Skills and Employment Privacy Notice

York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (YNYCA) are either through the Mayoral Development Fund or funding  by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Education (DfE) working together and with North Yorkshire and City of York Councils, and a number of other Delivery Partners to deliver projects aimed at reducing economic inactivity, and to help people get back into work.

These projects will help people reengage with education,  develop the skills they need to enable them to work, or will help disabled people, those with health conditions, or those facing other barriers to employment find and maintain jobs.   You may see these different projects referred to using different names:

Skills bootcamps –  funded by the Department of Education will help individuals develop new skills that employers are looking for.

Adult Skills Programmes: funded by the Department of Education which allow adult learners to gain skills which will lead them to meaningful, sustained, and relevant employment, or enable them to progress to further learning.

Economic Inactivity Trailblazer: a regional programme, funded by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), that tests innovative, localised approaches to support economically inactive people into work, health services, or training. These programmes integrate health and employment support for those who are economically inactive and facing barriers to engaging with employment and training opportunities. or those in employment and facing significant barriers to career progression.

Rise to Thrive: funded though the UK Prosperity Fund focuses on those who are economically inactive and facing barriers to engaging with employment and training opportunities, or those in employment and facing significant barriers to career progression.

Connect to Work:  funded by the Department of Work and Pensions designed to help disabled people, those with health conditions, or other complex barriers get into and stay in sustainable employment.

This Privacy Notice explains how the YNYCA use your information and how we protect your privacy when using your data as a project participant. This notice should be read with our overarching privacy notice which can be found h here.

The organisation supporting may also provide you with a Privacy Notice and  a participation leaflet that provides further information about how your personal data is used .  

The DWP and DfE may also have a relevant Privacy notice you can ask the person supporting you about this.

Your Personal data

Information will be collected about you if you are a participant on one of the above programmes by the Delivery Partner organisation  working with you and may be shared directly with the YNYCA.

Your contact details may also be used in certain cases to contact you in order to find out your experience on the programme you have signed up to if you.  Your key worker/employment specialist someone from the Delivery Partner will explain this to you if relevant. 

The information that will be shared with YNYCA will vary depending on the programme that you have signed up to and may include:

  • Name
  • Date of Birth
  • National insurance number
  • Contact details (email address, postal address, telephone number)
  • Gender
  • Employment status
  • Residency status
  • Education status
  • Education History
  • Military Veteran details

In addition to this some information is considered ‘special category data and needs more protection due to its sensitivity. This includes any information that can reveal someone’s  sexuality and sexual health, religious or philosophical beliefs, racial origin, ethnicity, physical or mental health, trade union membership, political opinion, genetic/biometric data.

As part of this activity, we may process special category data in relation to the following:

  • Ethnicity
  • Details concerning your health
  • Details of your disabilities

We may also ask you if you have any criminal convictions as these indicate further barriers to work and opportunity.  This data also requires additional protection.

All personal data collected will be evaluated periodically and only kept as long as necessary or in line with legal requirements.

Why do we collect your personal information?

We need to collect, process, and store personal information about you and sometimes your special category data and criminal conviction history to enable us to administer, manage and evaluate the success of the initiative you partake in.

This means we may collect and process various categories of personal information directly provided by you or from your use of services provided by a Delivery Partner organisation.

We will limit the collection and processing of information to what is necessary to allow the delivery, management and/or evaluation of the service that you participate in.

We will use your personal information for the  purposes as described below and always in line with our responsibilities, and where reasonable your wishes, where there is a legal basis to use your personal information and in relation to your rights. We process personal information:

  • To administer and performance manage the Funded programmes
  • For the purposes of administration in respect of your participation with the programmes listed above
  • To communicate with you;
  • To undertake reporting and research in relation to how well the programmes work;
  • To determine your eligibility and suitability requirements to participate in the programme.
  • To ensure that the services delivered meet your needs and are of the highest standards.
  • To undertake research, analysis and evaluation related to support provided to participants
  • To process financial transactions including grants, payments and benefits directly involving us or where we are acting on behalf of other government bodies such as Department for Work and Pensions;
  • To monitor our performance in providing services to you, to gather statistical information to allow us to plan future provision of services to and to obtain your opinion about our services;
  • Performing our statutory functions in relation to service improvement and economic regeneration of the region.
  • To help us identify barriers to work / skills gaps across different sectors, cohorts and localities to enable other measures to be put in place to address these.

      What will we do with your information?

      When deciding what personal information to collect, use and hold, we will:

      • Only collect, hold, and use personal information where it is necessary and fair to do so;
      • Keep your personal information safe and secure and securely delete or destroy any personal information when we no longer need it;
      • Consider your privacy when planning to use or hold your personal information in new ways, such as using new systems or improving the way we work.
      • Be open with you about how we use your information and who we share it with; and make it easy for you to access and correct your personal information.

      Under the terms of the funding YNYCA may share your data with the Department of Work and Pensions and the Department for Education.

      Who do we obtain your information from?

      We collect your personal information directly from you or from the Delivery Partner organisation providing you with support. These organisations might include

      • Local authorities
      • Health organisations such as the Integrated Care Board, GP’s.
      • third party organisations who we have commissioned to provide services such as charities, education providers, training providers,
      • Government agencies/departments for example, DWP/DfE
      • probation
      • local support groups
      • local community groups
      • probation services

      How long will we hold your information?

      Your information will be kept for up to a maximum of 7yrs after the programme you are a participant of ends.  After which if it will be anonymised so it can be used for analysis purposes or securely destroyed. 

      Sometimes retention periods may be extended due to public inquires, or by law.

      Who do we share your information with?

      We will not share your information with anyone outside of the YNYCA except:

      • Where we have your permission
      • Where the sharing is required for the service we are providing you
      • Where we are required by law, court order and by law enforcement agencies, juridical bodies, government, tax authorities or other regulatory bodies. We may not have to tell you if we do share with other organisations in this way.
      • With Government departments such as DWP, DfE with whom the YNYCA has a contract or grant funding agreement to deliver the services.
      • Third parties, external partners, and agencies assisting us in delivering our service to you.
      • Organisations assisting with undertaking research and evaluation.
      • For our statutory functions – Our internal auditors, counter fraud service, data protection officer, and external auditors may also have access to your personal data in order to complete their work.
      • With external partners to improve, and advance, the service we provide to you.

      Information will only be shared where it is necessary, where we have a lawful basis  and is permitted under the Data Protection Act. Any information shared will be proportionate and limited only to what is necessary.

      YNYCA will ensure that the third party, external partners, or agencies have sufficient systems and procedures in place to prevent the loss or misuse of personal information. Sharing will only take place under strict contractual agreements and/or data sharing agreements to ensure that the other organisation keeps your data secure.

      Your data protection rights

      Under the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act (2018), you as the Data Subject, have the following rights. However, you should be aware that, due to the reasons that YNYCA may be processing your information we may not be able to comply with some requests due to legal obligations.

      Please refer to our main Privacy Notice here for further information about your rights

      If you wish to exercise any of your data subject rights, please contact the Data Protection Officer whose contact details are provided below.

      For more information on the GDPR and your rights go to the Information Commissioners website.

      Individuals Rights ICO

      Our Lawful Basis for Processing personal data

      In order to process personal data, we must have  a valid lawful basis to do so. We will only process your information where it is necessary for us to carry out our lawful activities. We have described the lawful basis on which we rely to use your information below:

      1. Legal obligation – When the processing is necessary for us to comply with the law.
      2. Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority;

      We may process your information where:

      • we are exercising an official authority set out in law.
      • to perform a specific task in the public interest that is set out in law.
      1. Consent – You have given clear consent for us to process your personal data for a specific purpose.

      More sensitive information or ‘special categories’ of information have stricter rules for processing according to Article 9 of the UK GDPR. These categories include:

      • Ethnic origin
      • Health

      Information on criminal offences is also considered a special category and must be processed according to Article 10 of the UK GDPR.

      Detect and prevent fraud or crime

      Please refer to our main Privacy Notice here for further information about how we might use your information to prevent and detect Fraud and to prevent or detect crime, apprehend or prosecute offenders or prevent harm to an individual.

      Transferring information overseas

      The YNYCA will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data is not processed in a country that the UK government does not consider  ‘Safe’.  If your personal information does require to be transferred outside the UK  for processing or storage purposes YNYCA will ensure that additional safeguards are in place to protect it to the same standard we apply.

      How we protect your personal data

      YNYCA are committed to keeping the personal data that we hold safe from loss, corruption, or theft. There are several ways we do this, including:

      • training for all staff on how to handle personal data and cyber security;
      • policies and procedures detailing what YNYCA officers can and cannot do with personal data including what happens if data security is breached.
      • IT security safeguards such as firewalls, encryption, and anti-virus software
      • ensuring staff only have access to the information they need to do their job. This means if they are not the right person in the right team, they will not be able to see your information.
      • on-site security safeguards to protect physical files and electronic equipment.

      How to contact us

      If you have any concerns or questions about how your data is being used you can ask your key worker or  Employment Specialist, who will be able to provide you with detailed information, address your concerns, and ensure that any queries are handled in accordance with applicable data protection legislation.

      You can also contact the YNYCA. or more information about requesting access to or to stop YNYCA processing of your personal information, or to raise a concern or a complaint on how we have handled your personal information please contact our  Data Protection Officer  at:

      • Telephone: Tel: 01904 552848
      • Address: Data Protection Officer Information Governance Office, Veritau, West Offices, Station Rise, York, North Yorkshire,  YO1 6GA

      If after we have tried to address your concerns, you remain unhappy you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).via the ICO’s website:  https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

      YNYCA is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office – Registration reference: ZB656555

      You can view our details on the ICO register of data protection fee payers here.

      Changes to this Privacy Notice

      We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated October 2025