How your data are kept safe

ECHILD links health, education and social care records for children in England so that researchers can answer questions that help children live healthier lives. Before any researcher sees it, all identifying information - names, addresses, dates of birth, NHS numbers - is removed. The data is then held in a secure research environment. Every project must be independently approved and shown to benefit the public.

We follow a framework called the Five Safes.

Your questions answered

  • No. ECHILD is de-identified — before researchers ever see it, all information that could identify a person is removed, including names, addresses, dates of birth, pupil numbers and NHS numbers.

  • Keeping the data we use for research safe and secure is a priority for us. We do this by storing and accessing ECHILD in the Office for National Statistics Secure Research Service (ONS SRS). The ONS SRS is a secure environment that does not allow researchers to copy or remove data. This means that researchers do not have any data on their own computers. All of our results from (like tables or graphs) are also stored in the ONS SRS. Before we can use them (for example, in a report), they are checked by an independent team at ONS to make sure that they are safe.

  • All ECHILD researchers have been accredited and trained on how to handle data safely and ethically. Researchers are only allowed to use the ECHILD data to answer questions that will benefit the public. Research questions are agreed at the beginning of the project and have independent ethical approval.

  • See Your Choices below.

Safe projects

Every research project using ECHILD must be shown to serve the public good before it is approved. Applications are assessed against ECHILD's published research themes and require independent approval before any data is accessed.

Find out more about data access

Safe settings

ECHILD can only be accessed inside the ONS Secure Research Service. Researchers cannot download, email, print or copy data out of this environment under any circumstances. All analysis happens inside the secure system.

Safe people

Only accredited researchers can access ECHILD. Accreditation means completing recognised data-safety training and being approved under the Digital Economy Act's accreditation criteria. This applies to every individual on a project.

Find out more about accreditation

Safe outputs

Before any result leaves the secure environment (tables, charts, figures), it is independently checked by ONS to make sure it can't be used to identify any individual, directly or indirectly.

Safe data

ECHILD is de-identified before researchers access it: no names, addresses, dates of birth, NHS numbers are included. The data are also assessed before being released, to minimise the risk that anyone could be identified indirectly, for example through an unusual combination of characteristics.

  • ECHILD's data controllers are the Department for Education and NHS England, who provided the education and health records respectively. UCL and the ONS Secure Research Service act as data processors under formal agreements with both.

    ECHILD is made available through the ONS SRS under the Digital Economy Act (DEA), which permits accredited researchers to access de-identified data for approved public-benefit research, subject to the safeguards set out above.

    Approvals to create and evaluate ECHILD:

    • Department for Education (DfE): DR200604.02

    • NHS England (NHSE): DARS-NIC-381972

    Ethical approvals:

    • National Research Ethics Service: 17/LO/1494

    • NHS Health Research Authority Research Ethics Committee: 20/EE/0180 and 21/SW/0159

    • UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health Joint Research and Development Office: 20PE16

    Read the full Privacy Notice.

Your choices

Researchers using ECHILD cannot identify you or your child, and cannot remove specific records from a study on request, because the data they work with has already been de-identified.

You do have a choice about how your information is used: you can tell NHS England if you don't want data you've provided to the NHS used for purposes beyond your direct care. This is called a National Data Opt-Out). Visit NHS England’s page to register this choice.

Your choice will not affect the healthcare or education you or your child receive.