Cookies and Privacy

Cookies

To make this site work properly, we sometimes place small data files called cookies on your device. Most big websites do this too.

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. It enables the website to remember your actions and preferences (such as login, language, font size and other display preferences) over a period of time, so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you come back to the site or browse from one page to another.

How do we use cookies?

A number of our pages use cookies to remember:
• your display preferences, such as contrast colour settings, font size and language settings
• if you have already replied to a survey pop-up that asks you if the content was helpful or not (so you won’t be asked again)
• if you have agreed (or not) to our use of cookies on this site

Also, some videos embedded in our pages use a cookie to anonymously gather statistics on how you got there and what videos you visited.
In addition some pages on our website display links to our social media accounts (facebook, twitter, linkedin, instagram, youtube).

Enabling these cookies is not strictly necessary for the website to work but it will provide you with a better browsing experience. You can delete or block these cookies, but if you do that some features of this site may not work as intended.

The cookie-related information is not used to identify you personally and the pattern data is fully under our control. These cookies are not used for any purpose other than those described here.

How to control cookies

You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish – for details, see https://www.aboutcookies.org. You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. If you do this, however, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site and some services and functionalities may not work.

Google Analytics

This website uses cookies that are generated using Google Analytics. These cookies are anonymous and are solely used for tracking results using information supplied by your browser when a page is requested.

These cookies are used to collect information about how you and other visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form including the number of visitors, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visit.

For more information on Google Analytics and its Privacy policy click here.

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites please visit the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on here.

Data privacy

As this website is funded by the Department for Education (DfE) they are the data controller for information collected on this site. ASK Research manages it on their behalf. Therefore aggregated data (for example on the number of visitors to certain pages) is shared with them on a regular basis.

We do not ask for, or collect, any personal data such as health and wellbeing, race, or sexual orientation – it is more about the number of visits, which pages are most frequently visited, and the categories of people (education professional, health professional, parent) who sign up to our mailing list. There are other instances when we may share more detailed information with them.

People who contact us via social media:
If you send us a private or direct message via social media the message will not be shared with any other organisations. However if you raise an issue about the EHCP process in your area we may well share this with the DfE. Likewise if you contact us with an enquiry which can be best addressed by the DfE.

People who call us:
We do not retain any information from the calls or record them. We will not pass your details on to any other organisations.

People who email us:
We will not pass your email address or any email messages on to any other organisations, unless your message is best dealt with by the DfE in which case we will ask for your approval to forward it on to them. We will not add you to a mailing list without first seeking your consent and we will not use your email for marketing purposes. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send is within the bounds of the law.

Any personal information is only collected from those who sign up to our mailing list. When you do this you give your consent for us to hold your information. This data includes your professional status and email address only. This mailing list is used solely for letting you know about updates to the website or activities connected to it. This information is held securely and not shared with any other organisation. The mailing list contact and personal details are not shared with the DfE.

This personal data will be kept for the duration of time that DfE funds this website. You can unsubscribe to the mailing list at any point and your details are immediately removed from our database. All data will be securely destroyed when this website is no longer funded by the DfE.

If you have any questions or concerns about any of this information you can use the contact us button, or https://www.gov.uk/contact-dfe

Why our use of your personal data is lawful

In order for our use of your personal data to be lawful, we need to meet one (or more) conditions in the data protection legislation. For the purpose of this project, the relevant condition that we are meeting is Article 6.1(a): that data subjects have given consent to the processing of their personal data for one or more specific purposes.

Your data protection rights

Under certain circumstances, you have the right:

  • to ask us for access to information about you that we hold
  • to have your personal data rectified, if it is inaccurate or incomplete
  • to request the deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing
  • to restrict our processing of your personal data (i.e. permitting its storage but no further processing)
  • to object to direct marketing (including profiling) and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics
  • not to be subject to decisions based purely on automated processing where it produces a legal or similarly significant effect on you

Further information about your data protection rights appears on the Information Commissioner’s website at: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/principle-6-rights/

Withdrawal of consent and the right to lodge a complaint

Where we are processing your personal data with your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent. If you change your mind, or you are unhappy with our use of your personal data, please let us know by contacting info@askresearch.org.uk and state the name of this project.

Alternatively, you have the right to raise any concerns with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) via their website at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

Last updated

We may need to update this privacy notice periodically so we recommend that you revisit this information from time to time. This version was last updated on September 7, 2018

Contact Info

If you have any questions about how your personal information will be used, you can contact the DfE’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) via gov.uk, marking the correspondence for the attention of the ‘DPO’.