This privacy policy sets out how Bolton Council uses and protects any information that you give Bolton Council when you use this website.

Bolton Council is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

Bolton Council may change this policy from time to time by updating this page.

Governance Services Privacy Notice

Our core data protection obligations and commitments are set out in the council’s primary privacy notice at www.bolton.gov.uk

This notice provides additional privacy information for:

• People accessing Governance Services
• Partners working with Bolton Council

It describes how we collect, use and share personal information about you

• in relation to Governance Services
• the types of personal information we need to process, including information the law describes as ‘special’ because of its sensitivity

It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy information we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.

The information collected and held will vary dependent on the service used.

Purpose(s)

We collect your personal information for the following purpose(s):

The Governance Services team provides comprehensive support for clerking, training and development to school leaders, governors, local governors and trustees to maintained and non-maintained governing and trust boards for them to fulfil their roles effectively. We use their personal information to:

• maintain a governor database to effectively discharge statutory and traded services
• contact governors regarding statutory changes in legislation and details of training and development opportunities
• facilitate the recruitment of local authority and co-opted governor vacancies to be filled in the borough (statutory role)

Categories of personal data

In order to carry out these purposes we collect and obtain:

• Personal information (such as name, address, contact details, gender, date of birth)
• Special category characteristics (disability)
• Current governorships (type of governor, any positions held on the governing body and term of office)
• Previous governorships (type of governor, any positions held on the governing body, terms of office served and reasons for resignations/suspensions)
• Details of governor training booked and attended
• Information provided by individuals as part of an application form to facilitate the Authority Governor appointment procedure and governing board Co-opted Governor procedure
• You will be asked to complete a legal declaration form which confirms your eligibility to be a governor, and meets the school’s statutory requirements

Legal basis for processing

The legal basis for processing your personal information is:

Comply with the law regarding:

• Section 538 of the Education Act 1996 and the Academy Trust Handbook 2022
• School Governance (Constitution)(England) Regulations 2012
• School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances (England) Regulations) 2013

Service Delivery Requirements:

• Provide appropriate statutory advice and guidance
• Statutory requirement to recruit and nominate to local authority governor positions in maintained schools.
• Deliver training and development through traded services
• Deliver clerking support, advice and guidance through traded services
• Facilitate the reduction of governor vacancies in the borough by acting as an intermediary with schools and academies to recruit co-opted governor positions.

For special category personal data, the Council relies upon Article 9(2)(a), i.e. the subject has provided explicit consent.

If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to provide the services required or fulfil our contractual and legal obligations.

Information sharing/recipients

We may share personal information about you with the following types of organisations:

• Local Authority Teams if the matter is related to school governance only
• Elected members sitting on the School Governor Appointment Panel on matters related to the nomination of local authority governors only.
• Schools and Academies associated with the individual or to facilitate proposed recruitment of the individual.
• Website Provider Iflourish and server host (in a website managing capacity only)

We will not normally share your information with organisations other than our partner organisations; however, there may be certain circumstances where we would share without consent such as where we are required to do so by law, to safeguard public safety, and in risk of harm or emergency situations. Only the minimum information for the purpose will be shared.

As well as information collected directly from you, we also obtain or receive information from:

• Individuals
• Schools and Academies
• Chairs of Governors and Head Teachers

Automated decisions

 For this service all the decisions we make about you involve human intervention.

Data retention/criteria

We will only keep your personal information for as long as the law specifies or where the law does not specify this, for the length of time determined by our business requirements.

Rights of individuals

You may exercise the rights listed below in relation to the council’s use of your personal information.

To find out more about how these rights apply in particular circumstances, please refer to our Guide to exercising your rights or alternatively visit the Information Commissioner’s web site at https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/

If you wish to exercise your rights (as outlined above) or to raise a concern about the handling of your personal information by the council, please contact our Information Governance Team at information.security@bolton.gov.uk

If you are still unsatisfied you should contact The Information Commissioner’s Office by post at The IOC, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF or by telephone: 0303 123 1113

Updates to Privacy Notice

We may update or revise this Privacy Notice at any time so please refer to the version published on our website for the most up to date details.

Feedback

We welcome your comments or feedback on our website. Please either use the ‘Contact Us’ page on the site or contact John Ashworth, Governance Services Manager on governance.services@bolton.gov.uk