Privacy Policy

The Edwin Group (‘the Company’) Data Protection Lead for the Company – Jo Betteley Data Protection November 2021
All services available are provided on behalf of the Company by The Edwin Group, First Floor (South), Cathedral Buildings, Dean Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1PG.

The Company includes our trading activities that are branded Vision for Education/ABC Teachers/Smart Teachers. Please read the following Privacy Policy which explains how we use and protect your personal information. This Privacy Policy applies to the use of all our services and websites (and web-based services) on which a link to this policy appears (the “Sites”).

For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) (together, the “Data Protection Legislation”), the Data Controller is the Company of First Floor (South), Cathedral Buildings, Dean Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1PG and all services are provided by the Company.

We take your privacy seriously and we are committed to keeping your information private. To the extent we are required by law, we have notified the United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office that we will process your personal information in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation (as defined above).

By providing us with any information about yourself (including via our websites and in branch), you understand that we will process your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and our Cookies Policy.

This Privacy Policy covers:

  1. What personal information we collect about you and how we collect it.
  2. Our legal basis for collecting and using your personal information.
  3. How we will use your personal data.
  4. Personal information that we share with third parties.
  5. Data retention, data security and transfers of personal information outside of the European Economic Area (EEA).
  6. Your rights - Accessing, erasing and updating your personal information.
  7. How to unsubscribe from any email alerts that you receive.
  8. Changes to our Privacy Policy.
  9. Legal and contact information.

1. Personal information we collect about you and how we collect it

The Company is a recruitment business which provides work-finding services for our clients and work-seekers. The Company must process personal data (including sensitive personal data) so that we can provide these services – in doing so, the Company acts as a Data Controller.

Information that you provide to us directly
We collect personal information whenever you contact us and provide us with information that we are able to identify you by, including when you contact us by phone, email or when you sign up to use any of our services. In particular, we collect information about you when you register and create an account, send your CV, and every time you email us directly.

During the registration process, we will collect information via our website, during face to face interview and via our registration forms including:

  • Name
  • Date of birth
  • Contact details (address, email address, telephone number)
  • NI number
  • Bank details
  • CV (employment, qualifications and education history)
  • Emergency contact details
  • Medical details
  • Professional registration membership numbers (eg TRA number)
  • Right to work documentation, and
  • Criminal record history.

2. Our legal basis for collecting and using your personal information

Data Protection Legislation mandates that any personal information can only be used where there is a lawful basis to do so. At the Company, we rely on one or more of the following grounds to legally collect and use your personal information:

  • The data is necessary for the performance of the contract which we have with you (i.e. to provide our services to you);
  • We are using your personal information where it is in our legitimate interests to do so;
  • We have a legal obligation to process your personal information;
  • You have consented to the use of your personal information by us.Where we rely on your consent to process any of your personal information, you may revoke your consent at any time. Any such revocation will not affect the lawfulness of any prior use of that personal information.

3. How we use your personal information

We will use your personal information to enable us to provide our services to you and enable you to use the Sites, including, for the following purposes:
Performance of a contract

  • Your personal data is required by law and/or is a contractual requirement (eg our client may require this personal data). You are obliged to provide the personal data and if you do not, the consequences of failure to provide your data are:
    The Company will be unable to find you work as our clients require this information in order to comply with their safer recruitment practices.
    The Company will collect your personal data (which may include sensitive personal data) and will process your personal data for the purposes of providing you with work-finding services. The legal bases we rely upon to offer these services to you are:
  • Processing is necessary for carrying out the Data Controller’s obligations under employment, social security or social protection law, or a collective agreement, providing for appropriate safeguards for the fundamental rights and interests of the individual. This is on the understanding that you may be entering into a contract with us to provide work-finding services to you.

Legal obligation
We will use your personal information where we are legally obliged to do so, this includes:

  • Establishing right to work.
  • Compliance with HMRC and taxation laws.
  • Compliance with all regulatory pre-employment checks for the education sector.
  • To maintain records as required under the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003.
  • For financial reporting and auditing purposes.
  • Employment placement history.
  • For anti-money laundering or fraud prevention, detection and reporting.
  • To maintain records of actions taken on your account.To comply with the above, we collect the following special category data:
  • Personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin via right to work documentation.
  • Biometric data (where used for identification purposes).
  • Data concerning health.We always ensure that our processing is generally lawful, fair and transparent and complies with all the other principles and requirements of the GDPR. All special category data is obtained for the purposes of employment, social security and social protection (if authorised by law) and reasons of substantial public interest (with a basisVersion 5 | Nov 2021 Page 3 of 7

in law) as per Article 9 of the GDPR, specifically relating to the safeguarding of children and of individuals at risk in accordance with Data Protection Act Schedule 1.

Legitimate interest
Where the Company has relied on a legitimate interest to process your personal data, our legitimate interests is/are as follows:

  • The Company is an employment business, which means we have a commercial interest in finding work for our workseekers in educational establishments. We will contact you regarding employment opportunities in line with your requirements.
  • The Company will contact you about free training opportunities that you may be interested in attending. We have a legitimate interest to enhance the skills of our current workforce, to support your professional development and help you stay at the forefront of developments in the industry. Your data will not be shared with any third-party training provider without your prior consent.
  • The Company will contact you to invite you to our free social events for staff. These events give you the opportunity to network with schools and other teaching and support staff and widen your professional contacts. The Company has a legitimate interest to create a more engaged community of supply staff who are loyal to the Company.


National Tutoring Programme (NTP)

Pupils
The Company will collect data via the school for all pupils engaged in tutoring sessions via the NTP. The Company will collect specific data as instructed by the NTP. This data will be kept securely within our portal and will only be used for NTP purposes. This data will be transferred securely to the Evaluator via their secure portal for reporting purposes. All pupil data, alongside any associated tutoring session information, will be deleted as soon as practicable after the Company is informed by NTP that it has ceased to be appropriate to retain the NTP data. All NTP data will be erased from any computers, storage devises and storage media. The Company will take further action as may be necessary or desirable to ensure our compliance with data protection legislation. For further information please see NTP Privacy Notice for Parents and Carers of Pupils and NTP Privacy Notice for KS4 Pupils.

Schools
The Company will collect data for all schools engaged in tutoring sessions via the NTP. The Company will collect specific data as instructed by the NTP. This data will be kept securely within our portal and will only be used for NTP purposes. This data will be transferred securely to the Evaluator via their secure portal for reporting purposes. All pupil data, alongside any associated tutoring session information, will be deleted as soon as practicable after the Company is informed by NTP that it has ceased to be appropriate to retain the NTP data. All NTP data will be erased from any computers, storage devises and storage media. The Company will take further action as may be necessary or desirable to ensure our compliance with data protection legislation. For further information please see NTP Privacy Notice for Schools.

Tutors
In addition to the data the Company collects as part of the candidate registration process, the Company will also collect further information for all tutors engaged in tutoring sessions via the NTP. The Company will collect specific data as instructed by the NTP. This data will be kept securely within our portal and will only be used for NTP purposes. This data will be transferred securely to the Evaluator via their secure portal for reporting purposes. All pupil data, alongside any associated tutoring session information, will be deleted as soon as practicable after the Company is informed by NTP that it has ceased to be appropriate to retain the NTP data. All NTP data will be erased from any computers, storage devises and storage media. The Company will take further action as may be necessary or desirable to ensure our compliance with data protection legislation. For further information please see N TP Privacy Notice for Tutors.

Consent

We will use your personal information where we have your consent to do so to:

  • Send specific marketing to schools or introduce you to a school
  • Conduct status checks on your DBS through the Update Service, and
  • Register you for Team Teach training services.

It is your responsibility to ensure that any information submitted as part of the registration process is accurate and up-to-date. Should you wish to withdraw your consent at any time, please contact dpo@ visionforeducation.co.uk, dpo@abc-teachers.co.uk or dpo@smartteachers.co.uk.

4. Personal information that we share with third parties

In order to provide the services offered, we sometimes need to share your personal information with third parties. However, we will continue to be responsible for the usage and security of your personal information when this happens.

The Company will process your personal data and/or sensitive personal data with the following third party recipients:

  • Educational establishments for the process of providing work-finding services.
  • The Police and any child protection professionals in the event of an investigation into your conduct.
  • Other companies, governing bodies or government agencies in order to carry out checks, for investigative purposes or provide services for the fulfilment of work-finding services as required.Your personal information may be disclosed to any company within the group, for the purpose of processing that personal information, using appropriately secure methods, for services being provided.As part of the registration process, you may be required to register with our Candidate Registration Portal. If this is the case, the following information will be provided to Llama ID:Name, and
  • Email address.Llama ID may also share your details with the following third parties:Credas – for the purposes of ID verification
  • First Advantage – for the purposes of processing a DBS certificate You will be required to agree to the above third parties' Terms and Conditions in order to register.As part of the registration process, we may need to apply for a new DBS certificate for you. If this is the case, the following information will be provided to eSafeguarding to process the DBS application:
  • Name, and
  • Email address.In order to offer additional services to you, the Company will, with your consent, share minimal personal data with the following third party recipient:
    Team Teach.

    Should you wish to work as an online tutor, you will be required to register with our online tutor platform, Tutor Office, and you will be asked to provide the following information:
  • Name
  • Address
  • Email address
  • Date of birth, and
  • Mobile number.
    This platform is completely separate from our own systems and database and you will be required to agree to Tutor Office Terms and Conditions in order to register.In order to complete relevant safeguarding and child protection courses required for our registration process, minimal personal data (name and email address) will be shared with our safeguarding training provider.

    In order to comply with our regulatory body, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), we are required to provide candidate data for routine auditing. Your details will be included only with your consent. A consent form can be signed during the registration process and will remain valid for 2 years. Should you wish to withdraw your consent at any time, please contact dpo@visionforeducation.co.uk, dpo@abc-teachers.co.uk or dpo@smartteachers.co.uk.


Other circumstances where we share or use your personal information
In certain circumstances, we may be required by law to disclose your personal information to third parties such as government bodies, law enforcement agencies and data protection regulators.

5. Data retention, data security and transfers of personal information outside of the European Economic Area (EEA)

The Company will retain your personal data only for as long as is necessary. Different laws require us to keep different data for different periods of time. Specific details of our retention can be found here or on our website.
The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 require us to keep work- seeker’s records for at least one year from:

  1. The date of their creation, or
  2. The date on which we last provide you with work-finding services.

We must also keep your payroll records, holiday pay, sick pay and pension’s auto-enrolment records for as long as is legally required by HMRC and associated national minimum wage, social security and tax legislation.
We retain personal information for as long as we reasonably require it for legal or business purposes. The Company and group offer work-finding services including permanent placements for senior leadership positions where the length of service is significantly longer, so our data retention period is greater. With this in mind, your information will not be kept for longer than 7 years after your last day of work, or from the date you were cleared to work, whichever is longer. Please note that we may be required, in certain circumstances, to retain your information indefinitely (for example under child protection legislation).

We will take all necessary steps to ensure that the privacy of information is maintained for the period of retention.

Overseas transfer
The Company may only transfer the information you provide to us to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA) for the purposes of providing you with work-finding opportunities abroad. The EEA comprise of the EU member states plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
We take steps to protect your personal information from unauthorized access and against unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction and damage. We will only keep your personal information for as long as we reasonably require and for the activities we have detailed above. This means we will retain personal information for the duration of any contract we have with you, in line with any legal obligation for data retention (such as that for HMRC) or, primarily, until erasure is requested by you.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will take steps to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted via email and/or our website - any transmission is at your own risk.
The personal information that we collect from you will, where possible, be stored and processed within the EEA. In certain circumstances, we may require third parties that are based outside of the EEA to process, host or store your personal information and by submitting your personal information to us, you are acknowledging this transfer, storing or processing. Please note that countries outside the EEA may not have the same standard of data protection legislation as countries within the EEA.

In the event your personal information is transferred, stored or processed outside of the EEA, we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and the Data Protection Legislation. This means that we will only allow third parties to access your personal information where those third parties (a) are in countries that have been confirmed by the European Commission to provide adequate protection to personal information; or (b) have agreed to provide all protections to your personal information as set out in the Data Protection Legislation (such as by entering into the European Commission’s Model Clauses).

6. Your rights - Accessing, erasing and updating y our personal information

Should you have any queries or complaints in relation to how we use your information, please contact us via the details set out in section 9 below. You have the right to access the personal information we hold about you and to ask us to:

  • make any changes to ensure that any personal information we hold about you is accurate and up to date
  • erase or stop processing any personal information we hold about you where there is no longer a legal ground for us to hold it, or
  • transfer any information we hold about you to a specified third party.Should you wish to take any complaints or queries further, you have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office regarding such issues. Further information about how to make a complaint can be obtained at www.ico.org.uk or by telephoning 0303 123 1113.

7. How to unsubscribe from any email alerts you receive

If you have elected to receive information about our products or services or the products or services offered jointly with or on behalf of other organisations and/or “alerts” from us via email (for example, by creating an email alert for a job) and would like at any time to unsubscribe from this service, please email us at dpo@visionforeducation.co.uk,dpo@abc-teachers.co.uk, dpo@smartteachers.co.uk or click on the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of an email.

8. Changes to our Privacy Policy

The Company may amend this Privacy Policy at any time and where we make material changes to it, we will provide notice on our website. By continuing to use our services and/or our Sites, you agree to the updated Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to any changes that we make, you should not use or access (or continue to use or access) our services and/or our Sites.

9. Legal and contact information

The registered office of the Company is:
The Edwin Group, First Floor (South), Cathedral Buildings, Dean Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1PG
We will use all reasonable efforts to answer any questions or resolve any concerns regarding your privacy promptly.
All comments, queries and requests relating to our use of your personal information are welcomed (including in relation to transfers of personal information outside the EEA). If you would like to contact us, queries should be addressed to The Data Protection Team at the above address; or by email at dpo@visionforeducation.co.uk, dpo@abc-teachers.co.uk or dpo@smartteachers.co.uk.