Privacy Notice
The Works4Youth initiative is funded jointly by the Department for Work and Pensions and South Gloucestershire Council. The service is provided by South Gloucestershire Council. The service provides employment support to young people aged 16-25 years of age to support and help them to progress into employment and/or training, or to access further education.
Participation in this programme is voluntary, and your choice should be informed.
Before you choose whether you want to become a Works4Youth participant, we would like to explain a few things about our use of your “personal data” in this programme and how we will protect your privacy rights. After you have read this privacy notice, and understood what it says, you will be asked if you would like to participate in our Works4Youth initiative. If you agree to proceed your assigned Employment and Skills Mentor will be responsible for working with you to provide personal career coaching to help identify training and support services best suited to your needs and plan your career progression journey.
Who are “we”?
South Gloucestershire Council is the “data controller” for Works4Youth. That means we have responsibility for keeping your personal data safe, for using it lawfully, and for ensuring your rights to privacy are respected.
What is your “Personal Data”?
Personal data is information which is about you and which identifies you as an individual. This means it could be used to make decisions which have a direct impact on you. The purpose of this notice is to explain how we will use the information you give to us if you become a participant, and what we will use it for.
Data protection law sets down the rules for data controllers (such as South Gloucestershire Council), and rights for the people (known as “data subjects”) whose information is held by them (such as you).
Transparency: what we need to tell you
As a data subject, you have rights under the law of data protection. You have the right to be informed by us about:
what personal data we would collect from you as a participant
how we would use it, and for what purpose
who we would share your information with, and why
Your other data subject rights and how to exercise them
What is our legal basis for using your information for the Works4Youth project?
Data protection rules set out certain conditions which must be met for the lawful use of other people’s information. We are also obliged to tell you which condition applies to Works4Youth and its participants.
South Gloucestershire Council and the Department of Work and Pension are partners in the Works4Youth project, are public authorities with official functions which are defined in Government Legislation. We have “official authority” for our involvement in this project, including its use of participant information, because it is in line with this official role and our related responsibilities.
As personal information collected from Works4Youth participants includes “special categories ” we also rely on a further condition. Works4Youth aims include improving understanding about any career challenges, or discriminatory treatment, our participants may face due to their physical or mental health conditions, disabilities, criminal record, or their ethnicity. This use of participant information is lawful because it meets a “substantial public interest”.
Purposes: why do we want to use your information
We collect your data in order to deliver the Works4Youth service to you. Our primary aim is to help you to reach your career progression goals and find a path towards employment and a career that is right for you. This will be through personal career coaching and helping you to access training and support to enable this, which in turn benefits you by increasing your skills, attitude, income, securing employment and gaining job security.
Gaining employment, developing your skills and securing career outcomes for our participants are intended to contribute to our broader aim of furthering the growth of the local economy, the skillset of the workforce and building community cohesion.
What kind of personal data will we collect and record
We will ask you to provide the following types of information: Your name, address and contact details; your date of birth; your employment status; your national Insurance Number; gender; your first language; and whether you are a sole carer; your gender; your ethnicity; whether you consider that you have any disabilities, and/or learning difficulties, health conditions (including any mental health, drug or alcohol issues); and if you are a care leaver.
Your mentor will discuss a range of questions with you to build an understanding of where you are on your career path; including your current situation, what you would like to achieve, and any challenges you feel you are facing right now. Your Mentor will ask you to tell them about yourself, your job skills and work history, your education and your training needs which we may be able to help you with.
Your Mentor will keep written notes about your conversations. Your Mentor will also keep records of what training you participate in and support services you choose to take, assistance and advice provided to you. These records will all contribute to your journey as a participant on Works4Youth and will be stored on a database.
How will we use your information
From all the information you provide, your mentor will develop a personalised action plan with you to help you achieve your goals, progress into work and/or further learning/training (including assistance and support services). All information recorded will be used to plan the best way to support you and to track your progress.
Only a small number of people who are working for us on this project will be allowed to see the information which can identify you as an individual. They will only use this personal data to:
Deliver services and support to you.
To organise and/or review your sessions with any training providers or career support services you have agreed with your mentor.
To make you aware of any updates, changes or promotions in relation to Works4Youth.
To contact you about your participation on the project; to ask about your experience as a participant to be able to review the delivery and operation of Works4Youth.
To monitor the delivery of the project and to perform research and statistical work.
Statistics, drawn from the participant information held on the Works4Youth database, will be used to evaluate and report on the Works4Youth project. This statistical information will not include anything which could identify you, and so it cannot be used to make any decisions which could affect you directly or personally. We report to Government, Local Authority’s and partners about the outputs and outcomes of the project to demonstrate the impact of the project and this information may be published.
Your information will not be used for profiling or to make automated decisions.
You may be asked by your coach if you would like to share your own story as a Works4Youth participant and be considered for a “case study”. This may then be published in line with your preferences selected on the form.
The Works4Youth and Council website uses cookies, but they do not identify users and we only use them to gather statistical information and to ensure that the sites work better for you. Unless you are inputting directly to the contact form, the site does not capture and store any personal information about individuals who access it.
How do we protect your information?
We are committed to doing all that we can to keep your data secure. We have set up systems and processes to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure of your data.
The record of your journey as a participant with Works4Youth will be stored by us on a secure Database. The record will include information which can identify you (such as your name and contact details). Access to this information and database will be restricted to those who are entitled to view and process your data. If the information is collected in a paper format, we will also ensure it is kept secure and destroyed when no longer required.
Some information may be stored outside of the database and we’ll do what we can to make sure we hold records about you in a secure way, and we’ll only make them available to those who have a right to see them. Examples of our security may include:
encryption, meaning that information is hidden so that it cannot be read without special knowledge (such as a password).
pseudonymisation, meaning that we’ll use a different name so we can hide parts of your personal information from view. This means that someone outside of the organisation could work on your information for us without ever knowing it was yours.
controlling access to systems and networks allowing us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal information from getting access to it.
training for our staff to make them aware of how to handle information and how and when to report when something goes wrong.
Confidentiality and sharing of your personal data with others
We want you to feel you can speak freely and openly in discussions with your Employment and Skills Mentor. We understand that a relationship of trust may only develop over time. Personal information which you choose to share with your Employment and Skills Mentor will be treated as confidential. We will not share it externally with other authorities (see below re DWP) or private businesses unless you give us your permission to do so. We are open to considering any aspect of your life which you feel is relevant to your employment situation. This may include information which you feel is sensitive or private so it is important that you feel you can trust your coach to keep this information safe and not share it with others. The only exception to this would be if you told your coach something which had to be shared with others to protect you, or other people, from serious harm. We also have a duty to tell the police if you tell us about a crime, fraud or a terrorist threat. Even in such exceptional cases you would still have the right to be informed about such reporting (what information we need to report, with whom, and for what purpose) so long as this would not increase the risk of harm to others.
The Works4Youth service is co-funded by South Gloucestershire Council and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The Council is required to share some information with the DWP. To help the DWP assess and improve the effectiveness of the Flexible Support Fund, we will request your consent to supply your personal details to the DWP, and to allow the DWP to hold and use personal information about you so that DWP can research into how successful the service is and what works well. Any details you give us will only be seen by the DWP research team and will only be used for research into this service. No individual person or household will be identified and the like the Council the DWP will comply with the Data Protection Act 1998. Your information will be stored in a secure place and destroy the records after they are no longer required for their research purposes. We will keep your details for no more than three years. Any transfer of information will be by secure means.
The information that South Gloucestershire Council will share with the DWP is your name; date of birth; national insurance number; postcode and gender.
Information which can identify who you are (including information such as your name, address, contact details) will only be accessed by the Council working with you on the Works4Youth programme. This may include other personnel in other departments within the Local authority to support the delivery of the service you may receive. Personnel includes both employees and any external agents/partner organisations who may be contracted by any Party to work for Works4Youth, and who are legally bound to comply with that Party’s data protection instructions and policies about use of participants’ personal data.
As a participant, your Mentor will advise on opportunities available to support your career progression and journey to employment. This may include various forms of training and or support. Often training and support services will be delivered by external providers. If you choose to proceed with any support discussed, we may need to give the provider personal details such as your name and contact details so that you can be enrolled on, and contacted about, the course or support service.
Works4Youth will not transfer your data to any other countries. If you choose to access any support or training providing by another provider, you will need to refer to their privacy notice for the way they handle your information.
If you are referred to Works4Youth by another professional, it may be beneficial to update them at stages regarding your progress. There may also be occasions where we work in partnership with another provider or employer to help aid your progression to employment. Before any of your information is shared in this way your mentor will tell you about what may be included in such a discussion and then ask for your permission to share this information.
How long will we keep your personal data?
Information which can identify you will be retained for a maximum period of three years from when your participation has ceased on the project. After this date your personal information will be deleted. Information which cannot identify you will be retained after this period and will be used only for statistical and research purposes.
Legislation tells us how long we need to keep some information to perform any statutory or contractual duties. Some data must be held to meet the requirements for public grant funding and auditing requirements. Personal information kept for this reason will be restricted to a minimum.
What happens if you no longer wish to participate in the Works4Youth programme?
You may choose to withdraw from your participation in the Works4Youth programme at any time.
It would be valuable for us to understand why the programme is no longer of interest to you so we would simply will ask you for your feedback on your experience and reasons for withdrawal.
If at this point you do not want us to contact you again we will respect your wishes and ensure that no further contact is made unless you tell us you have changed your mind. Your information will be retained on our secure system in case you choose to participate again in the future. You may also request that we remove any details which can identify you from our records and we shall do so.
You have the right to refuse information or object to the usage of your information
You have the right to refuse to provide information which is requested of you. In some cases, your refusal may mean you can no longer be a Works4Youth participant, but we will explain this to you before you decide.
You also have the right to object to our use of your information. This means you can request that we stop using any information that you have already given which can be used to identify you, and to request that we delete this from our database.
You have the right to access the personal data we hold about you.
To request a copy of your records you may submit a “Subject Access Request”. Your request for your records must be in writing and may be sent to us by post or email (see contact details below). To confirm your identity your request should include copies of an identity document (e.g. your driving license or passport) and proof of your address (e.g. a copy of a utilities bill or bank statement). You have the right to rectification of any incorrect or incomplete data we hold about you and can contact us with the contact details below.
Contact for privacy concerns and Subject Access Requests
If you have any concerns or questions about our handling of your personal data, or if you wish to submit or Subject Access Request, please contact the Data Protection Officer at South Gloucestershire Council.
Council Offices, Badminton Road, Yate, South Glos, BS37 5AF
Email: dpo@southglos.gov.uk
Further information on South Gloucestershire Council’s Data Protection Policy can be found here.
Your right to appeal
If you are not satisfied by our response to your concerns you may lodge a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who is the regulator for data protection issues. They will investigate your complaint and make a decision about what we need to do.
You can contact them at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF