The University of Leicester’s Department of Respiratory Sciences are conducting a study to understand why healthcare workers (HCWs) may wish to leave or change their jobs. In particular, we wish to focus on the experiences of healthcare staff from minoritised groups, especially in terms of ethnicity and migration status. We are calling this study I-CARE (Increasing retention of healthcare staff from ethnic minority groups) and it is a continuation of the UK-REACH study (United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in healthcare workers) which started during the pandemic in 2020.
In Work Packages 4 and 5 the University of Oxford and University College London (UCL) are our collaborators in undertaking research.
The University of Leicester is the Data Controller for your information. Further information on the University can be found here: https://le.ac.uk/.
The University’s Data Protection Officer is: Parmjit Singh Gill, Data Protection Officer, University Of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH. Email: DPO@leicester.ac.uk
This privacy notice explains what information we are collecting, how we will use this information in this study and what rights participants have in relation to their information
We are collecting your personal information (name, email and phone number) as part of our registration process. This information will only be used for administrative purposes and not for research.
We will only collect and use your information if you have voluntarily agreed to participate in this study and have completed participant consent forms in accordance with ethical requirements and to meet legal obligations relating to confidentiality.
The information we will collect directly from you in the form of demographic questionnaire for WP4 includes:
The information we may document from your views expressed during interviews includes the following:
If you agree, we will also retain your contact details so that we can invite you to take part in additional studies.
The aim of the I-CARE study is to improve our understanding of the personal and work-related factors that are related to healthcare workers’ intentions or actions to change or leave their jobs. In particular, we wish to understand how these factors might differ for staff from minoritised groups (focusing on ethnicity and migration status), and to explore potential reasons for this. The I-CARE study builds on the UK-REACH study. Our specific research questions are:
Participation will be anonymous and confidential
We will use your information to enable us to answer the main UK-REACH I-CARE related research questions for WP4&5 that we have set out above.
The safety and security of participants’ data is of the utmost importance to the study team. There will be strict mechanisms in place for data storage and access, and you will not be identifiable in research outputs. A small number of the research team will have access to your contact details to arrange, carry out and transcribe interview and make contact with you in the future if you have consented to this.
Your decision to participate will be confidential, and anything you say will also be confidential, and the information you give will be anonymised (so no personal data about you is shared). Your trust/employer will not be told that you have taken part in this research. In discussion with the Co-Principal Investigators and UK-REACH I-CARE Core Management Group, we may make information from the study, labelled only with unique codes, available to researchers approved by the UK-REACH I-CARE the Core Management Group. This information will not identify you and identifiable information will be kept separate from the data. Approved researchers will be required to adhere to strict data governance procedures detailed on the UK-REACH website www.uk-reach.org.
If you are taking part in the storytelling activity, you may be concerned that you could be identified from your audio story. It is not possible to completely eliminate this risk; however this risk will be very small. You can choose which parts of your story to tell, and which to leave out (you may wish to leave out anything you think could identify you). Your audio story resource will also be anonymised. This means that your name and any other identifying details about you will be changed (e.g. about your job, the place that you work or live, about your family, colleges and friends etc); and you can also choose to have your story voiced by a professional narrative practitioner if you wish. You will have the chance to work with the professional narrative practitioner to review your story and remove anything that you think might identify you. You will have the opportunity to approve the final story.
All the collaborating Universities have technical and organisational measures in place to ensure that the data used in this research is securely stored and only used for the purposes of this research.
Data collected during the study may be looked at by individuals from regulatory authorities, these bodies have their own technical and organisational measures in place to comply with Data Protection Legislation.
We will not be using the data to record, learn or decide something about you.
WP4 and 5 of the UK-REACH I-CARE research study does not involve automated decision-making.
The legal basis for the processing of participant information that we are collecting and using for the study is Public Task as set out in the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR Article 6.1(e). Research is a public task that the University of Leicester performs in the public interest, and is part of its core functions as a University.
Our additional legal basis for processing special category information is that:
Access to transcripts or any files containing identifiable and/or potentially sensitive information will not be authorised beyond the research team comprising staff from the University and Leicester, UCL and University of Oxford.
We will be sharing the audio recording of interviews and focus groups with a third part for the purpose of enabling them to be transcribed. This will be covered by a contract including terms to protect your privacy.
Anonymised information means that a person can no longer be identified from the information and it is not personal information for the purposes of Data Protection Legislation.
All the information being collected in WP4 and 5 will be held by the University and unless otherwise stated, the information will be held for and deleted after 6 years:
Under Data Protection legislation, individuals normally have rights in relation to the personal information we hold about them. For the purposes of research, where such individual rights would seriously impair research outcomes, such rights are limited.
In this UK-REACH I-CARE WP4&5 research study, we need to limit participant’s rights and are relying on the exemptions in Schedule 2 Part 6 paragraph 27 of the Data Protection Act 2018 because we are processing this information for scientific research in accordance with GDPR Art. 89(1) and Approved Medical Research covered by s19 Data Protection Act 2018.
Prior to applying these exemptions, we have carried out a Data Protection Impact Assessment and taken into account:
We have concluded that the exercise of rights by participants would seriously impair the achievement of the Study objectives and the exemptions are necessary to enable us to fulfil our public health and scientific research purposes.
How will this affect the rights of participants?Whilst participants involved in this research may withdraw from the study at any time they will not be able to exercise their rights to access their personal information, to request correction of inaccurate information or erasure of their information, to restrict processing of information or to object to our processing of their information even if they leave the study. GDPR Articles 15,16,17,18 and 21 will not apply.
If you withdraw from the project, we will keep the information we have already obtained but, to safeguard your rights, we will use the minimum personally identifiable information possible.
If you wish to ask questions about our research please contact Laura.Nellums@Nottingham.ac.uk
If you wish to ask questions about our use of this data or your rights, you may contact Information Assurance Services by email at ias@leicester.ac.uk or the University’s Data Protection Officer by email at DPO@leicester.ac.uk
Anyone can raise concerns about how their information has been processed with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The ICO may be contacted:
By Post addressed to: Information Commissioners Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
By telephone: 0303 123 1113.
By Email: contact can be made by accessing www.ico.org.uk