A Guide to Upholding Privacy Principles

About privacy and the Transition Learning and Development Statement

Privacy is a serious matter, but by following these simple steps, it is easy to do the right thing.

This information will guide you in upholding the privacy principles and protecting the information in a child’s Transition Learning and Development Statement. The Statement has been developed to meet privacy requirements.

There are a few simple ways that you can meet your privacy obligations:

• Collect only the information that is needed and be clear about the purpose and inform the person why it’s needed and how it will be handled.
• Disclose information only as necessary for the purpose.
• Provide the person with access to their own information on request.
• Store information securely and safely.
• Dispose of information at the required point in time.

Collecting the information

Inform the child’s parent or legal guardian about the Transition Learning and Development Statement process. Tell them that the Transition Learning and Development Statement supports the continuity of their child’s learning and development as they transition to school. The Statement will provide valuable information for families and will assist school staff (particularly prep teachers) to get to know and more effectively support the children entering their classes.

Provide families with a copy of Part 1: the family of the Statement and the Guidelines to help families complete the Transition Learning and Development Statement – Part 1: the family. This explains what the Transition Learning and Development Statement is, how to fill in their part and what happens to the Statement once it is completed.

For families where literacy is an issue, it is important to discuss the details of what is in the Guidelines. The Guidelines have been translated into 21 community languages, see: Resources for Families from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Backgrounds

Provide families with information about how you will handle the information collected in the Statement i.e. it will be kept private, secure and safe from unauthorised access. It is also important to explain what information you will include in the Statement. Let them know you will not forward any information to the school or outside school hours care service without their consent (see ‘Disclosing the information’).

Families that speak a language other than English may benefit from the use of an interpreter to assist in gaining the parent/guardian’s informed consent for the final Statement. The Department provides funding for early childhood services to access on-site interpreting (both spoken and sign language) and telephone interpreting through All Graduates Interpreting and Translating Services. For more information about the Interpreting Service or to book an Interpreter, call All Graduates on 9605 3000 or visit All Graduates

If the child has not attended an early childhood service, schools may find it helpful to assist families to complete Part 1: the family of the Transition Learning and Development Statement as part of their enrolment process (Part 2 will not be applicable in these situations).

Disclosing the information

When Parts 1 and 2 of the Transition Learning and Development Statement are finished, the early childhood educator must provide a copy of the completed Statement to the family and ask the child’s parent or legal guardian to review the content and give consent to the early childhood educator to share and/or discuss the information in the Statement with the child’s prep teacher and outside school hours care service (if applicable). There is a privacy and consent statement for them to read and sign on page two of the Statement.

It is important to consider whether the family will require support to understand the content of what is written. This may require the early childhood educator to discuss the information in the Statement with families where literacy issues exist and/or use an interpreter.

Families that speak a language other than English may benefit from the use of an interpreter to assist in gaining the parent/guardian’s informed consent for the final Statement. The Department provides funding for early childhood services to access on-site interpreting (both spoken and sign language) and telephone interpreting through All Graduates Interpreting and Translating Services. For more information about the Interpreting Service or to book an Interpreter, call All Graduates on 9605 3000 or visit All Graduates

Electronic Statements

If you are completing the Statement electronically and gaining consent from the family electronically (via email) include the following text when you email the copy of the completed Statement:

 

We have attached <insert child’s name here> the completed Transition Learning and Development Statement. This information about your child and family has been collected to support the continuity of your child’s learning and development as they transition to school.

Please advise by return email that you consent to share this information with the school and outside school hours care service (if applicable).

Should you choose not to consent to the disclosure of part or all of the information in the Statement, please contact me to discuss this further.

 

Families must then provide confirmation that they consent to share the information in their return email. The email must be kept on record.

If families do not consent to this information being provided to schools or outside school hours care service then it must not be forwarded on. In these instances, the family should be provided with a copy for their records and the early childhood service should keep a copy (see ‘Storing information securely and safely’).

Password-protecting electronic Statements

When sending electronic versions of the Statement via email, you need to take the following basic security steps:

• Password-protect the Statement document. To do this, open the word document (electronic version of the Statement).
• From Tools, select Options, then Security.
• Type your password in the ‘Password to open’ box (use a mixture of upper and lowercase letters and numbers), then press ‘OK’. Retype the password in the ‘re-enter password to open’ box and press ‘OK’.
• Send this password to the recipient in an email for this purpose.
• Attach the electronic Statement to another email.
• Send the electronic Statement to the recipient - do not include the password in this email.

It is a good idea to request read receipts for these emails. It is important for early childhood services to develop processes to ensure recipients details are checked before sending the email.

Any information to be included or attached to the Statement must be seen by the family and consent given to share this with the school and outside school hours care service (if applicable) before it can be forwarded.

Three or four copies (paper-based or electronic) of the completed and signed Statement are required:

• one for the family to keep
• one for the school the child is enrolled in
• one for the outside school hours care service where applicable
• one for the early childhood setting.

Paper-based copies must be posted to a named person (e.g. the prep teacher, Transition Coordinator, Principal or Manager of the outside school hours care service). This helps make sure that the information can only be seen by an appropriate person. If you do not have a named person, you should contact the school to find out who you should sent the Statement to.

While registered mail is the preferred delivery method as it provides a more security and a delivery confirmation notice for early childhood services, posting personal information via regular mail is acceptable. Early childhood services will need to decide which delivery method to use depending on the resources available to them.

If a child’s school enrolment has not been confirmed, then the family should deliver the Statement to the school and outside school hours care service (where applicable) when they enrol their child.

As previously stated, when sending electronic versions of the Statement via email to the school or outside school hours care service, you need to take basic security steps (see ‘Password-protecting electronic Statements’).

Accessing the information

You must allow the child’s parent or guardian to see a copy of their child’s information if they request it within two years of forwarding the Statement to the school (these requests are likely to be minimal, as families will have their own copies).

You must allow access to view a child’s Statement by staff within your organisation if their need to view the information is in line with the purpose of the Statement (i.e. to support the child’s learning and development as they transition into school).

Your service or school should regularly review and monitor access to information as part of the service’s standard organisational procedures and processes.

Storing the information securely and safely

Secure and safe storage implies that paper-based Statements are kept in named files and in locked filing cabinets only accessible to appropriate staff. Electronic Statements should be kept in password-protected computers, with up-to-date antivirus software. Authorisation to access these documents should be clearly understood by all staff.

Safely store paper-based and electronic copies of Transition Learning and Development Statements according to your organisation’s policy:

• Early childhood services (including outside school hours care services) – will have their own privacy policies to comply with the Children’s Services Act 2004 and the Children’s Services Regulations 2009
• Government schools – see instructions in the School Policy and Advisory Guide
• Non-government schools – will have their own policies or may follow similar guidelines to government schools.

Disposing of information

Services are required to keep a copy of any Statements for a minimum of two years as a temporary record. This advice applies to paper-based and electronic Statements prepared by all early childhood services, outside school hours care services and schools with the exception of childcare and early education services within municipal jurisdictions that must keep them for seven years after last attendance of the child.

These time frames are in line with Retention and Disposal Authorities (RDAs) issued by the Public Records Office Victoria.

After two years (or seven years for services in municipal jurisdictions), paper-based and electronic Statements should be disposed of securely and safely in line with your organisation’s procedures and processes. Paper-based Statements should be shredded. Electronic statements should be permanently deleted (seek technical advice when necessary to ensure the deletion is permanent).

This is particularly relevant if the organisation is considered a Public Office (for example, government schools or services with a funded kindergarten program or child care centres run by Local Government Authorities) where disposal schedules must be followed and destruction of documents should be recorded. Enquires can be made through the Public Record Office of Victoria