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Corporate Governance and Democratic Services

What we do

Corporate Governance and Democratic Services is the section responsible for administering Councillor-level meetings and school admissions appeals.

Full Council is the meeting of all Councillors.

Committees

Certain Committees, for example the Health & Wellbeing Board, Children & Young People Scrutiny Panel, Audit & Risk Management Panel, Eltham Crematorium Joint Committee and the Schools’ Forum include members who are not Councillors.  The Council has a legal requirement to include representatives of some organisations (such as School Governors) as part of the membership of some committees. Their information is held on a system called Mod.Gov and published with the agenda for the meeting.

Scrutiny

As part of the Council’s Scrutiny Process, residents, service users and interested parties may be invited to contribute to scrutiny reviews. Additionally, residents may wish to propose items for inclusion on the Council’s Scrutiny Work Programme.

School Admission Appeals

The team provides the administrative and independent clerking service for School Admission Appeals.  The independent clerk makes the necessary administrative arrangements for hearings, including convening the panel members, notifies the parties of the order of proceedings in advance of the hearing, responds to queries from appellants in advance of the hearing or identifies the appropriate person to provide a response, is an independent source of advice on procedure and admissions law, keeps an accurate record of proceedings and provides both parties with written notification of the Panel’s decision.

Why we need your information and how we use it

Committee

We need to use personal information about you because:

  • If you wish to address the meeting of Council, either by way of questions or deputation, we need to confirm that you are a resident of the Borough (or a local taxpayer of the Borough or a business based in the Borough) and we need the information to contact you.
  • If your petition is being submitted to Council, we need to confirm your name and address and email address if available so that we can contact you.

School Admission Appeals

The information is necessary to enable the clerk to comply with the School Admission Appeal Code February 2012, School Admissions Code December 2014 and the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 Part 3.

What is our power to obtain and use personal data?

All formal meetings of the Council are either broadcast on the Council website or recorded and later uploaded on to the Council’s YouTube Channel. This is to support democratic engagement under section 8(e) of the Data Protection Act 2018. If you do not want to participate, please do not attend the meeting.

We collect and use personal information where it is necessary for the performance of our task in the public interest or for our official/statutory functions. This includes functions relating to the servicing of meetings under the Local Government Acts of 1972 and 2000 and the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, the Local Government Access to Information Act 1985, the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012 and the council’s constitution.

The council has a statutory duty under The Localism Act 2011 and the Equality Act 2010.

We have a duty to allow residents of the borough to bring to its attention any concerns they may have via the petition scheme. We collect information from you for the purpose of administering the petition scheme i.e. to ‘sign’ an e-petition, you will be asked to provide your name, postcode and email address.  When this information is submitted, an email is sent to you including a link to authorise your email address.

Once this step is complete, your ‘signature’ will be added to the petition. People visiting the e-petition will be able to see the names of those who have signed it but your contact details remain private.

In relation to school appeals and exclusion reviews we are required to comply with statutory requirements that include disclosure of your grounds for appeal (School Standards and Framework Act 1998, Education Acts 1996, 2002 and 2011, associated Regulations and guidance).  For employment appeals we have an obligation to comply with employment law (e.g.: Employment Rights Act 1996 and Equality Act 2010).

What type of information we collect

Committee

  • Name
  • Address
  • Email address
  • Telephone number
  • Organisation (if applicable)
  • Information that you provide as part of your submission/comments to the Council
  • Personal images and voice through recordings

Meetings of Full Council are filmed and broadcast on the Council’s website.  If you attend Full Council, we may capture this via an Image, which will be streamed live and made publicly available for at least 12 months on the Council website and if you speak, your voice will be recorded.  While the Council does not record other Council meetings, other attendees at the meeting have the right to do so.

School Admission Appeals

The following information is collected from you:-

  • Parent / Guardian and Child’s Name
  • Appellant and Child’s Address.
  • Email address(es)
  • Telephone number(s)
  • Child’s Gender
  • Child’s Date of Birth
  • Child’s / Parent’s / Guardian’s social / medical documents (where applicable)

In addition, the following information is collected from Panel Members: -

  • Name
  • Address
  • Email address
  • Telephone number
  • Occupation
  • Gender
  • Ethnicity
  • Connection to any borough schools (for example governors, children at Royal Borough of Greenwich schools)
  • Special dietary or physical support needs
  • Admissions training history
Who we may share your information with

Your data may be shared as follows:-

Committee

  • Relevant internal departments
  • The Cabinet Members for the services about which you are asking question/submitting a petition
  • Images from the web cast are made publicly available.
  • Public questions are published on the Council’s website and circulated to all Members and attendees of Council. These include the name of the person who has asked the question.
  • If you are speaking at the meeting, your name will be announced at the meeting when it is your time to speak. Accordingly, your name will be shared with attendees at the meeting and, if you are addressing Full Council, will be recorded and broadcast in the webcast of the meeting.
  • If you are a member of a committee, your name will be included in the minutes of the meeting.
  • If you are a Council officer your name will be included in a report where you have contributed comments. Reports are published on the Council’s website as part of the agenda documents.
  • The committee to whom you have submitted information or comments

School Admission Appeals

Your data may be shared with the following: -

  • Panel members (who are not Royal Borough of Greenwich employees).
  • Independent Clerks (who may / may not be Royal Borough of Greenwich employees).
  • Department of Children’s Services.

In addition, Panel Members’ information is only shared with independent Clerks.

How long we keep your information

Committee

  • Web cast – currently 12 months.
  • Petitions – a minimum of 4 years.
  • Questions / Deputations – need to be kept for at least 3 months. 
  • The responses to questions form part of the minutes of the meeting and are kept permanently
  • Planning Board / Committee – speakers’ lists are filed with the agenda and signed minutes on the minute’s book, which are held permanently.
  • Committee minutes and agendas – indefinitely

School Admission Appeals

The information in relation to each individual appeal hearing is kept for a minimum of 2 years. However, the information on Panel Members is kept for as long as they remain Panel Members. The information for Panel Members who have resigned is retained for one year.

Version date
June 2019