Privacy Policy
Who We Are
SofiNo Education Ltd, registered at 93 Marsh Lane, London, England, NW7 4LE, provides person-centred and innovative education to children and young people with needs associated with ASD, ADHD, Speech and Language difficulties, and Mental Health challenges. We specialise in creating an inspiring and safe educational environment to achieve their goals and lead successful lives.
To deliver our services, SofiNo Education Ltd (“SofiNo,” “we”, “us”, or “our”) collects and processes personal data from various individuals. This privacy notice explains your rights regarding the data we collect about you and or the learner and provides information on how, why, and when we use your personal data.
Unless this policy specifically states otherwise, we are the data controller for this information. Our contact details are: SofiNo Education Ltd, 93 Marsh Lane, London, England, NW7 4LE.
Contents
- Glossary
- Why are we collecting your data
- Information that we collect
- How we use your personal data
- How do we collect your data
- Lawful basis for processing your personal data
- Data sharing
- Transfers of your data overseas
- Data security
- Your rights concerning this processing
- Consequences of Not Providing Your Data
- Complaints around processing
- Changes to our notice
1. Glossary
When we mention “personal data” in this notice, we refer to any recorded information about you that can identify you directly or indirectly. This does not include data that has had your identity removed (anonymous data).
When we talk about the “processing” of your data, we mean any actions we take with that information. This includes collection, use, storage, disclosure, deletion, or retention.
Where we refer to “learner” means a child/young person who receives any of a range of services available via a SofiNo Education Ltd School, provided by SofiNo Education Ltd employees or third parties approved by SofiNo Education Ltd
2. Why We Are Collecting Your Data
We take your privacy very seriously. We will only use your information for the purposes outlined in this privacy notice unless required by law.
We will not collect any unnecessary personal data from you and will only retain your information for as long as necessary to fulfil these purposes.
Our reasons for using your personal data include providing our services, supporting high-quality care and education, and meeting our legal, statutory, and contractual obligations
3. Information That We Collect
To perform our functions, the personal data we process about you depends on your role and how you interact with us.
For learners and young people, we support, we typically need to process detailed information about you, including, but not limited to, the following:
- Basic information such as your name, date of birth, and contact details (including address, email, telephone number, and next of kin details).
- Information about your education, including your safeguarding and special educational needs
- Any health conditions you may have, including any medication, allergies, details of diagnosis, treatment and care (including notes and reports about your health and well-being)
- Sensitive and characteristic details, including ethnicity, sexuality, religion or beliefs, and disability, behavioural, language information
- Information from people who care for you and know you well (such as health professionals and family members)
- Photographs that you have consented to be taken
- CCTV footage
We recognise the importance of taking extra precautions to protect the privacy and safety of the children and young people in our schools. Our goal is for you and your supporters to receive the highest quality of care and education from us. To achieve this, we collect and process only the personal data necessary for our operations.
If you work for us or apply for a job, we will gather information about you. We provide separate privacy notices for job applications and for our staff.
When we collect personal data, we process this information for various reasons, including:
- Providing you with the information you have requested
- Handling your enquiries
- Providing access to certain areas of our websites
- Informing you of services which may be relevant to you
- Auditing use of our systems and websites
- Handling of complaints and concerns
4. How We Use Your Personal Data?
We primarily process your personal data to ensure you receive high-quality care and education at SofiNo. It is essential for us to obtain the personal information we may request, as this information helps us deliver improved care and develop appropriate treatment plans tailored to meet your needs effectively and:
- It informs the decisions we make regarding your care.
- It ensures that your treatment is both safe and effective.
- It helps us collaborate effectively with other organisations involved in your care.
- It allows us to ensure our services can meet future needs.
- It provides a means to review the care given, ensuring it meets the highest possible standards.
5. How Do We Collect Your Data
We gather your personal data from various sources, including:
- Information provided directly by you or a relative,
- Information supplied by other organisations you may be using (e.g., Local Authorities),
- Referrals from your commissioning team.
6. Lawful Basis for Processing Your Personal Data
UK data protection legislation requires us to always have a valid legal basis for processing personal data. Depending on the specific processing activity, we rely on the following lawful bases for processing your personal data:
- Contractual Necessity: If you have a contract with us, we may process your personal data as necessary to fulfil that contract.
- Legal Obligations: We may process your data to comply with our legal obligations. For example, our regulators require us to retain certain records related to those we support, such as pupils and young people.
- Legitimate Interests: We may process your personal data when it is necessary for our legitimate interests, such as running our business efficiently.
- Consent: We may process your data with your consent, such as when you agree to receive marketing materials from us.
If you have consented to receive marketing materials, you can withdraw your consent at any time.
Please note that additional rules apply for processing ‘special categories’ of personal data, which includes information about health and medical conditions. We will only process this type of information when it is necessary to provide you with care or to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
7. Data Sharing
We are legally required to share information in specific situations, such as when mandated by a court order. Additionally, we may share your information to honour our contractual and legal commitments.
If you receive care or educational support from other organisations, we may share your personal data with them when there is a genuine need or with your consent. This partnership enables us to work collaboratively for your benefit, ensuring that you receive the best possible support. The organizations with which we may share your information include:
- Healthcare organisations (i.e. GPs, Hospitals, Therapists and other bodies that are involved in your care)
- Ofsted
- Local Authorities
- Social Care Teams/Services
- Safeguarding Teams
- Services you may use after leaving us
8. Transfer Your Data Overseas
We do not typically transfer your personal data outside the UK. However, if it becomes necessary to transfer or store your information outside of the UK—such as when we work with a third-party provider, their sub-processors, or a cloud-based service provider located outside the UK—your information may be sent to other jurisdictions. In such cases, we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your information.
If your personal data is transferred outside the UK, this will only occur if one of the following conditions applies:
- The UK requires that the country receiving your data provides adequate protection for it.
- The organisation receiving your data must have a recognised contract that ensures a good standard of data protection.
- Any data transfer must follow approved contractual clauses.
- You can allow a transfer by giving your consent.
- The transfer is necessary for the performance of a contract with you or to take steps requested by you prior to entering that contract.
- The transfer is necessary for the performance of a contract with another person, which is in your interests.
- The transfer is necessary to protect your vital interests or of those of other persons, where you or other persons are incapable of giving consent.
- The transfer is necessary for the exercise of legal claims.
- The transfer is necessary for important reasons of public interest.
9. Data Security
We take your data security seriously, whether it’s electronic or paper. We have strict policies and measures to protect your information from loss or unauthorized access, and only our employees or trusted partners can access it. Some of your personal data may be stored off-site.
When we use third parties for IT services or business functions, they follow our instructions, maintain confidentiality, and implement necessary security measures to protect your data. We ensure they have proper security practices before working with them.
10. Data Security
We keep your data only as long as necessary to meet our purposes and legal obligations. After that, it will be destroyed. The retention period depends on the data’s amount, nature, sensitivity, potential risks, processing purposes, and legal requirements.
Records are stored and destroyed according to our retention policy. If you agreed to use your information for marketing, we’ll keep it until you tell us to stop. For more details on our data retention policies, please contact our Data Protection Officer.
11. Your Rights in Relation to this Processing
As an individual, you have specific rights related to the processing of your personal data. One of these rights is the ability to file a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is the relevant supervisory authority. According to UK data protection legislation, you are entitled to:
- Subject access request (SAR)
- Request for your data to be corrected and/or amended
- Request deletion of your data
- Object to processing your data
- Request to restrict your data
- Request your data to be transferred to another party
Some of your rights may be limited, and we may not always be able to fulfil your request. If that is the case, we will inform you.
To comply with UK data protection legislation, we believe that automated decision-making (where an electronic system makes decisions about you without human involvement) is not applicable to our role as data controllers of your personal data.
12. Consequences of not Providing Your Data
You are not required to provide your personal data. However, we may not be able to offer all our services without it. We will inform you if that is the case.
If you wish to exercise any of the rights mentioned above, we may ask you to verify your identity before processing your request. This is to ensure that your data remains protected and secure.
13. Complaints Around the Processing
If you would like to lodge a complaint and exercise your rights as described above or are generally dissatisfied with the way we use your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer at
SofiNo Education Ltd
93 Marsh Lane
London
NW7 4LE
If you remain dissatisfied with our response to your complaint, you can contact the UK regulator – the Information Commissioner (ICO) at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Fax: 01625 524 510
Website: https://ico.org.uk/