed and only retained where there is an ongoing requirement to retain for a statutory or legal purpose. Following this, personal information will be securely destroyed.
We may also anonymise some personal data you provide to us to ensure that you cannot be identified and use this data to allow the council to effectively target and plan the provision of services.
Your rights and access to your information
You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you.
The Data Protection Act 2018 also gives you additional rights that refer to how the council holds and uses your information.
Consequently, under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:
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withdraw consent (where applicable) and the right to object and restrict further processing of your data; however, this may affect service delivery to you.
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request to have your data deleted where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing and provided that there are no legitimate grounds for retaining it.
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request your data to be rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete
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have your data transferred or copied should you move to another authority (where applicable)
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not be subject to automated decision-making including profiling (where applicable)
View information about how to submit a Subject Access Request
Please visit our web pages for further details on how the council complies with the Data Protection Act 2018.
If you have any concerns
Please contact us if you would like to know more about the information we hold about you and how we use it pupilsupport@ealing.gov.uk
You have a right to complain to us if you think we have not complied with our obligation for handling your personal information. Please contact dataprotection@ealing.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the council’s response you have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). You can report a concern by visiting the ICO website
Changes in your circumstances
You should notify us immediately if there are any changes in your circumstances and personal details so we can maintain an accurate and up to date record of your information.