Data Protection

Here at Nottingham College (Adams Building, The Lace Market, Nottingham NG1 1NG), we take the privacy of your personal information very seriously. The College is a data controller and is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) (reference number Z700805X).

The College is obliged by data protection legislation (The Data Protection Act (2018) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)) to process your personal information in a transparent way, and to inform you of what is done with it. This information is set out below.

Nottingham College’s Privacy Notices can be updated at any time so please check back here regularly for any changes, although we will notify you directly if significant changes are made to the way we process your information.

The Data Protection Officer (DPO)

The College has appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO). They can be contacted on dataprotectionofficer@nottinghamcollege.ac.uk, or by phone on 0115 884 2326. If you would prefer to write, the address is Data Protection Officer, Nottingham College, Highfields Centre, The Science Park, Jesse Boot Avenue, Nottingham, NG7 2RU.

Please contact the Data Protection Officer if you have any queries or concerns about how your information is handled by the College or wish to exercise any of the rights you have related to your information given below in the section ‘Your rights in connection with your personal information’.

Your rights in connection with your personal information

You have the right to

• Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction and/or completion of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
• Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
• Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you have consented to the processing of your personal information, you have the right to withdraw this at any time. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process that information and, subject to our retention policy, we will dispose of your personal data securely.

If you want to access, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to its processing, or withdraw your consent for its processing, please contact the Data Protection Officer on the details given above.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent authority that upholds information rights. It regulates how the College looks after your personal information. You have the right to make a complaint to the ICO about the way the College has handled your personal information, you can find out how through its website: https://ico.org.uk/.

The types of information we collect

In connection with your application to learn with us, and if you go on to enrol with us as a learner, we will process the following categories of personal information about you:

• The information you have provided to us in your application form or through the online application system, including name, title, address, telephone number, personal email address, date of birth, gender identity and qualifications.
• Any information you provide to us during an open day, interview or Meet the Team event
• Any further information related to your eligibility for the course you have applied for.

If you enrol as a learner at the College, we will also collect:

• The name and phone number of an emergency contact for you.
• Your bank details if you will be funding your own course fees.
• Information about what you are accessing when you use College IT facilities.

We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information:

• Information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and political opinions.
• Information about your health, including any medical condition or disability for which you may require support, including any learning need or difficulty.
• Information about criminal convictions and offences.

The legal bases on which your information is processed

In the main, we process your information on the legal basis of performance of a contract or to take steps…prior to entering into a contract (Article 6 1(c) of the GDPR).

For purposes not directly related to your learning, for example confirming to your previous school or the local authority that you are enrolled here, we will process your information on the basis of those organisations’ legitimate interests.

Occasionally, especially if we are collecting health-related information, we may require your consent for processing your information. Detail of this will be notified to you directly at the time.

How your personal information is collected

We collect personal information about learners and applicants from the following sources:

• You, the data subject through the application form (paper and online) and enrolment form
• UCAS (for HE courses).
• Information you have entered into the apprenticeships vacancy portal.
• Information from publicly accessible third parties, such as internet records and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

How the College uses your information when you apply for a course

On this basis, during the learner application process, we use the personal information we collect about you to:

• Assess your skills, qualifications, and suitability for your chosen course.
• Communicate with you about the application and enrolment processes.
• Administer and facilitate the course(s) of learning that you undertake with us.
• Comply with legal or regulatory requirements.
• If you visit a College site, your image may be captured on CCTV. All CCTV footage is overwritten after 30 days, unless an image or footage needs to be kept for longer in order to aid e.g. a police investigation.

How the College uses your information when you are an enrolled learner

• Your information will be used to ensure you have a place on the correct course, to monitor your progress and attendance on that course and to facilitate the award of the qualification you achieve.
• Your information will be shared with your tutor and other staff who may support you, such as achievement coaches and careers advisors.
• Your personal details, course progress and support needs, as well as absence reports made by you to the College will be kept on EBS, the central student management database. The information in this system is used by further internal systems that support your learning and relationship with the College, such as Student Track, E Track, and the E-ILP.
• Relevant personal details will be used to provide the facilities you require for your learning, such as access to IT equipment and the library. Your image, name and student number will be used to provide you with your ID card, which you must wear at all times.
• When you are using College computers, the information you are accessing will be monitored in order to alert us to any safeguarding issues, so that we are able to keep you and other learners safe.
• If you have cause to use the complaints process, or are subject to the College’s disciplinary process during your time at the College, staff will share relevant information with colleagues as necessary in order to investigate any matter and provide an outcome to you.
• Your image will be captured by CCTV cameras inside and outside College sites. These images will be automatically overwritten after 30 days unless an image or footage needs to be kept for longer in order to aid e.g. a police investigation

How the College uses your sensitive personal information

We will use your particularly sensitive (special category) personal information in the following ways:

• If applicable, we will use information about your health condition, disability or support needs to consider whether we need to provide appropriate adjustments during the recruitment process, for example whether adjustments need to be made during a test or interview. We will also use this information to ensure we are supporting you adequately with your course and during your examinations. If you receive support from the College’s Additional Learning Support (ALS) team, please also see the Privacy Notice for learners who access additional learning support.
• We will use information about your race or national or ethnic origin, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, or sexual orientation, to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting.

How Nottingham College shares your information

• If your course is funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), the College will share your personal information with it for audit purposes. The ESFA is responsible for the funding and planning of education and training for young people and adults in England. The ESFA also administers the Learner Records Service (LRS) which will use your information to create and maintain a unique learner number (ULN). You can read more about the LRS here: https://www.gov.uk/education/learning-records-lrs.
• If your course is funded by an organisation other than the ESFA, or you undertake a funded placement while at College, such as those available through the Erasmus scheme, your information will be shared with these organisations in order to enable your teaching or work experience to take place and for reporting purposes where necessary.
• Your name only will be shared with any organisation that you might undertake a work experience placement with outside the College if this has been arranged by the College’s work experience team.
• If you apply for an apprenticeship using our apprenticeship vacancy portal, your details may be shared with potential employers and associated organisations.
• If your course is provided by another education provider on behalf of Nottingham College, your information will be shared with this provider as necessary in order for your learning to take place.
• Your personal information, and academic progress information, will be shared with exam boards and other qualification-awarding bodies in order for you to be awarded the qualification you have enrolled on and to assure the quality of the tuition you are receiving from the College.
• If you are an apprentice enrolled on a residential course, some of your details will be shared with the relevant contractor in order to provide accommodation for you while you undertake learning with us.
• Other organisations that we will share information include:
  • the Department for Children, Schools and Families
  • the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills
  • Nottingham Futures, and other local Councils
  • the Student Loans Company
  • the Higher Education Statistics Agency
  • the Office for Students
  • Ofsted
• If we have a safeguarding concern about you, we may share necessary information regarding that concern with the Police and other organisations and agencies such as local authorities, in order to keep you safe.

How long the College will retain your information

• If you apply to study with us and do not receive an offer, or do not enrol after having been offered a place, we will keep your information for a maximum of six months after your last contact with the College.
• If you are a learner with the College, the College will keep your personal information for at least seven years after the last time you finish your learning with the College. If you are on an ESFA Funded course, or undertake an Erasmus placement during your course, this information may be kept for longer. Detail about how long Nottingham College keeps personal information can be found in its data retention and disposal policy, which can be found here.

Information about criminal convictions

In the event a check of this nature is required as part of your enrolling on a relevant course at the College, such as one in healthcare or early years, you will be asked to supply all necessary information for this directly.

How the College communicates with those that have applied to learn here

• You will not receive any marketing emails or phone calls from us unless you have opted to receive these. You can unsubscribe from these at any time or change the way we contact you, for example, by email, post, telephone or SMS, by emailing websiteteam@nottinghamcollege.ac.uk or calling us on 0115 9 100 100.
• If you have applied to learn with us and opted out of marketing communications, we will still contact you with information relevant to the course you are considering or the activities that will lead up to your enrolment.

The types of information we collect
 

In connection with your application for work, and if you go on to come and work with us, we will process the following categories of personal information about you:

• The information you have provided to us in your application documents (CV, covering letter or supporting statement) including name, title, address, telephone number, personal email address, date of birth, gender identity, employment history and qualifications.
• Any information you provide to us during interview and the results of any assessment
• Copies of right to work documentation and references.

If you work with us, your personal information will be stored in the databases that hold staff personal files and related information. It will also be held in payroll and other related systems in order to facilitate your employment with the College. This information will include the categories of information related to recruitment above, and:

• Your national insurance number, bank account details, payroll records and tax status information.
• Any relevant pensions or benefits information and information for other pay deductions, such as student loans.
• Marital status and dependents.
• Start date and, if different, the date of your continuous employment, along with your leaving date and your reason for leaving.
• Location of employment or workplace.
• Copy of driving licence if required for Occupational Driving purposes or for checking your identity.
• Performance related information, including records of any grievance or disciplinary processes.

We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information:

• Information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, political opinions and trade union membership.
• Information about your health, including any medical condition, disability, and health and sickness records.
• Details of any absences (other than holidays) from work including time on parental leave
• If you leave employment for a health related reason, information about that condition needed for pensions and permanent health insurance purposes.
• Information about criminal convictions and offences.

How your personal information is collected

We collect personal information about candidates and staff from the following sources:

• You, the data subject.
• Recruitment agencies, from which we collect the following categories of data: name, address, work history, qualifications, current salary information, referees, any current DBS checks.
• Disclosure and Barring Service in respect of criminal conviction.
• Your named referees, from whom we collect the following categories of data: dates worked, job title and suitability for new position.
• Information from publicly accessible third parties, such as internet records and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

The legal bases on which your information is processed

In the main, we process your information on the legal basis of performance of a contract or to take steps…prior to entering into a contract (Article 6 1(c) of the GDPR). Sometimes we are acting on our legal obligation to comply with employment or equality legislation.

How the College uses your information when you apply for a job vacancy

We will use the personal information we collect about you during the job recruitment process to:

• Assess your skills, qualifications, and suitability for the role.
• Carry out background and reference checks, where applicable.
• Communicate with you about the recruitment process.
• Keep records related to our hiring processes.
• Comply with legal or regulatory requirements, such as checking you are legally entitled to work in the UK.

How the College uses your information when you work with us

If you go on to work for us we will use your information to:

• Administer the contract we have entered into with you, which includes maintaining a record of your employment performance, including PDR outcomes, and any disciplinary or grievance process.
• Monitor our equality, diversity and inclusion compliance.
• Pay you, deduct tax, pension contributions and any student loan payments that may be payable.
• Provide voluntary employee benefits to you.
• Monitor your use of College IT facilities in order to ensure your welfare and that of other staff and the College’s learners.
• Monitor your CPD activity and suggest CPD opportunities to you.
• Inform and manage administrative processes at the College, such as the curriculum planning process.
• Your image will be captured by CCTV cameras inside and outside College sites. These images will be automatically overwritten after 30 days unless an image or footage needs to be kept for longer for compliance with a legal obligation, such as a police investigation.

How the College uses your sensitive personal information

We will use your particularly sensitive (special category) personal information in the following ways:

• We will use information about your physical or mental health, or disability status, to ensure your health and safety in the workplace and to assess your fitness to work, to provide appropriate workplace adjustments, to monitor and manage sickness absence and to administer benefits including statutory maternity and paternity pay, statutory sick pay, pensions and permanent health insurance.
• If you apply for an ill-health pension under a pension arrangement operated by a College group company, we will use information about your physical or mental health in reaching a decision about your entitlement.
• We will use information you have provided about your race or national or ethnic origin, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, or sexual orientation, to ensure meaningful equality, diversity and inclusion monitoring and reporting.
• We will use trade union membership information to pay trade union subscriptions if paid through the payroll, register the status of a protected employee and to comply with employment law obligations.

Information about criminal convictions

• Because the majority of our learners are under 18, we are legally obliged to adequately check the criminal conviction history of College employees to ensure that we are meeting our safeguarding obligations.
• In the event a check of this nature is required as part of your taking up employment with the College, you will be asked to supply all necessary information for this directly.

How the College might share your information

If you have cause to use the complaints or grievance procedures, or are subject to the College’s disciplinary process during your time at the College, staff will share relevant information with colleagues as necessary in order to investigate any matter and provide an outcome to you.

Third party organisations that the College will share you information with include:

• Medigold – for occupational health and sickness absence information.
• APT – the College’s payroll processor.
• The disclosure and barring service.
• Qualification awarding bodies, e.g. Pearson.
• MStore – the database in which HR personal files are kept.
• Your pension scheme provider (usually NEST, or the Teachers’ or Local Government Pension Scheme).
• Ofsted

How long the College will retain your information

If you apply for a position and are not appointed, we will retain your personal information for a period of 6 months after we have communicated to you our decision about whether to appoint you. After this period, we will securely destroy your personal information.

If we wish to retain your personal information after you have applied for a job with us, on the basis that we may wish to consider you for a future position, we will write to you separately.

If you are successful in your appointment, the personal information from your application that is relevant to your employment will form part of your personal record as a member of staff at the College. Your personal employment record will be retained until 7 years after the end of your appointment to the College. Certain information such as that related to pension contributions will be kept for up to 75 years. For more detail on how long different types of information are retained by the College, please see the Data retention and disposal policy.

If you fail to provide personal information

If you fail to provide information when requested which is necessary for us to consider your application (such as evidence of qualifications or work history), we will not be able to process your application successfully and may not be able to take it all the way through the recruitment process.

As a learner at Nottingham College, what is done with your personal information in order to facilitate your course is detailed in Privacy information for learners, apprentices and those applying to learn at Nottingham College above.
 

The types of information we collect

Directly from you, we will collect detail of any condition relevant to your course, and any detail you can give of adjustment that you require in order to ensure that you are not disadvantaged in your learning at the College.

We will also keep ongoing records of your consultations with those staff helping to support you in your time at College.

With your consent, we will approach the school or College that you have attended most recently in order to understand what adjustment has been made for you in previous educational establishments.

The legal bases on which your information is processed

In the main, we process your information on the legal basis of the performance of the contract that we enter into with you when you become a learner at the College. Where we are collecting any information relating to a health condition or disability that you have and the support needs associated with it, we will seek your consent to process this information and what we do with it, such as approaching your previous school to ask for relevant information.

How your personal information is collected

We collect personal information about learners and applicants from the following sources:

• You, the data subject.
• Schools or Colleges that you have attended previously, but only with your consent.
• Other professionals that may have been involved in supporting you, such as medical professionals. Again this contact would only be made with your consent.

How the College uses your information

Information related to any health condition or disability that you disclose to our staff will, with your consent, be used to provide adjustment to any relevant process within the College to ensure that you do not suffer any disadvantage relative to anyone else. This can include adjustment to admissions processes, teaching provision and exam arrangements as well as other adjustments on a more ad hoc basis as required.

How Nottingham College shares your information

In order to assist you with every aspect of College life where it might be necessary, we may need to share information about your health condition to keep you safe, or your disability to ensure that required adjustments are made for you. With your consent and awareness, this information may therefore be shared with the staff who teach you and interact with you in other ways. It will never be shared other than with staff who need to know about it. We may also share your information with Ofsted.

How long the College will retain your information

We will keep your personal information for at least seven years after the last time you finish your learning with the College. If you are on an ESFA Funded course, or undertake an Erasmus placement during your course, this information may be kept for longer.

The types of information we collect

The Nottingham College website collects information about how you use our website when you visit it, so that we can tailor the information you see to what you are interested in. The personal information you provide when you visit the College’s website is processed on the legal basis of our legitimate interest in making the experience of the College’s website as valuable as possible to all its visitors, including you.

How your personal information is collected and used

Cookies

Cookies are tiny pieces of data sent from our website and stored in a user’s web browser. At Nottingham College we limit the use of cookies to first-party only which means that no information is passed to third parties. You can change your browser settings to disable cookies if you do not want them to be stored.

This is how we use cookies on our site:

Google Analytics (Universal Analytics and GA4)

• These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. They are used to "remember" what a user has done on previous pages/interactions with our website.
• Google Analytics collects IP address information, but this is not available to be viewed directly by Nottingham College in the Google Analytics platform. Instead it is used for approximated geolocation information such as Country, Town/City etc.
• Google Analytics does not store or allow the use of Personal Identifiable Information (PII) to be stored on it's platform, this would be a violation of the Google Analytics usage policy.

Read more of the Google Analytics privacy policy

IP address

• IP address data is captured anonymously in situations such as application/server logs. This is for security/auditing purposes.
• IP address data is not stored against personal identifiable information in our website.
• We use an IP address lookup service which performs queries against a WHOIS database to determine the Service Provider, network and type of organisation (e.g. business, education establishment or Internet Service Provider) an IP address is registered to. IP address data collected is not stored by this service and only returns the result from the WHOIS database for reporting and analytics purposes.

Social Media

• Social cookies are used to help tailor your user experience.
• On some pages there is the option to share the page with social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter.
• These cookies are only used if the visitor chooses to share the page by clicking on the links.
• Follow the link for details of the Facebook privacy policy
• Follow the link for details on the Twitter privacy policy

YouTube

• On some pages of our website we have embedded YouTube videos from our dedicated YouTube channel.
• If you choose to view these videos, YouTube may place additional cookies to track video activity.
• Follow the link for details of the YouTube privacy policy

Crazy Egg

• On an on-going basis we may record samples of website sessions to help better understand how users interact with certain areas of the Nottingham College website.
• These recorded sessions will show the web browsers users, the device i.e. desktop or mobile, pages visited, interactions like scrolling, button clicks and any actions performed during the session.
• Where possible, any personally identifiable information is obfuscated or blanked on the recordings when received through these services to protect user privacy.
• In addition to recordings, we may also use surveys/polls to obtain user feedback about certain elements or areas of our website.
• Details of the Crazy Egg privacy policy can be found on their website.

Remarketing

We use Remarketing within platforms like Google Ads, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok to advertise online and make ads more relevant. If the user has accepted our cookie consent banner message, this acts as consent mechanism to enable remarketing/advertising features for these services.

Remarketing cookies will be used by third parties to show our ads on websites other than our own. This could mean that we advertise to previous visitors on third parties websites based on their interaction with our website, for example you may see an advert for a course because you’ve visited that course page. Any data collected will be used in conjunction with our privacy policy.

• You can set your advertising preferences in relation to how Google advertises to you
• View Facebook’s privacy policy
• View Twitter’s privacy policy
• View TikTok's privacy policy

How long Nottingham College will retain your information

The information gathered through cookies is deleted every two years. If you have signed up to a mailing list through our website, these details will be kept until you unsubscribe from the relevant list.

Privacy information for those with parental or next of kin responsibility for Nottingham College students

The types of information we collect

We may collect, use and share your personal information in order to protect the health and wellbeing of our students and support their learning and development.

The categories of your personal information that we collect, store and share include:

• Personal information (such as name and contact details)
• Contact history (such as correspondence/notes)

We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information:

Any information relating to a health condition or resulting adjustment needs that we may need in order to facilitate your participation in any events such as open evenings or end of year shows. This information will be supplied directly by you and only used on the basis of your consent.

The legal bases on which your information is processed

Where our students are over 18, we will process your information on the basis of the college performing its task in the public interest (that of educating our students).

On occasion, we may process your information on the basis of fulfilling our legal obligations to safeguard our students and provide information related to their academic progress to those with parental responsibility.

If you are the next of kin of a student at the College, we will use your contact details in the event of an emergency on the basis of our students’ vital interests.

How your personal information is collected

We collect personal information about individuals who have parental and next of kin responsibility for our students at enrolment and occasionally over the course of the academic year. You will have provided your details yourself, or they will have been provided by the student(s) for whom you have responsibility.

How the College uses your information

We use your information to:

• Contact you in the case of an emergency

If you are the parent or guardian of one of our students, we will process your information to:

• Comply with legal obligations around the health, safety and wellbeing of our students, including Ofsted inspections
• Support our student’s learning
• Report on student progress
• Facilitate the provision of appropriate guidance and pastoral support
• Assess and improve the quality of our services.

How Nottingham College shares your information

Nottingham College will not share your information unless legally obliged to do so, for example with the police in the event of a welfare concern related to the student for whom you have responsibility.

How long the College will retain your information

Detail about how long Nottingham College keeps personal information can be found in its data retention and disposal policy. Parental information comes under ‘Records documenting the registration of individual students on programmes’. This information is kept for a further six years following the end of the academic year in which the student leaves the College. We are required to hold safeguarding records for a set period of time and, on some rare occasions, your personal information may be included in these records and therefore held for up to ten years.

Under data protection legislation, you have the right to access the personal information that the College processes in relation to you, in order to ensure that the College is processing your information in accordance with the law. Please be aware that you can only ask for your own information, or for someone else’s information only with their permission under this process.

If you wish to access any of the information that the College processes as part of its relationship with you, please use the link to the editable form provided below. The College will endeavour to respond to all requests within one calendar month.

Subject Access Request Form

The more specific you can be about the information you require, and any detail you can provide about relevant staff members or any timeframe to which the information relates, the more quickly your request can be dealt with and the more likely you are to receive an answer with which you are satisfied.

Under data protection legislation, you have the right to have information deleted from our systems if we no longer have a justifiable reason for continuing to process it. It is worth noting that if you write to us asking to have your information deleted, a balancing exercise will be carried out that looks at your rights balanced against the purposes for which the College needs to process your information. You will receive a response to any request explaining what action has been taken, and any reasons why it has not been possible to fulfil any part of your request if this is the case.

You also have rights including having your information corrected or completed, and, under certain circumstances, to object to how the College uses your information.

For all of these above rights, including the right to be forgotten, please use the editable form below. The more detail you can give in your request, the more likely you are to receive a quicker and more satisfactory answer.

Subject Rights Request Form

If you want to access information related to the College’s performance, management, staffing, governance, finances or policies and procedures, rather than your personal information, you can do this through a Freedom of Information request. Information about this process is available on the Freedom of Information pages.