Consent Statements#
The system contains functionality that allows you to create, collect, store and manage consent from your staff, students and student contacts.
Tip
Legal requirements and regulations such as the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) require that the school can prove that they have a lawful basis for processing data. This burden of proof on the school can be reduced by using consent as all consent is recorded automatically and retained along with the user.
Consent Statements#
A consent statement is the thing that a user will either provide or withdraw consent for. It represents your desire to perform an activity that requires consent from the user, such as a new data processing activity.
Create a New Consent Statement#
To create a new consent statement click the Create option from the Consent Statements section of the side menu. This will open the create window.
You need to provide the following information:
Title
The title of the consent statement. This is shown to the user when they are asked to provide consent.
Statement
The statement content of the consent statement. This is shown to the user when they are asked to provide consent. It should contain a clear description of exactly what information you’ll use and a brief description of what you’re going to do with it. The wording here is important in order to meet your burden of proof under specific legal requirements such as UK GDPR.
You can also optionally select one or more user roles for this statement to be auto assigned to. When a role is selected all users that have that role will automatically be asked to provide consent to that statement.
Caution
There is a limit of 2500 words on the content of a consent statement. These statements should be short and easy to understand so that users can provide informed consent for the activity you’re requesting.
Tip
When selecting the contact role you’ll need to choose the priority contacts that should be sent requests as well as specify if the requests should be sent on behalf of the student or for the contact user themselves.
When you select the “Request on Behalf of Students” option, a contact with more than one student will be sent one request per student.
Tip
The automatic consent requests are run as an overnight process. This process will send a request to any new users that have been added to that role during the previous day ensuring everyone that should have been asked is asked for consent.
Once the fields are complete, click the save button. You’ll see a popup message to confirm the statement was created.
Editing an Existing Statement#
To edit an existing statement select the View / Edit option from the Consent Statement section of the side menu. This will open the existing consent statements.
Click the desired statements corresponding checkbox and then click the edit icon from the tables action bar (or double click the row in the table).
This will open the edit view for the selected consent statement.
You can change the title, statement content or auto-assigned user roles.
Caution
Changing the title or statement content will trigger a new revision of the statement to be created. This will automatically send new requests for consent to all users that have already been sent a request.
Deleting an Existing Statement#
To delete an existing statement select the View / Edit option from the Consent Statement section of the side menu. This will open the existing consent statements.
Click the desired statement’s corresponding checkbox and then click the delete icon from the tables action bar. You’ll be asked to confirm your action before the statement is deleted.
Once the statement has been deleted you’ll see a confirmation popup.
Tip
When deleting a consent statement, all users that have consented to the statement will have that consent removed. If the statement is then re-created you’ll have to request consent again.
Automatic Consent Requests#
The system handles automatic consent requests on your behalf based on your configuration of a consent statement. If you select auto-assigned user roles, any users with that role assigned will be asked to provide consent.
This process runs overnight each day. The benefits of this are:
If you notice a spelling or grammar error in one of your consent statements after making an update your users won’t receive multiple requests to provide consent. (Providing you notice before the end of the day).
If you’re adding or reviewing multiple consent statements in a single week then your users will only receive a single email telling them you’d like their consent for data processing activities.
The process also handles “revised consent” this is when you change the content or title of the consent statement that a user has agreed to. When this happens we automatically sends a new request based on the new configuration for the consent statement ensuring users that had consented to the old version allowing you to keep your users consent current and therefore strong as far as legal requirements such as UK GDPR is concerned.
Tip
Consent email reminders are sent on a Friday evening as part of the Weekly Update. Users receive a notification the same day so users that log in regularly will see the requests immediately but less engaged users will receive a reminder at the end of the week.
Tip
A consent statement can either be automatically requested on behalf of students from their contacts or directly from the contacts but not both. If you want to send a similar consent statement request to contacts both on behalf of their students and for themselves you should create 2 separate consent statements and configure the auto-assign option for on behalf of students on one and not on the other.
Manual Consent Requests#
You can manually request consent from a users by selecting the option that represents the type of user you’re trying to contact. Select from “Request Staff Consent”, “Request Student Consent” and “Request Student Contact Consent” from the Consent Statements section of the side menu. After one of these options is selected, the process becomes the same but with different users being displayed on the right of the screen in “Step 2”.
On the Request Consent screen, select the consent statement that you’d like to request that users provide consent to. If you’re sending to student contacts you can also choose whether the consent is being collected on behalf of students or in relation to the contact themselves.
Once you’ve completed the first step, click either the next button or the Recipients header to go to step 2.
This step allows you to select the recipients that you’d like to request consent from. You can then select either individual users of the selected type or use groups to make finding the right people easier. Once selected the list of users in the selected groups will be loaded on the right of the screen.
You can then make further selections of users allowing you to make requests of only those people you need to. Use the checkboxes to include or exclude a user, there are Select All and Select None buttons allowing you to select all or none of the users in the list. These selection options work with a filtered list when a search term is entered making selection of sub sets easier.
Once you’ve selected your recipients, move onto the final step by clicking the Next button or the Confirm & Send header.
Tip
When sending requests on behalf of students we would recommend sending to only one priority contact as this will remove the possibility of one contact providing consent and another withdrawing it. This could lead to confusion among staff about whether a given activity has been consented to or not for a given student.
Caution
Only student contacts with parental responsibility can be sent requests to provide consent on behalf of a student.
Once you’ve selected the correct details, click the Send Consent Requests button. This puts the request into a queue to be processed by our servers so you don’t have to wait for it to finish.
Permissions#
Delete Consent Statements
Manage Consent Statements
Manage Staff Consent Requests
Manage Student Consent Requests
Manage Student Contact Consent Requests