CTRLFamilies and on-behalf consent
Introduction
CTRL has been designed to facilitate parents/guardians providing consent on behalf of their dependants. Parents/Guardians can specify which dependants they are consenting on behalf of during the registration process.
Multiple parents/guardians
When multiple parents register and nominate the same child, they are joined together into a family. Each guardian can fill out their own consent form. The answers from all parents/guardians in the family are used to derive consent for the dependant(s).
How dependant answers are calculated
For families with only one parent/guardian, the dependant inherits all answers directly from the guardian. The guardian can update their answers at any time, and the dependant consent information is automatically updated.
For families with multiple guardians, if guardians give the same answer to a question, the dependant inherits that answer. If the guardians give conflicting answers, the dependant inherits the non-consenting answer.
Whenever a change is made to the family (e.g. adding or removing a guardian) or to guardian answers, the answers for the dependants in the family are automatically recalculated.
Converting dependants
Dependants can be converted to independent, so that they can provide their own consent. This process is triggered automatically when a dependant turns 18, or can be manually triggered by the study administrator.
An email is sent to each guardian, allowing them nominate an email address for the dependant. An email is then sent to this address and the dependant can create their own CTRL account.