Joining BaBi Wakefield

What’s involved

Simply by giving your permission for us to use your data as part of the research study, you can help improve child and family health across our district.

Our first cohort of BaBi participants will be invited to join when they are pregnant. Your midwife may talk to you about joining the BaBi research programme during your regular appointments, at any time from point of booking until after you have given birth and discharged from maternity care.

Your midwife will ask you to look at a Participant Information Sheet, which explains about the research study in more detail. We are asking for your consent to use data which is routinely collected about you and your child, for research purposes. The project will link your health, social and education records and that of your baby by using unique identifiers (eg name, address, date of birth, NHS number).

If you agree, you will be asked to give your consent at a subsequent appointment, which will be saved with your maternity notes and by the research study.

And that’s it! We just need your consent to join the study, you don’t need to do anything else.

Your information

How is the data stored?

Our information systems are managed to strict NHS security standards. We also follow General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules and the Data Protection Act.

Data sharing agreements are established with every source of data to ensure the data is transferred securely for the study.

All the data is then stored securely by The Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust (MYTT). The data can only be accessed by approved members of staff using secure passwords.

You can find out more about how GDPR and how MYTT stores and uses information here: https://www.midyorks.nhs.uk/research-gdpr

What happens next?

We combine your data with data from other BaBi Wakefield participants, to help us answer important research questions about how we can help families to be healthy and happy.

The data and research will provide key health intelligence for future projects and planning.

As the study progresses, we will keep in touch by sending you updates on how things are going. From time to time, we may invite you to take part in future research studies, however there is no obligation to do so.

We aim to sign up hundreds of people in the first year, with more people being invited to join the study every year.

Can I be identified?

We make sure that participants can’t be identified in our results, or in any reports that are published about the research studies.

Person Identifiable Data, such as your name and address, is removed from the study information and stored separately. Each participant is given an anonymous reference (BaBi Wakefield person ID). When researchers use the data which has been collected about participants, they do not receive any information which could identify someone individually.

Only selected BaBi team members can access the information that identifies you. They will only do this to carry out specified tasks, such as contacting you, or requesting relevant information about you from another organisation, such as your GP.

What information is collected?

Many organisations regularly collect data about the services they provide to you or your children; this is known as routine data. The NHS keeps health records so they can provide health services to us. Educational organisations keep information which helps them to provide services for children in schools. If you have given us your consent, we will ask these organisations to provide relevant information about you and your child to BaBi Wakefield.

This includes information from organisations such as your GP, hospitals you have visited as a patient, community health services such as health visitors, and organisations that hold educational records, such as the Local Authority (Council) and the Department for Education.

Once we have your consent, we will ask these organisations to provide relevant information you and your child to BaBi Wakefield. This might include things like baby’s weight, for example.

All data is stored securely and treated confidentially - the data is anonymous and will never be used to judge.