Practical SAR Strategies for Schools and Trusts
A practical workshop on protecting time, pupils and your team
Subject access requests (SARs) can be time-consuming and complex to manage, especially alongside the many other priorities school business professionals juggle. Increasingly, schools and trusts are also seeing SARs used in strategic or contentious ways linked to complaints or disputes, which increases both workload and risk for school and trust leaders. In this practical session, Shane Williams draws on extensive experience supporting hundreds of schools with SARs and data protection processes. He'll share insights into what's working on the ground, what's changed in recent legislation (including new ICO guidance and cooling-off periods), and how you can develop school-friendly procedures that protect your team, your pupils and your time.
In this session we explore
How to identify and manage complex, excessive or contentious SARs
Key steps to simplify searches, redaction and document review
What cooling off periods and updated ICO guidance mean for your processes
How to handle SARs fairly while protecting pupil safety and staff wellbeing
Take home points
A clear SAR triage and response process for schools and trusts
Practical tools for efficient redaction, search and review
Actions to strengthen your SAR log, record keeping and audit trail.
This session is for
School and trust leaders who Leads, or managers of leads responsible for SARs, complaints, safeguarding or data protection, and need a realistic, defensible approach that keeps pupils safe, supports staff and protects precious time.
