Privacy Policy

Purpose:

This policy explains how we may collect, hold, use, disclose and protect the personal information of children and adults within WanaExcel environments by pursuing:

• Te Whāriki Mana Atua - Wellbeing Goal 3 “Children experience an environment where they are kept safe from harm”
• Legislation: Official Information Act 1982, Oranga Tamariki Act 1989, Family Violence Act 2018, Education and Training Act 2020, Privacy Act 2020
• Regulation: Licensing Criteria HS31: “Child protection”

This policy applies in addition to, and does not limit, the rights and obligations of all parties under the Privacy Act 2020, and any specific authorisation given to WanaExcel as part of its operations.

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Rationale:

As an education provider, WanaExcel must collect, use and keep record of some personal information necessary to our operations. In doing so, we respect the individual rights of all children, parents, whānau, kaiako, and other individuals, and are committed to taking all reasonable and practicable steps to help protect their privacy.

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Scope:

Please read this policy carefully. It applies to the personal information provided to, or authorised for collection by WanaExcel about the individuals involved with WanaExcel’s operations including children, family members and caregivers, directors, staff, and visitors.

“Personal information” either identifies an individual or gives information about them. Examples in the context of WanaExcel include children’s learning stories (text, photographs, videos); names and contact details of parents, main caregivers, legal guardians; employment information for staff members.

“WanaExcel environments” refer to WanaExcel centres and excursions or events where tamariki are under the primary care of the WanaExcel team.

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Principles:

• WanaExcel is committed to transparency and lawfulness: we only collect, use, store, and publish personal information for lawful purposes necessary to our operations, and in the ways agreed with the person the information is about.
• WanaExcel takes all reasonable steps to protect personal information against unauthorised collection, access, use and disclosure, and against loss, while it is in our possession.
• WanaExcel acknowledges the risks inherent to using technologies and takes all reasonable and practicable steps to limit these risks to privacy.
• No one is required to provide WanaExcel with any of the personal information requested, however, we may not be able to provide certain services if such information isn’t provided.

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Procedures:

Privacy Officers (PO)

• Any question about this policy? Contact our Policy Officers:
• WanaExcel’s current Privacy Officers (PO) are Josh Thomas (josh@wanaexcel.co.nz), Kelly Taylor (admin@wanaexcel.co.nz), and Romane Viennet (romane@wanaexcel.co.nz).
• PO are responsible for ensuring legal obligations are met when it comes to the safe collection, handling, use, storage, and potential disclosure of personal information.
• WanaExcel’s PO and authorised members of staff who may have to handle sensitive personal information complete specific training regarding privacy, including the “Privacy ABC for Schools” online course available on the Privacy Commissioner Office’s eLearning site (link).
• All WanaExcel members are knowledgeable of this and relevant policies, their general responsibilities to keep personal information secure, and the resources available to refresh and develop their competence in matters of privacy.

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Transparent and authorised collection

• Before collecting personal information, we provide a privacy statement explaining what information we are collecting, why, and what we will do with it. When personal information is about a child, the information and agreement will be with their parents or main caregivers.
• Enrolment agreements signed with children’s parents or caregivers include privacy statements regarding collection and uses of personal information that are legally required (e.g. for identification), and for our purposes as an education provider (e.g. images to document learning).
• Only WanaExcel team members or individuals specifically authorised by WanaExcel may record information about tamariki in any form while within WanaExcel environments.
• The WanaExcel team respects the right of tamariki to refuse being photographed or videoed, and expects members of the wider WanaExcel community to respect it as well.

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Limited access, use, and storage

• In general, WanaExcel limits access and use of personal information to what and whom is necessary for our good functioning.
• The WanaExcel team take specific care that photos, videos, and any other form of personal information collected about tamariki are strictly used to inform or document their learning experience, or for centre purposes agreed with parents and caregivers.
• Access to sensitive personal information (e.g. personnel files, some children’s enrolment information) is limited physically and digitally to those who have a legitimate need to access and use them.
• When required, additional consent is sought from relevant parties for specific uses of their personal information, e.g. before using images of employees, tamariki or whānau online.
• WanaExcel is required to keep some information for specific periods of time. Once this time has passed, we will safely and securely delete and destroy personal information.

Safe use of technologies

• WanaExcel uses software from trustworthy third-party providers to collect, process and store personal information, including Storypark and Discover, both trusted widely by the ECE sector.
• When considering the introduction or use of further technologies, the WanaExcel team assess its fitness-for-purpose, terms of use and privacy settings before deciding.
• WanaExcel team members are authorised to use their personal devices to handle personal information for centre purposes (e.g. take notes, pictures and videos to document learning). They must safely delete said information once the purpose has been fulfilled.
• All WanaExcel team members may use computers and other centre-provided devices for professional purposes, provided they use their authorised sessions.
• WanaExcel directors reserve the right to monitor any and all uses of WanaExcel-provided devices and software to ensure adherence to our policies. If employees choose to access or store personal information on such devices, software and systems, they do so at the risk that it may be accessed at some point in time.

Procedure to access and correct personal information

• Individuals have the right to see any personal information WanaExcel holds about them. Request to access personal information can be made to one of WanaExcels’ Privacy Officers identified above.
• WanaExcel will provide the requested information within reasonable time. On occasions, some or all information may need to be withheld; and if that is the case an explanation will be offered.
• If personal information needs to be corrected or updated, WanaExcel will change or signal the request for change, upon request of the person or child’s parent/legal guardian.
• If an individual is unhappy about how WanaExcel handled their personal information, they can make a complaint following procedures outlined in our Complaints and Non-Compliance policy.
• If the outcome following the Complaints Procedure is unsatisfactory, individuals can make a complaint to the Office of the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner at: www.privacy.org.nz.

Disclosure of personal information for legal purposes

• WanaExcel may have to disclose some personal information to enable work with appropriate external agencies such as healthcare and education providers; or for lawful purposes only, if it protects or improves the safety, health or well-being of a child.
• If personal information leads us to believe that a person is in danger, then we are required by law to act on that information following our Child Protection Policy.
• If legally required to disclose personal information to regulated external agencies, WanaExcel will ensure the request is lawful and in writing, the response is authorised by a PO, a written record of the request and information disclosed is kept; and will take all practicable steps to let the concerned person(s) know of the disclosure.

Procedure in case of a privacy breach

• WanaExcel’s Privacy Officers are responsible for reporting any serious privacy breach to the Privacy Commissioner (i.e. privacy breaches that have caused serious harm or are likely to do so).
• If kaiako are made aware of a privacy breach, they must notify the PO as soon as possible, preferably within 24 hours of the breach being discovered.
• The PO assesses the seriousness of the breach using the Privacy Commissioner’s self-assessment tool (link) and completes a privacy breach notification (link) if deemed necessary.
• If a privacy breach has been established, we will always notify the affected individuals promptly.

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Additional resources:

• The Office of the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner offers online courses on its eLearning website (link) and additional resources and tools on its website (link)
• Ministry of Education’s Privacy Act 2020 resource page (link)
• Oranga Tamariki resource page on information sharing (link)

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To be read in conjunction with:

• Child Protection Policy
• Complaints and Non-Compliance Policy
• E-Safety Policy

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Updates to this policy:

WanaExcel may update this Privacy Policy at any time by posting an updated version on the centres’ Storypark and on our website. The updated version of this Privacy Policy will take effect immediately upon such notice and automatically apply to all personal information that we hold, or are authorised to collect about members of the WanaExcel community. Members of the WanaExcel community are responsible for reviewing this Privacy Policy regularly. If any updates are substantial, we will also take additional steps to bring the changes to your attention, including by notifying you directly.

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