Guidance

Rough Sleeping costs research: privacy notice

Updated 17 April 2024

Applies to England

Improving homelessness services by listening to service users, and understanding the wider impact of homelessness and rough sleeping

You are invited to take part in research by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). DLUHC is responsible for housing in England. You’re being asked to take part in this research because DLUHC funds some homelessness services.

It is up to you whether you would like to take part. Before you decide, we would like you to understand why the research is being done, and what taking part involves. This information sheet will explain the research and help you to decide. Please ask if you have any questions or if there is anything you don’t understand.

1. What is this research?

DLUHC would like to find out:

1. How well services are working for people who are homeless or sleeping rough

2. The costs connected with homelessness and rough sleeping, looking at which public services people use and what benefits they may get; and

3. How people came to sleep rough.

For this, we want to collect information about your history and experiences of homelessness. If you agree, we will also link your answers to other information on your use of public services and your benefits.

Please be assured that none of your answers will affect the benefits you get, or services you use, and there will be no consequences if you reveal any potentially illegal acts in the questionnaire, such as drug taking.

We will keep your information no longer than needed for the research and not use it for anything else. You can tell us to delete the information you have given us if you change your mind. You can ask to see your information and ask for it to be changed if it is wrong.

2. Why take part?

By participating in this study you’ll be helping DLUHC understand how well current services are working for people sleeping rough and how to improve services. You’ll be given a £10 Boots Voucher as a thank you for completing the questionnaire.

3. Are there any risks of taking part?

You may find some of the questions upsetting. You don’t have to answer any questions that you don’t want to. If you feel upset when taking part, please speak to a member of staff at this service who can support you.

Below is some more detailed information to help you decide about taking part.

4. What’s involved in the research?

For this research, you are being asked:

• to answer an online questionnaire
• to consent to a researcher contacting you again
• to consent to DLUHC using other information about you

You can pick and choose which parts you agree to. You don’t have to answer anything that you don’t want to.

We think the questionnaire will take between 30-60 minutes, depending on your unique life experiences. Your answers will be kept confidential. However, if we feel you are at risk, or someone else is being put at risk, we will need to tell someone and in general let you know if this is the case.

Consent to be contacted again

DLUHC may also want to contact you again, to ask you to fill out some shorter questionnaires. If you give your consent, and we would like you to be part of the further research, you’ll be contacted by researchers at ICF, a research organisation helping DLUHC to do this study. They will ask you to complete a short questionnaire another four times: every six months after this one for two years. You’ll get a £10 voucher as a thank you each time.

ICF will ask for help contacting you from this homelessness service or from the council, if they can’t contact you directly. This may include the service sharing updated contact details about you with the researchers. The council or homelessness service may also be asked to provide some information on you if ICF cannot contact you. These will only happen if you agree.

If you agree to be contacted again, you do not have to agree to complete the shorter questionnaires. That will be up to you to decide at the time.

You can answer this questionnaire without agreeing to take part in any further research.

Consent to use your other information

DLUHC would also like to link your questionnaire answers with past and future (up to 2022) information held by other government departments and agencies.

4. What other information do DLUHC want?

1. To find out about any homelessness applications you make to the council (through the data held by DLUHC)

2. To see what contact you may have had with the criminal justice system (through data held by Ministry of Justice)

3. To find out about any drug and alcohol services you may have received, if you say you’ve had any drug or alcohol treatment in your answers (through data held by the Department of Health and Social Care)

4. To find out what benefits you may receive (through data held by Department for Work and Pensions)

5. To find out what health services you have used (through data held by NHS Digital)

DLUHC will need to use your personal details to do this, but your name and other personal details will be removed before researchers look at your other information. This will be happening over the next few years. DLUHC will only do this if you give your consent.

You can take part in the current research even if you don’t want us to link your questionnaire answers with other information.

5. What personal information will be shared?

We will be asking you for your name, date of birth, gender, address/postcode, mobile number, national insurance number, and NHS number (if known). These will be sent securely, kept strictly confidential, and kept separately from your questionnaire answers.

Your personal details will only be sent to DLUHC if you provide them.

6. What if you change your mind about the research?

You can change your mind and withdraw from the research at any time, without giving any reason. This won’t affect your legal rights or support.

If you change your mind you can:

• tell a member of staff at this service:
• email DLUHC’s data team, at: PersonalEvaluationData@levellingup.gov.uk
• tell someone in your Housing Options Centre at your local council who will contact DLUHC for you (you will be told where when you agree to take part in the research)
• tell a researcher from ICF, if they contact you about taking part in the further research

If you are unhappy with the way this research goes or your information is handled you can have the matter investigated.

7. Where can you get more information?

Please ask whoever is helping you with this research. They will answer your questions or show you where to access further information.

8. Further information sheet

Improving homelessness services by listening to service users, and understanding the wider impact of homelessness and rough sleeping

This document provides more information for individuals taking part in the research led by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

It explains what happens to your information if you consent to DLUHC using your other information from other government departments and agencies, as well as what will happen if you consent to be contacted again in the future.

DLUHC is in charge of this study and will ensure all your information is handled within the terms of data protection legislation.

The document answers the following questions:

• What do you mean by adding other information?
• What happens if you consent for us to use your other information?
• When will this information be added?
• How long will my personal information be kept?
• How can I find out more about how my information will be shared?
• Can I see my data?
• What if I change my mind?
• What happens if I agree to be contacted again?
• What happens with the results of this research?
• What if I’m unhappy with the research and what are my rights?

What do you mean by adding other information?

We would like to join up your questionnaire answers with other information held by other government agencies and departments, to improve our understanding of your homeless and public service use, and so we can understand how this changes over time.

Government agencies and departments often hold some information on you for their own record keeping, such as how often you visit your GP. We would like to join that information with your questionnaire answers to help improve our research. This is all done securely, and no-one looking at your questionnaire answers would be able to identify you.

You can pick and choose where you’d like your personal information to be shared. You can agree for your information to be shared with all of the different departments or agencies, some, or none of them. It will have no impact on your benefits or use of public services.

The government departments and agencies that we would like to link your questionnaire responses to are:

• Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to find out about any homelessness applications you make to the council.
• Ministry of Justice (MOJ) to see what contact you may have had with the criminal justice system.
• Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) to find out what benefits you receive.
• Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to find out about any drug and alcohol services you may have received, if you say you’ve had any drug or alcohol treatment in your answers.
• NHS Digital to find out what health services you have used.

Researchers will not know whose information they are looking at, as your name and other personal details will be removed.

This will all be happening over the next few years, using a random ID.

A random ID is made up of random numbers and letters. You will not be able to be identified by this random ID. It will be randomly created in the questionnaire and look something like: CORTF19576.

The same random ID will be attached to all your information from different agencies and departments as well as to your questionnaire.

This will mean we can join up the information about you from the other agencies and departments with your questionnaire answers without knowing who you are or seeing your personal details.

The way your information will be used is explained in more detail here:

1. Your questionnaire answers on your homelessness history and support needs will be sent to DLUHC researchers (*this can include a research team working on behalf of DLUHC).

2. Your personal details (name, last known address, gender, date of birth, National Insurance number, NHS number, if known, and mobile number, if relevant) will be sent to the DLUHC data team (this can include a data team working on behalf of DLUHC).

3. The DLUHC data team will send your name, last known address, gender, date of birth) to the DLUHC statutory homelessness data team, the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP), the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and NHS Digital. Your National Insurance number will also be sent to DWP, and your NHS number will also be sent to NHS Digital.

4. Your personal details will only be shared with Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) if you have reported any experience of drug or alcohol treatment in the questionnaire. If this is the case they will only share your initials and not your full name (alongside last known address, gender, date of birth).

5. Your questionnaire answers and your personal details will be kept separately. No-one or any teams at DWP or MoJ will see your questionnaire answers. Nor will the data teams in DHSC, NHS Digital or DLUHC see your questionnaire answers, although researchers working on behalf of DLUHC, DHSC and NHS Digital will (without knowing whose information they are looking at).

6. DWP and MoJ will use personal details to search for any information held about you – the benefits you may have received (and where you were staying at the time), and the contact you may have had with the criminal justice system. The statutory homelessness data team in DLUHC will do the same for the information they hold about you – that is, any homelessness applications made to local authorities in England since 2018.

7. DHSC and NHS Digital will use your personal details to search for any information they hold about you – any drug or alcohol treatment you may have received or your health service data.

8. DLUHC will share your questionnaire answers with researchers at NHS Digital. This information will be sent to NHS-Digital because data on your healthcare use cannot leave NHS-Digital. Researchers at NHS-Digital (this can include a team working on behalf of DLUHC) will not know whose information they’re looking at. No personal details will be included.

9. Researchers in NHS Digital will study the information they hold about you along with the questionnaire answers. No personal details will be included. Your individual health service data will stay in NHS Digital.

10. The data teams in DLUHC, DWP and MoJ will send their information about you to DLUHC researchers without including any of your personal details.

11. DLUHC researchers will link your questionnaire answers with the information from DWP, MoJ and the DLUHC information on statutory homelessness. No personal details will be included.

12. DLUHC will share your questionnaire answers with researchers at DHSC, along with your information from DWP, MOJ and DLUHC on statutory homelessness information. This information will be sent to DHSC because data on drug and alcohol treatment cannot leave DHSC. Researchers at DLUHC and DHSC will not know whose information they are looking at. No personal details will be included.

13. Researchers in DHSC will study the information they hold about your drug and alcohol treatment along with the questionnaire and other data from DLUHC, MOJ and DWP. No personal details will be included. Your individual drug and alcohol treatment information will stay in DHSC.

14. DHSC and NHS Digital will send DLUHC researchers the findings from their analysis. No personal details will be included and DLUHC researchers will not see your individual information on drug and alcohol treatment, or health service use. Your individual drug and alcohol treatment information will stay in DHSC because information on drugs and alcohol treatment can’t leave DHSC.

15. DLUHC will hold information about patterns of use of health services and drug and alcohol services. No personal details are included.

Researchers working in DLUHC, NHS Digital and DHSC will look at your information, along with information from many other people. Your random reference number will be included in this information but your personal details will have been removed and they will not know whose information they have.

This process will be run up to two times – once in 2020 and once in 2022 – depending on what parts of the research you agree to and whether you are selected for the longer evaluation on how well homelessness services are working.

Your information will be handled with care and in accordance with the law.

When will this informed be added?

The information collected from you about your homelessness history and support needs, will be sent to DLUHC immediately. Your personal details will be sent to DLUHC as close as possible to the time you answer the questionnaire, and by 31 March 2020.

Adding the information from the other government departments to your questionnaire answers will happen up to two times, depending on what you consent to. DLUHC will share your personal details with the relevant departments and agencies in 2020 to understand the costs of homelessness and/or how well services are working, and/or in 2022 to see how well services are working. No-one will keep records showing you took part in this research.

How long will my information be kept?

If you agree to your personal details being shared with:

• DWP, NHS Digital and MOJ They will securely destroy your personal details within 6 months from being shared by DLUHC
• DHSC They will securely destroy your personal details within 1 year from being shared by DLUHC. Your questionnaire answers may be kept after this time, but this will not include your name, initials, date of birth, or address.
• DLUHC If you only take part in the first questionnaire They will securely destroy your data by December 2020
• DLUHC If you take part in the further research They will securely destroy your data by December 2022

The information sent to DLUHC about you from DWP and MoJ for this research (which won’t have your personal details attached) will be securely destroyed by December 2023. DLUHC will not receive your information from NHS Digital or the Department of Health and Social Care.

After December 2023, your questionnaire answers will be kept, but without any of your personal details. Any other information that is kept will never include information that identifies you.

How can I find out more about how my information will be shared?

If you consent for your information to be shared with NHS Digital, they will use a different reason for processing your health data. You can find more information about this by visiting NHS Digital’s website ‘How we look after your health and care information’.

Please ask your project worker to help with this if you want to find out more.

Can I see my data?

You can see copies of all the data we hold about you and ask for it to be corrected or deleted. To do this, you can email the data team at DLUHC: PersonalEvaluationData@levellingup.gov.uk. The data DLUHC collects through your questionnaire will be available immediately, but the data from government agencies will be collected in 2020 and 2022.

What will happen with the results of this research?

We will share the research reports with homelessness support services where you will be able to see them. Reports showing the results of this research will be published on the government website. You will not be identified in any research report.

What if I change my mind?

You can change your mind and withdraw from the research at any time, without giving any reason. This won’t affect your legal rights or support.

If you change your mind you can:

• tell your project worker
• email DLUHC’s data team, at: PersonalEvaluationData@levellingup.gov.uk
• tell someone in your Housing Options Service or another local homelessness service who will contact DLUHC for you (you will be told where when you agree to take part in the research)
• tell a researcher from ICF, if they contact you about taking part in the further research

Please say if you would like:

1. To withdraw your consent for DLUHC to join up your questionnaire answers with other information held about you by other government agencies and departments.

• This will mean we delete your personal information (e.g. name, date of birth, gender, last address) This will only be possible while we still have your personal information. We will hold your personal information until 2022 at the latest.
• We will also delete any information that has already been joined to your questionnaire answers where possible. If researchers have already studied this information in 2020 it won’t be possible to take out your data from the results, but your information will not be used again in 2022.

2. To withdraw your consent to be contacted again. This will mean no-one will try to contact you about the research.

3. Information you’ve given us in the questionnaire(s) to be deleted.

• This means we will delete this information. This will only be possible if you have consented for us to use your personal details (e.g. name) and while we still hold that information - unless you have your random ID number (which can be given to you when you start the questionnaire). If researchers have already studied this information in 2020 it won’t be possible to take out your data from the results, but your information will not be used again in 2022.

What if I’m unhappy about this research and what are my rights?

If you’re unhappy with the way the research has been handled, you can contact ICF at HousingFirstPilots@icf.com or contact the Heriot-Watt Ethics Board via: M.Gormley@hw.ac.uk. Heriot-Watt University is part of the group of organisations, working with ICF, who are helping with this research and have provided ethical approval for the project.

You can contact DLUHC’s Data Protection Officer about how your personal data has been handled via dataprotection@levellingup.gov.uk.

Or by writing to:

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Data Protection Officer
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

If you are not satisfied with the response or believe DLUHC are processing your personal data in a way that does not follow the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

You can ask to see your data, and ask for it be changed if it is wrong, by contacting ICF at HousingFirstPilots@icf.com.

Below is a copy of the consent form we’d like you to complete as part of the online questionnaire

Agreement to take part in research:

1. I confirm that I have understood the information sheet for the study. I have had the opportunity to consider the information, ask questions and have had these answered fully.

2. I understand that my participation is voluntary and I am free to withdraw at any time, without giving any reason.

3. I agree for my answers to this questionnaire about my experiences of homelessness, support needs and use of health services and for these answers to go to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

Consent to share personal details to add other information:

To help DLUHC understand how well homelessness services are working, I give consent for my personal details to be shared by DLUHC and linked to any past or future information (up to 2022) on my:

4. health care use

5. drug and alcohol treatment

6. statutory homelessness applications

7. welfare benefits

8. contact with the criminal justice system

To help DLUHC understand the costs connected with homelessness, I give consent for my personal details to be shared by DLUHC and linked to any past or future information (up to 2020) on my:

9. health care use

10. drug and alcohol treatment

11. statutory homelessness applications

12. welfare benefits

13. contact with the criminal justice system

Consent to share personal details for the further research

14. I give consent for researchers to be given my name, address and mobile number so they can ask me to take part in further interviews to help DLUHC understand how well homelessness services are working.

15. If the researchers are unable to contact me directly, I give consent for them to contact me through this service or through my support worker. This may include the service sharing updated contact details for me with the researchers.

16. If the researchers are unable to contact me directly, I give consent for them to contact me through the council

17. If the researchers are unable to contact me at all, I give consent for them to use information held by the council about me for the research

18. If the researchers are unable to contact me at all, I give consent for them to use information held by other homelessness services about me for the research

Withdrawal of consent

19. I understand that I am free to withdraw my consent for my personal details to be shared at any time, without giving any reason.