Privacy notice for Early Career Framework evaluation programme

The Early Career Framework (ECF) sets out what early career teachers are entitled to learn about and learn how to do when they start their careers. ECF underpins a new entitlement for 2 years of professional development designed to help early career teachers develop their practice, knowledge and working habits. The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and BMG Research Limited have been commissioned by DfE to undertake a three-year evaluation of the new induction programme process.

Who we are

This work is being carried out by the Institute for Employment Studies and their sub-contractor BMG Research Limited on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE). For the purpose of data protection legislation, the DfE is the data controller for the personal data processed as part of the evaluation.

How we will use your information

When registering with the Manage Continuing Professional Development Service in your role as:

  • induction tutor,
  • mentor, or
  • early career teacher

you were notified about the ways in which the Department for Education (DfE) will process your personal information, including evaluating the policy.

DfE will share your personal data with our contractors in order for them to contact you and invite you to take part in the early career framework evaluation. There will be three online surveys over the course of the first two years of the programme that you will be invited to participate in, which will provide an understand of your experience of the programme.

If you agree to take part, IES and BMG Research Limited will receive your personal data from your survey responses. Your personal data from the surveys together with data collected via the Manage Continuing Professional Development Service will be used to contact some of those who take part in the surveys to engage them in a range of qualitative research including interviews and case studies. Please be aware that, if contacted, you are under no obligation to take part in further research. 

We will also link information about participants to other administrative data held by DfE including the annual school workforce census to enable us to consider the longer-term benefits of the programme on participants and the education sector in general.

The aim of the evaluation is to understand how the programme is working to meet the needs of schools and ensure successful engagement with the programme.  In addition, it will gather early evidence of whether the programme is achieving its aims which in turn will help the DfE meet its aims of improving quality and retention of teachers. 

A report of findings will be published at the end of the evaluation programme. Any reported findings will appear at an aggregated level with no individual participant being identified.

The DfE will only use your data for the purposes of research and evaluation. DfE’s use of the information will have no influence on the outcome of your induction and/or your participation in the programme.

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

If you’re an early career teacher or mentor using the Manage Continuing Professional Development Service the following information collected via that service will be shared with the contracted organisation for the purpose of evaluation:

  • your name
  • your phone number
  • your email address
  • your teacher reference number (TRN)
  • where you work
  • what your role is

If you are a school induction tutor using the Manage Continuing Professional Development Service we will share the following information about you:

  • your name
  • your email address

Should you choose to take part, we will collect the following information about you as part of the online surveys (note that these questions are optional):

  • your qualification status
  • your gender
  • your age
  • your ethnic group
  • whether you have a health problem or disability
  • your wellbeing

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 (who 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 project,

  • we 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. They will use the data as outlined above.
  • we are employing the Institute for Employment Studies and, through them, BMG Research Limited to process your personal data on or behalf. This means that they will be collecting data through the survey and analysing in on our behalf.

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 2025, 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
  • not to be subject to decisions based purely on automated processing where it produces a legal or similarly significant effect on you

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/.

The right to lodge 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. Alternatively, you have the right to raise any concerns with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) via their website at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.

Last updated

We my 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 November 2021.