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Privacy Notice

Privacy Notice and Cookie Policy for Help You Choose Website

What this document is for

This privacy notice provides details on how we, Norfolk County Council, use your personal information to provide the Help You Choose service. There is information about the Cookies we use on this website, at the bottom of the page.

By ‘use’ we mean the various ways your personal information may be processed including storing and sharing the information.

Further details

We also provide the following details in our general privacy notice on our website:

  • Who we are
  • How long we use your information for
  • Your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (the GDPR) and
  • How to exercise them 

You can also ask us for a copy of this information.

What we use your information for

We may use the information about you to:

  • Provide the Help You Choose service (providing your account, providing information about your career plans, choices and preferences, and enabling applications to schools / colleges/training providers for post 16 education and training, and information which supports your transition to post 16, where this is relevant to your personal circumstances e.g. EHCP, Form 8 and or Access Arrangements).
  • Respond to any queries or issues you have with the Help You Choose service.

We also use this information to assess the quality of our services and evaluate and improve our policies and procedures.  We may also use information in other ways compatible with the above.  

What personal data we collect and use about you

We will collect and use:

  • Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Contact Details (email address, postal address, phone number)
  • Career Plans
  • Applications and preferences.
  • Unique Pupil Number
  • Which school, college, or sixth-form you attend
  • Employment history (if you provide this within your account)

We may also collect and use information about:

  • Sex and Gender
  • Ethnicity
  • Relevant Health information, such as an Education Health Care Plan, or details of Special Educational Needs 

This information is classed as “special category data” under the UK GDPR. We may only collect these data when it is relevant and for the purposes described above. 

The UK GDPR includes safeguards to protect the use of your special category data. Further details can be found on our website in the document named ‘Special category data and criminal offences data policy’ which sets out our procedures for compliance with the principles of the UK GDPR and the retention and erasure of this information.  

Who provides this information

We receive most of this information from you, but we may also obtain some of this data from:

  • Your school (if they help set up your account)
  • Your college/ sixth form (if they help set up your account).

Who we share your information with

We may need to share your information with:

  • First Media Solutions, who provide the Help You Choose website.
  • Course providers you apply to (information in your application will be shared with them)
  • Department of Education (DfE). Your information is shared with DfE to comply with our statutory reporting obligations. 

Any information which is shared will only be shared on a need to know basis, with appropriate individuals. Only the minimum information for the purpose will be shared.

Your personal information will be shared with third parties contracted by the County Council to provide a service. These service providers are known as data processors and have a legal obligation under GDPR and to the County Council to look after your personal information and only use it for providing that service. In particular, the County Council has entered into a contract with First media Solutions, who provide the Help You Choose website.

How the law protects you and the legal basis for processing your information

We have legal grounds under the GDPR to process this information, including special category data, because it is necessary for the performance of a contract we have with you. The details of the contract are set out in the Terms and Conditions for Help You Choose, available here.

You do not have to provide your personal information. However, if you do not, it may mean that we are not able to provide the Help You Choose service to you.

How long will we keep your personal information for:

Your information will be deleted at the earliest of: you withdraw consent, your 20th birthday, or your 25th birthday if you have an EHCP.

If we need to use your information for research or reports, your information will be anonymised and any information taken from notes (handwritten or typed) during any consultation sessions will be securely destroyed. The information will continue to be used in a summarised and anonymised form in any research reports or papers that are published. The anonymised information in the papers may be of historic interest and may be held in public archives indefinitely.

How we keep your information

The information is stored electronically, on the County Council’s network including records management systems. The information is also stored in Firstmedia’s secure systems.

Apart from as noted below for Google Analytics cookies we do not process your information outside of the UK.

Automated decision making

We do not make automated decisions about you.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive.

We use the following cookies: 

  • Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.
  • Analytical or performance cookies. These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
  • Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
  • Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests.

You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them below:

VISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA. This cookie is set by [TBC] and is used to [TBC]. This cookie expires five months and twenty seven days after being set.

Necessary Cookies

ASP.NET_SessionId. This cookie is set by Microsoft to maintain an anonymised user session by the server. This cookie expires at the end of your browsing session

Analytical or Performance Cookies

__RequestVerificationToken. This cookie is used to stop unauthorised posting of content to a website. This cookie expires at the end of your browsing session.

 _ga. This cookie is set by Google Analytics to collect information on how visitors use the site, to store and count pageviews. This cookie is set by Google Analytics. This cookie expires 2 years after being set.

_gid. This cookie is used by Google Analytics to collect information on how visitors use the site, to store and count pageviews. This cookie is set by Google Analytics. This cookie expires 2 years after being set

Collect. This is a Pixel set by Google Analytics to track of you  across marketing channels and devices. This cookie expires at the end of your browsing session.

Targeting Cookies

VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE. This cookie is set by YouTube and is used to collect user data through videos embedded in websites, which is aggregated with profile data from other Google services in order to display targeted advertising to web visitors. This cookie expires five months and twenty-seven days after being set.

YSC. This cookie is set by YouTube and used to collect user data through videos embedded in websites, which is aggregated with profile data from other Google services in order to display targeted advertising to web visitors. This cookie expires at the end of your browsing session.

International Transfers 

For providers such as Google (who provide the Google Analytics cookie and Tag Manager) and YouTube, your personal information (IP Address) will be transferred outside of the UK, namely to the United States of America. These transfers are subject to an adequacy decision, in the form of the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (DPF). To find out more about the DPF click here. 

Useful Information

You can manage your cookie preferences at any time, by selecting the ‘Preferences’ link at the bottom of the webpage. Within the pop-up you; accept all cookies, reject all but necessary cookies; select specific cookies to reject or accept. 

You may also be able to disable cookies within your internet browser settings. Please note, if you block all cookies (including essential cookies) the website may not work as intended.

A number of websites provide detailed information on cookies, including: 

Changes to this notice

We may amend this privacy notice at any time so please review it frequently. The date below will be amended each time this notice is updated.

This notice was updated in July 2024.

Contact us 

        Participation & Transition Strategy Team

        Norfolk County Council

        Children's Services

        County Hall

        Martineau Lane

        Norwich

        NR1 2DH

        email:  helpyouchoose@norfolk.gov.uk 

        Tel:      0344 800 8022