Please read these Terms carefully before using the Hwb Cloud Environment. By using the Hwb Cloud Environment, you confirm that you accept these Terms and that you agree to comply with them.
These Terms define the appropriate educational use of the Hwb Cloud Environment. Welsh Government (“we” or “us”) manage and oversee the development and maintenance of the Hwb Cloud Environment. Local authorities and schools are responsible for determining which online tools and services are appropriate for their education settings and managing local user policies in relation to user generated data and information.
Please also refer to our privacy notice, which also applies to your use of the Hwb Cloud Environment. This sets out how the Welsh Government handles your personal information and provides details about your rights in respect of the data we collect about you.
Purpose of the Hwb Cloud Environment
The Hwb Cloud Environment is part of a national digital ecosystem for maintained schools in Wales. Working in collaboration with local authorities, the Welsh Government provides national digital identities for all learners, staff and governors, as well as authorised education stakeholders across Wales to access online tools and services from global leading education technology partners.
These online services include Microsoft365, Google Workspace for Education, Just2easy, Adobe Express and Apple Classroom which have all been identified to support the delivery of teaching and learning, as well as helping to transform school collaboration and administration.
Hwb Cloud Environment responsibilities
Responsibility for the Hwb Cloud Environment is shared between the Welsh Government, local authorities, schools, key education stakeholders, service providers and most importantly our users.
The Welsh Government manage and oversee the development and maintenance of the Hwb Cloud Environment and are responsible for ensuring the infrastructure and configuration settings align with industry standards to help keep schools and our users safe online,
The Welsh Government is responsible for the creation and management of user identities and accounts. The Welsh Government also utilises the Hwb secure sign in for the purposes of delivering the personalised assessments.
Schools, local authorities, and authorised education stakeholders are responsible for how the Hwb Cloud Environment is used within their own education settings and organisations. This includes:
decisions about which online services are made available to their users
how those services are used in teaching and learning
how accounts and services are administered and managed locally
ensuring learners are supervised where appropriate
how safeguarding, behaviour, data protection and ICT policies are applied
As such, the services available to individual users will vary depending on their role, age, school, local authority, organisation, permissions and the services enabled for them. If you have questions about the services available to you, you should contact your school, local authority or organisation.
All users are required to comply with the applicable school, local authority and organisational policies when using Hwb Cloud Environment, including policies on safeguarding, behaviour, ICT use, online safety, social media, data protection, records management, bring-your-own-device arrangements and disciplinary procedures. These Terms sit alongside, and do not replace, those policies.
If you are a learner
If you are a learner or young person and do not understand these Terms, please ask a teacher, parent, carer or another trusted adult to explain them to you.
The Hwb Cloud Environment is here to support you to learn and to communicate with your teachers safely. You should use it respectfully and only for school or learning purposes. Do not share your password, do not pretend to be someone else, and do not post anything that could hurt, upset, bully or embarrass another person. If something on the Hwb Cloud Environment worries you, tell a teacher, parent, carer or another trusted adult.
Use of Hwb Cloud Environment and keeping your account details safe
Hwb Cloud Environment is provided for educational purposes only. This includes teaching, learning, school administration and governance. The Hwb Cloud Environment is restricted to individuals who have been given specific log-in details, such as learners, teachers, educational institutes, local authorities and regional school improvement partners, their employees and agents (“authorised users”).
In some circumstances authorised users can share information with non-Hwb account users. Where applicable the authorised user is responsible for their own shared areas within the Hwb Cloud Environment.
Unless you are an authorised user, you must not access or attempt to gain access to any restricted part of Hwb Cloud Environment. If you do, you may be committing a criminal offence. If you access restricted parts of Hwb Cloud Environment by accident, please contact us at support@hwbcymru.net.
If you have been provided with specific log-in details, such as a username and password (or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures), you must keep this information safe. You must not disclose it to any third party. You should not use any Hwb Cloud Environment accounts to impersonate others, access another user’s account, bypass security controls, use unauthorised tools to avoid filtering or monitoring, or attempt to gain unauthorised access to Hwb Cloud Environment or connected services.
If we believe that you have not complied with these Terms, we may disable your username and password at any time.
If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your username or password, please contact us immediately at support@hwbcymru.net.
We do not guarantee that Hwb Cloud Environment, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. We may suspend or withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any part of Hwb Cloud Environment.
AI
Hwb Cloud Environment provides certain users with access to artificial intelligence, automated tools, learning analytics or similar technologies. You must use these tools only for authorised educational purposes and in accordance with any additional guidance issued by Welsh Government, schools, local authorities or relevant providers. You must not input confidential information, unnecessary personal data or special category data into AI tools unless authorised. You must not use AI tools to generate harmful, misleading, discriminatory, bullying, infringing or inappropriate content. AI output should not be treated as automatically accurate and should be checked before use in learning, teaching, assessment or administration.
Online services
The Hwb Cloud Environment allows users to access tools and services provided nationally for all users or on request from a local authority. The use of such tools and products may require users to accept the third party’s terms and conditions.
National services include the following services. Your use of:
Microsoft365 is governed by the Product terms and use rights (as defined in the Campus and School Agreement) These terms and conditions contain provisions including limitations on liability, disclaimer of warranties and exclusion of remedies. It also confirms that you must only use Microsoft 365 during the licensed period and delete it once this period has expired or when the Campus and Schools Agreement is terminated, whichever comes first.
Google Workspace for Education is governed by the Google Workspace for Education terms of service, data processing amendment and the Education privacy notice.
Adobe Express and Creative Cloud are governed by the Adobe general terms of use and the applicable education licencing agreement. There may be specific product licence terms within Creative Cloud products.
Apple Classrooms is governed by the Apple education and Apple media services terms, where applicable and the Apple classroom software licence agreement
Just2easy is governed by the Just2easy terms and conditions/terms of license and use.
Single sign-on to third party services
Local authorities, schools and authorised education stakeholders may request access to third-party services to support teaching and learning or school operations and administration. Where the third-party services meet the relevant standards and local authorities EdTech lead representative approve the sharing of key attributes and permissions, the Welsh Government will make these services available through the Hwb Cloud Environment to enable access using a user’s Hwb account.
Third-party services are provided independently of the Welsh Government. Where personal data is processed through a third-party service, it is the responsibility of the local authority or school to ensure that such processing is appropriate and complies with data protection laws.
All third-party services available through the Hwb Cloud Environment may be subject to separate terms and conditions, privacy notices, licences, age restrictions and acceptable use requirements. Local authorities, schools and authorised education stakeholders are responsible for reviewing and complying with any terms and conditions that apply before using those services.
It is imperative that local authorities, schools and authorised education stakeholders review any updates, and consider any functional enhancements to third-party services as the terms and conditions can often change.
If you are using your Hwb account to access a third-party service approved by your school, local authority or organisation, the Welsh Government accepts no responsibility for the operation, content or use of that service.
Access to third-party services may be enabled, disabled, amended or withdrawn by the Welsh Government, local authority or the relevant service provider. Users should only use third-party services for authorised educational purposes and in accordance with any applicable school, local authority or organisational guidance.
Use of Hwb Cloud Environment services, products and tools
Safeguarding and learner safety
You must use Hwb Cloud Environment in a way that supports learner safety safeguarding, wellbeing and respectful behaviour.
In particular, you must not use Hwb Cloud Environment to:
groom, bully, harm, insult, humiliate, harass, coerce, exploit, intimidate or otherwise harm any learner or other person
contact other individuals inappropriately
share unnecessary personal information about learners or other individuals
upload or share images, video or audio of learners or other individuals (unless authorised by applicable school, local authority or Welsh Government policy)
bypass safeguarding procedures or ignore or fail to report safeguarding concerns
You must also be aware at all times of the risks of users being subjected to any of the above behaviour or users using the Hwb Cloud Environment in such a way described above.
Prohibited uses
You may only use the Hwb Cloud Environment for educational purposes and, in any case, for lawful purposes.
You must not use the Hwb Cloud Environment:
in any way that breaches any applicable law or regulation (whether it is local, national or international)
in any way that is unlawful or fraudulent
for commercial purposes (unless you have obtained prior permission from us to do so, or from our licensors, as applicable)
to transmit or procure send any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam)
to transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware
to construct a database of any kind, or store Hwb Cloud Environment (in its entirety or in any part) in databases for access by you or any third party or to distribute any database websites containing all or part of the Hwb Cloud Environment
in any way that involves:
gambling
terrorism offences
child sexual exploitation or abuse offences including grooming and child sexual abuse material
encouraging or assisting suicide (or attempted suicide) or serious self-harm
harassment, stalking, making threats or abuse
hate offences
controlling or coercive behaviour
drugs or psychoactive substance
firearms or other weapons
unlawful immigration or human trafficking
sexual exploitation of adults offences
pornography or intimate images
proceeds of crime offences
fraud and financial services
foreign interference
You also agree:
not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of Hwb Cloud Environment
not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:
any part of Hwb Cloud Environment
any equipment or network on which Hwb Cloud Environment is stored
any software used in the provision of Hwb Cloud Environment
any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party
By breaching the provisions of this section, you may be committing criminal offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities, and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use Hwb Cloud Environment will cease immediately.
Reporting breach of these Terms, safeguarding issues or unlawful use
If you become aware of a safeguarding concern, harmful content, inappropriate contact, unlawful conduct, misuse of Hwb Cloud Environment or any risk to a learner or other person, you must report it promptly through the appropriate safeguarding route. This may include reporting it to a teacher, designated safeguarding person, school, local authority, organisation, Welsh Government contact point, service provider or law enforcement authority, depending on the nature and urgency of the concern.
Welsh Government, schools, local authorities and other relevant organisations may review, restrict, remove, escalate or disclose content or account information where reasonably necessary for safeguarding, security, legal compliance or the protection of users.
Nothing in these terms prevents or restricts the Welsh Government, schools, local authorities, organisations or service providers from taking urgent action where they consider this necessary to protect learners or other users.
How we may use your personal information
We will only use your personal information as set out in our privacy notice.
Intellectual property rights
The Hwb Cloud Environment and the services available through it are protected by intellectual property rights (including copyrights, database, rights in designs, trademarks and/or other intellectual property rights).
All data and information are also protected by intellectual property rights. This includes both data and information owned or controlled by your organisation and data and information owned or controlled by third parties and licensed to the Welsh Government, local authority or authorised education stakeholder (for example, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Adobe or third parties). Data and information may also include user generated data and information created by users, which is controlled by your organisation.
You agree that all such intellectual property rights in Hwb Cloud Environment, services available through it, data and information are owned by your organisation, the Welsh Government or the relevant third party (as applicable) and you acknowledge that you have no ownership rights in such intellectual property rights. You will only use such intellectual property as expressly permitted by these terms (or other relevant terms for your use of services processing this information).
Intellectual property of the created data and information remains with its creator unless rights are transferred by a contract, employment terms or other agreements. This means that Learner created work will typically remain their intellectual property, however, it will be retained in the tenancy and therefore deleted from the account containing it in line with the retention policy. It may be exported or access granted or prevented in line with local authority, school or tenancy polices. Teacher created data and information remains subject to their local authority and school policy on Intellectual Property. You must note that personal documents stored in a Hwb account may remain the author's intellectual property but are subject to the terms of the tenant.
Except as otherwise permitted, you may not use any of our (or our service providers’) trademarks or trade names without our consent and you acknowledge that you have no ownership rights in and to any of those names and marks.
You agree to notify us in writing promptly upon becoming aware of any unauthorised access to or use of the Hwb Cloud Environment by any party or of any claim that Hwb Cloud Environment or associated data and information infringes any copyright, trademark, or other contractual, statutory or common law rights of any party.
We are not responsible for viruses, and you must not introduce them
In accordance with industry standards and the Welsh Education digital standards, the Welsh Government take reasonable steps to maintain the security of the Hwb Cloud Environment. However, we do not guarantee that the Hwb Cloud Environment will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free from bugs, viruses or other harmful components.
You are responsible for ensuring that the devices, networks and systems used to access the Hwb Cloud Environment are appropriately configured, maintained and protected, including the use of suitable security controls and anti-virus software.
You must not knowingly introduce viruses, malware or other harmful material into the Hwb Cloud Environment, nor take any action that could compromise its security, availability or integrity.
Who we are and how to contact us
To contact us, please email support@hwbcymru.net or write to us at:
Schools Digital Services Division, Welsh Government, Rhyd-y-car, Merthyr Tydfil, CF48 1UZ.
Reporting concerns and complaints
You may report concerns about data and information, conduct, security, accessibility, privacy, copyright or misuse connected with the Hwb Cloud Environment.
Reports may relate to, for example:
safeguarding or learner safety concerns
bullying, harassment or discriminatory conduct
inappropriate or harmful content
unlawful content
copyright or intellectual property concerns
personal data or privacy concerns
accessibility issues
suspected security incidents
unauthorised access or account misuse
Where a concern relates to a learner or safeguarding matter, you should use the safeguarding reporting route required by your school, local authority or organisation. If there is an immediate risk of harm, you should contact the appropriate emergency, safeguarding or law enforcement service.
For other concerns, you may contact the Welsh Government at support@hwbcymru.net or to raise a complaint, please follow the Welsh Government complaints procedure.
Rights to use the services, products and tools
Access to the Hwb Cloud Environment is provided on a temporary, “as is” basis and you acknowledge that you acquire no rights in or to Hwb Cloud Environment and/or the content other than the limited right to use Hwb Cloud Environment in accordance with these Terms and to download on the Terms set out in this section.
We do not provide any representation, or warranty of any kind whether express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security and accuracy. We do not warrant that the Hwb Cloud Environment will be uninterrupted or error free, that defects will be corrected, or that the Hwb Cloud Environment will be free of viruses or represent the full functionality, accuracy, reliability of the materials.
Users may opt out of all services, excluding personalised assessments, provided by the Welsh Government at any time. If you wish to do so, please contact us at support@hwbcymru.net.
Our responsibility for loss or damage suffered by you
We do not limit our legal responsibility where we are not allowed to do so under the law.
Subject to that, the Hwb Cloud Environment is provided for authorised educational purposes only. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Welsh Government is not responsible for losses arising from or in connection with the use of the Hwb Cloud Environment or the services, tools and products made available through the Hwb Cloud Environment (including as a result of misuse, user-generated data and information, third-party services, unavailability or reliance on services, tools and products made available through the Hwb Cloud Environment).
If you suffer harm, loss or damage because of the Hwb Cloud Environment, we will not be liable (responsible) in any way.
Please note that we only provide the Hwb Cloud Environment for educational purposes. You must not use the Hwb Cloud Environment for any commercial or business purposes, and, if you do, we will have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.
If you are not happy with the Hwb Cloud Environment, these terms, or with any of the content, you must stop using Hwb Cloud Environment. This is your only legal remedy.
Breach of these Terms
When we consider that a breach of these Terms has occurred or that action is required for safeguarding, security, legal, operational or policy reasons, action may be taken. We may take such action as we deem appropriate. This may result in access to the Hwb Cloud Environment being suspended or withdrawn (either on a temporary or permanent basis).
Where a breach involves safeguarding, security, unlawful conduct, unauthorised access, harmful content or risk to users, urgent action may be taken without prior notice.
The Welsh Government may co-operate with schools, local authorities, organisations, service providers, regulators and law enforcement authorities in relation to any actual or suspected breach.
We exclude our liability for all action we may take in response to breaches of these terms. The actions we may take are not limited to those described above, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.
Which country's laws apply to any disputes?
These Terms of use, their subject matter and their formation, are governed by the laws of England and Wales as applied in Wales.
The courts of England and Wales sitting in Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim that arises out of or in connection with these terms.
Updates
We regularly update Hwb Cloud Environment guidance material to improve it and to reflect changes to our services.
We may update these Terms. This includes to reflect changes to the Hwb Cloud Environment, changes to the services or changes in law or good practice. The latest version will be published in the Hwb Cloud Trust Centre. Where a change materially affects the Terms, we will email users to bring it to their attention.
Tuesday, 27 October 2026
Tuesday, 27 October 2026