Privacy policy

What the app is for

Schools Compliance lets school staff self-assess their school's readiness against the Department for Education's digital and technology standards, record evidence and review dates, and email themselves progress reports. It is a working self-assessment tool, not an official DfE certification.

Information we collect

• Account information — your name, work email address, and (for email/password accounts) a securely hashed password. If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address, and Google account identifier from Google instead of storing a password.
• School information — your school's name, DfE unique reference number (if provided), logo (if provided), and time zone.
• Compliance records you enter — the status of each checklist item, any free-text notes or evidence links you add, and review due dates. This is intended to be administrative information about your school's IT setup and policies — please don't enter personal data about pupils or other individuals in these fields.
• Usage and audit records — an internal log of actions such as sign-ins and checklist updates, tied to your account and timestamped, kept for security and accountability.
• Technical data — standard web server logs (e.g. IP address, timestamps) generated by our hosting provider, and a single essential session cookie that keeps you signed in. We don't use advertising, tracking, or analytics cookies.

Why we process it

We process this information to provide the service you or your school signed up for (performance of a contract), to keep the platform secure and working correctly (legitimate interests), and, where you choose to use Google sign-in, on the basis of your consent to that sign-in method.

Who we share it with

We don't sell your data or share it with advertisers. We use the following processors to run the service:

• Neon — our database provider, hosting your school's data in a UK/EU (London) data centre.
• Google Cloud — hosts the application itself (europe-west2, London), and provides optional “Sign in with Google” authentication.
• Google Workspace / Gmail — sends emails the app generates on your behalf, such as new-account emails and the compliance reports you request.

Other schools using the platform cannot see your school's data — every school's records are kept separate and access-controlled. Platform administrators (Education Lincs staff) can access school data only as needed to operate and support the service.

How long we keep it

We keep your account and school data for as long as your school's account is active. If a school account is closed, we'll delete or anonymise the data within a reasonable period, unless we're required to keep it for longer (for example, to resolve a dispute or meet a legal obligation). Audit log entries are kept for a limited period for security and accountability purposes.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the right to:

• Ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Ask us to correct inaccurate data, or delete it where there's no good reason to keep it.
• Object to, or ask us to restrict, certain processing.
• Ask for your data in a portable format.
• Complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) if you think we've mishandled your data.

To exercise any of these, email helpdesk@education-lincs.com. Day-to-day account management (adding or removing staff, correcting school details) is also available directly to your school's admin within the app.

Children's data

Schools Compliance is a staff-facing IT compliance tool. It is not designed or intended to collect personal data about pupils, and schools should not enter pupil-identifiable information into it.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS). Passwords are hashed and never stored in plain text. Access to each school's data is restricted to that school's own staff and platform administrators.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time, for example if we add a new feature or processor. The “last updated” date at the top of this page will always reflect the current version.

Contact

Education Lincs, helpdesk@education-lincs.com