We need to keep in touch with as many of you as possible to make sure Child of the New Century continues to represent the diversity of your generation. So, if we find out that you’ve moved, we will try to find out your new address.
We first try to contact families through the direct links you and your parents have given us, such as phone numbers, email addresses and postal address.
If that doesn’t work, then we will try to contact any family members or friends whose details you have given us. If we still haven’t found you, we will check the electoral register and the telephone book, both of which are public records and available electronically. We may also try to find you using internet searches, by looking on social media sites and by using information held by government departments and agencies.
All of this tracing is usually done before the interviewers have gone out to interview families so that we can provide them with your current address. However, if we have not been able to locate you, or if the interviewer finds out your family has moved, they will also try to find out where you’ve moved. As well as trying to make contact by phone and in person, the interviewer may also call at your old address to speak to the new residents and call on neighbours. When we are looking for you, we won’t reveal to other people, apart from your family and friends, that you are part of Child of the New Century.
We try to trace study members using information held by government departments and agencies.
We securely transfer the personal details (name, sex, date of birth, and last known address) of study members to NHS Digital who use these details to identify our study members using the NHS Personal Demographic Service (PDS), a database which holds details of users of health and care services in England. Once study members are identified on the PDS, NHS Digital periodically send us up-to-date addresses.
NHS Digital will also inform us if you have died or moved out of the country.
In Scotland and Northern Ireland we have tried to trace study members via Health Authorities and GPs.
Child of the New Century has also tried to trace study members using the National Pupil Database. The National Pupil Database contains the addresses of all state school pupils in England, which are collected through schools.
This kind of personal information is not given out routinely by government departments and agencies. Special permissions are needed, and this is only done after a careful review of why this information is needed, ethical issues and data security procedures. For the information coming from the NHS, special approval under Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 from the NHS Confidentiality Advisory Group and NHS Digital Data Access Advisory Group is needed.
If we are unable to find you in any other way we use the services of AFD, a company who specialise in contact-details validation. Read more about AFD Software on their website.
We securely transfer the personal details (name, sex, date of birth, and last known address) of study members and their parents to AFD. AFD then use these details to identify our study members and their parents in a range of other databases which are managed by other companies including Royal Mail and Experian. When study members and their parents are successfully matched to another database then AFD will supply us with updated addresses and we will use these to try and reach you.
No information other than contact details is shared with AFD. AFD do not have access to any other information which may be held in the other databases that they search. AFD are contractually obliged not to use the information we share with them for any other purpose and they destroy all data after each matching exercise is complete.
Sometimes we try to find study members using the internet and social media. This may involve carrying out internet searches, for example using Google, and searching on Facebook and other social media sites. While you are under 16, we will only look for your parents in this way. We also know that it can be difficult to identify people accurately on the internet and social media. So, whenever we are searching in this way, we will not reveal the name of the study in case the person we contact isn’t one of our study members.
It would be very helpful (as well as saving us time!) if you could contact us to let us know where you have moved to. This is simple to do. All you have do is either call us via the Freephone telephone number (0800 092 1250), or email us at childnc@ucl.ac.uk. Your call and/or email will be treated in the strictest confidence.
If you are living outside the UK during our interview period then sadly we will have to leave you out of that particular survey. However, please still let us know your address so that we can keep in touch and send you letters and updates.
Please let us know by Freephone (0800 092 1250), or by email (childnc@ucl.ac.uk), if you are moving out of the country. Your call and/or email will be treated in the strictest confidence.
You can however re-join the study and be included in the next round of interviews if and when you return to the UK.
Very occasionally we attempt to contact Child of the New Century participants who are living abroad to request that they fill out a paper questionnaire instead of a face-to-face interview.
In the future, it is possible that we may be able to include study members living abroad using the web or telephone interviews.
