System level insights
In line with EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in this privacy notice for research participants, we explain the legal basis for data processing for the practice review on supporting transitions to 16-19 education. This includes who will have access to your personal data, how your data will be used, stored, processed and deleted and who you can contact if you have a query or a complaint.
Summary
Legal basis
IES will only process your personal data when it has a lawful reason to do so. For this project, IES acts as the data controller and decides why and how personal data is used. The legal basis for processing your data is “legitimate interests” under GDPR Article 6(1)(f).
How your data will be used, stored and processed
Your data will be collected only for interviews and used solely for research purposes. Institutions may be acknowledged with consent, but individual participants will not be named unless they explicitly agree. Quotes will only be included in reports with prior approval.
IES follows strict procedures to protect data and will notify individuals if a data breach occurs. Personal information will be securely deleted six months after the project concludes, currently estimated to be April 2027
Who will have access to your personal data
Your personal data is stored securely by the IES and is not shared with any third parties. EEF will only receive anonymised, analysed, or permission‑based information included in project reports, and will not access any personal interview data.
IES may disclose personal data only if required by law, for safeguarding purposes, or to protect against harmful activities for example.
Who can I contact?
For questions about the research, contact:
- Emma Pollard, Project Director: [email protected]
- Jade Talbot, Project Manager: [email protected]
For questions about data protection, contact:
Anthony Lloyd, IES Data Protection Adviser: [email protected]
Introduction
This practice review on supporting transitions to 16-19 education has been commissioned by the Education Endowment Fund (EEF). The review will seek to better understand strategies and approaches schools and 16-19 settings implement to support transitions of learners, particularly disadvantaged learners. It will identify what practice exists and where there is stand out practice to guide future evaluation designs, enable shared learning across the 16-19 sector, and support EEF in its mission to narrow the gap in socioeconomic educational attainment.
What is the legal basis for processing my data?
IES will only use your personal data where we have a lawful basis for doing so. IES is the data controller for this project, which means that we are responsible for deciding the purpose and legal basis for processing personal data. The legal basis for processing data is ‘legitimate interests’ – referring to Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation where “processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data, in particular where the data subject is a child”.
The practice review 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.
What kind of information do we collect?
This research will involve IES completing the following activities as part of our 16-19 transitions practice review:
Collecting system-level insights from experts
- Interviews with key stakeholders and experts from national and regional bodies to gather strategic perspectives on current school to 16-19 provision transition practices, challenges, and effective approaches. Interviews with representatives from key bodies will provide macro level understanding and insights on transition practices, challenges and innovative/effective approaches across England. This will build understanding of the range of approaches and the available evidence to enhance our knowledge of existing understanding of transition support.
- Personal data (i.e. institution, name, job role, work email address and telephone number) will only be collected where it is necessary e.g. for the purposes of sending invitations to take part in the research or where it is relevant to the interview to contextualise your responses. For recruitment, this information will either be obtained from publicly available sources (e.g. the relevant organisation’s website) or alternatively supplied by the EEF or colleagues at IES; in this instance, EEF or IES colleagues will obtain explicit consent from the prospective participant to be contacted by our researchers prior to being invited to interview.
- Any personal data provided to IES for the purposes of completing this research interview will be held securely on IES servers and will be kept to a minimum (such as name, job title, employer, work email address and/or telephone number). Participation in the research is completely voluntary.
Your participation in the research is entirely voluntary, and you can withdraw your consent to take part at any time before, during or after the interview.
How will my data be treated?
We will take all reasonable steps to protect your personal data 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.
If you are invited and choose to take part in a system level insight interview, the data you provide will be used for research purposes only. IES will produce a report that summarises the main findings from these research activities.
With your approval, we would like to acknowledge the name of the institutions contributing to the research, although participating individuals will not be named, nor will any information be included that could reveal your identity, except with your explicit permission.
Quotes or examples from the interviews may be included in the interim or final reports and where this is the case we will contact you beforehand to request your approval to include the quotation in the report and its attribution to your organisation.
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.
Your data will be held by IES on our secure servers based in the UK. Your personal information will be securely deleted from the IES systems six months after the project is complete and the final report is published (currently estimated to be April 2027).
Who else has access to your information?
We promise to respect any of your personal data 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.
Your personal data will only be held with the IES team and will not be shared with any third party. EEF will not have access to any personal data from interviews, only data that has been analysed, anonymised, or attributed with permission, and is within our reports.
We may also disclose personal data if required by law e.g. for safeguarding purposes, or to protect or defend ourselves or others against illegal or harmful activities, or as part of a reorganisation or restructuring of our organisations.
Your legal rights
You have rights under data protection law to make the following requests in relation to the personal data held about you that is being processed for this research, including:
- to request access to this data
- to amend any incorrect or inaccurate information
- to restrict or object to your data being processed
- to destroy this data
- to move, copy or transfer your data
You have the right to withdraw the information you have provided as part of interviews up to 3 weeks after the interview date. After this point the information will have been anonymised and will no longer be treated as personal data.
Who can I contact for more information?
If you have any questions about the research, please contact the Project Director or Project Manager:
Emma Pollard (Principal Research Fellow), Project Director: [email protected]
Jade Talbot (Research Fellow), Project Manager: [email protected]
If you have any questions about how IES protects personal data, please contact Anthony Lloyd ([email protected] ) the IES data protection adviser.
Company details for the research team and funders of the evaluation
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: [email protected]
The Education Endowment Foundation is a charity registered in England:
Charity registration number: 1142111
Company number: 07587909
Registered office: Millbank Tower, 21-24 Millbank, London SW1P 4QP
Email: [email protected]
Who can I contact with a complaint?
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:
www.ico.org.uk.
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Email: [email protected]
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF