Website and platform terms and conditions

1.1 The Advance-HE Fellowship Pathway for NHSE Primary Care, short name Fellowship Pathway for Primary Care (the "Platform"), is operated by [operating entity, for example NHS England, acting through the NHSE London Fellowship programme] ("we", "us", "our"), of [registered address].

1.2 These terms and conditions (the "Terms") govern your access to and use of the Platform at [website URL] and all related services, content, and features (together, the "Service").

1.3 By creating an account, accessing, or using the Service, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, you must not use the Service.

1.4 These Terms work alongside our Privacy Notice, which explains how we handle personal data. Where these Terms refer to how we use personal data, the Privacy Notice contains the detail.

2.1 The Service is intended for staff working in or supporting NHS primary care across the seven NHS England regions, and for the referees, advocates, reviewers, and programme staff who support applications.

2.2 You must be aged 18 or over to hold an account.

2.3 We may ask you to confirm your eligibility and may decline, suspend, or remove access where eligibility is not met.

3.1 Applicants, regional leads, expert reviewers, and administrators hold password protected accounts. Referees and advocates do not hold accounts and access only their own statement through a secure link sent to them.

3.2 You are responsible for keeping your login details secure and for all activity under your account. Tell us promptly if you suspect any unauthorised use.

3.3 You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information when you register and to keep it up to date.

4.1 The Service helps you prepare, develop, peer review, and assemble an application for Advance HE Fellowship at Associate Fellow, Fellow, Senior Fellow, or Principal Fellow level, and produces a completed pack for you to submit to Advance HE.

4.2 The Service supports your application. It does not submit your application to Advance HE on your behalf, and it does not assess, award, or guarantee Fellowship. Fellowship is awarded by Advance HE under its own separate processes, terms, and fees, over which we have no control.

4.3 We may add, change, suspend, or remove features of the Service at any time, and may set, vary, or withdraw cohorts, timelines, levels, and eligibility criteria at our discretion.

5.1 "Your Content" means the application text, statements, reflections, references, feedback, and other material you submit to the Service.

5.2 You retain ownership of Your Content.

5.3 You grant us a worldwide, royalty free, non exclusive licence to host, store, copy, process, display, and otherwise use Your Content as needed to operate, provide, maintain, secure, evaluate, and improve the Service, to support your application, and to carry out the activities described in these Terms and the Privacy Notice. This licence continues for as long as we hold Your Content and, for anonymised material, indefinitely as set out in clauses 9 and 11.

5.4 You confirm that Your Content is your own work, that it is accurate, and that you are entitled to submit it. You must not submit anything unlawful, misleading, defamatory, or infringing of another person's rights.

5.5 You are responsible for keeping your own copies of Your Content. We are not a record keeping service and do not guarantee to retain Your Content beyond the periods in clause 11.

6.1 When you nominate a referee or advocate, you provide us with their name, contact details, and related information so we can invite them to contribute a statement. You confirm that you have a proper basis to share their details with us for this purpose and that the details are accurate.

6.2 Referees and advocates contribute their statements through a secure personal link. Their statement forms part of your application pack. Statements, once submitted, may be viewed by you, by reviewers and programme staff involved in your application, and are included in your completed pack.

7.1 As an applicant you take part in named peer review. You will be allocated two other applications at your level to review, and your application will be reviewed by two other applicants, who may be in any region. You agree that your draft application and your identity will be visible to your allocated reviewers for this purpose, and theirs to you.

7.2 You must treat other applicants' content that you see as confidential, use it only to provide constructive feedback through the Service, and not copy, share, store, or use it for any other purpose.

7.3 Final drafts are reviewed by experienced colleagues who hold Fellowship ("expert reviewers"). You agree that your final draft will be shared with assigned expert reviewers and programme staff for this purpose.

8.1 Fellowship is a community of practice. By using the Service you agree that, if your application is successful, we may contact you and invite you to join the expert pool and to review the draft applications of future applicants. Taking part is voluntary and you may decline or withdraw at any time.

9.1 We may use information arising from the Service, in anonymised or aggregated form, for research, evaluation, service improvement, reporting, and publication. Anonymised and aggregated information does not identify you and is not personal data, and we may use it without further notice or time limit.

9.2 Separately, at the point you complete your application, we will ask whether you consent to anonymised excerpts of your application being used as exemplars to help future applicants. This is optional. Giving or withholding this consent has no effect on your application or your use of the Service. If you consent, we will remove identifying details before any excerpt is used, and you may withdraw your consent at any time for future use by contacting us, although we may be unable to recall material already shared.

9.3 Any use of identifiable personal data for research will be carried out only where we have a lawful basis under data protection law and in line with the Privacy Notice.

10.1 You must not misuse the Service. In particular you must not: (a) access or attempt to access another user's account, content, or data; (b) copy, share, scrape, or extract content that is not your own; (c) upload anything harmful, unlawful, or infringing; (d) interfere with, disrupt, probe, or attempt to circumvent the security or operation of the Service; or (e) use the Service in any way that breaches these Terms or any applicable law.

10.2 We may investigate and take any action we consider appropriate where we believe these Terms have been breached, including suspending or removing access.

11.1 We process personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Protection Act 2018 as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, and other applicable law. The Privacy Notice sets out, among other things, who the data controller is, what personal data we collect, the purposes and lawful bases for processing, who we share it with, and your rights.

11.2 The personal data on the Platform is hosted within the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area. Where any transfer outside the UK is necessary, we will ensure an appropriate safeguard or lawful basis is in place.

11.3 Retention of completed applications. We retain completed applications for three years from the date of completion, after which they are deleted or anonymised. Other categories of data, including account data, incomplete or withdrawn applications, and referee and advocate details, are retained for the periods set out in the Privacy Notice.

11.4 Your rights. You have rights over your personal data, which may include the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, and portability, subject to the conditions and exemptions in data protection law. To exercise a right, contact us at [contact email].

11.5 Complaints about personal data. If you are concerned about how we handle your personal data, you have the right to complain to us at [data protection contact email]. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and respond without undue delay. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, or its successor body the Information Commission, at ico.org.uk, although we ask that you raise your concern with us first so we can try to put things right.

12.1 All rights in the Platform and the Service, including its software, design, structure, text, branding, guidance, templates, and other materials we provide, other than Your Content, belong to us or our licensors. Nothing in these Terms transfers any of those rights to you.

12.2 We grant you a limited, personal, non transferable, revocable licence to use the Service for the purpose of preparing and managing your own Fellowship application in line with these Terms.

13.1 The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, error free, secure, or free from delay, or that it will meet your requirements.

13.2 We may suspend, withdraw, or restrict all or part of the Service for operational, maintenance, security, legal, or any other reason, with or without notice.

14.1 We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time, including where we believe you have breached these Terms or where required for legal, security, or operational reasons.

14.2 You may stop using the Service and ask us to close your account at any time by contacting us.

14.3 On termination, the licences you grant in clause 5 continue to the extent needed for us to meet our legal obligations, complete any active review, and use anonymised material as set out in these Terms. Retention and deletion are handled in line with clause 11 and the Privacy Notice.

15.1 We make no promise or guarantee about the outcome of any Fellowship application. Success depends on Advance HE's own assessment.

15.2 The Service, including guidance, exemplars, the level checker, and any feedback within it, is provided for support only and does not constitute professional, legal, financial, or career advice.

15.3 We are not responsible for Advance HE's processes, decisions, fees, timescales, or website, or for any third party service linked from the Platform.

16.1 Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability where it would be unlawful to do so, including liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law.

16.2 Subject to clause 16.1, and to the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable to you for: (a) any loss of profit, income, opportunity, reputation, goodwill, or anticipated benefit; (b) any loss or corruption of data or content; (c) any failure to achieve Fellowship or any consequence of that; or (d) any indirect, special, or consequential loss, in each case whether arising in contract, tort including negligence, breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, and whether or not foreseeable.

16.3 Subject to clauses 16.1 and 16.2, and to the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability to you arising out of or in connection with the Service and these Terms is limited to one hundred pounds (£100).

17.1 We may update these Terms from time to time. We will post the updated Terms on the Platform and, where the changes are significant, take reasonable steps to notify you. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

18.1 If any provision of these Terms is found to be unlawful or unenforceable, the rest remains in force.

18.2 Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it.

18.3 You may not transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms. We may transfer ours to a successor body or to another part of NHS England, on notice to you.

18.4 These Terms are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service and replace any earlier understanding on the same subject.

18.5 A person who is not a party to these Terms has no right to enforce them.

19.1 These Terms and any dispute arising out of or in connection with them are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

General enquiries and Data protection enquiries and complaints can be made via the contact form on the website.