Privacy & cookies
WAES respects the privacy of anyone who uses the WAES website. We gather important information from our visitors and customers.and this privacy notice tells you why we collect personal information and how we use and secure that information.
We collect information in different ways:
- Basic information about visitors to our website
- Information about people who apply for and enrol on any of our courses
- Information about people who apply for vacancies
We may change this policy from time-to-time, so please check this page occasionally to ensure you're still happy with the policy. By using the website, you're agreeing to the terms within this policy. We are committed to preserving the privacy of all visitors to our website and do not disclose personal data of our users to third-parties.
What information do we collect?
Website Analytics
When someone visits our website we use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site and what terms are used to find information. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone.
Event registrations
When you register for, or attend, one of our events we will ask you to complete some basic information regarding your name, contact details and subject areas you are interested in studying. At the time of requesting the information your consent to process this data will be sought.
Course applications
The personal information you provide when applying for a course is passed to the Skills Funding Agency and the Greater London Authority. Where necessary it is also shared with the Department for Education and Education Funding Agency. This information is used by these government departments to meet their statutory responsibilities. The information you provide may also be shared with other organisations for education, training, employment and well-being related purposes, including for research.
Forms
We receive and store information through users submitting HTML forms, and we use it only for the purpose contact was made, normally to contact and initiate a discussion about our courses and services. We do not and will not use this information for any other purpose.
Phone calls
To maintain customer service standards, and assist in staff training, we may record and monitor incoming telephone calls. The information you supply will enable us to assist you with your enquiry and provide you with the best possible service. It could also enable us to contact you, where necessary, to follow up any questions you may have.
Marketing
We would like to send you information about our range of courses, and other services that we offer, which we feel may be of interest to you. If you have consented to receive promotional information from us, you may opt out at a later date.
You have a right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes. If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, you can opt out at anytime by clicking the unsubscribe link on the messages you receive.
We will not share your information for marketing purposes with third-party organisations outside of the Adult Learning & Skills Service.
Other websites
This website may contain links to third-party websites and partner sites. We do not control and are not responsible for, the collation of any personal information by third parties whose privacy policy is different to ours. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.
CCTV at WAES Sites
Westminster Adult Education Service (WAES) is fully committed to operating a safe environment, it therefore has in place a closed-circuit television (“CCTV”) system to assist in providing a safe and secure environment for learners, staff and visitors, as well as protect WAES property.
Please read our full CCTV Policy and Procedure.
Cookies
Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. This information is used to track visitor use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity.
Like many websites, we also obtain certain types of information when your web browser, or advertisements and other content served by or on behalf of Westminster Adult Education Service on other websites. This information is used to provide measurement services. For further information visit www.aboutcookies.org/. You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the above websites tell you how to remove cookies from your browser. However, in a few cases some of our website features may not function as a result.
The WAES website stores Google Analytics cookies, which are essential for Google Analytics and this provides us with extremely valuable information about the use of our website. The data is stored anonymously and includes no sensitive data - the most 'sensitive' data that could be extracted may well be the average number of daily hits to our homepage and how that changes over time - this data poses no risk or threat to the users of the website but is very helpful for us.
Cookie names: __utma, __utmb, __utmc, __utmz. Find out more about Google's privacy policy and safeguards.
We embed videos from our official YouTube channel. YouTube stores cookies to help with collecting analytics about the use of its videos as well as to ensure effective performance and storing settings such as volume level.
Access to your information and correction
You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please email info@waes.ac.uk or write to us at the following address: Westminster Adult Education Service, 219 Lisson Grove, London, NW8 8LW. We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. You may ask us to correct or remove information you think is inaccurate.
Changes to our privacy policy
We keep our privacy notice under regular review and we will place any updates on this webpage.
Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) Privacy Notice
This privacy notice is issued by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) on behalf of the Secretary of State for the Department of Education (DfE) to inform learners about the Individualised Learner Record (ILR) and how their personal information is used in the ILR. Your personal information is used by the DfE to exercise our functions under article 6(1)(e) of the UK GDPR and to meet our statutory responsibilities, including under the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009. Our lawful basis for using your special category personal data is covered under Substantial Public Interest based in law (Article 9(2)(g)) of GDPR legislation. This processing is under Section 54 of the Further and Higher Education Act (1992).
The ILR collects data about learners and learning undertaken. Publicly funded colleges, training organisations, local authorities, and employers (FE providers) must collect and return the data to the ESFA each year under the terms of a funding agreement, contract or grant agreement. It helps ensure that public money distributed through the ESFA is being spent in line with government targets. It is also used for education, training, employment, and well-being purposes, including research.
We retain your ILR learner data for 20 years for operational purposes (e.g. to fund your learning and to publish official statistics). Your personal data is then retained in our research databases until you are aged 80 years so that it can be used for long-term research purposes. For more information about the ILR and the data collected, please see the ILR specification at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/individualised-learner-record-ilr
ILR data is shared with third parties where it complies with DfE data sharing procedures and where the law allows it. The DfE and the English European Social Fund (ESF) Managing Authority (or agents acting on their behalf) may contact learners to carry out research and evaluation to inform the effectiveness of training.
For more information about how your personal data is used and your individual rights, please see the DfE Personal Information Charter (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education/about/personal-information-charter) and the DfE Privacy Notice (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/privacy-notice-for-key-stage-5-and-adult-education)
If you would like to get in touch with us or request a copy of the personal information DfE holds about you, you can contact the DfE in the following ways:
If you are unhappy with how we have used your personal data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at:
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. You can also call their helpline on 0303 123 1113 or visit https://www.ico.org.uk
Date last updated: 23 May 2023
View 2023/24 ESFA privacy notice on Government website
Learning Records Service (LRS) Privacy Notice
Overview
To comply with data protection legislation, schools, colleges, local authorities, and training sector organisations are responsible for issuing a copy of this privacy notice to learners and/or parents/guardians. This notice summarises the information held on record about them, why it is held and the third parties with whom the data may be shared.
Privacy notice for pupils, students, learners, and trainees
The information you supply is used by the Learning Records Service (LRS). The LRS issues Unique Learner Numbers (ULN) and creates Personal Learning Records across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and is operated by the Department for Education (DfE) in England. This privacy notice explains how we use your personal information. For the purposes of relevant data protection legislation, the DfE is the data controller for personal information processed.
Who we are?
The LRS supports the DfE by collecting learner information from training providers and awarding organisations. For the purposes of relevant data protection legislations, the DfE is the data controller for personal information we process.
We receive your personal data from:
- schools, colleges, local authorities, and training/learning providers
- accredited achievement data supplied by awarding organisations
The aims of LRS are to:
- create a trusted and verified record of learning for citizen across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland
- enable education organisations to access these records when required to support individuals with enrolment to education and careers advice, ensuring they get access to the correct education and government funding
- issue you with a Unique Learner Number (ULN)
- create your Personal Learning Record (PLR)
- collect entries and results data that is used to create national statistical publications
The nature of your personal data that LRS will process
The categories of personal data that can be processed in LRS includes:
- personal contact details
- data related to an individual’s learning
- data and information about your learning, including courses and qualifications you are taking or have taken
To ensure that our records are accurate, it may be necessary for training providers to collect further personal information from you. This information will be used to identify the correct learner where their personal information is similar to other learners (e.g. name(s) and date of birth):
- where further information is required to distinguish between learners, the following personal information is deemed as mandatory:
- last known post code
- date of birth
- gender
Why our use of your personal data is lawful
For our use of your personal data to be lawful, we need to meet one (or more) conditions in the data protection legislation. For LRS, the relevant conditions are:
- Article 6(1)(e) UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), to perform a public task as part of our function as a department
We also rely on legitimate interests, where we may need to collect additional personal information, to distinguish you from another individual. This is:
- Article 6(1)(f) of the UK General Data Protection Regulations
Who we will make your personal data available to
We sometimes need to make personal data available to other organisations. These might include contracted partners (who we have employed to process your personal data on our behalf) and/or other organisations (with whom we need to share your personal data for specific purposes).
Where we need to share your personal data with others, we ensure that this data sharing complies with data protection legislation. For LRS we share your personal data with the following:
- schools, colleges, local authorities, and training/learning providers when you enrol onto a course
- awarding bodies to record achievement/attainment information such as exam or course grades
- permitted organisations such as Federation for Industry Skills & Standards (FISSS) and Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) to record or verify individual’s qualifications
How long we will keep your personal data
The PLR is a lifetime record of achievement for all learners.
All data in LRS will be retained until a learner is 80 years old and has not engaged with a learning provider for 7 years.
Your data protection rights
You have specific rights under data protection law. You can:
Request a copy of all information relating to you held by the DfE. You can do this by making a Subject Access Request using the DfE Contact Form.
DfE processes your personal information on LRS in the exercise of its official authority under the Education Act 2011 and the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children & Learning Act 2009. This allows us to ensure that training providers are claiming for the correct government funding, safeguard public money and prevent fraud.
More information about how the DfE handles personal information is published in the DfE Personal Information Charter. If you need to contact us regarding any of the above, please do so via the DfE site at DfE - Contact Us. If you are unable to use the online contact form, you can write to us at the address provided under Contact Information below.
Further information about your data protection rights appears on the Information Commissioner’s website at Information Commissioners Office - Individual Rights
Last updated
We may need to update this privacy notice periodically, so we recommend that you revisit this information from time to time. This version was last updated on 27 November 2023.
View November 2023 LRS privacy notice on Government website