DPO Service FAQs

Budgets are tight and GDPR is an additional pressure. What will a DPO service for my school cost?

Schools are at different stages on their journey to compliance – some needing higher levels of support. In this respect the costing for the service has been based on the time requirement for an annual visit, plus a cost directly relating to the volume of data being processed.

The annual cost of the full DPO service to your school is £150* plus £1 / pupil on roll.

The contract term normally runs until 31st August each year or until the end of the financial year. Schools joining part way through the year can start on the 1st of any month and only pay for that months they are using the service.

*Discounts are available when schools renew the service and have referred other schools (see notes for details).

Is this a full service or some type of skeleton support?

The service is very much a full, hands-on support service that gets to know the school and supports it to comply with the GDPR requirements.

As your named DPO, I provide the school with the following support:

- day-to-day support with email and phone queries about any aspect of data protection

- support with subject access requests and data breach recording

- liaison with the Information Commissioner’s Office in the event of a significant data breach

- assessment and completion of any Data Protection Impact Assessments

- on-line training and model policy documentation

- reporting compliance progress to Governors

The service also includes a review of all your data protection policies and procedures and the provision of advice and support to ensure they are compliant. These include:

Data Protection Policy
Privacy Notices for Parents and Staff
Record of Processing Activity
Subject Access Request Procedure
Breach Management Procedure
Data Protection Impact Assessment

What is included in the Annual Review?

The service include the opportunity for schools to have a face-to-face annual review. The meeting is optional, but gives a great opportunity to review policies, procedures, training needs and to ensure policies are being implemented. It also ensures any compliance issues or outstanding action plan tasks are completed with the school.

The review is either a morning or afternoon meeting that is tailored to meet the specific needs of the school.

Do I need to have a GDPR Compliance Audit?

A Compliance Audit is a really useful tool to assess where you are and what needs to be done to become compliant. If you already have completed an audit then we will use that information to develop your action plan. If you have not had an audit then this can be completed with the school for a one-off additional charge.

The audit is a structured review, where advice will be provided to help the school become compliant. A formal report is issued to summarise the areas for attention and to provide an action plan for the school to become compliant.

Where schools are working in partnership or a federation, a compliance check can include all schools that will be using the same policies and procedures.

Cost: £300 for the compliance check, report and action plan. (Please note this is charged separately as it is optional and it is a one-off service that schools do not need to pay for on an annual basis).

Can the school access training for staff and Governors?

Face-to-face training is available in a fun interactive workshop style, using information about the school and input from staff and Governors to make the training specific to your school. Topic and format can be tailored to meet the school needs.

The session is normally an hour long and is delivered at your school. The school can invite whoever it likes to join the session at no extra cost.

Schools have identified several areas for training. These include:

Email protocols - how the school can reduce the risk of a breach
Data breach – main risks to our school and how we can mitigate
Consent – why it is important and when do we need it
General requirements – what must the school do to be compliant

Cost: £100 / training session (The training session can be booked on a day and time to suit the school)

How can I get a discount off the cost of the annual service?

I believe recommendation is the very best way to support new schools. To thank those schools that have recommended my services I reduce their renewal cost by £50 for every school they have recommended. This is up to a maximum reduction of £150 in any one year and is deducted from their next renewal.

As new schools join the service they are asked if they have been recommended so the reduction can be applied to the referring school.

So please do remind schools to mention your school when they have been referred.

DPO FAQs: FAQ