- Purpose-Led
- Permission-Aware
- Source-Aware
- Accountable
- Purpose
- Access
- Relationships
- Information sensitivity
- Sharing
- Provenance
- Retention
- Auditability
- Human accountability
The objective is a platform where information can support the work it was collected for without becoming available simply because it exists.
- Why personal information is being processed
- Which lawful basis applies
- Whether additional conditions are required for sensitive information
- What individuals should be told
- Who information may be shared with
- How long records should be retained
- How individual rights are handled
- Which suppliers and processors are involved
- A person's ability to access information should relate to the work they are authorised to perform. For example:
- A SENCO may need additional learner-support evidence.
- A finance user may need payment information without needing SEND records.
- A tutor may need specific learning information without seeing family or medical history.
- A DSL may need access to a restricted safeguarding process.
This is why EdiWay goes beyond a simple: “Staff member = learner access” model. Access can consider role, organisation, relationship, case, purpose and sensitivity together.
Teaching
May need learning and support context.
Trips
May need minimum necessary emergency information.
Payments
May require transaction and buyer context.
Professional Collaboration
May require selected learner information for a defined purpose.
Transition
May use a selected Transition Pack.
Safeguarding
Uses a separately restricted information boundary.
- Age
- Understanding
- Learner voice
- Family relationships
- Sensitive information
- Visibility
- Transitions
- AI
- Support needs
- Growing independence
A learner’s ability to access or contribute information can therefore depend on age, configuration and sensitivity.
As learners grow, their relationship to their own information can also change. The platform should support that development rather than assuming the same family-access model applies indefinitely.
- Parent
- Parental responsibility
- Kinship care
- Foster care
- Family network
- Emergency contact
- Authorised representative
Access should follow the relevant relationship and information purpose rather than assuming that every family-linked account should receive identical visibility.
This becomes particularly important for sensitive learner voice, safeguarding, medical information and complex family circumstances.
- Health
- Medical needs
- SEND
- Disability
- Safeguarding
- Wellbeing
- Family circumstances
- Professional assessments
- Sensitive learner voice
- Other protected information
EdiWay is designed to apply stronger boundaries around sensitive domains rather than making them ordinary learner-profile fields.
- A user who can view attendance should not automatically gain medical access.
- A teacher who can view support information should not automatically receive safeguarding chronology.
- An authorised professional should receive only the information required for the defined relationship.
- A learner statement remains learner voice.
- A parent observation remains family evidence.
- A school record remains school-origin information.
- DisabilityA professional report remains attributable to the relevant professional.
Keeping those sources visible helps prevent information from changing meaning simply because it appears in a connected record. Sensitive contributions can also require narrower visibility than ordinary learner information.
Learner
Who does the work concern?
Relationship
Why is the professional involved?
Purpose
What are they helping with?
Scope
Which information is relevant?
Duration
How long does the relationship apply?
Contribution
What information may they add?
A professional relationship should therefore create purposeful access, not permanent visibility across the learner record.
- What was shared
- Who shared it
- Which recipient received it
- Which learner it concerned
- Why it was shared
- Relevant authority or lawful basis where recorded
- When it happened
- Relevant access or expiry information
The aim is to make collaboration possible without treating every recipient as another unrestricted platform user.
- Recipient
- Purpose
- Selected information
- Approval
- Snapshot
- Expiry
- Revocation
- Access history
A receiving setting can gain useful context without automatically receiving permanent access to the family’s, school’s or professional’s complete record.
- Original source
- Original dates
- Import date
- Record owner
- Historic status
- Current status
- Corrections
- Sensitive information
An old record should not silently become a new current conclusion just because it has been migrated.
This is particularly important for safeguarding, SEND, assessments, family relationships and other high-risk records.
- Names change.
- Addresses change.
- Relationships change.
- Education status changes.
- Earlier information may later prove incomplete.
EdiWay is designed so material lifecycle and record changes can preserve source and history where the workflow requires it rather than simply overwriting everything without trace.
That supports both accuracy and accountability.
Correcting an error should not require losing the evidence of what was previously recorded where that history remains legitimately necessary.
- Record type
- Legal requirements
- Operational need
- Learner age
- School relationship
- Safeguarding requirements
- Employment context
- Transaction history
- Legal hold
- Account lifecycle
- Continuing learner relationship
Responsible organisations should maintain appropriate retention policies and review the information they continue to hold. EdiWay’s learner-continuity model does not override those responsibilities.
- Access
- Correction
- Erasure in applicable circumstances
- Restriction
- Objection
- Portability where applicable
- Certain automated processing
- Complaints about data use
Not every right applies in every situation, and lawful restrictions or exemptions may sometimes apply.
EdiWay can support governed processes around information access and lifecycle.
The responsible organisation remains accountable for deciding how a particular request should be handled.
- User authority
- Purpose
- Necessary context
- Information sensitivity
- AI provider
- Relevant contractual arrangements
- Logging
- Retention
- Transparency
- Human review
Safeguarding information is excluded from broad AI retrieval by default. Consequential AI outputs remain human-reviewed.
- Payment processing
- AI provision where configured
- Migration
- Authorised exchange
- Communications
- Other specifically supported integrations
- What information is transferred?
- Why is it needed?
- Which provider receives it?
- Where is it processed?
- What contractual safeguards apply?
- How long is information retained?
- Is onward processing involved?
External services should not become an invisible way of widening the use of learner or school information.
- Should this information be collected or used?
- For what purpose?
- Who should receive it?
- How long should it remain?
- How is access protected?
- How are systems and records safeguarded?
- How are inappropriate actions detected or prevented?
A secure system can still use information inappropriately. A good privacy policy is also ineffective without strong security. EdiWay therefore treats both as part of the wider Trust and Governance model.
- What information is collected
- Why it is needed
- How it is used
- Relevant legal basis
- Who it may be shared with
- How long it may be retained
- Individual rights
- How questions or complaints can be raised
EdiWay’s platform controls can support the organisation’s privacy approach. The organisation’s actual privacy notices must reflect its real use of the platform.
1. Define the Purpose
Why is the information needed?
2. Establish Responsibility
Which organisation or authorised person is acting?
3. Identify the Lawful Context
What permits the processing?
4. Collect What Is Needed
Avoid unnecessary information.
5. Apply Access Controls
Limit visibility by role, relationship, purpose and sensitivity.
6. Preserve the Source
Keep information attributable.
7. Share Deliberately
Use selected and governed disclosure where needed.
8. Keep Important Actions Traceable
Retain appropriate evidence of significant access and sharing.
9. Review Retention
Do not keep information simply because it can be stored.
10. Support Individual Rights
Provide appropriate processes for access, correction and other applicable requests.
EdiWay is designed with privacy, permission, governance and security controls for UK education.
However, EdiWay should not claim that using the platform alone makes an organisation compliant with data-protection law.
Compliance also depends on the organisation’s purposes, lawful bases, policies, configuration, notices, contracts and practices.
The framework includes the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, as amended by later legislation including the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.
Organisations should use current ICO and applicable government guidance.
No.
Access can depend on role, organisation, learner relationship, purpose, case and information sensitivity.
No.
Family access remains subject to relationship, purpose, sensitivity and other applicable restrictions.
No.
Professional participation is designed to be scoped to the relevant learner, relationship and purpose.
No single lawful basis applies to every education workflow.
The responsible organisation needs to identify the appropriate basis for each processing purpose.
No.
Platform permissions and legal authority are related but separate matters.
Appropriate information can be shared where the relevant authority and purpose exist.
EdiWay supports controlled transition and information-sharing approaches rather than unrestricted access.
Where enabled, AI should only use information available to the authorised user for the permitted purpose.
AI does not create new permissions.
Data-protection law provides rights relating to accuracy and correction.
The exact handling of a request depends on the information and circumstances.
Erasure rights are not absolute.
Some records may need to remain for legal, safeguarding, contractual or other legitimate reasons.
No.
Different record types have different requirements, and responsible organisations need appropriate retention schedules.
EdiWay’s Adult Learner Record pathway is designed to support a change in responsibility and access as the learner becomes the adult rights-holder.
No.
Schools and other responsible organisations still need their own appropriate privacy information, policies and governance arrangements.
Trust and Governance
Understand the wider EdiWay governance model.
Permissions, Consent and Information Sharing
See how access and disclosure are scoped.
Data Security and Governance
Explore the security and audit controls that protect information.
Safeguarding Boundaries
Understand stronger controls for restricted safeguarding information.
AI Governance
See how personal information remains permission-aware when AI is used.
Data Retention and Subject Rights
Explore information lifecycle and individual-rights processes in more detail.
Implementation, Migration and Product Assurance
Understand how historic information is migrated and reconciled.
- Collect what is needed.
- Know why it is needed.
- Limit who can see it.
- Protect sensitive information.
- Preserve where it came from.
- Share deliberately.
- Keep disclosures accountable.
- Review how long information remains.
- Respect individual rights.