Privacy Notice for the Language Programmes Evaluation

The Department for Education’s (DfE) Language Programmes support language provision in schools in England. These initiatives are designed to support the spread of best practice in language teaching, improve the KS2 – KS3 transition and increase Modern Foreign Languages exam entries especially at GCSE, and particularly amongst disadvantaged pupils.

The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) have been commissioned by DfE to evaluate four of DfE’s Language Programmes over three years from 2024- 2026 inclusive:

  • Language Hubs (LH) led by the National Consortium for Languages Education (NCLE) based at the University College London (UCL are the lead contractor) provide a hub & spoke model of transmitting professional development and support. 15 Language Hubs (comprising 19 schools) were established in 2023[1], each with 5-7 partner schools. At least 25% of all partner schools recruited must be located in an Education Investment Area (EIA) or have at least 28% of pupils in receipt of pupil premium funding, to address the particularly low rate of language take up by disadvantaged pupils.
  • Language Assistants (LAs) can be divided into two groups - Modern Language Assistants (MLAs) who come to Britain from a range of other countries, bringing their language skills into the classroom and English Language Assistants (ELAs) do the same as MLAs but in other countries and teaching English. The LA programme is run by the British Council.
  • The German Promotion Project (GPP) seeks to tackle the decline in learning German that has occurred by raising the profile of German and the benefits of studying it and by providing relevant resources. The GPP also includes the recruitment and training of German Expert Mentors (GEMs). This programme is run by the Goethe-Institut.
  • The UK-German Connection (UKGC) aims to build youth exchange and collaboration between the UK and Germany through a variety of programmes (e.g. visits, language courses, CPD for teachers). UKGC is a bilateral, not-for-profit government agency.

These programmes have the common aims of being focused on supporting and improving language learning in schools, increasing teacher confidence and pupil enthusiasm, and thereby increasing language take up at GCSE, in line with the government’s EBacc targets.

The evaluation aims to bring together learning from across these programmes to understand the challenges and opportunities in putting these initiatives into practice. Additionally, the research will investigate the impacts on pupils, teachers, language assistants and schools around language learning, progression, and pedagogy.

Who we are

This work is being carried out by the Institute for Employment Studies and their sub-contractor the National Institute of Economic and Social Research [the Evaluation Team]. This work is being carried out on behalf of the Department for Education.

For the purpose of data protection legislation, the DfE is the data controller for the personal data processed as part of the evaluation. The Evaluation Team are data processors.

How we will use your information

DfE will share the contact details of the Language Hub coordinator/lead teacher with the Evaluation Team in line with the data processing and sharing agreements in place to securely protect your data. The Evaluation Team may contact staff in schools to invite them to take part in the evaluation. A snowballing approach is planned where the Language Hub coordinator is asked to share the research information and activities with other relevant and appropriate staff in their Hub school (this may include LAs who are employed directly by the school).

Language Hub and Partner school staff - the Evaluation Team will be running a number of online surveys with staff in a sample of these schools over the course of the evaluation. These will provide an understanding of staff’s experience of the programme. In the first year of the evaluation, staff will be asked to compete two surveys; one at the start of the summer term, and another in the autumn term 2024/25. These will be followed by annual surveys in 2025 and 2026.
Staff agree to take part in the surveys by completing and submitting their responses. The Evaluation Team will only receive data that is submitted in survey responses. Contact details provided by staff in the surveys will only be used to contact them again, if they opt-into a series of qualitative interviews and/or school case study visits. Only if they agree will these staff be tracked over the three years, through interviews and case study visits.

Language Assistants - the British Council will share contact details (both for MLAs and ELAs) with the Evaluation Team. LAs will be invited to complete a survey at the end of their time to gain insights into their views and experiences (in May of that academic year).

German Expert Mentors – the Goethe-Institut will share contact details with the Evaluation Team. They will be asked to take part in a short telephone interview, on an annual basis.

Please be aware that, if contacted, you are under no obligation to take part in these evaluation activities.

Further information on all of the evaluation activities is available in the Evaluation Briefing.

Reporting - A report of findings will be aimed to be published at the end of each year of the evaluation. Any reported findings will appear at an aggregated level with no individual participant or school being identified. Any disclosure of personal information within the surveys will be anonymised in any reporting.

We will only use your data for the purposes of research and evaluation.

Why our use of your personal data is lawful

In order for our use of your personal data to be lawful, we need to meet one, or more, conditions in the data protection legislation.

DfE processes your data under the basis of Public Task (Article 6(1)(e) of GDPR). In this case, it is necessary for the department to carry out this work, and to use the information for these purposes, to exercise its functions.

The nature of your personal data we will be using:

The following information will be shared with the Evaluation Team by DfE/the British Council/the Goethe-Institut (as listed above) for the purpose of evaluation:

  • your name
  • your phone number (if available)
  • your email address
  • what your role is
  • where you work (school name, URN or LAESTAB number)

If you are a Language Assistant we will also collect information on:

  • your university
  • your degree earned and honour class

In addition, we will collect the following information about you as part of the online surveys, interviews, and case study visits to schools. Where we will collect interview, observation and focus group data, we will also collect the following information:

  • your opinions

As part of the surveys, you will be invited to provide some personal details in order to receive direct links to future surveys via email or to participate in interviews if you wish. This is entirely voluntary, and you can choose whether you want to be contacted about the survey only or whether you are happy to be contacted about participating in an interview. The requested contact details would be:

  • your name
  • your email address
  • your phone number (only if you are happy to be contacted via phone for interviews)

Who we will make your personal data available to

We sometimes need to make personal data available to other organisations. These might include contracted partners (whom we have employed to process your personal data on our behalf) and/or other organisations (with whom we need to share your personal data for specific purposes).

Where we need to share your personal data with others, we ensure that this sharing complies with data protection legislation. For the purpose of this research:

  • DfE need to share your personal data with a research contractor who the DfE have commissioned to undertake part of the evaluation activity on behalf of the Department [the Evaluation Team]. They will use the data as outlined above.
  • DfE are employing the IES and, through them NIESR, to process your personal data on their behalf. This means that they will be collecting data through the survey, interviews and case study visits and analysing it on their behalf.
  • All personal identifiers and contact details will be destroyed at the end of the contract, and all feedback and findings from the fieldwork will be fully anonymised at the end of the contract.

How long we will keep your personal data

We will only keep your personal data for as long as we need it for the purpose(s) of this piece of work, after which point it will be securely destroyed. Please note that, under Article 89 (1) of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), and in compliance with the relevant conditions, we can lawfully keep personal data processed purely for research purposes indefinitely. Our contractors will destroy all personal data by March 2027, which is six months following the end of the contract.

Your data protection rights

You have the right:

  • to ask us for access to information about you that we hold
  • to have your personal data rectified, if it is inaccurate or incomplete
  • to request the deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing
  • to restrict our processing of your personal data (i.e. permitting its storage but no further processing)
  • to object to direct marketing (including profiling) and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics

If you need to contact the DfE regarding any of the above, please do so via the DfE site at: https://www.gov.uk/contact-dfe.

Further information about your data protection rights appears on the Information Commissioner’s website at:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/principle-6-rights/.

Who can I contact with a complaint?

If you are unhappy with our use of your personal data, please let us know by contacting

https://www.gov.uk/contact-dfe and state the name of this project.

Further information on the rights available to you is also available from the Information Commissioner’s Office - the independent body responsible for regulating data protection within the UK. They can also deal with any complaints you may have regarding our use of your data: 

  • Tel: 0303 123 1113 
  • Website: www.ico-org.uk  
  • Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF 

Contact details for the project team

The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) 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: clare.huxley@employment-studies.co.uk

 

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) is a charity registered in England, Wales and Scotland.

■ Charity registration number: 306083

■ Registered office: 2 Dean Trench Street, Smith Square, Westminster, London, SW1P 3HE

■ Email: Katharine at k.stockland@niesr.ac.uk

Last updated

We may need to update this privacy notice periodically, so we recommend that you revisit this information from time to time. This version was last updated in March 2024 and will be reviewed as necessary during the course of the evaluation but annually as a minimum.



[1] A further 10 Hubs are planned, thus totalling 25.