Privacy statement

Department for Education Privacy Notice: early years stronger practice hubs information sheet on data collection and processing

Last updated: 19/06/2026

This information sheet includes an overview of the early years stronger practice hubs programme and how the Department for Education (DfE) uses (processes) personal information specific to this programme.

For further information on the standards you can expect when we collect, hold or use your information, please refer to the DfE’s personal information charter. Here you will also find information on DfE as a data controller and how to contact us or make a complaint regarding your data.

Please refer to the DfE’s privacy notices for details of what personal data DfE processes, how this is used, and how long this is retained for.

The DfE privacy notices relevant to this programme can be found here:

Early years stronger practice hubs Background

The early years stronger practice hubs (EYSPH) programme was originally established to support recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic. It has since been extended as part of the Best Start in Life (BSIL) strategy and expanded to include an additional 18 hubs. For the purposes of data protection legislation, the Department for Education (DfE) acts as the data controller for any personal data processed through the programme.

Launched in November 2022, the EYSPH programme has an established national network of 18 Stronger Practice Hubs across England with a further 18 due to commence delivery in Autumn 2026. Each Hub is led by an existing, high-quality early years setting and works to support providers and practitioners within its region. The Hubs focus on promoting the adoption of evidence-informed practice, with the aim of improving the overall quality of early years education.

Purpose and lawful basis for processing

The lawful basis we rely on for this processing of your personal data is Public Task, under article 6(1)(e) of the UK GDPR. This allows us to process personal data when this is necessary to do our work as a government department.

What we will collect

We will collect the following types of personal information, some of which may be special category data, directly from you:

Name, email address, telephone number, organisation name and address, and job role for Local Authority officers (e.g., those who are on mailing lists for engagement sessions, or who have contacted directly asking a question about the programme)
Name, email address, telephone number, organisation name and address, and job role for other interested parties, including other early years settings and educators that engage with their local Hub, voluntary organisations (VCSEs) and community leaders
salary information as evidence of claims relating to time spent on Hub activities
Financial information (bank details)

Why we need it and what we do with it

We collect and process your personal information to:

Manage the promotion of an evidence-based framework
Manage the oversight and quality assurance of the early years stronger practice hubs programme, including assurance and monitoring of all grant claims from the Hubs, entailing handling financial information
Manage the facilitation of best practice and intelligence sharing between Hubs and with the DfE and programme delivery partner.
Manage the governance of the early years stronger practice hubs programme
Manage engagement with and enquiries from Local Authorities (LAs), early years providers, voluntary organisations (VCSEs) and community leaders, which may include processing professionals’ contact details
Inform and manage programme data – including statistics around engagement and reach of the early years stronger practice hubs, Early Years Stronger Practice Advisers and Early Years Learning Leads
Make grant payments to relevant parties

How long we keep it

The DfE will only keep your personal information for as long as we need it. We decide how long to keep your personal information based on the needs of the department and also what the law says. All data is securely and permanently deleted at the end of the retention period. We call this our retention and disposal schedule. For this project, we will keep your personal data for up to 12 months following its end date to allow for evaluation. The end of this programme is estimated to be March 2029.

We will take necessary steps to keep your information safe. It will then be securely destroyed when it is no longer needed.

Do we use any external data processors?

A data processor is an organisation that processes your information on DfE’s behalf. For this project, the data processors are:

Delivery partner – Ambition Institute
Early years stronger practice hubs

We only use data processors for these activities:

Collecting management information from early years settings and educators to evidence the effectiveness, impact and reach of the early years stronger practice hubs programme, Early Years Stronger Practice Advisers programme and Early Years Learning Leads programme
Collecting information from Hubs, the delivery partner and early years settings to inform progress of programme objectives
Collecting information from Hubs and settings to inform the evaluation of evidence informed early years professional development

Do we share your personal information?

If the law allows it, we might share your personal information with other parts of DfE and with other government departments.

We may also share your personal information with:

organisations that request information to help prevent and detect crime or fraud

DfE may share your personal information to:

safeguard children or young people - sharing is under the statutory guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’ and ‘Working together to safeguard children’.
investigate complaints
ensure schools/academies follow their funding contract; and
provide a quality education under the regulations (Education (Independent School Standards Regulations 2014))

The DfE Personal Information Charter gives you more information on how we use your personal information.

How to make a subject access request (SAR)

See Requesting your personal information for more on what you’re entitled to ask us, or any of our executive agencies, and your rights about how your information is collected and used.

How to contact us and how to make a complaint

If you would like more information about how we process your personal data or your data protection rights or to contact our Data Protection Officer.

You can contact us in the following ways:

Using our secure online contact form
Or in writing to:
Data Protection Officer
Department for Education
2 St Paul’s Place
125 Norfolk Street
Sheffield
S1 2FJ

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to the Data Protection Officer at:
Department for Education
2 St Paul’s Place
125 Norfolk Street
Sheffield
S1 2FJ

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data by writing to:

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

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk

Changes to this privacy notice

We may change this privacy notice and we encourage you to check this privacy notice from time to time.

Date last updated: 18/06/2026