18 | DATA PROTECTION | LEGAL ADVICE
IS A DATA PROTECTION POLICY WORTH HAVING?
If a school gets its data protection policies wrong the consequences can be unpleasant, embarrassing and reputationally damaging, says Andrew Gallie
series of principles about how personal data should be handled by a school. It is ‘policed’ by the information commissioner (ICO) and he has the power to impose fines of up to £500,000. Questions that every school must
T
he Data Protection Act 1998 is legislation that all schools must be familiar with. It embodies a
address are: “are we data protection compliant?” and “do we have the right policies and procedures to ensure we are data protection compliant?” Robust pragmatic policies are absolutely necessary in ensuring that a school can answer both in the affirmative. This article explains why policies
are important and provides warnings about the consequences of geting data protection wrong. In short, data protection must be taken very seriously. The function of writen policies,
backed up with procedures, is to help staff (and governors) be aware of their
responsibilities. They should describe the underlying principles and identify who is responsible for what. They can include guidance as to how to and who can access personal data. They should also deal with: what information should be retained, or destroyed and when guidance on the use of computers the handling of paper records the use of personal devices A policy needs to be ‘owned’ by the school so there can be disadvantages in just buying one off the shelf. To implement a live document, a school should use a template which covers
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