Health and Wellbeing Census: Privacy Notice for Parents and Carers

Onward data sharing

Will the data about my child/children’s health and wellbeing be legally shared with others, and for what purpose?

The information collected about your child/children will be used to inform planning and provision of education.  This could require the linkage of data to other data sources.  For example, researchers or charities may be interested in applying for access to education data to meet their own research needs. On occasion, we may share data about your child/children when it is lawful and ethical to do so, and after we have considered the following questions:

• is it in the public interest to share the data?
• are we only sharing the minimum amount of data and for the shortest possible time to meet the request?
• does the data sharing comply with the law and have we got the right consent, if needed?
• does the organisation asking for the data have sufficient security standards themselves and are they aware of statistical disclosure controls?

Organisations we may share data about your child/children with are

• Education Scotland in order for this agency to carry out its functions
• Academic institutions and organisations to carry out additional research and statistical analysis which helps inform policy development and contributes to improving outcomes for Scotland’s people
• Other Public Bodies who require the data in order to carry out their official functions.

How do you ensure ethical standards are met?

Any sharing or linkage of data about your child/children will be done under the strict control of Scottish Government, and will be consistent with our data policy and the National Data Linkage Guiding Principles.  Decisions on the sharing or linkage of data about your child/children will be taken in consultation with relevant colleagues and individuals within and outwith Scottish Government as part of a Data Access Panel.  At all times your rights under the GDPR and other relevant legislation will be ensured.