We’ve been talking a lot about the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) recently, and with the demands the new legislation places on schools it is easy to see why.
While most schools understand the basic ideas of the new rules, many are only now discovering how wide the scope of the new rules actually is and how it fully impacts each individual staff member as well as all third party data holders.
On top of this, the principals of accountability and transparency are being heavily emphasised under the GDPR meaning it will be a legal requirement for you to not only follow the new rules, but be able to easily demonstrate to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) how you’re doing it.
This means up to date data protection policies, staff training, policy reviews and thorough document management. It also means making sure your systems implement the principles of data protection by design, an implicit requirement of data protection that the ICO has always strongly pushed.
It is clear that the hard-working Data Protection Officers can’t do this work alone and that a whole-of-school approach is necessary to fully empower staff to play an active role in protecting data, but when you throw in the realities of your school staff being increasingly time-poor it is highly likely that they could use some help.
GDPRiS gives ALL staff a personal account allowing them to view and manage the systems they use to process personal data. The software is easy to use as it allows staff to undertake self-assessment questionnaires to monitor compliance within your school and pick up on any gaps in compliance you may have missed.
Most importantly, GDPRiS provides schools with the ability to track, monitor and evidence their data protection activities and report all potential breeches for escalation to the DPO or DPO lead in the school. The time savings and peace of mind alone are invaluable, and this cannot be understated as everybody moves forward with their data protection.
