DfE Free School Meals Voucher Service Privacy Notice

How we use parent and carers’ personal information

The DfE Free School Meals Voucher Service is run by the Department for Education (DfE). This privacy notice explains how we will use your personal information.

During these exceptional times it may be necessary for schools to use vouchers if they can’t provide meals directly to children who would normally receive a free school meal. This change is why it is now necessary for schools to use your information for the free school meals voucher service.

DfE is the data controller for any personal information used for this service. Edenred are working under contract for DfE to issue free school meals vouchers. Schools are also processing personal data which they have already collected about you.

This service uses the following personal data to provide you with vouchers:

• The first name and surname of the parent, carer or guardian
• The email address of the parent, carer or guardian

No information about the pupil will be shared with a third party for the purposes of the processing these vouchers.

Why we can use your personal information

To use your personal information we need to meet one (or more) conditions in the data protection legislation. For this voucher service, we can use your information as part of our public task in providing free school meals.

How long we hold personal information

Your information will be held for 7 years for accounting and auditing purposes and to understand how much money has been spent on these vouchers.

Who we share your personal information with

We do not share your personal information with any other organisations, unless there is a legal obligation to do so.

Your individual rights

Under the Data Protection Act 2018, you are entitled to ask if we hold information relating to you and ask for a copy, by making a ‘subject access request’.

For further information and how to request your data, please use the ‘contact form’ in the Personal Information Charter at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education/about/personal-information-charter
under the ‘How to find out what personal information we hold about you’ section.

You can read further information about your data protection rights at the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Edenred as our data processor has a privacy notice that can be accessed here:

https://cdn.edenred.uk.com/static/default/edenred/EdenredPrivacyPolicy.html