Public Consultation on Data Sharing Agreement with Department of Education for carrying out Early Years education inspections in Early Learning and Care settings

What this consultation is about

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) is intending to enter into a Data Sharing Agreement under the Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019 with the Department of Education (DE).

The Data Sharing and Governance Act (DSGA) Framework for sharing data builds upon the Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019 by setting out a common set of practices for all Public Bodies to follow when they wish to use the Act as their legal basis for sharing data. Under the Framework, Data Sharing Agreements between public bodies for the purpose of sharing personal data will be made available for public consultation for a period of 28 days.

What we are consulting on

The purpose of the Data Sharing Agreement is to facilitate the sharing of data between the DCEDIY and the DE to enable the DE Inspectorate to carry out inspections of the quality of educational provision in early learning and care settings on behalf of the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The DE requires details of early learning and care settings funded by the DCEDIY in order to schedule and carry out inspections of those services.

A previous data sharing agreement was in place between DCEDIY and DE under the Data Protection Acts 1988 through to 2018. However, with the commencement of Section 6 of the Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019, a new data sharing agreement is now required. The DSGA also requires that a public consultation on the data sharing agreement is carried out before it is implemented.

It is important to note that no practices in the sharing of this data are changing under this updated agreement.

What were are asking you to do

The proposed agreement, A Data Sharing Agreement between DCEDIY and Department of Education (DE), will be available for public consultation at gov.ie/en/consultations from 4th August for a period of 28 days.

You are invited to make submissions by email to consultations.dsa@per.gov.ie

Please include the full DSA name “DCEDIYDE 10/210722 – DSA for carrying out Early Years Education Inspections in Early Learning and Care settings” in the subject line of the email. Only submissions made to this email address by the closing date will be accepted.

The proposed DSA is available for public consultation for a period of 28 days, from the 4th August 2022 to the 1st September 2022. Submissions will not be accepted once the public consultation period has expired.

What will happen to what you say

We will consider your submission and may respond. Where the proposed parties consider it appropriate, they may also amend the proposed agreement to take into account your submissions. A copy of the Data Sharing Agreement and a summary of all submissions will be sent to the Data Governance Board.

The DSGA Data Sharing Playbook provides a full step-by-step process for data sharing and is available with other relevant DSGA framework publications on the OGCIO website.

More information on the Data Governance Board is available on the Data Governance Board website.

Documents for reference

Data Sharing Agreement between DCEDIY and DE (including DPO statements and DPIA section)

The consultation is now being reviewed.