I am now in a position of funding allocation in my current job , so need to clarify data collection from my end to inform commissioned organisations. 

Does anyone know whether ESFA has issued a privacy notice informing providers how they are using the data they are collecting? 

Where it’s stored? How it’s shared? 

Lail El-Metoui  

LGBT Education Consultant & Teacher Educator 

https://lelmeducation.wordpress.com

Member of Action for ESOL http://actionforesol.org/ and NATECLA London https://nateclaldn.wordpress.com

Supporter The Ruth Hayman Trust http://www.ruthhaymantrust.org.uk

Sent from iPhone 

I am not an expert on this but have had to get up to speed on it and here are some tips. 

 

This is a complex area but if you are funded by ESFA there will be required reporting and your ESOL students should only be asked for the same info that all other students are asked for. This does include ethnicity and disability (if they choose to declare these), gender, DoB, prior quals, contact details, etc, etc.  These are ‘legitimate’ as the provider has an obligation to monitor the relative achievements of different groups, etc.  If you are asking for more info from ESOL students than from others, that is almost certainly not right.  If you are a voluntary organisation and not receiving any funding at all, maybe you can collect as little as you want, but if you have any project funding they may want monitoring and that will affect what you need to collect.

 

Informing students – all organisations should be writing privacy notices that cover all students. You may want to create an ESOL- friendly simpler version, but it should contain the same info.  There is actually a requirement that this info is in ‘plain language’ and intelligible anyway.

 

Opt in/opt out.  Students cannot opt out of providing required data, or communications and sharing of data that is required for purposes such as the admin of their course, required monitoring by funders, etc but you need to state all these in the privacy notice.  They can opt out of marketing after the end of the course.  For any non-course related things they need to opt in.

 

And there is more – retention periods, right to access the data, processes, etc etc. Please take advice if you are not part of a bigger organisation!  Just beware of scaremongers who imply that we will all be prosecuted imminently for minor infringements – that is not what they are planning to do, nor do they have time/resources to check up on everything everywhere. However if there is a breach (ie data is lost/reaches the wrong person and this causes ‘damage’ of some kind) the penalties are much bigger than before.

 

Mary

 

From: ESOL-Research discussion forum and message board <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Kristen Fraley
Sent: 20 July 2018 09:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Important questions about GDPR for ESOL providers

 

Hello Laila,

 

We have had similar concerns about the registration forms we use at Glasgow ESOL Forum. We’ve chosen to create a form that collects as little personal information as possible (see attached), with the premise that we require some data to conduct classes (such as phone numbers and emergency contacts) within the lawful bases for processing- namely contract and consent. Another change we’ve made is that we’ve stopped asking for birth date and only are asking if a learner is over 18. We’ve opted to include some of the information we were asking on the form previously in our anonymous Equalities monitoring.

 

We would like to eventually have this portion translated into the most common community languages spoken in our classes so that we can be more transparent with learners:

 

Glasgow ESOL Forum promises:

We will collect and use your personal information only for ESOL classes and support.

We will not share your personal information with anyone.

We will only keep your personal information for one year.

We will share anonymous (no name) statistics with funders.

 

There are a few concerns still, such as having learners give consent/sign the form if they don’t fully understand what is presented to them. We want to capture learners’ personal data respectfully while empowering them to know they can say no to providing information if they don’t want to.

 

We will look forward to hearing other responses on this.

 

Best wishes,

Kristen

 

Kristen Fraley

Development Worker (Volunteer Tutor Project)

Glasgow ESOL Forum

Studio 13

St. George’s Studios

93-97 St George’s Road

Glasgow

G3 6JA

 

0141 333 1194

http://www.glasgowesol.org/

 

Scottish Charity SC0 35775

 

 

This is email is confidential and is intended for the addressee(es) only.  If you are not the intended recipient please call the duty manager on 0141 333 1194. Glasgow ESOL Forum cannot accept liability or responsibility for viruses - it is your responsibility to scan and protect against viruses.  For further information on our privacy policies please visit our website. http://www.glasgowesol.org/privacy-policies 

From: ESOL-Research discussion forum and message board [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Laila El-Metoui
Sent: 20 July 2018 07:00
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Important questions about GDPR for ESOL providers

 

Does anyone know what the impact of GDPR on the enrolment form will be? 

Will institutions still be able to collect the same amount of data?  I understand that you cannot force people to give data in exchange of goods and services and that people need to give consent. 

Would that mean that in addition to adding privacy notices organisations will also be required to explain to our ESOL learners how their data is used , where it’s stored etc.? 

Are they exempt under the public interest close? 

Has anyone received directives from the ESFA regarding what needs to be done? 

I had a meeting with some council officials yesterday and they could not believe the amount of data ESOL learners have been asked to provide. 

I understand the benefits of aggregated data to inform and improve services for example identifying a large number of a given faith in a borough could potentially be used to favour the applicant of planning permission for a place of worship in an area has been demonstrated for example. 

I believe in the value of data collection and its use that I question. 

Would truly love to hear your views. 

Thank you 

Laila El-Metoui  

LGBT Education Consultant & Teacher Educator 

https://lelmeducation.wordpress.com

Member of Action for ESOL http://actionforesol.org/ and NATECLA London https://nateclaldn.wordpress.com

Supporter The Ruth Hayman Trust http://www.ruthhaymantrust.org.uk

Sent from iPhone 

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*********************************** ESOL-Research is a forum for researchers and practitioners with an interest in research into teaching and learning ESOL. ESOL-Research is managed by James Simpson at the Centre for Language Education Research, School of Education, University of Leeds. To join or leave ESOL-Research, visit http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ESOL-RESEARCH.html To contact the list owner, send an email to [log in to unmask]

Please consider the environment before printing *********************************** ESOL-Research is a forum for researchers and practitioners with an interest in research into teaching and learning ESOL. ESOL-Research is managed by James Simpson at the Centre for Language Education Research, School of Education, University of Leeds. To join or leave ESOL-Research, visit http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ESOL-RESEARCH.html To contact the list owner, send an email to [log in to unmask]