Transparency data

Memorandum of Understanding: Care Leavers Project

Published 10 September 2024

 

This memorandum of understanding between HMRC and Department for Education (DfE) was agreed and put in place in 2019. 

1. Introduction

HMRC considers that the disclosure of information to the DfE is necessary and proportionate because there is a need to test different approaches in response to the government strategy ‘keep on caring - supporting young people from care to independence’

The DfE has backed 3 ‘payment by results or social impact bonds’ as part of its £200 million children’s social care innovation programme.

The 3 projects are led by Lewisham, Bristol and Sheffield local authorities. They will be paid on a ‘payments by results’ basis with the support of social investment through a social impact bond (SIB). SIBs are a form of outcome based contract where social investment is used to finance delivery and take the risk of outcome success. Investors provide upfront working capital for services and are only repaid if outcomes are achieved. The projects have a high profile and are testing new and innovative models for supporting these complex young people. If successful it is hoped the information will be shared and rolled out across other commissioners.

Providers will be working with the care leavers not in education or employment (NEET), or at risk of NEET across the contracted local authority to improve the life chances of these young people.

One of the main objectives of the project will be for the young people to become financially independent and self-sustaining therefore entry and progression in employment is key to this being achieved.

In line with the recently commissioned Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) work and health methodology, DfE will be using an ‘earnings based approach’ to track and evidence employment outcomes. This will give a more effective picture of the results and drive the right behaviours with the providers to not only support the young people into employment but also to keep working with them to not only increase contracted hours and improve their wage rates, but to make sure they sustain their employment status, either in the same job or by moving employments. This is a very likely scenario for these young people, many of whom have low education levels and have had disrupted backgrounds.

1.1 Legal basis

The data will be shared with the 3 contracted service providers and will be fully compliant with GDPR legislation given the nature of the sensitive work. This as part of the work DfE already undertake with vulnerable young people and care leavers within their local authorities.

The legal gateway covering this data share will be section 35 of the Digital Economy Act (DEA) 2017. Schedule 4 (10) of the DEA 2017 identifies HMRC as a specified person who may disclose its information provided all care leavers in the cohort, meet the multiple disadvantages objectives as specified in The Digital Government (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2018 and fit the profile in the existing objective of ‘public service delivery’ (PSD) as specified in Digital Economy Act 2017 Codes of Practice.

Care leavers currently have significantly lower chances of entering employment and education than young people outside of the care system. Care Leavers are therefore individuals facing multiple disadvantages. This project aims to improve the life chances of these young people hence the request for the HMRC earnings data. This information will greatly enhance the service and deliver better monitoring and evaluation of the success of the programme.

The Minister for Children and Families is fully supportive of the 3 SIB contracts and has highlighted their importance as part of the launch of the care leavers covenant.

1.2 Purpose of the agreement

Bridges are a social investor who provide up-front working capital and project/ performance support to help charities deliver social outcomes and contract, paid through ‘payment by results’ mechanisms. Bridges hold the Care Leavers head contracts with Lewisham and Bristol Authorities and then subcontract the delivery of these contracts to local expert charities such as 1625 Independent People and DePaul.

In Sheffield, Sheffield Futures are the delivery organisation and also hold the head contract directly with the Sheffield local authority. Big Issue Invest (BII) are the social investor backing the Sheffield project, but do so through a loan to Sheffield Futures.

  

This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  

The 3 local authorities who are contracted as part of the pilot are aiming to support approximately 600 young people until September 2022.

The 3 local authority lead commissioners are:

• Bristol – covering the local authority areas of Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset
• Lewisham – covering the London Boroughs of Lewisham and Bromley and the Royal London Borough of Greenwich
• Sheffield

The 3 local authorities detailed above are working closely with service providers. The service providers work with the care leavers to engage the appropriate young people in the projects:

• the service provider working with Bristol local authority is 16-25 Independent People
• the service provider working with Lewisham local authority is DePaul UK
• the service provider working with Sheffield local authority is Sheffield Futures (the policy areas are reserved and not devolved)

These customers can join the project up to 31 March 2020. The project will then be closed (apart from where there are exceptional circumstances) to new participants. So, after the first year the list of participants will remain the same.

This last transfer of data will take place no later than 30 September 2022. Service providers will retain the data for a period of 12 months after the date of the last file transfer. The service providers will confirm in writing that all data has been deleted.

The service providers are required to collect employment evidence from employers to show the successes of the project and highlighting the impact on the lives of the young people.

Earnings related employment outcomes promote behaviours in providers that will support the progress of the young people and develop their employment history. They will actively encourage participants to look for more hours and/or better paid opportunities and will not discourage changing employers if better opportunities present.

Tracking earnings provides a better understanding of how well customers are progressing within their employment (by showing increases in hours/wage) and the quality of their employment (jobs above national minimum wage) rather than just the duration of full or part time employments which are usually captured using traditional employer statements.

The service providers will provide a simple Excel spreadsheet monthly containing information for the participants. This information will be sent to HMRC Risk and Intelligence Service (RIS) where they will match the information and retrieve employment and income information for each participant.

This information will be used to test the different approaches in response to the government strategy ‘keep on caring – supporting young people from care to independence’. If the strategy is deemed a success, it may be rolled out across other local authorities.

1.3 Procedure

The service providers working with the local authorities send a simple Excel document containing the following data items in relation to each young person taking part in the programme. If there are any additions to the cohorts during the project, the service providers will highlight these for ease when matching the information.

The data will be sent to RIS Data Analytics Team (RIS DAT) on the first working day of every calendar month.

  

This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  

The data items are detailed below:

• full name
• date of birth (format DD/MM/YYYY)
• provider reference number
• national insurance number
• start date on programme
• SIB

  

This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  

RIS will match the data and return the following data items to the service providers:

• provider reference number
• tax year
• employer name
• real time information (RTI) start date
• RTI leaving date
• RTI latest payment date
• pay frequency
• normal hours worked
• taxable pay year to date
• taxable pay in latest pay period
• pay since programme start

The protective marking will be ‘Official Sensitive’ with an impact level of 4. The data will be returned to the service providers by the last working day of the same calendar month in which the data was received.

  

This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  

There will be information relating to approximately 600 young people in each transfer. Care leavers can join the project up to 31 March 2020 and the last transfer of data will be no later than 30 September 2022. All data will be stored securely until the end of the project and then for a further 12 months (30 September 2023) to allow for analysis and gathering of evidence to present as part of the government strategy ‘keep on caring – supporting young people from care to independence’.

Only employees of the service providers working with these local authorities, with an authorised business need to do so, will have access to the data. There will be no onward sharing of the personal information outside of the relevant service providers. Any data supporting the production of reports or outputs regarding the outcomes of the programme will be aggregated and anonymised.

1.4 Security and assurance

The DfE / local authorities agree to:

• only use the information for purposes that are in accordance with the legal basis and for the explicit purpose described in this memorandum of understanding
• only hold the data while there is a business need to keep it
• ensure that only people who have a genuine business need to see the data will have access to it
• store data received securely and in accordance with the prevailing central government standards, for example in secure premises and on secure IT systems
• move, process and destroy data securely in line with the principles set out in HM Government Security Policy Framework, issued by the Cabinet Office, when handling, transferring, storing, accessing or destroying information
• comply with the requirements in the Security Policy  Framework, and in particular prepare for and  respond to security incidents and to report any data losses, wrongful disclosures or breaches of security relating to information. Any loss of information or data breach must be reported to HMRC immediately. All information relating to the data loss/breach must be sent to customer services security and information team mailbox
• mark information assets with the appropriate security classification and apply the baseline set of personnel, physical and information security controls that offer an appropriate level of protection against a typical threat profile as set out in Government Security Classifications, issued by the Cabinet Office, and as a minimum the top level controls framework provided in the Annex – Security Controls Framework to the GSC.
• the DfE /local authorities agree to allow HMRC internal audit access to the results of their supplier assurance / audit covering the service providers to help in deciding whether HMRC should continue to provide the data, upon request
• the DfE /local authorities agree to provide written, signed assurance that they have complied with these undertakings regularly upon request

1.5 Data protection legislation and Human Rights Act 1998

• nothing in this memorandum of understanding will limit the receiving department’s legal obligations under the data protection legislation
• all the information transferred by HMRC should be relevant, necessary and proportionate to enable DfE to carry out their task or process
• HM Revenue and Customs and service providers will become the data controller of any personal data received from the other under the terms of this memorandum of understanding
• HM Revenue and Customs and the local authorities are public authorities for the purposes of section 6 HRA. The service providers are on contract the local authorities.  It would be unlawful for HMRC and the service providers to act in a way that is incompatible with European Convention on Human Rights

1.6 Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000

• HMRC, DfE and the local authorities are subject to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) and shall assist and co-operate with each other to enable each department to comply with their information disclosure obligations
• in the event of one department receiving a FOI request that involves disclosing information that has been provided by the other department, the department in question will notify the other to allow it the opportunity to make representations on the potential impact of disclosure
• all HMRC FOI requests must be notified to HMRC FOI Team who will engage with the central FOI team in the supplying organisation

1.7 Direct, (or browser) access specific expectations

There is no direct or browser access required therefore this section does not apply.

1.8 Costs and charges

• all costs will be recharged to DfE
• costs to be recharged will be for the time taken for colleagues involved in the project. This includes composition of governance documents, extraction of data, password protection and transfer of the file to DfE
• all rates will be charged at Full Economic Costs (FEC Rate) and for the relevant grade of colleagues involved

1.9 Contact details

  

This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  

1.10 Reporting and review arrangements

• this memorandum of understanding will cease to be valid from 5 years from the date it is agreed and signed, unless a shorter time period is agreed
• a Certificate of Assurance (CoA) will be issued annually and the validity of the data sharing will be reviewed at this point
• the DfE will confirm if the data is achieving the intended purposes in line with this memorandum of understanding and all data is relevant to the objective

1.11 Resolving issues

  

This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  

1.12 Signatories

  

This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000.