Devon & Cornwall Children's University Privacy Policy

How we use your child’s data in relation to Devon and Cornwall Children’s University

Participants in Devon and Cornwall Children’s University are part of the national Children’s University Trust programme. The Children’s University Trust is a charity that works in partnership with schools to develop a love of learning in children. They do this by encouraging and celebrating participation in extra-curricular activities in, and outside of, school. The impact of these activities is proven to be positive which is why the Children’s University trust are committed to creating a level playing field of opportunity and opening up access to children of all backgrounds.
As part of the Children’s University, participants will be invited to join in with activities and sessions outside of school. These can be dinnertime or after school clubs, that sit outside of the normal curriculum, or activities hosted by an organisation outside of school. 
Research shows that participation in extra-curricular activities can positively impact on attainment, increase a pupil’s positive identification with school, and build self-confidence and resilience. It also shows that children that do not have access to these opportunities fall behind, lack confidence, and fail to develop career aspirations. 
Devon and Cornwall Children’s University is committed to supporting the region’s children to access and take part in as wide a range of extracurricular activities as possible. In order to help us demonstrate the positive impact of these activities, and evidence this to support continued funding, we are required to securely collect children’s personal details and from time to time, we may ask children to complete a short survey

Participant Privacy Policy

Devon and Cornwall Children’s University is a partner of the Children’s University Trust and is responsible for managing the delivery of the Children's University model within the Devon and Cornwall region. It operates under the direction of, and is managed by, the University of Plymouth, which is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office Z7546246. Devon and Cornwall Children’s University is responsible for the use of the personal data provided to it by participants. Parents and children may provide us with information directly but we may also receive it from authorised third parties including but not exclusive to:
  • Your child’s school or college
  • The Children’s University Trust
This privacy notice explains how we use your child’s data in relation to Devon and Cornwall Children’s University.

What personal data will be processed?

When your child takes part in Devon and Cornwall Children’s University, we record their personal details. We use these to provide evidence of their participation in Devon and Cornwall Children’s University to the Office for Students (OfS) and to monitor the impact of Devon and Cornwall Children’s University. The OfS are the public body, set up by the government, to regulate Higher Education (HE). By Higher Education we mean; further study at 18 years old in a university, higher education qualifications in a further education college or a higher/degree level apprenticeship. Personal details we will ask for include, but are not exclusive to:
  • first name and last name
  • date of birth
  • home postcode
  • school name 
  • year group
  • gender
  • ethnicity
  • disability
As part of our long-term monitoring and tracking framework, we will store this data in the secure online Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) database. We use this database in order to keep a record about your child’s participation in Devon and Cornwall Children’s University, including:
  • details of their engagement with some Devon and Cornwall Children’s University activities
  • HE progression data 
As part of the evaluation framework of the Devon and Cornwall Children’s University, we may also ask you and your child to complete individual evaluations of activities, such as pre- and post-event surveys and focus groups. These are either paper based or hosted on JISC Online Surveys, which operates in the UK, is governed by UK law, is General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant and meets the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) / International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 270001 information security standard. This data is then anonymised, and will not be linked to any other records we hold relating to you, such as event attendance data.

What is the legal basis of the processing?

We process data provided to us by parents, children and schools to ensure that we are working with the young people and students identified by the OfS as belonging to groups that are underrepresented in Higher Education. These groups are: 
  • disabled students
  • black, asian and minority ethnic (BAME) students
  • looked after children
  • carers
  • students that come from areas where participation in Higher Education is low as measured by the participation of local areas (POLAR) classification  
  • students that come from areas of high social deprivation as measured by the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD)
  • mature students, those students that are over the age of 21 when they start their course in Higher Education.
The lawful basis for processing the data is that it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest. For example, the data is processed for scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes.
Where we process Special Category Data, the lawful bases are:
For archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes. 
Where processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest with, as the basis in law, the substantial public interest condition being equality of opportunity or treatment.

Who will your personal data be shared with?

Within Devon and Cornwall Children’s University, your child’s data is only shared with those University of Plymouth staff who need access for the processing purposes set out in this policy.
We may also share your child’s personal details to match them with other data held by other organisations, so that we can track their progress over time. These organisations are:
  • OfS (The Office for Students)
  • HESA (the Higher Education Statistics Agency)
  • UCAS (the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service), including their STROBE service
  • HEAT (Higher Education Access Tracker)
  • NPD (the National Pupil Database)
  • Education and Skills Funding Agency
  • Department for Education
  • The University of Plymouth
We always have appropriate contracts in place before sharing your child’s data with any other data controllers or contractors.
We use Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) and Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) to manage our data. They each have their own privacy notices that you can refer to.  Your data will be retained on these platforms to track and monitor so as to enable statistical aggregation and analysis.  Your child’s data will be shared between HEAT and HESA (the Designated Data Body for England under the Higher Education Research Act 2017) and their respective policies can be seen here.
Privacy notice for HEAT
Privacy notice for HESA
Sometimes your child’s personal data is processed by these organisations outside the European Economic Area (e.g. because they use a cloud-based system with servers based outside the EEA), and if so, appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure the confidentiality and security of your child’s personal data.
We do not share your child’s data with external organisations for marketing their products or services. We do not, under any circumstances, sell you or your child’s personal data to third parties, or permit third parties to sell on the data we have shared with them.

How long is your child’s data kept?

Your child’s personal details will be retained by The Children’s University within a secure database until they finish taking part and no longer participate in Children’s University.
Your child’s personal details will be retained by the University of Plymouth on the secure HEAT database for 15 years from the year they are eligible to enter Higher Education. This time period will allow HEAT to build a picture of HE access, continuation, attainment, graduation and employment outcomes.
Eventually, if your child applies to study at higher education level, the University will be able to include this within the data. The idea is that by tracking your child’s progression, the University may be able to see if the activities and sessions they have taken part in over the years have contributed to their decision to study at a higher education level, and have helped to improve their attainment and their progression into employment.

Your rights in relation to your child’s data 

You have the following rights in relation to your child’s personal data:
  • The right to request your personal data is rectified if inaccurate.
  • The right to access your child’s personal data.
  • The right to request erasure of your personal data.
  • The right to request that the processing of your personal data is restricted.
  • The right of portability in relation to your personal data.
  • You can ask us to withdraw their details and if you wish to do this, all their personal information will be destroyed, unless it has already been used within reports.
  • The right to object to the processing of your personal data.
  • The right to object to processing which involves automated decision making or profiling.
For enquiries about Subject Access Requests, or if you have a Data Protection query or complaint, please email: dpo@plymouth.ac.uk.
You can write to us or email us using the following contact details:
Mailing address:
Devon and Cornwall Children’s University
Student Recruitment and Admissions
University of Plymouth
Drake Circus
Plymouth
PL4 8AA
Please be aware that if you do decide to withdraw from Devon and Cornwall Children’s University, any data that has already been committed to research publications cannot be destroyed.
You have the right to lodge a complaint about the processing of your personal data with the Information Commissioner’s Office.
This document is effective from 1 September 2021. It is reviewed when necessary and updated on this page.
This document was last reviewed August 2023.