Guidance

Accelerated Development Schemes privacy notice

Updated 13 September 2024

The Accelerated Development Schemes (ADS) team is responsible for the following:

• Future Leaders Scheme
• META
• DELTA
• Senior Leaders Scheme
• Director Leadership Programme

This notice applies to civil servants that are applicants, participants and alumni of the above schemes. It also applies to those who may interact with the schemes in another capacity, for example as a delivery partner, sponsor, mentor, selection panellist, user testing group participant, line manager of a scheme applicant or guest speaker.

This notice sets out your rights and how we will use your personal data. It is made under Articles 13 and/or 14 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

1. Purpose

We are processing your data for four main purposes:

1. Selection activities related to the Accelerated Development Schemes and the evaluation of these,
2. Delivery of the Accelerated Development Schemes and the evaluation of these,
3. Leadership capability monitoring and research,
4. Civil Service-wide talent management and resourcing.

2. Your data

We will process the following personal data:

• Name
• Employee number
• Line manager’s details
• Job title
• Department/ Organisation
• Profession/ Function
• Qualifications
• Grade
• Grade tenure
• Duration of service
• Working pattern
• Security clearance
• Contact details including external contact details such as a personal email address/ mobile number where these have been provided
• Location
• Career history
• Career aspirations
• Relevant performance information
• Photographs, for example biography head shots and images captured at scheme events/ workshops
• Biography details
• Learning and development information including attendance at workshops/ events, previous participation in other schemes, your sponsor, coach, mentor
• Skills and development needs such as those identified as part of personal development plans and leadership assessments
• Current and previous outcomes from scheme selection assessments, including online tests, interviews and departmental moderation discussions
• Case study profiles and testimonials (where provided)
• Reasonable adjustments, accessibility and dietary requirements
• Whether you qualify for a guaranteed interview offer

3. Sensitive personal data

In addition to the above data, we also process the following:

• Disability
• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Age
• Religious, philosophical and other beliefs
• Nationality
• Caring responsibilities
• Sexual orientation
• Socioeconomic background

This information enables us to monitor diversity outcomes, identify gaps and offer additional support and opportunities to specific groups, report on the outcomes of specific groups and ensure there are no adverse effects on any particular groups in relation to our activities.

4. Data collection

Most of the above data will be collected as part of our accelerated development scheme selection processes. The same information will then be used to support the delivery of the schemes. This information will be complemented by data collected from participants during their time on a scheme and once they become alumni.

The accelerated developments schemes team will update the information held when they are notified of changes by the individual. We may also hold data about you obtained by us from: publicly available information; or provided to us by another team or government department.

5. The legal basis for processing your personal data

The legal basis for processing your personal data is because it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation placed on us as the data controller.

It is also necessary for the performance of tasks carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller. In this case, that is to monitor diversity and talent within the Civil Service and build a robust and diverse pipeline to the most senior and critical Civil Service roles. It is also to effectively deliver our public services and the Government’s agenda.

We also rely on your consent to us processing your personal data, for example, when using your photograph.

6. The legal basis for processing your sensitive personal data

Sensitive personal data is personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.

The legal basis for processing your sensitive personal data is because:

• it is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims (for example, in relation to employment tribunal claims)
• it is also necessary for the purposes of performing or exercising our obligations or rights as the controller, or your obligations or rights as the data subject, under employment law, social security law or the law relating to social protection
• it is necessary for protection under the Equality Act 2010 to prevent discrimination in employment
• processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest for the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown, or a government department. In this case, the Accelerated Development Schemes team undertakes development and talent management activities for civil servants across government
• processing of data concerning ethnicity, religious or philosophical belief, health including disability or sexual orientation is necessary for the purposes of identifying or keeping under review the existence or absence of equality of opportunity or treatment between groups of people with a view to enabling such equality to be promoted or maintained. Diversity data is collected to review equality of opportunities for those applying for schemes
• it is also necessary for archiving purposes, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes, and it is in the public interest. Analysis of selection outcomes (including online tests), impact on protected groups, impact on leadership capability, promotion rates, and other research may be carried out.

7. Recipients

For all purposes, as your personal data will be stored on our IT infrastructure, it will also be shared with our data processors who provide email, document management and storage services to us.

We may share your personal data with the following:

• Departments, functions, and professions
• Governance boards such as the Senior Leadership Committee and HR Function Board
• A range of teams within the Civil Service including but not limited to those who are involved with learning and development, talent management, succession planning, leadership capability, inclusion, governance, Civil Service reform, recruitment, analysis and research
• Civil servants who are involved with the scheme selection and delivery for example interview panellists, senior sponsors, mentors, guest speakers and Heads of Talent
• Civil servants who are prospective applicants for the schemes, current participants and alumni
• Third parties who are involved with the selection, delivery and evaluation of the schemes and alumni activities
• Third party mailing service providers, online platform providers, for example Basecamp and Aula, and relationship management tools, for example Salesforce

8. Retention

Your personal data collected during the selection process (and during any programme monitoring and evaluation activities) will be kept by us for a maximum of ten years if you apply for a scheme unless you request for your data to be deleted sooner than this. 

After these ten years, your data will be deleted unless you have applied to participate in another scheme in the meantime, or if you have given your consent for it to be retained.

9. Automated decision making

Your personal data may be subject to automated decision making if you make an application where online tests are used.

Decisions made on who to invite to later stages of selection for the Accelerated Development Schemes may be based on automated scoring and sifting processes. In addition, test scores and other applicant data are regularly captured for statistical and research analysis purposes. Your score is calculated from the responses you give during a test, and no other information about you is used. The score may be a percentage or percentile (your score compared to other applicants). A minimum percentage or percentile requirement may be recommended to pass, and if your score is lower than this, you may be rejected and your application will not be considered further.

10. Your rights

You have the right to request:

• information about how your personal data is processed, and to request a copy of that personal data
• that any inaccuracies in your personal data are rectified without delay
• that any incomplete personal data is completed, including by means of a supplementary statement
• that your personal data is erased if there is no longer a justification for them to be processed
• in certain circumstances (for example, where accuracy is contested) to request that the processing of your personal data is restricted
• a copy of any personal data you have provided, and for this to be provided in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format

You have the right to withdraw consent to the processing of your personal data at any time. If you withdraw your consent, we will not use your data from that point forward; however, physical or digital copies beyond our control may continue to circulate. For example, photographs and contact details within scheme guides which are shared with departments, scheme sponsors, other scheme participants, etc at the beginning of each scheme.

In relation to online tests, you have the right, in relation to automatic profiling, to obtain human intervention in the outcome, to express your point of view, and to contest the decision reached by automatic profiling.

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data.

11. International transfers

As your personal data is stored on our IT infrastructure, and shared with our data processors who provide email, and document management and storage service to us, it may be transferred and stored securely outside the European Economic Area. Where that is the case it will be subject to equivalent legal protection through the use of Model Contract Clauses.

Where your data is shared with our mailing list management supplier, it may be transferred outside the European Economic Area. Where that is the case it will be subject to equivalent legal protection through the use of Standard Contract Clauses.

12. Complaints

If you consider that your personal data has been misused or mishandled, you may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
0303 123 1113

Email: casework@ico.org.uk

Any complaint to the Information Commissioner is without prejudice to your right to seek redress through the courts.

13. Contact details

Cabinet Office is the data controller for your account details, and for any applications you have not yet submitted.

Cabinet Office and the department you apply to are joint data controllers for your personal data within your submitted applications.

You can contact the Accelerated Development Schemes team by email: adschemes@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

The contact details for Cabinet Office’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) are:

Stephen Jones
DPO
Room 405
Cabinet Office
70 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2AS

Email: dpo@cabinetoffice.gov.uk