Information for our health colleagues

North Star Community Trust's academies fully appreciate the value of health programmes (such as fluoride varnish, childhood height and weight measurements, flu vaccinations, measles vaccinations, hearing tests, human papilloma virus immunisation etc.); we have participated and assisted before and wish to continue doing so.

However, we are often contacted by different health care trusts on behalf of the Local Authority or Public Health England, each with a slightly different style and approach and we need to be consistent with how we communicate to parents / pupils.

Data protection

We need to ensure we are complaint with the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) and the new Data Protection Act 2018; especially with regard to services where participation is not mandatory and ‘special category’ personal data (i.e. personal data relating to health) is to be collected.

As consent is required and it’s important that we neither suggest nor imply that these are school managed programmes, letters we are asked to pass on to parents must be clear: -

that though academy staff will assist, this is a Public Health England / Local Authority / NHS programme merely being held on our premises
where personal data can be shared without opt-in consent (ideally with reference to the legislation which allows it)

The letter should also inform parents / pupils: -

the purpose of the programme (preferably with a web link to information online or leaflet)
what is to happen with the personal data collected? (i.e. how will it be used, will it be shared with any third parties and if so which?)
where will the personal data be held and how securely?
how long will the personal data be held?
how securely will the personal data be destroyed at the end of that period?
of a named professional to contact with any queries or complaints
of their data protection rights (under UK GDPR)

We would ask that you consider including the above information in the letters you ask us to pass on to parents / pupils. If you are unable to do so, we will still require the above information so that we can inform our parents in a covering letter we will have to devise to accompany it.

Administration and timing

As collation of parental / pupil decisions with regard to consent can occasionally be difficult to collect and administer, we advise providing us with the maximum advance notice available in order to collate responses.

With regard to information about the programme itself, should you not be able to provide us with a web link to online information and instead choose to provide us with leaflets to distribute, we will require as many copies as there are pupils you wish to participate.

Should your letter not include the information required by data protection regulations above and we are required to produce a covering letter to accompany yours, additional time should also be considered.

Arrangements and contact

Arrangements for health programmes at any of our academies is overseen by our central medical team.

As opposed to contacting the schools directly and to avoid any additional delay, please contact [email protected] | 07948 423 374