The Flintshire Early Years and Family Service (EYFS) provides a range of information, advice and support services to families with children living in Flintshire, and wider (e.g. Denbighshire, Wrexham funded 3–4-year-old childcare offer). These services include early support and family centre programmes (including information for families and services – family information service; community parenting, health services, speech, language and communication development support, parenting and child development), as well as Welsh Government funded childcare and sufficiency of the childcare sector. A comprehensive list of the services we offer can be found on our website.
In Flintshire, the EYFS works closely with staff from Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) and other Early Years service providers and stakeholders. To deliver these services effectively, we may need to share certain personal information about you with registered third parties.
This Privacy Notice outlines how we collect, use, and share your personal data when you register for services provided by the EYFS.
Data Protection and Your Rights
Under data protection legislation, Flintshire Early Years and Family Service (EYFS) is required to inform you about the personal data we collect, store, and share in relation to you and your family. This notice supplements the privacy notices from Flintshire County Council and the local health board (BCUHB), and any programme specific notice.
Categories of Personal Data We Collect
The types of personal data we may collect and process, depending on the services provided, include:
- Personal Information: Name, date of birth (parent(s) and child, or due date of child), address, NHS number, gender, siblings, and similar details.
- Contact Information: Telephone numbers, email addresses.
- Demographic Information: Ethnicity, home language, language preferences, nationality.
- Medical and Support Needs: Health information and any additional support needs for you and your child/ren, including details of any disabilities.
- Safeguarding Information: Data received from and shared with other agencies regarding safeguarding.
- Service Attendance: Information on services you have accessed through the EYFS.
Sources of Personal Data
Your data is provided to the EYFS in the following ways:
- Gathered directly from you, when you complete an online or paper registration, expression of interest or support request form, or provided by a carer or professional to complete on your behalf.
- Gathered directly from you, during ante-natal or health visitor appointments.
- From Betsi Cadwalladr University Health Board (BCUHB) as a part of our partnership for continuous support for families.
- From another local authority to enable us to deliver services e.g. 3–4-year-old childcare offer.
Purposes of Data Processing
The processing of your personal data must comply with the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR, which states that we must have a clear lawful basis for processing your data. The processing of your data falls under the lawful bases of Legitimate Interest and Public Task. Additionally, we have a legal requirement to provide programme specific information to the Welsh Government as programme funders, as this is necessary for compliance with funding criteria set by the Welsh Government. This data will contribute to research and analysis that informs local, regional, and national policy decisions in the public interest.
Your information will be stored on relevant secure databases and used to offer relevant services for the parent and the child/ren at the relevant age / stage of their life. The services offered can include information provision and signposting to other services, health services including health visiting, parenting information, advice and support including programmes, home-based family support, speech and language support, child development support and funded childcare depending on the needs of the child and funding criteria.
Once your child is part of an EYFS service/programme, relevant information necessary for the administration and delivery of the service/programme may be collected such as attendance data, childcare arrangements, any interventions, assessments and reports in respect of the child and family.
Relevant information will be shared between the service/programme delivery partners, where it is necessary to provide support to the child and the family. These include BCUHB, Flintshire County Council, childcare settings, relevant FCC contracted organisations, and relevant schools. This may include What Matters meetings, Panel meetings e.g. Early Years Funding Delegation Panel and Pre-School Moderation Panel Meetings, and Childcare Transition meetings, where wider professionals relevant to the family are invited.
If it is believed at any stage of the process that a child or adult may be at risk, the Wales Safeguarding Procedures will be followed, which may result in a formal investigation and assessment. This may involve several agencies such as the police, health or education having access to your information.
How We Use Your Data
The data we collect is used for the following purposes:
- To Contact You: To inform you about services provided by Early Years and Family Service (EYFS).
- To Provide Appropriate Support: We share written and verbal information with BCUHB health staff, council staff, contracted services and childcare providers to deliver the services you and your child/ren need.
- Administration: for sending out service invites at the relevant age / stage
- Service Improvement: To assess and enhance the quality of the services we provide.
- Monitor Development: To track and support your child's development.
- Referrals to Other Services: To refer you and your child/ren to other relevant services or organisations. We will seek your consent for referrals unless we are required by law to act otherwise to safeguard you or your child/ren.
- Childcare Arrangements: To assist in arranging childcare with registered settings.
Who will have access to your information?
The main user of your information is the Flintshire County Council Early Years and Family Service. However, due to the nature of the service/programme, your information may be shared with other service areas within Flintshire County Council and other partner organisations to meet the needs of your family, without having to repeat your story or provide details to different professionals, which may include:
- Childcare settings to invite families to sign up for childcare, depending on need
- Speech and Language team to support speech and language interventions in the home, group, childcare setting or school
- Family Support team to offer group or home-based support
- Child development team to offer group or home-based support
All information received is entered on the appropriate system this may include; the EYFS database; the Family Information Service Flintshire database and other databases used by the Service. and recorded as an information asset, along with its legal purpose and will be shared as relevant with other teams in Education including Early Entitlement, School Admissions, Additional Learning Needs Coordinator, Education Psychology to support a child’s transition into Early Education / primary school.
Details of any sharing of your information with other organisations
Individual child details and family information may be shared with delivery partners to ensure families are offered relevant Early Years services including:
- Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board for services including midwifery, health visiting team, speech and language therapy, Early Years Team, and other teams to support public health messages and interventions
- Childcare and education settings for the provision of childcare services
- Schools to support the transition to nursery and/or school
- Welsh Government, in compliance with funding criteria (as described above)
- Regulatory bodies, ie Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW)
- Transport Services
If you or your child are in receipt of any Flying Start services or programme, as of 1st April 2025, some of your information we hold will be shared with the funding body, Welsh Government / SAIL Databank (working on behalf of Welsh Government) for carrying out research, evaluation, and statistical analysis to improve the Flying Start support provided to people in Wales. If you would like further information on what happens with your information transferred to Welsh Government, please see the Welsh Government Privacy Notice.
Lawful Basis for Processing
Processing of your data is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, namely the delivery of Early Years and Family Service information, advice and support, for which we require your personal information.
Additionally, there is a public task obligation to process your information as detailed below:
Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, which sets seven well-being goals to show the kind of Wales we want to see and places a legal obligation on public authorities to work to achieve these goals which includes:
- A prosperous Wales
- A healthier Wales
- A more equal Wales
The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, which places a well-being duty on those subject to the Act to promote the well-being of –
- people who need care, and
- carers who need support
In order for the processing of personal data to be lawful under the General Data Protection Regulations 2016, a valid condition from Article 6 of the Regulations must be identified, which is outlined below:
- 1(e) processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller;
Data Protection legislation provides extra protection for certain classes of information called 'special category personal data'. If any information falls within the definition of special category personal data then an additional condition from Article 9 of the Regulations must be identified, as outlined below:
- 2(g) processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of domestic law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject;
As we are relying on the substantial public interest condition in Article 9(2)(g), we must also identify one of 23 specific substantial public interest conditions set out in Part 2 of Schedule 1 of the DPA 2018, as outlined below:
- 6(1)This condition is met if the processing —
- (a)is necessary for a purpose listed in sub-paragraph (2), and
- (b)is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.
- (2)Those purposes are —
- a)the exercise of a function conferred on a person by an enactment or rule of law;
- b)the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown or a government department.
Legal basis for photos and videos
If we ask to use photos or videos of your child in promotional material, we will seek your consent to do so, and for this purpose we rely on the ‘Consent’ lawful basis for processing from Article 6 of the Regulations as detailed below:
- 1(a) the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes;
How long will we retain your information (Retention Period)?
Flintshire County Council is required to retain your personal data for up to 10 years following the completion of services for funding, legal, audit and compliance purposes.
Your Rights
You have the right to:
- Access a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Request correction or updates to your personal data.
- Request deletion or restriction of your data (in certain circumstances).
- Object to the processing of your data (in certain circumstances).
For further information on your rights and how Flintshire County Council processes your personal data, please visit our website.
Complaints Procedure
If you are unhappy with the way that Early Years and Family Services process your data or have handled your request / information, you have the right of complaint. Please contact the Early Years Business Intelligence Team in the first instance on eyfsbusinessintel@flintshire.gov.uk.
If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your complaint or process your personal data, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) by visiting their website or by calling their helpline on 0303 123 1113.
Additional Information
This Privacy Notice should be read in conjunction with the privacy notices from Flintshire County Council, BCUHB, and Welsh Government. Links to these notices are provided below for your reference. If you do not have access to the internet, please ask your EYFS team member for a paper copy.