Children of the 2020s study: Privacy notice for online study participants
The study and your personal data
This survey is part of the Children of the 2020s study. Children of the 2020s is a national study of around 8,500 children born in England at the start of the 2020s. By following children and their families over time, the study aims to understand how their experiences and circumstances affect their development. The study is being delivered by University College London (UCL) in partnership with Ipsos, on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE). More information about the study can be found here: https://children2020s.ipsos.com.
This Privacy Notice explains who we are, the personal data we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and what your legal rights are.
About Ipsos, UCL and DfE
- Ipsos (market research) Limited is a specialist research agency, commonly known as “Ipsos”. Ipsos is a member of the Market Research Society, and as such we abide by the Market Research Society Code of Conduct and associated regulations and guidelines.
- University College London (UCL) is a leading university in London and is home to the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, which sits within UCL’s Institute of Education.
- The Department for Education (DfE) is the government department responsible for education policy and childcare.
How do you give and withdraw your permission to take part in the Children of the 2020s study?
Children of the 2020s is a voluntary research study. You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide us with your personal data. You can decide whether to take part or not. You can also decide whether you consent to administrative records being added to your data or not. You will have full information about the study and how your data will be used before you have to decide. You can contact us using the details at the end of this privacy notice to withdraw from the study at any time if you wish to or to exercise your individual information rights. You can withdraw from participating in the survey, adding information from administrative records, or the study as a whole. If you withdraw from the study, any data already collected will continue to be processed unless you ask that we delete it.
What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?
DfE is the data controller as it is the organisation that decides how and why your personal data are processed. UCL and Ipsos are the data processors for this study. The legal basis for processing your data is public task because the data you provide us is collected to help inform DfE policy development and service delivery in the future. Section 83(1)(a) of the Children Act 1989 grants the Secretary of State the power to ‘conduct, or assist other persons in conducting, research into any matter connected with his functions’ under various children’s legislation. This legislation includes Children and Young Persons Act 2008 whose section 7 places a general duty of the Secretary of State to promote the well-being of children (persons under the age of 18) in England.
The relationship between DfE, UCL, Ipsos and the organisations that we share your data with is set out in the contracts between these organisations. These contracts are in place to ensure that your personal data is protected. The data may only be used for the purposes of this research study.
What personal data has Ipsos been provided with for this study?
Ipsos (the data processor) has been securely sent the contact details (parent name, your child’s name, child’s date of birth and address) contained in your child’s Child Benefit Record held by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in order to carry out the research. The DfE (the data controller) has an agreement in place with HMRC in order for Ipsos to securely receive these details. Your contact details have been provided to Ipsos, through one of the following ways:
- The parent to the child who was selected from the HMRC Child Benefit Register identified you as a caregiver to the child. The parent then EITHER:
- Passed on information about this survey to you via letter or email
- OR provided your name, email, mobile phone number, and/or postal address to us that we could use to invite you to take part in the survey directly.
- Your details were selected from the HMRC Child Benefit Register, and you were later identified as being eligible for invitation to this online survey.
What personal data will Ipsos collect about you?
Most of the personal data that we hold will be collected during a survey and comes directly from you (e.g., full contact details, survey responses, research data). We will be collecting the following:
- Information that directly identifies you such as your name and contact details.
- Sensitive or ‘special category personal data’ about you (e.g., details about your ethnicity, religious beliefs, information about your health).
Why is your personal data being processed?
The table below outlines the different types of data we will be processing as part of this study and why.
| Type of Data | Why are we processing this? |
| Your contact details | As this is a longitudinal study, Ipsos collects your contact details (e.g. your telephone number or email address) from you to keep in touch with you and to invite you to take part in future surveys and activities that relate to this research. Your contact details are shared securely with organisations that provide services to us (explained in the ‘who else will have access to your personal data?’ section). They are also shared with DfE for the purpose of adding other information (see below for more information on this) and maintaining the study after the first funded phase is complete. UCL will also request your contact details from you when you download the BabySteps app. |
| Interview data | Ipsos, as the main data processor, collects your survey responses with your permission. We share pseudonymised research data securely for research, statistics and archiving purposes with UCL and the DfE. As part of the study, additional information will be added by DfE from data they hold about you to your survey responses. Also with your permission data from NHS Digital will be added to your survey responses. In order to do this, your personal details (name, sex, address, date of birth) will be shared with DfE. At the end of each survey, Ipsos will share pseudonymised data securely with UCL and the DfE for research, statistics and archiving purposes only. Pseudonymisation is a technique that replaces or removes information in a dataset that directly identifies you such as your name and address and is a security measure taken to reduce any risk of you being identified in our research data. Any analysis is done on grouped data and is not reported as individual answers. |
| BabySteps app | We will also be asking you to take part via the BabySteps app. This secure, user friendly app will provide valuable data on your child’s learning and development and is also a way for us to stay in touch with you. It is hosted on Amazon Web Services, a secure digital platform. Your personal data will be stored securely on this platform in a UCL-owned account that only the UCL research team has access to. The data gathered as part of activities you take part in on the app will then be transferred to UCL’s secure institutional data store for analysis purposes. Your data will be treated in strict confidence in a secure computing environment for analysis purposes and, like all other aspects of the study, your identity will never be revealed in any published articles or reports. Further information about the app can be found within the app’s privacy notice (found in the support tab) and on the study website https://children2020s.ipsos.com/faqs/babystepsapp.html |
| Adding information from administrative sources | As the study is run by the Department for Education, they will add information that they already hold about you and your child to your survey answers. This helps to build a more complete picture of different children’s needs across the country so that we can learn about how to improve public services. With your permission, we will also add information held about you in administrative records maintained by the NHS. This process is governed by Data Sharing Agreements with the NHS data controller (NHS Digital) to ensure that your information is kept secure. Further information about how we link your data can be found on the study website: https://children2020s.ipsos.com/otherinformation/ DfE, who run Children of the 2020s will be responsible for adding this information. So DfE can do this, Ipsos will need to share your personal information (name, sex, address and date of birth) with DfE. This information will be securely destroyed once the information has been added. |
Ipsos, UCL and the DfE will use your personal data and responses solely for research purposes. The study results will be anonymous. You will not be identifiable in any published datasets and reports. We can assure you that any information you provide during this research will NOT be used for marketing, nor will we sell or pass on your information to any third party.
What about online cookies?
This online survey will collect some information through the use of 'cookies'. These are small files stored on your computer. These files are used as sparingly as possible and only for quality control, validation and, more importantly, to prevent us sending you reminders for an online survey you have already completed. It is possible for you to delete 'cookies' or to prevent their use by adjusting the browser settings on your computer.
Ipsos also automatically capture information about your operating system, display settings and browser type to ensure that the survey questionnaire is delivered in a form suited to the software your computer is using. Ipsos do not capture any other information from your computer.
Who else will have access to your personal data?
We will only share your data with a few organisations who are helping us to run the Children of the 2020s study. We will need to disclose your personal data to these organisations for that purpose.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS is a subcontractor to UCL and will host the BabySteps smartphone app. The app will store your email address, this will allow a reset email to be sent to you if you forget your log in details. AWS will retain your data for the duration of the study, data will be erased from their systems once the study is complete (scheduled for April 2027).
- Black Hawk Incentives (Corporate Gift Cards Distributor): Where eligible, you may be sent an e-voucher redemption code if you provide your email address. Hawk Incentives will hold data (i.e. email addresses and e-voucher redemption codes) for a maximum of seven years following the end of the services agreement to help resolve any issues respondents may have with their e-voucher.
- Textlocal: We may contact you via text message about the study, if you have provided your mobile number. Textlocal will hold data (mobile number and survey login code) for a maximum of 12 months following the end of the services agreement (data deletion to be actioned by October 2023).
How will we ensure your personal information is secure?
We will keep your personal data and responses in strict confidence in accordance with this Privacy Notice.
We take our information security responsibilities seriously and apply various precautions to ensure your information is protected from loss, theft or misuse. Security precautions include appropriate physical security of offices and controlled and limited access to computer systems.
We have regular internal and external audits of our information security controls and working practices, and are accredited to the International Standard for Information Security, ISO 27001.
All of your personal data used and collected for this study will be stored securely in data centres and servers within the United Kingdom, and will only be accessed by researchers and interviewers from Ipsos, UCL and DfE who need to see it for the purpose of conducting the study.
How long will we keep your data for?
Ipsos and UCL will share the pseudonymised data collected with the DfE at the end of each wave through a secure transfer route for archival, statistical and historic research purposes. Your contact details will be stored separately from your survey responses. At the end of the study, Ipsos and UCL will destroy their copy of the data in accordance with standards and procedures set out in ISO 27001. Destruction of data held by Ipsos and UCL will take place within 12 months of the end of the contract between UCL and DfE (scheduled for April 2027) in order to allow time to investigate data queries. DfE will retain the data, including your contact details, indefinitely for the purposes of the Children of the 2020s longitudinal study. This will be subject to regular review.
The study team will keep your personal data and responses in strict confidence in accordance with this Privacy Notice.
What will happen with the information we collect?
The information you give us will be held securely and will be treated in strict confidence in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation. This information will be used solely for research purposes.
Your rights
- You have the right to access your personal data within the limited period that Ipsos and UCL hold it (contact details below). If you want to contact the DfE about data they hold about you, please see the contact details below.
- Providing responses to this study is entirely voluntary and is done so with your consent. You have the right to withdraw your consent and to object to our processing of your personal data at any time.
- You have the right to erase (delete) your data in certain circumstances, (e.g., deleting incorrect contact details or data that are no longer required or we’re legally required to erase). If we receive a deletion request from you, we will stop collecting, linking and depositing your data.
- You also have the right to rectify any incorrect or out-of-date personal data about you which we may hold.
- If you want to exercise your rights, please contact us at the Ipsos address below.
- You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), if you have concerns on how we have processed your personal data. You can find details about how to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/ or by sending an email to: casework@ico.org.uk.
- If you wish to make a complaint about the conduct of the study you can contact the Chair of the UCL Research Ethics Committee by emailing: ethics@ucl.ac.uk or writing to: Office of the Vice-Provost (Research), University College London, 2 Taviton Street, London, WC1H 0BT.
When you contact us to exercise your right, we will:
- Acknowledge that your request has been received.
- Write to tell you if your request is not applicable and give the reasons.
- Act on your request within the time period required by the current data protection law.
- Write to inform you if we need to extend the period of time required to respond due to the complexity
Contact us about this study and your personal data
You can get in touch with us about this study and how we are using your personal data using the details below. Please include “20-075400-02 Children of the 2020s” in the subject line when contacting us.
| Ipsos | UCL | DfE | |
| By email | compliance@ipsos.com | data-protection@ucl.ac.uk | dp.enquiries@education.gov.uk |
| By post | Data Protection Officer, |
Office address: provided upon enquiry |
Office of the Data Protection Officer Department for Education (B2.28), 7 & 8 Wellington Place, Wellington Street, Leeds, LS1 4AW |
For more information about how the DfE processes personal data, please see its Personal Information Charter: Personal information charter - Department for Education - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Get in touch with the study team
If you would like any further details about the study, you can email us at children2020s@ipsos.com or leave a voicemail message on 0800 056 8184 with your unique reference number (this can be found at the top of any letter you have received from us).
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This privacy notice is updated regularly and was last updated on 30.05.2022.