According to the census guide, parents do not have to provide the information if they choose not to and schools can record the information as “refused”, “not known” or “not yet obtained”.
This is very important for schools to pay attention to. It is the first time pupils and parents appear to being given the right to opt out of any census data collection, using the term from the DfE guide, “refused”. [p65] But how this works in practice is unclear.
Schools will need to communicate this opt out choice very clearly in their new privacy notices to collect and process these data legally and fairly.
We are concerned it could be confusing for schools and parents why some data is compulsory and not others, and that the purposes are not being adequately explained as the forms we have seen talk only of requiring the data for funding decisions.
When the DfE applied to make the change it said it “may” be used to facilitate the “targeting of support to such pupils” and will “assist in the identification of such pupils”.
We are asking for clarification on what is required, optional and its communication.
The information about pupils’ nationality will come in addition to a new measure also being introduced this autumn, which will ask schools to assess how good at English are those pupils classed as “having English as an additional language”, on a five-point scale.
However English as a foreign language data are already collected by schools, and used in funding. What role country of birth or nationality will play in calculating funding is unclear.
We have asked the Department to tell us who will have access to the data, the limited purposes it is collected for, to confirm what communications schools are expected to make to parents to explain the opt out.
The census takes place three times a year – once every term. In the next school year, the census will be carried out on October 6, 2016, January 19, 2017, and May 18, 2017.