We take privacy seriously. If you’re unhappy with how The Skills Network has handled your personal information, you can raise a data protection complaint with us.
This page explains:
A data protection complaint is a concern about how we have collected, used, shared, stored or otherwise handled your personal information, or how we have responded to your data protection rights request.
You don’t need to quote laws or use legal terms – just tell us what happened and what outcome you’re seeking.
This process is available to anyone whose personal data we handle, including:
Retail learners/customers who register directly with The Skills Network; and
Learners registered via a college or local authority.
In many learner programmes delivered with colleges/local authorities, the college/local authority is the data controller, and The Skills Network may act as a data processor. Controllers are responsible for meeting the legal complaints obligations. Where we receive a complaint that relates to processing for a college/local authority, we will work with them promptly and share information needed to investigate and respond.
You can submit a complaint using any of the following:
If you contact us via social media, we may ask you to switch to an alternative contact method because social media is not usually a secure way to share personal information.
To help us investigate, please include (where possible):
If we have doubts about your identity, we may ask for proof of ID – but we will not ask for more than is necessary.
If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we may ask for proof you are authorised to act for them (for example, a signed letter of authority or an appropriate power of attorney).
We follow the ICO’s guidance on handling data protection complaints.
1) We accept complaints however they are received
People can complain in different ways, including via different channels within an organisation. We will accept your complaint and route it to the right team.
2) Acknowledgement within 30 days
We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 30 days. The acknowledgement will confirm we’ve received it and will investigate it.
3) Investigation without undue delay
We start investigating from when we receive your complaint — we don’t wait until the acknowledgement stage. We will make appropriate enquiries without undue delay.
4) We keep you updated
We will keep you informed of progress without undue delay, including where an investigation will take time and when you can expect an outcome.
5) Outcome provided without unjustifiable or excessive delay
Once our investigation is complete, we will provide an outcome without an unjustifiable or excessive delay. For straightforward complaints, we may be able to investigate and provide an outcome within 30 days (so acknowledgement and outcome may be combined).
6) Learning and improvement
After we provide an outcome, we review what happened and consider any improvements needed to prevent similar issues.
We keep records of:
We keep personal information only as long as needed.
You have the right to raise concerns with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at any time. (The ICO is the UK’s independent authority for information rights.)
You can submit a complaint using any of the following:
Please refer to The Skills Network complaints policy.
