Privacy notice – MAISEY

North Somerset Council is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office for the purposes of processing personal data. North Somerset Council’s Early Years and Childcare Service oversees the Multi-Agency Information and Support in the Early Years (MAISEY) process and data collection on behalf of all partner agencies. The Early Years and Childcare Service can be contacted on 07825 341277 or by emailing ey.send@n-somerset.gov.uk

Under Section 25 of the Children and Families Act 2014, and in accordance with Articles 6(1)(e), 9(2)(g) and 9(2)(h) of GDPR, local authorities have a duty to ensure integration between educational provision, health and social care provision where this would promote well-being and improve the quality of provision for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

We will collect information about your child that gives us a complete overview of their SEND and details of the professionals/agencies involved with assessing and meeting those needs, in order to deliver the Multi-Agency Information and Support (MAISEY) service. Full details of this service can be found on the North Somerset Local Offer website.

This information will include a summary from yourselves and the early years provider about your child’s needs and current support in place for your child. Specific information will be requested in order to monitor how best to support your child and signpost to other services as appropriate. We will need some information about you in order to contact you.

The information you provide about your child will be held and used in accordance with the requirements of UK and European data protection law. The information will form part of your child’s MAISEY record, and held for no longer than 25 years from your child’s date of birth. In the case of a Child Looked After (CLA) by the Local Authority, information is retained for 75 years. This information will be stored electronically in North Somerset Council’s secure storage system.

The MAISEY database service is administrated on behalf of North Somerset Council by our partner Agilisys.  We have contractual assurances that Agilisys are working within the requirements of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with regards the handling of personal data.

The information will be used for the administration of the MAISEY process. MAISEY addresses our legislative duties to support children with special educational needs and disabilities under:

• Children and Families Act 2014
• Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years (Department for Education and Department of Health, January 2015). (GDPR Article 6(1)(e))

Monthly MAISEY meetings ensure that the services and provision are looked at as a whole by the professionals involved and are coordinated around individual needs. It is the place where one service can discuss the involvement of another service. MAISEY supports provision planning from early identification of need until school entry, ensuring where possible that transfers to early years setting and school are successful for every child.

The information provided will be shared with relevant professionals who have demonstrated that they have a lawful and legitimate interest in the information, for the purposes of undertaking their statutory duties in line with:

• Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years (Department for Education and Department of Health, January 2015)
• Working Together to Safeguard Children (HM Government, July 2018)
• Children and Families Act 2014
• The Framework for the Inspection of Local Area’s effectiveness in identifying and meeting the needs of children and young people who have SEND (Under Section 20 of the Children Act 2004) Care Quality Commission and Ofsted (April 2016)

Professionals may include:

• Multi-agency Information and Support in the Early Years (MAISEY) agencies including education, health and social care.
• Multi-agency Early Years SEND Top-up Funding panel
• Receiving schools/academies and school admissions service
• Other professionals who support children with SEND within North Somerset
• Local Authority’s Children’s Centres
• Springboard Opportunity Group who carry out some Area SENCO services in partnership with North Somerset Council Early Years and Childcare Service
• Springboard Opportunity Group in their capacity as partner through a Service Level Agreement with North Somerset Council  
• Relevant professionals in other Local Authorities if a child moves or if a child lives out of North Somerset
• Generic anonymised statistical data will be used to inform the monitoring and self-evaluation of our local SEND services, as required by the Local Joint Area Review process

We may lawfully share your information with relevant professionals without your consent where there is legal basis for us to do so (for example; Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance, 2015), in accordance with Articles 6(1)(e), 9(2)(g) and 9(2)(h) of GDPR.

We may lawfully disclose information to public sector agencies to prevent or detect fraud or other crime, or to support the national fraud initiatives and protect public funds under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. Under the conditions of the Digital Economy Act 2017, we may also share personal data provided to us with other public authorities as defined in the Act, for the purposes of fraud or crime detection or prevention, to recover monies owed to us, to improve public service delivery, or for statistical research.  We do not share the information with other organisations for commercial purposes, and at no point is your data shared or processed outside of the UK.  We will not use your personal information in a way that may cause you unwarranted nuisance.

You have the right to see the personal data we process about you, as well as the right of rectification, and restriction (to destruction of records only). You can make a request to see this data below. 

If you have any questions or concerns about the way we process your personal data, contact our Data Protection Officer at DPO@n-somerset.gov.uk