Privacy Statement - Dundee City Council and our Employability Pathway Programme

Last updated on Mon, 24/09/2018 - 10:49

Who we are:

Dundee City Council is a local authority established under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994.  Its head office is located at City Square, Dundee, DD1 3BY and you can contact our Data Protection Officer by post at this address, by email at: infogov@dundeecity.gov.uk, and by telephone on 01382 434206.

The Employability Pathway is managed by Dundee City Council with designated Officers carrying out the role of Lead Partner.  Our Employability Pathway is operated by Delivery Partners (Council Departments and other organisations), who delivery services that provide advice, guidance and support that helps you: make progress towards employment, further education and/or training; sustain your employment; and / or, progress further in the workplace.  The services are supported by funding from Dundee City Council and other organisations (e.g. Scottish Government, UK Government, Delivery Partners, and other partner organisations that may change over time).  This includes funding awarded to Dundee City Council through No One Left Behind and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Why do we need your personal information and what do we do with it?

You are giving us your personal information to allow us to confirm your eligibility for the services available and to help us assess your personal and employability needs with the aim of providing advice, guidance and support.  We also use your information to verify your identity where required, contact you by post, email or telephone, to maintain our records, monitor and report on our performance, produce anonymised statistics and reports, and to evaluate and improve our services.  Our records will include the data captured on the registration form, assessment and action plan; attendance records; case notes; records of achievements (e.g. qualifications); records of future outcomes (e.g. employment, further education and/or training) including potential correspondence with future employers and/or training providers; and, any other documentation or correspondence relating to the support provided to you by the Employability Pathway.  

Legal basis for using your information:

We provide these services to you as part of our statutory function as your local authority.  You can find more details of our role on our website.  Processing your personal information is necessary for:

  • the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority invested in the organisation;
  • compliance with a legal obligation to which Dundee City Council is subject in its participation in No One Left Behind and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund with the need to adhere to the associated terms and conditions; and / or, 
  • the performance of a contract by Dundee City Council and other organisations appointed as Delivery Partners in the Employability Pathway in relation to No One Left Behind and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund with the need to adhere to the associated terms and conditions  

In addition, you can view the following Privacy Information Notices made available for people receiving support from services funded by the corresponding organisation.  They provide further information on how those organisations may use your personal information.  

We are also required to process more sensitive personal information about you for reasons of substantial public interest as set out in the Data Protection Act 2018.  It is necessary for us to process it to carry out key functions as outlined by law.  

If you do not provide us with the information we have asked for then we will not be able to provide this service to you. 

Who do we share your information with?

We are legally obliged to safeguard public funds so we are required to verify and check your details internally for fraud prevention.  We may share this information with other public bodies (and also receive information from these other bodies) for fraud checking purposes.  We are also legally obliged to share certain data with other public bodies, such as HMRC and will do so where the law requires this.  We will also generally comply with requests for specific information from other regulatory and law enforcement bodies where this is necessary and appropriate.  Your information is also analysed internally to help us improve our services.  This data sharing is in accordance with our Information Use and Privacy Policy and covered in our full privacy statement on our website.  It also forms part of our requirements in line with our Records Management Plan approved in terms of the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011.

Your information may be shared with other organisations delivering services as part of the Employability Pathway.  The information shared with these organisations will include the information provided by yourself, referral organisations, Council Departments, external delivery partners, employers, training providers and/or other organisations participating in the Employability Pathway.

Furthermore, Dundee City Council is required to share your information with funders, administrators and auditors of public funds, Scottish Ministers, Scottish Government, UK Government and/or other government agencies / departments (e.g. Department for Work & Pension, Skills Development Scotland, etc.).  We may also share your information with third parties appointed by any of those organisations to undertake work in relation to the Employability Pathway (e.g. external evaluation of our services).  

How long do we keep your information for?

We only keep your personal information for the minimum period amount of time necessary.  Sometimes this time period is set out in the law, but in most cases it is based on the business need.  Once your eligibility for support has been confirmed, your personal data, including all records stated previously, will be retained by Dundee City Council from the date it is provided until the dates outlined below as influenced by contractual requirements:  

  • Dundee City Council – Five years from the date where your record was last updated following support provided 
  • No One Left Behind – Scottish Government will not store your personal information for longer than is necessary to deliver and evaluate the service and support you receive
  • UK Shared Prosperity Fund – Seven years from the date where your record was last updated following support provided 

Your rights under data protection law:

Access to your information – you have the right to request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you. 

Correcting your information – we want to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date.  Therefore you may ask us to correct any personal information about you that you believe does not meet these standards.

Deletion of your information – you have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:
I.    you think that we no longer need to hold the information for the purposes for which it was originally obtained
II.    you have a genuine objection to our use of your personal information – e.g. you have the right at any time to tell us to stop using your personal information for direct marketing purposes  
III.    our use of your personal information is contrary to law or our other legal obligations.

Restricting how we may use your information – in some cases, you may ask us to restrict how we use your personal information.  This right might apply, for example, where we are checking the accuracy of personal information that we hold about you or we are assessing the objection you have made to our use of your information.  This right might also apply if we no longer have a basis for using your personal information but you don't want us to delete the data.  Where this right is realistically applied will mean that we may only use the relevant personal information with your consent, for legal claims or where there are other public interest grounds to do so.

Please contact us as stated above if you wish to exercise any of these rights.

Information you have given us about other people:

If you have provided anyone else’s details on this form, please make sure that you have told them that you have given their information to Dundee City Council.  We will only use this information to assist with confirming your eligibility for the services available and help us assess your personal and employability needs.  Where possible, we attempt to avoid the documenting of identifiable data relating to a third party.  If they want any more information on how we will use their information they can visit our website or email infogov@dundeecity.gov.uk.

Complaints

We aim to directly resolve all complaints about how we handle personal information.  However, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office, who can be contacted by post at:  Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. By phone on 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545745. Visit their website for more information at https://ico.org.uk/concerns

More information:

For more details on how we process your personal information visit our privacy statement webpage. If you do not have access to the internet you can contact us via telephone to request hard copies of our documents.