Electronic "Written" Consent

[Achandler]

Hi All

 

As times move on, the laws are obviosuly to slow to keep up! However, we can now accept electronic consent for trips, agreement to AUPs, detention notification etc which is great!

 

However, there is one policy which I'm not fully sure on whether we stll need to get physical signatures off people, that is biometrics. We currently give out, as i'm sure many people do, a letter that requires a parental signature as part of the biometric fingerprint collection, then obviously people who don't sign or who refuse aren't taken and an alternative provided, simple stuff.

 

However, we are looking at whether we can get this consent electronically as well, and the only thing that is putting me off saying yes is this, contained within (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/268649/biometrics_advice_revised_12_12_2012.pdf):

 

2) As long as the child or a parent does not object, the written consent of only one parent will be required for a school or college to process the child’s biometric information. A child does not have to object in writing but a parent’s objection must be written.

 

Is an electronic consent considered the same as written consent in this instance, as it is would normally be accepted for legal agreements/ contracts. Obviously we would be keeping copies of electronic consent given it, we want to send our PDFs that can be filled and returned and then use Groupcall to catch any people who haven't replied.

 

What's to consensus on this? Personally I think it would be reasonable to accept it, but what's reasonable and what is legal when the act specifies written imay be different, I did try to find proof that electronic consent is the same as written but couldnt see anything obvious (although not fully sure what to Google for that one!).

[elsiegee40]

This sounds like another one for @GrumbleDook

[GrumbleDook]

It is a grey area at the moment, even for adults. On a recent GDPR session (with K2) they looked at how their system was being rejigged to allow for electronic consent and the tracking of it, but it was being questioned by HR.

 

At the moment, the advice says "written" so we have to take as that until other guidance says otherwise.

 

Part of the issue is ensuring it was the Parent giving consent and no one else.

[Max_Power]

We allowed parents to give consent to biometric data being taken via email as long as the email was sent/received from the on record email address for that parent.

This is then stored as a linked document in SIMS for future reference.

 

We also have a few UDF's within the pupil record in SIMS (tick boxes), which are used to identify if the parent has consented, not consented, or the student has objected.

 

We took advice from ICO at the time, and this process was deemed acceptable.

[Achandler]

Many thanks for your input, don't we all love grey areas.

[maturelady]

ICO carried out a consultation relating to consent in March. I replied giving my views from the perspective of what I believed would be best in schools. Until the actions relating to this are published no one can give you a definitive answer.

 

However throughout the consent directives in the original GDPR documents reference to mandatory need to tick a box as opposed to unticking is one of the major changes.

 

From this you can assume electronic consent is becoming the norm.

 

Again 'however' the consent we collect is a lot more important to a child than agreeing to receive emails or marketing calls. Identity management is the key here.

 

We're going to have to wait until we get clear guidance on this one. I'll ask ICO when can we expect publication of the consent consultation and let you know.

[GREED]

Agree with @maturelady here, electronic consent is only of any use if you can be sure the person giving the consent is who they say they are, meaning an Identity management system plays an essential part in schools.