Can new starters access school data before their start date?

[gszech]

The school is asking to hand over laptops, access to email and drives for new starters one month before their official start date.

Technically the staff is not hired yet, so for me this is a data breach. We asked our GDPR officer to confirm, but they take long time to reply.

Does anyone know if the is legal or actual data / safeguarding breach ?

[Oaktech]

If they have signed contract and signed AUP then we consider them staff and provide logins and access, the only thing they don't get until their start date is a device due to seperate insurance terms.

[mw184]

If they sign our aup and any other relevant policies then we give them their account and access to emails, SharePoint, OneDrive and OneNote etc. They do not get a device until the officially start due to insurance purposes. If they sign the policies though we do authorise access to their account etc.

[gszech]

Thanks you for the answers. I will suggest the same.

[dmj]

We asked our GDPR officer to confirm, but they take long time to reply.

 

That's code for "I'm not going to take responsibility for it".

 

If they have DBS clearance/contract/AUP in place then it seems reasonable to give them access.

[Cazab]

In the Trust I work for new starters are only given access and devices from their start date, and no sooner.

 

Why should they have access prior to their start date?

 

Would any business or government department or social service give you access prior to your start date?

 

Why would you want to have access prior to working for the employer - you are effectively working for free.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Cazab

[FN-GM]

If they have signed contract

 

Surely the contract is only effective form the first day of employment?

[pete]

Our rule is:

 

• Must have signed and understood AUP
  
• Appropriate headteacher signs off on it
  
• Access should only be to necessary things: Dept lesson resources to plan over summer? Sure. Email account to contact colleagues? Yes. Access to data on people? Not until your start date.
  

[gszech]

Surely the contract is only effective form the first day of employment?

 

That was my worry. The contract officially starts from 1st September, but the school is asking for data / email access right now.

[3s-gtech]

Our rule is: no. Not until the contract start date. It's a bit belt and braces - but I prefer my trousers to stay up even in the windiest weather.

 

They're welcome to come in and go through resources with a member of staff, but I have to decide whether someone who is not an employee should have that access unsupervised.

[Linfit]

No access to MIS before start date, no logon to network. They might, in exceptional circumstances, be given an e-mail address (We are a google school) but thats as far as we would go.

If they need access to curriculum resources stores on google we ask current staff to share resources with them as appropriate.

Until their actual start date they don't work for us. We have had cases where people have just not turned up in September - admittedly not teachers but other staff.

[enjay]

We give new teachers their login details on the induction day in July. DBS has cleared by then, and they've signed a confidentiality statement. Contracts follow later (they're dated 1st September anyway) once LA can sort them out. Laptops are given out in the final week of the summer holidays, because I don't want my team trying to issue 10-15 laptops in the first 20 minute break on Inset Day.

 

Why should they have access prior to their start date?

 

So they can access the schemes of work for the lesson they'll be teaching, so they can access student SEN information and ensure their lesson plans are appropriately differentiated.

[HarkNowHear]

We let them have some access from their induction date once they've read and signed all policies relating to IT usage and data protection. Normally access to 365 to allow them to communicate with colleagues and begin to add resources to OneDrive - we won't assign to any distribution or permission groups until start date though.

[enjay]

we won't assign to any distribution or permission groups until start date though.

 

That's an interesting idea. We used to add to department DLs because so much of our Google Drive/Sites was permissioned based on those groups, but our SharePoint is different, so I could give people access to department resources without drowning them under All Staff emails.

[GrumbleDook]

This is a regular discussion on here, and is had every few years ... around this time.

As already mentioned, their contract of employment has a start date and it is from that point all policies and stuff apply. This is also important from an SCR point of view too.

However, that does not mean they can't do things beforehand. They can be considered a volunteer and given appropriate access *after* appropriate training. Some schools/MATs now include such language within the teacher/SLT contract.

One school used to provide an account to new staff which was limited to a section of their Learning Portal and allowed for some online training to be completed. Once completed, more access was granted.

[msi_school]

Surely the contract is only effective form the first day of employment?

 

This is a question that could make a lot of solicitors rich but it is arguable that if you start to do the work the contract applies, especially professional obligations such as not sharing confidential data.

[PotNoodleTech]

Nothing is given out before start date here as they are not your employees before their start date and all the background checks etc may not have been completed.

 

Your school is taking a gamble - would end up in big strife if you had a data breech from a member of staff who wasn't officially a member of staff yet and turned out to have faked their qualified teacher status, or to be a convicted offender for example. Totally not worth the risk.

 

We create the accounts up front so that departments can pre-email/share info with the new member of staff ready, but they don't actually get the login/pass or any equipment till their first day.

 

Saying that it's interesting to see how other schools do it, and some good ideas re: limited access to training etc.

Edited July 7, 2023 by PotNoodleTech

[dmj]

This is a question that could make a lot of solicitors rich but it is arguable that if you start to do the work the contract applies, especially professional obligations such as not sharing confidential data.

 

 

I don't see how that would work. If you start to do the work when you're not in contract then they don''t have any obligation to pay you and you don't have any obligation to follow their rules.

[jmak]

As @GrumbleDook says, it's a regular item. I have changed my view slightly and would now come down on the side of giving access early. Teaching contracts are a bit weird - generally the contract from the school you're leaving is in force until the end of the summer holiday - even though the chances are they won't do any work for that school and there's good reason to do work for the school they're joining.

 

As others have said, you can cover this with documentation/training other than start of contract. The employment contract is not the only thing that commits you to follow rules. Teaching is also a licensed profession. If a teacher doesn't uphold professional standards, they could lose their right to have a job as a teacher.

 

As a final thought, the teacher has responsibility for the well-being of the students from the beginning of the first day. Isn't the bigger risk to student welfare/reputation of the school from the teacher not knowing about needs of pupils in their care before they start?

[Oaktech]

I used to be firmly team 'not until your start date' but it's just not workable for a teacher to come into a new school already running with perhaps a single day inset at the start of term.

 

Risk assessments were undertaken above my pay grade and came to the same conclusions that once the normal recruitment checks and new-starter paperwork was complete, those and the inherent teacher's professional standards arrangements were sufficient mitigation to the risk.

[msi_school]

I don't see how that would work. If you start to do the work when you're not in contract then they don''t have any obligation to pay you and you don't have any obligation to follow their rules.

 

A contract is a meeting of minds for mutual benefit, the piece of paper is just a record of this. By starting to do the job the member of staff is accepting the contract and by not stopping them the school is accepting the contract. The money to be made by the legal profession is as to any of this is customary in the role or expected in the industry.

 

Basically if you start the work before you are in contract you do have to follow the rules and they should be paying you however as teaching staff can not leave their previous school until the specified date this is more complex, again cash for the solicitors.

[dmj]

A contract is a meeting of minds for mutual benefit, the piece of paper is just a record of this.

 

lol

[CTIDTech]

Start date = hand over and access date for us. No exceptions.

 

If they are needing access and working prior to this then HR need to recognise this and change the start date.

[chrisgreenwood]

our accounts are automatically created on the day they started but they always want the usernames creating earlier for new staff days or if they need them in early so they've learnt that we can't push them through early so they put the start date earlier so they can access them before they start, we just end the details to HR and leave it as that

[dmj]

our accounts are automatically created on the day they started but they always want the usernames creating earlier for new staff days or if they need them in early so they've learnt that we can't push them through early so they put the start date earlier so they can access them before they start, we just end the details to HR and leave it as that

 

That's exactly what we did - automate it and let someone else take the decision.

I think that's how it should work really, IT is there to provide the systems and if someone from SMT or HR want to override it then that's their prerogative. The less TOIL the better when it all happens automatically.