The Data Protection Officer (DPO) for Schools and Trusts

If the governor has no other responsibilities, then possibly.

For many schools, a governor with the right skills and authority, as well as time, would be suitable. However, they need to be available, have the expertise and importantly, may need to recuse themselves from other oversight responsibilities and decision-making due to a conflict of interest.

Yes, but only if their professional duties are compatible with those of the DPO and do not lead to a conflict of interest. This means that they must be in an impartial role, report directly to the governing body and have no conflict of interest in their other duties. It is difficult to think of a role in the school where there wouldn’t be a conflict of interest.

Anyone who makes decisions about which systems your school uses or how they are used, has line management responsibilities or decides what personal data is collected or processed, is not a suitable data protection officer. Remembering that this person cannot be sacked for performing their DPO role.

Additionally, the DPO should be able to demonstrate expert knowledge of data protection law.

With all these considerations, it's very unusual for there to be a suitable person in the school.

Additionally, you need to consider that your DPO needs to be available all year round. If you have an individual who is not contracted to work over the holidays, or unavailable when you need them, how will they ensure that they respond and deal with issues in the required timeframe? And if they are involved in a complex data protection issue, are their other school responsibilities being covered?

DPE is available all year round and reduces the overhead of school staff.

The GDPR outlines three circumstances when an organisation must appoint a DPO. If you:

• are a public authority (except for courts acting in their judicial capacity);
• carry out large scale systematic monitoring of individuals (for example, online behaviour tracking); or,
• carry out large scale processing of special categories of data or data relating to criminal convictions and offences.

As a public authority, circumstance 1 applies to maintained schools and academies, meaning thatyou do need a data protection officer.

The MAT is considered the data controller, and therefore only one DPO is required for the MAT. We recommend for consistency that only one MAT is appointed per MAT.

Yes. Data Protection Education provides a comprehensive framework that fulfils all statutory requirements of a Data Protection Officer (DPO) as mandated by Article 37 of the UK GDPR in each of our service levels. The service is specifically designed to meet the accountability standards of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for schools and Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) through the following provisions:

• Independent Oversight: We provide a Named Data Protection Officer and, in higher tiers, a Dedicated Lead Consultant to provide the independent reporting and monitoring required by law.

• Expert Knowledge: Our core team consists of data protection and legal professionals with specialised expertise in the UK education sector, managing everything from basic enquiries to complex DPIAs, Subject Access Requests (SARs), and FOI requests.

• Accessibility: We ensure unlimited access to specialist advice via phone, email, and our proprietary Knowledge Bank platform, ensuring a DPO is always available to handle time-sensitive incidents or breaches.

• Accountability & Monitoring: Through annual benchmarking reviews, scheduled site visits, and proactive compliance health checks, we provide the documented evidence of "Accountability" required by the ICO.

• Capacity & Implementation: For organisations with high-volume needs, our DPO Plus service offers a "total capacity partner" model, handling complex tasks like SAR redaction and RoPA consultancy to ensure full operational compliance and risk reduction.

Whilst the GDPR does not specify precise credentials, it does require that they should have professional experience and knowledge of data protection law. This should be proportionate to the type of processing your school carries out, taking into consideration the level of protection the personal data requires.

At DPE, consultants all undertake AIPP or BCS certifications and our core DPO team is lead by our Legal Director a qualified solicitor alongside a Director with Masters Degrees in Data Protection Law.

A data protection officer can be employed fully by you, shared across schools or you can engage in a DPO service from an external provider. Each has its merits and should be reviewed as to which is the most suitable for your school, in terms of the appropriateness for the size of your school and the types of personal data you collect and process, as well as affordability and value for money.  If you are part of a trust, speak to your central office about their plans.

It is difficult, however, for a school to be able to appoint a DPO with the expertise, independence and authority internally. 

Whilst we understand that an external DPO is another cost ina your stretched budget, we offer incredible value for money and believe that the efficiency savings of a well-run data protection programme can result ina positive return on investment.

The terms ‘large scale’ has not been defined by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), so it cannot be assumed that independent schools fall into circumstance 2. Because of the nature of the data that all schools collect and process and that their data subjects are children, it would be wise, however, for independent schools to appoint a data protection officer.

Not only does it result in improvements, but it increases the reputation of the organisation if they have a DPO in place.

The DPO takes an advisory and monitoring role and should guide your school to be GDPR compliant. It is your school’s responsibility to follow this guidance. If you choose not to, the DPO is not responsible if anything goes wrong. 

The DPO’s minimum tasks are defined in Article 39:

• To inform and advise the organisation and its employees about their obligations to comply withthe GDPR and other data protection laws.
• To monitor compliance with the GDPR and other data protection laws, including managing internal data protection activities, advise on data protection impact assessments; train staff and conduct internal audits.
• To be the first point of contact for supervisory authorities (the ICO) and for individuals whose data is processed (employees, customers etc).

As a school or trust, you must ensure that:

• The DPO reports to the highest management level of your school, i.e. the governing body or the trust board
• The DPO operates independently and is not dismissed or penalised for performing their task
• Adequate resources are provided to enable the DPO to meet their GDPR obligations.

A Data Protection Officer is responsible for the following tasks-

1. Provide advice to an organisation about their responsibilities
2. Monitor compliance with the law
3. Advise on data protection impact assessments
4. Cooperate with the ICO
5. Be a point of contact for data subjects 

Remember that the organisation (the Data Controllers) is ultimately accountable for compliance.