Policy Lab Privacy Notice / Department for Education – School Complaints

Who we are

This work is being carried out by Policy Lab which is a part of the Department for Education (DfE). For the purpose of data protection legislation, the DfE is the data controller for the personal data processed as part of this project.

What is a Collective Intelligence Debate

Collective intelligence is the idea that groups of people can solve problems better together than alone. In policymaking, it means gathering ideas from citizens, experts, and organisations to create better policies. The UK's Collective Intelligence Lab uses digital tools to get more people involved, leading to smarter solutions than traditional methods alone.

How we will use your information

We may store your personal and special category data on our databases (e.g. if you have participated in a previous project and agreed to be recontacted) or if you are one of our contractors, trusted organisations or from other government departments as well as their associated contractors and trusted organisations.

The aim for this project is to better understand the school complaints landscape and generate ideas for how to reduce school complaints. The project will use semi-structured interviews and a collective intelligence debate.

The nature of your personal data we will be using

The categories of your personal data that we will be using for this project are:

We are careful not to collect any special category data beyond what is necessary for the specified purposes. We ensure that you are well-informed about the purposes of data collection and the information we expect from you, as outlined above. The categories of special category data that we will be using for this project are:

We do not actively collect special category data for this project beyond this.

Why our use of your personal data is lawful

The legal basis under the UK GDPR for our processing activities is public task (article 6(1)(e)) and Article 9(2)(g)], as our processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest. That is to improve policy making through design, innovation and people-centred approaches, in this case to better understand the school complaints landscape.

Where we will store your data

We will store your data on encrypted and password-protected devices, the Department for Education’s IT infrastructure and safe online cloud-services. We will sometimes need to store your data outside of the UK.

Who we will make your personal data available to

Before and during the project

We sometimes need to make personal data available to other organisations. These might include contracted partners (who we have employed to process your personal data on our behalf) and/or other organisations (with whom we need to share your personal data for specific purposes).

Where we need to share your personal data with others, we ensure that this data sharing complies with data protection legislation. For the purpose of this project this includes:

When we are sharing the research outputs

We will share research outputs within government and publicly (internal government meeting; gov.uk website, social media) to report our research findings to better inform policy making and government training purposes, as well as to communicate about the research to the wider public.

You will be anonymous in these findings (e.g., anonymised quote from you)

All data from the Collective Intelligence debate will be anonymised, and participants will be anonymous within the debate, so that participants will not be identifiable in any outputs shared within government, as outlined in the consent form completed prior to taking part in the debate. However, we may identify your organisation during aggregate analysis.

How long we will keep your personal data

The Department for Education will keep your personal data for at least 2 years, following which any data which is no longer needed will be destroyed. If we have collected photographs, video footage or audio recordings of you we will keep these for at least 10 years, following which we will review them annually and anything that is no longer needed will be destroyed.

In some cases, Policy Lab may use your data to support cross-government policy making and training beyond the life of the project.

Your data protection rights

More information about how the DfE handles personal information is published here: Personal Information Charter

Under the Data Protection Act 2018, you are entitled to ask if we hold information relating to you and ask for a copy, by making a ‘subject access request’.

For further information and how to request your data, please use the ‘contact form’ in the Personal Information Charter at Personal Information Charter under the ‘How to find out what personal information we hold about you’ section.

If you need to contact us regarding any of the above, please do so via the DfE site at: Contact DfE.

Further information about your data protection rights appears on the Information Commissioner’s website at: Individual rights | ICO.

Right to lodge a complaint

You have the right to raise any concerns with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) via their website at: ICO Concerns.

Last updated

We may need to update this privacy notice periodically so we recommend that you revisit this information from time to time. This version was last updated on 13 May 2025.

Contact Info

If you have any questions about how your personal information will be used, please contact us directly at team@policylab.gov.uk and enter ‘Policy Lab – PL264’ as a reference.

Policy Lab
Department for Education
20 Great Smith Street
London SW1P 3BT

DfE helpline – Ask to reach Policy Lab team
Telephone: 0370 000 2288
Monday to Friday, 9:30am to 5pm

Alternatively, you can contact the Department for Education about your request: Contact DfE and enter ‘Policy Lab – PL264’ as a reference.