Evaluation of Jobs Plus – Privacy notice

In line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in this privacy notice for research participants, we explain the legal basis for data processing for this evaluation of the Jobs Plus pilot. This includes who will have access to your personal data, how your data will be used, stored and deleted and who you can contact if you have a query or a complaint.

What is the legal basis for processing my data?

The evaluation is being carried out by Learning and Work Institute and the Institute for Employment Studies (referred to as ‘the research team’) who have received a grant from Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to undertake this work. It aims to understand if the Jobs Plus programme is effective in helping people to find work and how it makes a difference to their lives. The evaluation will also find out how Jobs Plus operates in practice, what works to help people find jobs and how different types of people experience the support.

The research team are joint data controllers for this project. This means they are responsible for deciding the purpose and legal basis for processing personal data.

For this project, the legal basis for processing your data is legitimate interest and research. All participants will be informed, either in writing or verbally, of the purpose of the evaluation and how their data will be used.

Any consent that you may have given to take part in this evaluation is voluntary and can be withdrawn at any time up to the end of the evaluation. The evaluation is due to end on 31^st March 2025, however evaluation activities will be extended if additional funding is secured.

Who will have access to my personal information?

If you are a Jobs Plus participant, employer, delivery partner or stakeholder, the Housing Association you are working with will share, with your permission, your data with a limited number of staff within the research team for evaluation purposes. This will mean that the research team will have access to:

Information on participants:

▫ Personal identifiers: name, address, email address, telephone number, date of birth, National Insurance (NI) number.

▫ We will also collect some additional background information (for example previous educational attainment, parental/caring responsibilities and ethnicity), information about support received as part of the Jobs Plus pilot and the outcomes of the support, such as if you have gained a job or completed any qualifications.

Information on a sample of participating employers: employer name, and role of key contact(s), contact details (email and telephone)

Information on delivery partners and stakeholders: individual’s name, organisation, role of key contact(s), contact details (email and telephone).

There is no obligation to provide any of this information.

If you are a resident of a Housing Association where Jobs Plus is taking place, you will be invited to take part in an online survey. The survey will ask about your awareness and views of Jobs Plus and request some background information (such as age, ethnic group and employment status). We will not collect any personal data such as your name or address for the survey. However, you will be able to opt into a prize draw to win some vouchers. If you decide to do this, you will be asked for an email address.

What will happen to my information?

We will use the data to invite all Jobs Plus participants to take part in an online survey. Employers, residents, delivery partners, stakeholders and also some residents will be invited to take part in a research interview. The information you provide as part of the evaluation will be used for research purposes only.

We will also request health, benefit, and work information about participants from DWP, and HMRC, which will only be used for research purposes. We will provide the following data to these organisations so they can locate the information in their systems:

Name
Address
Date of Birth
National Insurance (NI) Number

The information we get from DWP and HMRC will be used for research purposes and nothing else. We will use your name, address, date of birth and National Insurance number to link the information that we get from DWP and HMRC, with the information that you have shared with your caseworker. Your data will be stored in a secure folder on a server that can only be accessed by the research team. None of the individual-level information you provide will be shared directly with other organisations involved in Jobs Plus (Housing Association, employers, providers or any other organisation), nor will any individual feedback be passed on to DWP. The research team will produce a report that summarises the main findings from all the interviews with project participants and other stakeholders. Individuals will not be named, and no information will be included which could reveal your identity. We will not name any of the organisations we speak to or use the names of individuals or specific job titles when we report the findings from the research. Instead, we will use generic titles in order to protect identities.

The research team will process your data in accordance with data protection law which includes keeping it secure and only using it where there is a fair and lawful basis to do so.

We will securely delete all your data six months after the end of the project. The project is currently scheduled to end on 31 March 2025, but this may be extended if additional funding is secured.

What say do I have in this?

You do not have to provide any information that you do not want to. Furthermore, under the GDPR you have a number of rights as an individual, even after you have given information and consented to it being used for research purposes.

You have the right to:

Withdraw your consent at any time without giving a reason. If you do withdraw, we will still use the information you have provided to help with research and analysis. However, you will not be asked to provide any more information or be contacted again by the research team.
Request that any personal information that you gave as part of the evaluation is deleted.
Request access to the personal information that is held about you.

You can read more about the rights granted to you under GDPR here: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/.

Who can I contact for further information, if I want to make a complaint or to exercise my rights?

If you have any further questions about how your data will be used or would like to withdraw from the study, then please contact jobs.plus@employment-studies.co.uk. or jobsplus@learningandwork.org.uk