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Benchmark.Pulse

Data protection pack

Staff survey privacy notice

Template for schools. Replace the [placeholders], then give this to staff before the survey opens, for example in the staff bulletin or as a link in the invitation.

Version: draft v1.3, 12 October 2026

[School name] staff survey: how your information is used

[School name] is running an anonymous staff survey, [survey title], from [opening date] to [closing date]. We use a service called Benchmark.Pulse to run it. This notice explains what happens to your answers.

Taking part is voluntary. Nothing happens to you if you choose not to.

Who is responsible

[School legal name / academy trust name] is the data controller. Benchmark.Pulse ([company legal name] Ltd) runs the survey for us under a contract, and may only use the data on our instructions.

What is collected

  • Your work email address, only so Benchmark.Pulse can email you a personal link. The school does not see your link. Your email address is deleted as soon as you use your link, 30 days after the link was sent, or when the survey closes, whichever comes first. This applies to the staff exit survey too.
  • Your answers, including anything you write in the comment boxes.
  • Your role group, which you choose from a short list (for example teacher, middle leader, support staff).
  • The day you responded, but not the time.

What is NOT collected

Your answers are stored with no name, email address, link, user account, IP address, or device information. The school cannot see who responded or tell which answers are yours. Written comments are read by the school, with names removed, once enough people have commented.

How anonymity works

  • Your personal link works once. That stops anyone answering twice. The system records that a link has been used, but not the day it was used, and your answers are stored separately with nothing that connects them back to you. Benchmark.Pulse is forbidden by its contract with the school from trying to connect them.
  • Results only appear for groups of 10 or more people. If fewer than 10 people respond, there are no results at all. If a role group has fewer than 10 people, its results are hidden, and another group is hidden too where needed, so the hidden one cannot be worked out by subtraction. Any answer chosen by fewer than 5 people is shown only as "fewer than 5". (For the staff exit survey, results combine all leavers over 12 months and appear once at least 5 people have responded; role groups still need 10.)
  • The school sees how many people have responded, not who. A reminder is sent only if the school chooses to send one. It goes only to people whose link has not been used, and each reminder comes with a fresh link.
  • The school can download the results, not your individual answers. The download holds the same totals as the report, with the same groups hidden, and comments listed separately from all other answers so they cannot be matched to your role or your other answers.

Please be aware: what you write may still identify you. Comments that mention your specific role, a particular incident, or a colleague's name could make it possible to guess who wrote them. First names, names with titles, some initials, class codes, email addresses, UK phone numbers and web links are removed automatically. A comment on a question is only shown if at least 5 people commented on it. Leaders can remove any comment from the report: it is then deleted from the stored report and the results download, and this cannot be undone. But no automatic system catches everything. Please write as openly as you wish, but leave out details that point to you or to someone else, including health details, unless you are comfortable with that.

If a comment raises a safeguarding concern

Comments are checked automatically for words and phrases that may mean a child or adult is at risk of harm, including harm by someone who works with children. A comment like that is shown, as written, only to the school's named safeguarding leads. It is kept out of the report, the AI commentary and the download, and its text is deleted 30 days after it has been reviewed. The school cannot tell who wrote it. This survey is not the way to report a safeguarding concern or an allegation: please use [the school's usual reporting route].

Use of AI

[Choose one, to match the setting you chose for this survey. AI commentary is on by default for staff surveys.]

  • If AI commentary is on: when the school unlocks the full report, Benchmark.Pulse uses an AI model (Claude, made by Anthropic) to group comments into themes and write a short summary of the results. Nothing is sent to the AI before then. Comments flagged for safeguarding are never sent. Before any comment is sent, names and contact details are removed automatically. The AI does not see your email address or anything that links a comment to you. All the figures in the report are calculated by ordinary software, and the AI's summary is checked against them. Your answers are not used to train AI. The AI is not used to make any decision about any individual. [check: confirm Anthropic data retention and processing location before issuing this notice.]
  • If AI commentary is off: Your answers and comments are not sent to any AI service.

How long it is kept

  • Email addresses: deleted as soon as your link is used, 30 days after it was sent, or when the survey closes, whichever comes first.
  • Survey answers and reports: [3 years from the closing date], then deleted. We keep them that long so we can see whether things improve between surveys.

Our lawful basis

[School to complete. For example: "We process this information to carry out our public task as an employer (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e)). If you choose to include health information in a comment, we rely on Article 9(2)(b), our obligations as an employer."]

Your rights

You have rights to access, correct and delete your information, to object, and to restrict how it is used. Because your answers cannot be traced back to you, we usually cannot find, change or delete your individual answers after you submit them. Please think about this before you submit. You can ask us to delete your email address from the invitation list at any time before the survey closes, and you will not be sent reminders. [check: there is no in-product way to do this yet; Benchmark.Pulse would remove it on the school's request.]

Where the data is held

Survey data is stored in the UK. [check: confirm the production database region is London.] Some of Benchmark.Pulse's suppliers, including the AI provider, may process data outside the UK under approved safeguards. The full list is published at [link to sub-processor list].

Contact and complaints

  • Questions about this survey: [name, role, email]
  • Our data protection officer: [name, email]
  • If you are unhappy with how your data is handled, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

[Date of this notice]