Evaluation of Early Talk Boost: Parent Privacy Notice
Introduction
Early Talk Boost is a language intervention designed for 3 to 4-year-old children with speech and language challenges to boost their language skills. Early Years practitioners are trained to deliver a nine-week intervention with groups of up to eight children per setting, and parents/carers receive guidance to support children's language development at home. This research project will include an evaluation of child outcomes and a process and implementation evaluation (IPE).
The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) has been appointed by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) to conduct an evaluation of the project to understand if the project achieves its overall intended aim of improving children’s attainment in communication and language. To investigate whether Early Talk Boost works, this evaluation will examine:
■ How Early Talk Boost helps children’s communication and language skills
■ How well Early Talk Boost is delivered
■ The views of nursery staff and parents about Early Talk Boost.
To do this, we will collect data as described throughout this privacy notice from people taking part in the evaluation . Overall, the evaluation aims to provide high quality evidence about the efficacy of Early Talk Boost and the delivery of the programme.
In line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), this privacy notice sets out how the research team at IES will collect and use your personal data and your child’s personal data, and who you can contact with a query or a complaint.
We promise to respect any of your personal information which is under our control and to keep it safe. We aim to be clear when we collect your information about what we will do with it and let you know of any material changes to this notice.
What is the legal basis for processing my data?
IES is the data controller for the evaluation side of this project. IES’ legal basis for processing personal data is ‘legitimate interests’. The evaluation of Early Talk Boost fulfils one of IES’ core business purposes (undertaking research, evaluation and information activities) and is therefore in our legitimate interest, that processing personal information is necessary for the conduct of the evaluation.
Working together on the Early Talk Boost evaluation , the evaluation team at IES and the delivery team at Speech and Language UK will collect personal data about practitioners, settings, children and parents at different times throughout the evaluation . Some data will be collected directly from you or your child by the evaluation team at the IES, while some data about children will be shared by the nursery to the evaluation team. Data solely used for the delivery of Early Talk Boost is not covered by this privacy notice. You can access the delivery team’s privacy notices and details about Early Talk Boost delivery on their project page here (www.speechandlanguage.org.uk/early-talk-boost-research-project-with-eef/).
Speech and Language UK are the independent controller for the data they are collecting as part of recruitment of settings and for programme delivery. Their legal basis for processing this data is legitimate interest.
What kind of information do we collect?
The research will involve:
■ Online surveys for practitioners
■ Case study research with eight settings, including:
- Interviews with practitioners, setting managers and up to five parents who have attended the parent workshop or are engaged with the programme
- Observations of programme delivery
■ Administration of assessments and analysis of child data on communication and language skills
■ Observations of online training and support sessions
■ Up to 10 interviews with staff in settings that choose to discontinue participation in the programme
Analysis of intervention implementation data to explore the extent to which Early Talk Boost is delivered as intended. We will collect personal data (e.g., practitioner name, practitioner job role, practitioner email address, practitioner telephone number, practitioner highest qualification, practitioner years of experience in early years, usual practice survey data, child name, child date of birth, child home postcode, Unique Pupil Number (UPN) if available, EYPP status, EAL status, setting name, parent name, parent contact details) only where it is necessary. Some of this data might be needed for possible subsequent matching to the National Pupil Database and archiving.
How will my data and my child’s be treated?
We take all reasonable steps to protect your and your child’s personal information and follow procedures designed to prevent unauthorised access, alteration, loss or disclosure of your information. Where personal information is collected, these details will be stored on an encrypted server with access restricted solely to members of the IES research team.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
If you are invited and choose to take part in an interview or case study for this project, the data you give will be used for research purposes only. IES will produce a report that summarises the main findings from all these research activities. Individuals and settings will not be named, nor will any information be included that could reveal your identity, except with your explicit permission.
We will only retain your and your child’s personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for. At the end of the project, child-level data will be pseudonymised (i.e. personal details will be removed) and transferred to the EEF’s data archive. The EEF data archive is managed by the Fischer Family Trust (FFT) within ONS’ Secure Research Service (SRS). The final pseudonymised dataset will be transferred within the SRS from the project space to the EEF Archive. The privacy notice for the EEF data archive can be found on their website. Your and your child’s personal information, interview notes and survey responses will be securely deleted from the IES systems six months after the project is complete (currently estimated to be July 2025). No personal information will be shared outside of the EEA.
Who else has access to your information?
The IES research team may disclose your and your child’s information to third parties in connection with the purposes of processing your personal data set out in this notice. These third parties may include suppliers, research assistants, trusted academic partners and subcontractors who may process information on behalf of the research team to carry out such work as undertaking interviews or transcribing interviews. In all cases, the research team will ensure that these third parties enter into appropriate data processing agreements with us and that they keep your and your child’s personal data secure and confidential.
The evaluation team at IES and the delivery team at Speech and Language UK will share personal data from this study with each other as is necessary to conduct the study, for analysis of the evaluation data and for writing of the report. A signed data sharing agreement in place between both institutions holds both teams to the same high standards of data handling and security.
Please be aware that if you or your child discloses information which indicates the potential for serious and immediate harm to yourself or others, the evaluation team may be obliged to breach confidentiality and report this to relevant authorities. This includes disclosure of child protection offences such as the physical or sexual abuse of minors, the physical abuse of vulnerable adults, money laundering, or other crimes covered by prevention of terrorism legislation.
Your legal rights
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your and your child’s personal data, including the rights to:
■ Request access to your and your child’s personal data: this enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you or your child and to check we are lawfully processing it.
■ Withdraw your data or your child’s data up to two weeks after the information has been received. If you choose to withdraw your data or your child’s data from being processed as part of the evaluation , your child can still participate in the programme in nursery. Should you withdraw from the evaluation , any personal data you have provided up to that point will still be used unless you indicate otherwise. A withdrawal form will be shared with you by the delivery team, Speech and Language UK, who will inform IES of any withdrawals from the evaluation .
Please see the Information Commissioner’s Office website for a full description of your legal rights.
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above in connection with this research project, please contact Alexandra Nancarrow, Research Fellow at IES, alexandra.nancarrow@employment-studies.co.uk
Who can I contact with a query about how my data will be used?
If you have any questions about how your data will be used, please contact the Project Director or Project Manager for the evaluation:
■ Seemanti Ghosh, Principal Research Fellow at IES (Project Director): seemanti.ghoshl@employment-studies.co.uk
■ Alexandra Nancarrow, Research Fellow at IES (Project Manager): alexandra.nancarrow@employment-studies.co.uk
Who can I contact with a complaint?
Under GDPR, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact IES in the first instance.
Company details for the project team
The Institute for Employment Studies is a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England.
■ Registration number: 931547
■ Charity registration number: 258930
■ Registered office: Institute for Employment Studies, City Gate, 185 Dyke Road, Brighton, BN3 1 TL6
■ Email: alexandra.nancarrow@employment-studies.co.uk
Speech and Language UK is a charity registered in England, Wales and Scotland.
■ England and Wales charity registration number: 210031
■ Scotland charity registration number: SC039947
■ Registered office: 2 Angel Gate, Hall Street, London EC1V 2PT
■ Email: project@speechandlanguage.org.uk
Current version
We may need to update this privacy notice periodically. Thus, we recommend that you revisit this information from time to time. This document was last updated in March 2023.