Data Protection Act compliance programme

The project issues
The Teacher Training Agency (TTA) required the provision of a Data Protection Act compliance audit based on the Office of the Information Commissioner’s (OIC) guidance manual, to assess the standard of critical documentation - i.e. policies, procedures, records etc. - across all major systems (both paper and electronic) and departments.  TTA wished to obtain expert advice from a suitably qualified and experienced consultancy to create and implement procedures and practices to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act (DPA).

Yvette Tomlinson, Head of Marketing and Publishing Services, brought us in because she had identified the need to review the situation, prepare a business case /options appraisal for rationalisation and produce an implementation plan.

The Socitm Consulting solution
We interviewed officers and users to assess the current level of understanding of the practical issues and compliance requirements.

We produced a report setting out recommendations on the development and use of policies and procedures. An essential component of the new approach was to ensure provision of standard training material to all TTA employees and to leave TTA with a workable compliance framework.

The benefits to the client
All employees received the same training and this lead to a much greater understanding of Data Protection throughout TTA. Appropriate policies and procedures were adopted and rolled out, again to the overall benefit of the organisation.

Project identification
Client organisation: Teacher Training Agency
Client contact: Yvette Tomlinson, Head of Marketing and Publishing Services, 020 7023 8169, tomlinsony@teach-tta.gov.uk
Lead consultant: andrea.simmons@socitm.gov.uk
Project no: 4597