Dear Parents and Guardians – Please read the letter below for the Million Hours Survey consent. We appreciate you taking the time to read the letter and give your consent via the form sent to you via text and WhatsApp. If you would rather complete the consent through our website, please follow the link here:  

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspxid=7SEfRRI9M02uV4zqUT8IFkX6E7MYIiZPt76_CyKtOtBUMUY2M1NJRTRPMUIxNEw4WjQzS0FSS1E2Vy4u

As a voluntary sector charity we rely on grant funding to continue providing free open access Youth Services for young people.

Thank you for your support.

Million Hours Letter

We would greatly value your child’s input in the evaluation.
Please confirm that you consent for your child to take part in these surveys by completing the consent form attached and returning it to the Dracaena Centre. By consenting, you are also allowing us to link your child’s survey response to the National Pupil Database (NPD) and Individual Learner Records (ILR). If you are unable to complete and return the consent, please contact Kate Springfield at the Dracaena Centre via email kate@dracaenacentre.org or call 01326 319414

If you do not provide consent, your child will not be invited to complete the surveys. Participation in these surveys is entirely voluntary. Before completing any survey, your child will receive information about the evaluation, what the surveys involve, how their data will be used, and they will be asked to give their own consent.
Confidentiality and data security
We take your child’s privacy very seriously. Below is information about how their data will be used and their rights.

Why we can use your child’s data: Fortia Insight is carrying out this evaluation on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and The National Lottery Community Fund. If your child participates in the survey, we will process their data because this evaluation is carried out in the public interest and will help government understand how well the Million Hours Fund is working for young people.

Who is responsible for your child’s data? DCMS and The National Lottery Community Fund are the data controllers for this evaluation. This means they are responsible for making sure your child’s data is used safely and lawfully. Fortia Insight acts as their evaluation partner and processes the data on their behalf.

How your child’s data will be used: Your child’s survey answers will be stored securely and only the evaluation team at Fortia Insight will see them. We will not share your child’s name or personal details with DCMS or The National Lottery Community Fund. We will only share your child’s name, date of birth, postcode, and the minimum data needed with the Department for Education (DfE) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) so they can link the survey data to education records. We will not share your child’s full survey responses with DfE or ONS.
Linked data will only be used for this evaluation and will not be kept by DfE or ONS once the linkage is complete. Reports will only show grouped findings. Your child will never be named or identifiable.

How long we keep data: Survey answers will be kept until 31 March 2029 (two years after the programme ends) and then securely deleted. Your child’s name, date of birth and postcode will only be kept for as long as needed to link their survey answers to education records and to enter them into the prize draw in January 2027. These details will then be deleted.

Your child’s rights: Your child has the right to:
Ask to see the data we hold about them
Ask us to correct anything that is wrong
Ask us to delete their data
Ask us to stop using their data (as long as it is possible within the requirements of the evaluation)
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details below.

If you or your child have questions about how their data is being used, would like to make a request about their data or make a complaint, you can contact the Data Protection Officer for DCMS: by email at dpo@dcms.gov.uk or by post at Data Protection Officer The Department for Culture, Media & Sport, 100 Parliament St, Westminster, London, SW1A 2BQ. Alternatively, you can contact the Data Protection Officer for The National Lottery Community Fund: by email at Data.protection@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk or by post at The National Lottery Community Fund, Apex House, 3 Embassy Drive, Birmingham, B15 1TR.

If you are unhappy with how your child’s data is being used, you can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at www.ico.org.uk.

If you have any questions, please contact Kate Springfield, on 01326 319414 or email kate@dracaenacentre.org Thank you for your support in helping us evaluate this important fund.
Yours sincerely,

Ella Cowin
Senior Consultant
Fortia Insight
Ella.Cowin@fortiainsight.com