This privacy notice explains how your personal data will be used as part of an evaluation of the Aspiring Chief Executive and Aspiring Chair Talent Programmes.
Data protection legislation and personal data
Data protection legislation sets out how, when, and why organisations can process personal data. Personal data means any information that can identify someone directly or indirectly. Processing means using your personal data, including collection, storage, analysis, or deletion.
These laws exist to ensure that your data is handled securely and used responsibly. They also give you specific rights in relation to your personal data and place responsibilities on NHS England and the research organisations it works with to provide you with clear information.
This privacy notice explains how personal data will be processed as part of the evaluation of the Aspiring Chief Executive and Aspiring Chair Talent Programmes, being carried out by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) on behalf of NHS England. This includes who will have access to your personal data, how your data will be used, stored and deleted, your legal rights, and who you can contact if you have a query or a complaint.
The legal basis for processing personal data
NHS England is the Data Controller for this evaluation. IES acts as a Data Processor operating strictly under the instructions of NHS England. In alignment with NHS England’s Workforce Privacy Notice, and because NHS England is a public authority commissioning this evaluation to improve health service leadership, the lawful bases under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) used to process your personal data are:
- Article 6(1)(e) – Public Task: The processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in NHS England (specifically, evaluating and improving leadership talent pipelines in the NHS).
- Article 9(2)(j) – Research Purposes (Special Category Data): While we do not intentionally seek sensitive health or diversity data, if you choose to share any special category data during interviews, it is processed under this condition.
Why are we collecting your personal data?
The purpose of this research is to evaluate the Aspiring Chief Executive and Aspiring Chair Talent programmes; IES will need to process personal data of programme alumni to conduct this evaluation. The evaluation will assess how these programmes contribute to the development of NHS leadership by exploring:
- participant career progression and professional development outcomes post-programme.
- how programme learning translates into changed leadership practice and what effect a change in leadership practice has on organisational or systemic outcomes.
- the perceived impact of the programmes and their relative contribution to outcomes for participants, organisations, and the wider health system.
Taking part in this research is entirely voluntary. You can choose whether to take part, and you can withdraw at any time without giving a reason. Choosing not to participate or withdrawing your involvement will not affect your career, your participation in the talent programmes, or your relationship with NHS England.
What does the evaluation entail?
This evaluation will begin in June 2026 and is currently scheduled to end in August 2027. IES will conduct two primary research activities over the course of the evaluation:
- Quarterly career check-in emails: A short digital check-in (3–5 questions) focusing on career progression since the programme, sent quarterly via an email link to all programme alumni. The check-in will ask about the roles applied for, the outcomes of those applications and reflections on the recruitment process.
- Impact interviews: NHS England will invite a small sample of approximately six alumni per programme to take part in two virtual interviews, scheduled in September/October 2026 and May/June 2027. At the second interview, participants will be invited to nominate up to three stakeholders who can comment on their wider leadership outcomes.
What data will IES collect?
Professional contact details, including your name, work email address and job title, will be processed to manage the evaluation invitations. The information that IES collects during the evaluation varies depending on the evaluation activity:
- Short online ‘career’ digital forms: Professional and career information, including current and previous roles, applications, appointments, and personal reflections on career progression.
- One-to-one virtual impact interviews: Perceptions of leadership effectiveness, the influence of the programme on personal behavioural change, and evidence of how those changes contributed to organisational or system-level outcomes.
- Contextual data: Relevant publicly available performance indicators (such as relevant local NHS Staff Survey trends) may be looked at alongside interview findings to assess organisational or system impact
We do not intend to ask about special category data (such as health or ethnicity information). However, if you choose to share this information, it will be processed for research purposes under Article 9(2)(j) and handled with strict confidentiality.
As part of the evaluation, IES will also compile publicly available information relating to NHS Chief Executive and Chair appointments. This public information is used purely for descriptive context and is managed separately from your private interview data.
How will my data be used?
IES will use the information collected to:
- Understand participant experiences and outcomes
- Identify patterns of career progression over time
- Explore how the programme contributes to individual, organisational and system‑level impact
- Produce research evaluation reports and system-learning outputs for NHS England.
The evaluation will produce two outputs:
- Findings from all research streams will be reported to NHS England in anonymised and aggregated form, meaning you will not be identifiable in the report. This report will be published and publicly available.
- IES intend to develop named case studies of impact stories for alumni who participated in the impact interviews. This will only happen if you provide separate, explicit consent. If you consent to a named case study, NHS England may use these case studies in promotional or marketing materials to illustrate the impact of the programmes.
- If you do not consent to being identified in a case study, you may still take part in the impact interviews. In that case, any case study developed from your contribution will be anonymised and will not identify you.
Who will have access to my personal data?
Access to identifiable personal data will be restricted to the core research team at IES, unless you agree to be a named case study.
All personal data will be stored securely on secure, encrypted UK servers, with access limited strictly via role-based permissions. Your data will not be transferred outside the UK.
How long will my data be kept?
Identifiable personal data will be retained for a maximum of three months following the formal completion of the evaluation (projected deletion: October 2027).
- Audio recordings and transcripts will be fully anonymised for research purposes as soon as reasonably practicable after collection.
- Contact lists used for tracking surveys will be securely and permanently deleted once the final data collection phase closes.
- Fully anonymised data sets containing no identifying markers may be retained indefinitely by IES for long-term learning and research purposes.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law, you have rights regarding your data. Because your data is processed under NHS England’s Public Task, you have the right to:
- Request access to your personal data.
- Request correction of inaccurate data.
- Object to the processing of your data.
- Request restriction or erasure of your data (subject to certain research exemptions).
- You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
You may ask to withdraw the information you provided up to two weeks after an interview has taken place. Beyond this point, the data will have been fully aggregated and anonymised into the research findings, meaning it is no longer personal data and cannot be separated or deleted.
Who can I contact to withdraw my data or ask questions?
If you would like to withdraw from the research or have questions about how your data will be used, please contact:
The data controller
NHS England Data Protection Officer: [email protected]
The data processor
Institute for Employment Studies Project Manager:
Megan Edwards, [email protected]
Who can I contact with a complaint?
Further information on your data protection rights is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection. The ICO can also handle complaints relating to the use of your data:
- Tel: 0303 123 1113
- Email: [email protected]
- Address: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF