Annual Data Collection. A Requirement?

[Gongalong]

Hi folks,

 

We have seen another school complete a data collection of parents annually saying that it's a data protection requirement.

 

I can't see anything in the legislation that says it's a requirement, although this could just be a loose interpretation of principle d.

 

Am I right in thinking there's no specific annual requirement?

 

Thanks

[Ditto]

I don't believe any legislation states an annual requirement. It probably says 'regular' but doesn't define that what regular is. If the process is made really easy, in particular to say, "Yes, it's all still the same", I don't think annual is extreme. Asking all parents to fill in a complete set of questions every year is probably going to jar with some though. Perhaps an annual, "Tell us of changes" would be a compromise. I have heard however that sometimes liability insurance or other factors beyond GDPR request annual updates. I don't know if that is true or not, but it is worth considering more widely, but that's probably a job for the business manager and SLT staff.

[DavR]

The legal requirement is to make sure that the information you hold is accurate and up to date. How you achieve that is up to you.

 

Sending out a data checking sheet once a year is reasonable, although it is quite a lot of admin. Most MIS's will allow you to print out a sheet with all the information you have on a child, to send home for the parents to make any changes and send back.

[Gongalong]

We have an app/website for the parents where they can check and update details, but it was more a question of whether it was a specific requirement or not.

[enjay]

I don't believe any legislation states an annual requirement. It probably says 'regular' but doesn't define that what regular is. ... Perhaps an annual, "Tell us of changes" would be a compromise

 

That's what we did at my previous school. We also printed out hard copy any time a parent was coming in, e.g. parents evenings, and said "can you just check these please", that way the details never left the school site so we didn't to worry about secure access, chasing returns, etc.