Fulston Manor Academies Trust

Privacy notice for the school workforce including staff
applicants.

Fulston Manor School
South Avenue Primary School

Version Date: July 2026
Review Date: July 2027
Member of Staff Responsible: Mrs M Smith, GDPR Co-ordinator

Fulston Manor Academies Trust
Privacy notice for the school workforce including staff applicants.

Fulston Manor Academies Trust has the legal right and a legitimate interest to collect and process personal data relating to those we employ to work at our schools, or those otherwise contracted to work at our schools.

We rely on having a legitimate reason as an employer to collect and use your personal information, and to comply with our statutory obligations, and to carry out tasks in the public interest. If we need to collect special category (sensitive) personal information, we rely upon reasons of substantial public interest (equality of opportunity or treatment).

We process personal data in order to meet the requirements set out in UK employment, academy and safeguarding law, including those in relation to the following:

• Academy Funding Agreement and Articles of Association
• Academy’s legal and statutory framework
• Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006
• The guidance “Keeping Children Safe in Education”
• The Childcare (Disqualification) Regulations 2009

Why we collect and use this information

We process personal data for employment purposes to assist in the running of our Trust including:

• To allow you to apply for a position of employment with us either permanent or temporary
• To enable a recruitment interview to be conducted
• To enable individuals to be paid including enabling leave payments (such as sick pay and
  maternity leave)
• Supporting pension payments and calculations
• Improving the management of workforce data across the sector
• Enabling development of a comprehensive picture of the workforce and how it is deployed
• Informing the development of recruitment and retention policies
• Allowing better financial modelling and planning and to inform financial audits of the school
• Enabling ethnicity and disability monitoring
• Supporting the work of the School Teachers’ Review Body

The categories of school workforce information that we collect, process, hold and share

This personal data includes identifiers such as:

• Names and contact details
• National Insurance numbers
• Employee number, Techer Number and other professional registration details
• Characteristics such as gender, age, ethnic group, etc
• Employment contract and remuneration details
• Qualifications
• Absence information and relevant medical information.
• References in support of a job application

This list is not exhaustive.

Whilst the majority of information you provide to us is mandatory, some of it is provided to us on a voluntary basis. In order to comply with data protection legislation, we will inform you whether you are required to provide certain school workforce information to us or if you have a choice in this.

If staff members fail to provide their personal data, there may be significant consequences, including the failure to pay salaries and failure to meet legal compliance. Staff members’ personal data is only sought from the data subject. No third parties will be contacted to obtain staff members’ personal data without the data subject’s consent unless the law requires the school to do so.

In accordance with the above, staff members’ personal data is used for the following reasons:

• Contractual requirements
• Employment checks, e.g. right to work in the UK
• Salary requirements
• Legislative compliance
• Safeguarding and Safer Recruitment requirements
• Monitoring purposes
• Workforce planning
• HR administration and processes

Who we share this information with

We will not share information about you with third parties without your consent unless the law allows us to. We are required, by law, to pass on some of this personal data to:

• Kent County Council
• The Department for Education (DfE)
• HMRC
• Other Government Departments in the fulfilment of statutory obligations

Where necessary, third parties may be responsible for processing staff members’ personal information. Where this is required, the school places data protection requirements on third party processors to ensure data is processed in line with staff members’ privacy rights.

Examples of who we share this data with include:

• Teachers Pensions & Local Government Pension Scheme
• The Trust’s Auditors
• The Trust’s Occupational Health Provider
• The Trust’s Legal Advisors

The DfE collects and processes personal data relating to those employed by schools (including Multi Academy Trusts) and local authorities that work in state funded schools (including all maintained schools, all academies and free schools and all special schools including Pupil Referral Units and Alternative Provision). All state funded schools are required to make a census submission because it is a statutory return under sections 113 and 114 of the Education Act 2005

To find out more about the data collection requirements placed on us by the Department for Education including the data that we share with them, go to https://www.gov.uk/education/datacollection-and-censuses-for-schools.

The department may share information about school employees with third parties who promote the education or well-being of children or the effective deployment of school staff in England by:

• Conducting research or analysis
• Producing statistics
• Providing information, advice or guidance

The department has robust processes in place to ensure that the confidentiality of personal data is maintained and there are stringent controls in place regarding access to it and its use. Decisions on whether DfE releases personal data to third parties are subject to a strict approval process and based on a detailed assessment of:

• Who is requesting the data
• The purpose for which it is required
• The level and sensitivity of data requested; and
• The arrangements in place to securely store and handle the data

To be granted access to school workforce information, organisations must comply with its strict terms and conditions covering the confidentiality and handling of the data, security arrangements and retention and use of the data.

For more information about the department’s data sharing process, please visit:
https://www.gov.uk/data-protection-how-we-collect-and-share-research-data

To contact the department: https://www.gov.uk/contact-dfe

Storing this information and keeping it secure

Staff members’ personal data is retained in line with the Records Management Toolkit for Schools.  Personal information is held for a period of 6 years. Unsuccessful job applicants personal data will be retained for no more than 6 months.

Data will only be retained for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was processed, will not be retained indefinitely and complies with the Records Management Toolkit for Schools.

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Requesting access to your personal data

Under data protection legislation, you have the right to request access to information about you that we hold. To make a request for your personal information, contact Mrs Michelle Smith – GDPR Co-Ordinator.

You also have the right to:

• Object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress
• Have information transferred electronically to yourself or another organisation
• Prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing
• Object to decisions being taken by automated means
• In certain circumstances, have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or
  destroyed.

We will always seek to comply with your request however we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties. Please note: your request may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you.

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we ask that you raise your concern with us in the first instance. Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

Where the processing of your data is based on your explicit consent, you have the right to withdraw this consent at any time. This will not affect any personal data that has been processed prior to withdrawing consent.

Staff members also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in relation to how the Fulston Manor Academies Trust processes their personal data.

Further information

If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, please contact Mrs Michelle Smith GDPR Co-ordinator msmith@fulstonmanor.kent.sch.uk or the Trust’s Data Protection Officer, Peter West on: fergusonwestltd@sky.com

If you require further information about how we and/or the DfE store and use your personal data, please visit https://www.gov.uk/guidance/data-protection-how-we-collect-and-share-research-data, Records Management Toolkit for Schools