Privacy Notice for the London Young People Study - Your Choice

The London Young People Study (LYPS) is a pan-London project being run by the London Violence Reduction Unit and the London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA), funded by the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF). The programme trains practitioners delivering services to young people (e.g. social workers, youth justice workers, teachers) to deliver a high-intensity cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) enhanced support programme to young people aged 11-17 that are at risk of being involved in medium to high risk of serious youth violence. This support and a range of goal orientated activities is called the ‘Your Choice’ programme.

Your Choice is being evaluated in order to determine whether the program is effective and whether it should receive funding to be scaled-up across the capital and nationally. The evaluation is being carried out by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) who will work with the Anna Freud Centre and the Youth Endowment Fund on the research.

The programme requires the participation in the evaluation study of two groups; the treatment group which is the CBT enhanced programme; and control group which is a group of young people who are not engaged the CBT enhanced programme but are working with a practitioner and receiving support and a different form of intervention.

Purpose for processing your information

We have statutory responsibilities to continually seek to improve services and outcomes for children, young people and their families. We have two main legislative drivers that cover the work of the Your Choice Programme. The Children’s Act 1989, section 17, imposes a duty on local authorities to “safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need in their area”. Additionally, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, section 8(3)(c), imposes a duty on local authorities and others to “prepare and implement a strategy for exercising their functions to prevent and reduce serious violence in the area”.

Under the UK GDPR, we rely on Article 6(1)(e) Public task to process the data in relation to this programme. For the special category personal data that is processed, we rely on the condition under Article 9(2)(h) health and social care purposes. The relevant substantial public interest condition under the Data Protection Act 2018 is Schedule 1, Part 2 Para 18: Safeguarding of children and of individuals at risk.

We collect the following information:

As part of the programme, the following information will be processed about young people, providing the young person (15-17) and the young person and parent (if young person is aged 11-15) have confirmed reading the information sheet:

• Name 
• date of birth
• gender
• sexual orientation
• whether the young person is looked after by the local authority
• whether the young person has any special educational needs
• whether the young person has a disability
• Information about race or ethnicity
• Whether the young person is in education, training or employment
• Why the young person has come to work with your youth practitioner
• The names of other services that are supporting the young person

Your personal information is only used for a specified purpose(s) but if we intend to use it for any other new purposes we will normally ask you first. For instance in some cases, the Council may wish to use your information for another purpose such as related to improving and developing services, or to prevent or detect fraud. In any event our processing will always have a demonstrable lawful basis. Where practicable and reasonable we will always seek to inform you of any significant proposed changes to how we process or intend to process your personal data, in order to ensure full transparency over how we handle your information

How we collect your information

We collect information from young people in a number of ways, for example, by letter, email, face-to-face, telephone, online forms etc.

Who the information is shared with

The information processed as part of the Your Choice programme will be shared with the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Anna Freud Centre (AFC) are managing the evaluation and will gather additional data from young people directly (if the young person agrees), and from the Department for Education and the Ministry of Justice. Your data will be Pseudonymised and will be unidentifiable in any published reports.

Details for Transfers

We will share the information with a named contact within the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) using secure encrypted email.

How long do we keep your information?

We will only keep your information for as long as is required by law and to provide you with the necessary services in line with our stated retention schedule.

We may also anonymise some personal data you provide to us to ensure that you cannot be identified and use this data to allow the Council to effectively target and plan the provision of services.

Young people and/or their parents are advised to refer to the LYPS Your Choice Privacy Notice and Information Sheet which explains how long partners such as the IFS, AFC and YEF others will retain information relating to this programme and why. The LYPS Your Choice Privacy Notice and Information Sheet has been issued to young people and/or their parent at the beginning/during the research by their respective practitioner. Further details about the programme be found on the The London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA) website.

Your rights and access to your information

You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you.

The new Data Protection Act 2018 also gives you additional rights that refer to how the council holds and uses your information.

Consequently, under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• withdraw consent and the right to object and restrict further processing of your data; however, this may affect service delivery to you.
• request to have your data deleted where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing and provided that there are no legitimate grounds for retaining it.
• request your data to be rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete
• have your data transferred or copied should you move to another authority
• not be subject to automated decision-making including profiling

Information about how to submit a Subject Access Request can be found on our Fair Processing Notice web page.

Please visit our web pages for further details on how the council complies with the Data Protection Act 2018.

If you have any concerns

Please contact your practitioner if you would like to know more about the information we hold about you and how we use it.

You have a right to complain to us if you think we have not complied with our obligation for handling your personal information; please visit our website.

If you are not satisfied with the Council’s response you have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). You can report a concern by visiting the ICO website.

Changes in your circumstances

You must notify us immediately if there are any changes in your circumstances and personal details so we can maintain an accurate and up to date record of your information.