Information about you, privacy and accessibility statement

On this page you can find:

Information about you
Privacy
Accessibility Statement

What information do you hold about me?

Suffolk County Council’s Children and Young People’s Services provide support, information, advice and guidance to help families and young people make good choices now and in the future. To do this we have to record and keep information about the children, young people and families that we work with.

The type of information we keep will include things like:

name
address
date of birth
ethnicity
religion
health
care
education

As part of our work with you, there will be times when we need to share some of this information with other people in Suffolk County Council, and with other organisations to make sure that you have access to the right care, training, support and protection.

Please view Suffolk County Council’s Privacy Policy for how we use and manage your data.

Message for Year 11 students

When you are in Year 11 you may receive a letter from us through your school.

If you leave Year 11 and don’t continue in learning, or are at risk of dropping out of your post 16 choice, we may share basic information about you with organisations near you that can help you with your future (e.g. a college or training provider with courses that might interest you).

We are careful about what we share and only authorised people will access the information when they need it to do their jobs.

The only time we will share your information without your permission is if the law requires us to do so.

If you have any queries about the information we collect in Year 11 and how we use it, please contact the Participation Tracking Team: [email protected]

“Can I see the information you have about me?”

You have the right under the Data Protection Act 2018 to see the information we keep about you.

If you’re a young person you will need to show us that you understand what you are asking to see.

The following pages on the suffolk.gov.uk website explains how Suffolk County Council keeps your information secure and the rights you have about how we store, use and share your information when we are providing you with support and help.
Visit: www.suffolk.gov.uk/about/privacy-and-data-protection or www.suffolk.gov.uk/about/privacy-notice
For a complete explanation about all the information that the Directorate of Health, Wellbeing and Children’s Services holds on service users please read the Children and Young People Services (CYP) privacy notice on the Suffolk County Council website.

If you want to know more about the information that we hold about you, you can start by talking to the person who is already providing you with support (your PA or social worker for example).

“Through our experience of working with care leavers we recognise that accessing your records is often a really difficult process to go through – make sure you have support around you” .
Suffolk Leaving Care Service

“I want to access the information that Suffolk County Council has about me.”

If no one is currently working with you, and you have decided that you want to access your information please contact the Suffolk County Council Data Protection Team.

You can make a request either verbally or in writing:

Email [email protected]
Write to Data Protection Team, Constantine House, 5 Constantine Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP1 2DH.
Telephone 01473 265323

Please note: If you have been in care you do not have to pay £10 for the ‘access request’.

If you are worried about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, please talk to the person who is supporting you. Or you can raise your concern with us by emailing [email protected].

You can also get advice and support about your rights regarding personal data, from the independent Information Commissioner’s office (ICO), who is there to protect the data protection rights of citizens.
Contact the ICO helpline on 0303 123 1113 or visit the website at ico.org.uk.

Accessibility Statement for The Source website

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2 AA Standard.

What Is WCAG 2.1 AA?

WCAG stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. 2.1 AA is a set of rules that helps make websites easier to use for people with:

Sight problems (like blindness or low vision)
Hearing loss
Difficulty moving or using a mouse
Learning or thinking differences

What Should a Website Do?

Here are the main things a website should do to meet WCAG 2.1 AA:

👀 Make Content Easy to See

Use clear text and good colour contrast
Let users zoom in without breaking the page
Don’t rely on colour alone to explain things

🧠 Make Content Easy to Understand

Use simple language
Give instructions that don’t depend on just one sense (like only sound or only sight)
Make sure the reading order makes sense

🎧 Make Audio and Video Accessible

Add captions to videos
Provide transcripts for audio
Include audio descriptions if needed

⌨️ Make It Easy to Use

Everything should work with a keyboard (not just a mouse)
Buttons and links should be easy to find and use
Give users time to read and interact

How The Source website is trying to improve accessibility for users

You can find our accessibility toolbar in the top right corner, above our menu options, as well as a language bar. The accessibility bar allows you to change text size, colour and font, and the language bar allows you to read information on our site in the most common languages.

Information and advice on our website is co-produced with young people in Suffolk, to help ensure it’s content is friendly and relevant to our audience age group which is young people aged 12-19 year olds (up to 25 with SEND).

We use a web platform called ‘Site-improve’ to do accessibility checks on our website, and to help keep track of accessibility issues with The Source website’s content. We are currently aware of the following accessibility issues which we are addressing:

Skip to main content option missing
Colour contrast where text and background colours conflicts on pages
Not all of our video content has audio description to explain visual information or captions.
Some pages have poor role content structure for how page elements fit together.
Interactive elements, like buttons or links on site, are not at least 44 by 44 pixels as required.
Font size is fixed on the site, but we do have some font size options available in our accessibility menu to increase text size.
Some headings on pages are not structured.
Links maybe missing alternative text.
Not all links maybe identifiable.
Some PDFs and leaflet resources available to download from our site may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. Please email us at: [email protected] if you need help accessing any of our downloadable resources or information.

This accessibility status statement was last reviewed on 06/08/2025.