16 to 17 participation service privacy notice

The 16 to 17 Participation Service is responsible for reporting monthly to the Department of Education (DfE) with regards to Raising the Participation Age (RPA) data. The RPA relates to the requirement for all young people in England to continue in education, employment, or training until their 18th birthday.

You can contact the team by emailing participationservice@walthamforest.gov.uk

The information we hold is to support the provision of education, employment, and training for young people up to and including age 17 (academic Year 13).

We will be provided with information to help us to support the provision of education, employment, and training for young people from educational institutions.

We hold the following personal information:

• Young person dataset. This includes name, address, email address, telephone number, date of birth, gender, ethnicity
• For all young people in education, and training, DfE establishment name, unique pupil number (UPN), academic year
• Offers of Post-16 education & training
• Details of current, or most recent, education, employment & training destinations
• We may collect information on the following vulnerable groups: 
  • Young people with special education needs, disabilities, mental health conditions, or substance misuse issues.
  • Young people who engage in offending behaviour,
  • Young people who have refugee status, asylum seekers, are looked after or care leavers.

The 16 to 17 Participation Service reports to the Department of Education (DfE) on young people who receive an offer under the September Guarantee, the Activity Survey of young people who complete compulsory education.

The service also reports every month on the rates of young people who are participating, those who are Not in Education, Employment, and Training (NEET), young people whose destinations are unknown (not known), and combined NEET/not known.

The lawful basis on which we rely to use the information which we collect about you for the purposes set out in this notice will be Public Task.

This means that the processing of your information is necessary for us to perform tasks set out in law.

Education and Skills Act 2008 (ESA 2008)

Section 72 requires educational institutions (including academies) to provide relevant information about students to local authorities to enable them to carry out their duties.

Subsection 3

In subsection 1, “relevant information required by Local Authority” means:

(a) The name, address, and date of birth of the pupil or student

(b) The name and address of a parent of the pupil or student

(c) Information in the institution's possession about the pupil or student. In relation to Subsection 3

Careers guidance and access for education and training providers, (DfE, January 2023) defines “information that the local authority needs to support the young person to participate in education or training and to track their progress. This includes for example young people’s contact details including phone numbers, information to help identify those at risk of becoming NEET post-16, young people’s post-16 and plans and the offers they receive of places in post-16 or higher education”.

Subsection 4

Information within subsection 3 (c) must not be provided under subsection (1) if:

(a) The pupil or student concerned, in the case of a pupil or student who has attained the age of 16, or

(b) A parent of the pupil or student concerned, in the case of a pupil or student who has attained the age of 16.

Under sections 18 and 68 (4)

Local authorities must promote the effective participation in education and training of 16- and 17-year-olds in their area with a view to ensuring that those persons fulfil the duty to participate in education or training. A key element of this is identifying the young people in their area who are covered by the duty to participate and encouraging them to find a suitable education or training place. Guidance on this duty is included in paragraphs 39 to 42.

Local authorities must make arrangements such as maintaining a tracking system, to identify 16 (academic Year 12) and 17 year olds (academic year 13) who are not participating in education or training. Putting in place robust arrangements to identify young people who are not engaged in education or training or who have left provision enables local authorities to offer support as soon as possible. Guidance on this duty is included in paragraphs 43 and 44.

The data is reported monthly to the DfE.

Information will sometimes be shared with other council services. This could be to identify if a person is known to another council service in order to establish if the young person is participating in education, training, or employment.

In accordance with the National Client Caseload Information System (NCCIS) we keep your information for 2 years.