GDPR Support for Further Education

Providers in Further Education have to deal with the most diverse set of students. From 14 years old up to adult learners, the dynamics of an FE College can be challenging to say the least. Add to that operations that may be spread across a number of campuses and data protection can be difficult to manage.
The critical thing is to recognise the complexity but not be overwhelmed by it. The compliance challenges are the sames as in other settings but they may need to be split into sections to be dealt with effectively.

Bringing It All Together

Colleges of Further Education vary from Sixth Form setting with a few hundred students up to very large multi campus insitutions with tens of thousands of students. The age range of students means that enquiries maade by parents have to be treated with a high degree of caution.

With a high turnover of short course students, colleges must ensure that the data is all managed in a consistent fashion. After many years of tightening budgets and colleges joining together the administrative staff to run potentially large institutions can be very small.

A key objective is to bring people together working on a common plan for compliance and then to be able to keep track of the work that is done.For large colleges establishing strong channels of communication is essential as you may have to rely on more formal reporting procedures for incidents.

So coordination is a critical success factor, something that the Sentry System is designed to make easier.

The Sentry System

Cloud Based Compliance Management

Scalable to Any Size

The Sentry System is the compliance hub for Further Education. It’s a modular system than can build up to match

The Sentry System has been designed to make the task of managing compliance easier. It does this by providing step by step forms to record incidents, log SARs and document your data mapping and even deliver awareness training to staff. Every school can get benefit from these time saving modules.

For trusts the problem is larger and more complex. You need to be able to get a clear picture of how the schools in the trust a are getting on, but also be able to jump in and provide support at the appropriate time. The Sentry System is setup to provide the balance of collaborative working while keeping access to information to only those who need it.

Using Sentry means that each school follows a consistent approach and you can easily navigate  between the schools in the Trust. Our new alerting feature means that you’ll get a heads up if any of your schools log a breach or a SAR and a reminder to ensure that the work is completed on time.

What it includes

  • Breach Management
  • SAR management
  • Data Mapping and Suppliers
  • DPIA
  • Staff Training
  • Global Administrator Role
  • Users contained to one site by default
  • Trust level operational and compliance dashboards

DPO & Helpdesk Services

Expertise on call

The right sort of help

With a level of complexity due to different pieces of legislation and potentially large bodies of students and staff, question about the detail of data protection can come up at any time. It can be hard for any one member of staff to try and cover all of the bases at once.

This is where GDPR Sentry can help. Our DPO helpdesk is staffed by people with experience in data protection, education and education systems. This means that no matter how obscure the question the team will be able to dig in and provide support.

Depending on how you want to manage data protection, we can offer an on-demand consultancy service, support to an existing DPO or outsource the entire DPO function.

Service Models

  • Outsourced DPO: We provide full support including annual audits, 24/7 incident support, documentation and procedures.
  • DPO Support: Support for nominated members of your team for any data protection issues, working days or 24/7 options available
  • DPO Helpdesk: Incident based support for when you need additional expertise

Auditing Services

Keeping Track

More than box ticking

You’re dealing with compliance for the college and a good deal of work is going into reaching the new standards. The next question is how well are you doing on that journey? Auditing is one method to get answers to this question, but not all audits are the same.

We specialise in being able to evaluate whether processes and procedures are being followed in addition to whether they are in place. Being independent we can ask searching questions without disrupting critical working relationships.

The nature and scope of an audit programme would be agreed with you upfront with results coming back in a report format along with critical actions and recommedations.

Service Models

  • Surveillance Programme: Structured visits with a set agenda
  • Due Diligence: A detailed programme covering process and practice including readiness assessment
  • Investigation: Where there has been a significant breach or concerns have been raised and end to end review of the procedure

Training Courses

Building Your Expertise

Relevant Content

Everyone working for the college needs to have had some basic data protection training. Some people need more detail to help them play their part in compliance. Providing training has been a part of our business from day one. We offer courses that are built specifically for organisations in the education sector.

From straightforward 1 hour awareness sessions through courses focused on problem areas like managing data breaches all the way to a full tailored Data Protection Officer Training Programme, we can meet the training needs for the whole organisation.

Delivery Options

  • On-site Delivery: We bring the training to you. It often the only way to be able to get all the people together who need to be trained
  • Off-site Delivery: We are happy to arrange a suitable venue to meet your requirements

Coming Soon

  • Our own training centre
  • Online delivery

Project Support

Help When You Need It

Clearly Defined Tasks

In and among the day to day tasks of managing GDPR compliance there some that can take a huge amount of resource. If your trust is expanding then you’ll need a programme of work to move the new member onto your compliance programme. Where there is a major system development you need to undertake a data protection impact assessment, or you may be trying to figure out how to reduce the frequency of breaches.

We can provide expert support for these type of projects. People who have experience in education, in data protection and in school systems.  We’ll scope a project out and then agree a schedule for delivery.

Types of Project

  • Data Protection Impact Assessments
  • Complaints & Investigations
  • Due Diligence
  • ICO Inspection Preparations

What Our Customer’s Say

Havant and South Downs College have around 7,500 students across two campuses. Students range from 14-16 years old through to adult learners and include those taking Further and Higher Education qualifications.

With strong centralisation of the data protection function, HSDC have taken advantage of the modular nature of the Sentry System to manage essential functions at the campus level.

The Sentry System forms an essential component for HSDC to demonstrate compliance.

Havant & South Downs College

Download Sentry Brochure for Further Education

Contact Us