This privacy policy applies between you, the User of this Website and UK Fostering Ltd, the owner and provider of this Website. UK Fostering Ltd takes the privacy of your information very seriously. This privacy policy applies to our use of any and all Data collected by us or provided by you in relation to your use of the Website.

Please read this privacy policy carefully.

Definitions and interpretation

In this privacy policy, the following definitions are used:

Data	collectively all information that you submit to UK Fostering Ltd via the Website. This definition incorporates, where applicable, the definitions provided in the Data Protection Laws;
Cookies	a small text file placed on your computer by this Website when you visit certain parts of the Website and/or when you use certain features of the Website. Details of the cookies used by this Website are set out in the clause below (Cookies);
Data Protection Laws	any applicable law relating to the processing of personal Data, including but not limited to the Directive 96/46/EC (Data Protection Directive) or the GDPR, and any national implementing laws, regulations and secondary legislation, for as long as the GDPR is effective in the UK;
GDPR	the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679;
UK Fostering Ltd, or us	UK Fostering Ltd, a company incorporated in England and Wales with registered number 4062744 whose registered office is at Bridge House, High Street, Dartford, Kent, DA1 1DJ
UK and EU Cookie Law	the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 as amended by the Privacy and Electronxic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011;
User or you	any third party that accesses the Website and is not either (i) employed by UK Fostering Ltd and acting in the course of their employment or (ii) engaged as a consultant or otherwise providing services to UK Fostering Ltd and accessing the Website in connection with the provision of such services; and
Website	the website that you are currently using, www.ukfostering.org.uk, and any sub-domains of this site unless expressly excluded by their own terms and conditions.

 

In this privacy policy, unless the context requires a different interpretation:

1. the singular includes the plural and vice versa;
2. references to sub-clauses, clauses, schedules or appendices are to sub-clauses, clauses, schedules or appendices of this privacy policy;
3.  a reference to a person includes firms, companies, government entities, trusts and partnerships;
4. “including” is understood to mean “including without limitation”;
5. reference to any statutory provision includes any modification or amendment of it;
6. the headings and sub-headings do not form part of this privacy policy.

Scope of this privacy policy

This privacy policy applies only to the actions of UK Fostering Ltd and Users with respect to this Website. It does not extend to any websites that can be accessed from this Website including, but not limited to, any links we may provide to social media websites.

For purposes of the applicable Data Protection Laws, UK Fostering Ltd is the “data controller”. This means that UK Fostering Ltd determines the purposes for which, and the manner in which, your Data is processed.

Data collected

We may collect the following Data, which includes personal Data, from you:

1.  name;
2. contact Information such as email addresses and telephone numbers;
3. IP address (automatically collected);
4. web browser type and version (automatically collected);
5. operating system (automatically collected);
6. in each case, in accordance with this privacy policy.

How we collect Data

We collect Data in the following ways:

1. data is given to us by you; and
2. data is collected automatically.

Data that is given to us by you

UK Fostering Ltd will collect your Data in a number of ways, for example:

1. when you contact us through the Website, by telephone, post, e-mail or through any other means;
2. when you complete surveys that we use for research purposes (although you are not obliged to respond to them);
3. when you elect to receive marketing communications from us;

in each case, in accordance with this privacy policy.

Data that is collected automatically

To the extent that you access the Website, we will collect your Data automatically, for example:

1.  we automatically collect some information about your visit to the Website. This information helps us to make improvements to Website content and navigation, and includes your IP address, the date, times and frequency with which you access the Website and the way you use and interact with its content.
2. we will collect your Data automatically via cookies, in line with the cookie settings on your browser. For more information about cookies, and how we use them on the Website, see the section below, headed “Cookies”.

People who use our LiveChat service

We use a third-party provider, Zendesk, to supply and support our LiveChat service, which we use to handle enquiries in real time.

If you use the LiveChat service we will collect your name, email address and the contents of your LiveChat session. This information will be retained within the Zendesk database for a maximum period of 28 days and will be transcribed into our internal database, Zora.

You can request a transcript of your LiveChat session from us and we will send this to you providing your request is received before the transcript has been deleted.

If you send us personal information through LiveChat to enquire with us about becoming a foster carer, please see enquiry details below for how we use and manage your personal data.

People who Enquire to become a Foster Carer with us – How we will use your data?

When you enquire to become a Foster Carer with us either through our website enquiry page, online chat, social media or by telephone we will capture and record information about you such as your name, telephone number, email address and postal address. All enquiry information will be captured in our online enquiry database system (Zora). Zora is a content management system hosted in the UK. This is a bespoke social care case management platform which we are developing to manage all aspects of the foster care process. We track aspects of your case data on Zora including day to day correspondence, approval documents and training records, including any personal data you consent to share with us.

We record all approval information in our database system CHARMS. CHARMS is a software application developed by Social Care Network and is a social care database system used to manage aspects of the foster care process. We currently use CHARMS to track training, assessment and the approval of our foster carers. CHARMS has been developed in the UK and is hosted in the UK on a private cloud in data centres provided by UKFast. UKFast are ISO27001 accredited and work closely with Social Care Network.

UK Fostering Ltd occasionally store and process information in a SharePoint system that sits within Microsoft UK Data Centres, information is backed up by Microsoft.

If you have enquired through our website, we will contact you by telephone to discuss your interest in fostering with us. We will record information about your background and motivation to foster, we will ask about other children or adults living in your home, adult children living elsewhere, criminal convictions, health and previous childcare experience.

We will use your consent to provide authorisation for us to share your information with organisations and referees to complete necessary checks on you as part of your assessment. These checks will include medical checks with your GP, personal references, current/previous employment references, voluntary references, education references, local authority checks, criminal record checks, landlord checks, health visitor check, self-employment checks and health and safety checks.

We use the information that you provide about yourself to fulfil your request to enquire, apply and be approved as a foster carer with us.

We will also share all information that you have provided to us and that we have obtained through the required checks with a qualified social worker who may or may not be an employee of UK Fostering Ltd but an independent social worker who we have contracted to undertake fostering assessments for us, for them to be able to complete your fostering assessment with you.

Once you have entered the Assessment Stage of the process, if you decide you no longer wish to continue, we will retain all information provided and checks completed to date for 3 years following the withdrawal from assessment, this is to comply with our legal obligations under the Fostering Service Regulations 2011.

Approved Foster Carers – How will we use your personal data?

Once you have been approved and whilst you continue to be approved as a Foster Carer through UK Fostering Ltd, we will continue to store and process information about you to comply with our legal obligations under the Fostering Service Regulations 2011, the Children Act 1989 and Fostering Service National Minimum Standards.

We record all approval information in our database system CHARMS. CHARMS is a software application developed by Social Care Network and is a social care database system used to manage aspects of the foster care process. We currently use CHARMS to track training, assessment and the approval of our foster carers. CHARMS has been developed in the UK and is hosted in the UK on a private cloud in data centres provided by UKFast. UKFast are ISO27001 accredited and work closely with Social Care Network.

Your data will also be captured internally on our internal database, Zora. Zora is a content management system hosted in the UK by AWS inc. This is a bespoke social care case management platform which we are developing to manage all aspects of the foster care process. We track aspects of your case data on Zora including day to day correspondence, approval documents and training records, including any personal data you consent to share with us.

UK Fostering Ltd occasionally store and process information in a SharePoint system that sits within Microsoft UK Data Centres, information is backed up by Microsoft.

To be approved and continue approval as a Foster Carer with UK Fostering we will need to update some of the checks on a regular basis that were completed at the assessment stage to assess your continued suitability as an approved foster carer. These checks will include medical checks, local authority checks, disclosure and barring service checks and health and safety checks.

We will also collect and process the following data from you:

• Information you consent to provide to UK Fostering Ltd that is required to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered between you and us, or potential contracts that may be in liaison between you and us.
• Information that you consent to provide by filling in forms on our website, or as part of any direct marketing or sales activities. This includes and is not limited to personal information about you such as your name, telephone contact number, geographical address/location, email address and interests.
• If you contact us by telephone or in writing, we may keep a copy of your correspondence or communication.
• Details of your visits to our website and the resources that you access.

If you have provided us with the personal data of another person, there is a clear requirement imposed by UK Fostering Ltd for you to confirm that he/she consents to the processing of his/her personal data and that you have informed him/her of our identity as a Data Controller and the nature of the processing taking place. Records will be retained as evidence of this consent.

Our use of Data

Any or all of the above Data may be required by us from time to time in order to provide you with the best possible service and experience when using our Website. Specifically, Data may be used by us for the following reasons:

1. internal record keeping;
2. improvement of our products / services;
3. transmission by email of marketing materials that may be of interest to you;
4. contact for market research purposes which may be done using email, telephone, fax or mail. Such information may be used to customise or update the Website;

in each case, in accordance with this privacy policy.

We may use your Data for the above purposes if we deem it necessary to do so for our legitimate interests. If you are not satisfied with this, you have the right to object in certain circumstances (see the section headed “Your rights” below).

For the delivery of direct marketing to you via e-mail, we’ll need your consent, whether via an opt-in or soft-opt-in:

1. soft opt-in consent is a specific type of consent which applies when you have previously engaged with us (for example, you contact us to ask us for more details about a particular product/service, and we are marketing similar products/services). Under “soft opt-in” consent, we will take your consent as given unless you opt-out.
2. for other types of e-marketing, we are required to obtain your explicit consent; that is, you need to take positive and affirmative action when consenting by, for example, checking a tick box that we’ll provide.
3. if you are not satisfied about our approach to marketing, you have the right to withdraw consent at any time. To find out how to withdraw your consent, see the section headed “Your rights” below.

We may use your Data to show you UK Fostering Ltd adverts and other content on other websites. If you do not want us to use your data to show you UK Fostering Ltd adverts and other content on other websites, please turn off the relevant cookies (please refer to the section headed “Cookies” below).

Performance of a contract – We use information held about you to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered between you and us; and to notify you about changes to our services.

Legal Obligation – UK Fostering Ltd are required to comply with the Fostering Service Regulations 2011, the Children’s Act 1989 and Fostering Services National Minimum Standards and this means obtaining, processing and storing personally identifiable and special categories of data in relation to the fostering services provided by UK Fostering Ltd in recruiting and approving foster carers to provide care to looked after children.

Legitimate Interests – We use information held about you to provide you with information, products and/or services that you request from us or which we feel may interest you if relevant to the products or services currently being supplied as part of a contract with UK Fostering Ltd, or in relation to a previous contract with UK Fostering Ltd whereby you are happy to continue to receive such information;

We will not share your data with third parties for other marketing purposes unless we have your express consent to do so.

Who we share Data with

We may share your Data with the following groups of people for the following reasons:

• our employees, agents and/or professional advisors – to administer and supply to you services requested through our website;
• in each case, in accordance with this privacy policy.

Keeping Data secure

We will use technical and organisational measures to safeguard your Data, for example:

• access to your account is controlled by a password and a user name that is unique to you.
• we store your Data on secure servers.

Technical and organisational measures include measures to deal with any suspected data breach. If you suspect any misuse or loss or unauthorised access to your Data, please let us know immediately by contacting us via this e-mail address: [email protected].

If you want detailed information from Get Safe Online on how to protect your information and your computers and devices against fraud, identity theft, viruses and many other online problems, please visit www.getsafeonline.org. Get Safe Online is supported by HM Government and leading businesses.

Data retention

Unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law, we will only hold your Data on our systems for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this privacy policy or until you request that the Data be deleted.

Even if we delete your Data, it may persist on backup or archival media for legal, tax or regulatory purposes.

Your rights

You have the following rights in relation to your Data:

1. Right to access– the right to request (i) copies of the information we hold about you at any time, or (ii) that we modify, update or delete such information. If we provide you with access to the information we hold about you, we will not charge you for this, unless your request is “manifestly unfounded or excessive.” Where we are legally permitted to do so, we may refuse your request. If we refuse your request, we will tell you the reasons why.
2. Right to correct– the right to have your Data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
3. Right to erase– the right to request that we delete or remove your Data from our systems.
4. Right to restrict our use of your Data– the right to “block” us from using your Data or limit the way in which we can use it.
5. Right to data portability– the right to request that we move, copy or transfer your Data.
6. Right to object– the right to object to our use of your Data including where we use it for our legitimate interests.

To make enquiries, exercise any of your rights set out above, or withdraw your consent to the processing of your Data (where consent is our legal basis for processing your Data), please contact us via this e-mail address: [email protected]

If you are not satisfied with the way a complaint you make in relation to your Data is handled by us, you may be able to refer your complaint to the relevant data protection authority. For the UK, this is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO’s contact details can be found on their website at https://ico.org.uk/.

It is important that the Data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your Data changes during the period for which we hold it.

Links to other websites

This Website may, from time to time, provide links to other websites. We have no control over such websites and are not responsible for the content of these websites. This privacy policy does not extend to your use of such websites. You are advised to read the privacy policy or statement of other websites prior to using them.

Changes of business ownership and control

UK Fostering Ltd may, from time to time, expand or reduce our business and this may involve the sale and/or the transfer of control of all or part of UK Fostering Ltd. Data provided by Users will, where it is relevant to any part of our business so transferred, be transferred along with that part and the new owner or newly controlling party will, under the terms of this privacy policy, be permitted to use the Data for the purposes for which it was originally supplied to us.

We may also disclose Data to a prospective purchaser of our business or any part of it.

In the above instances, we will take steps with the aim of ensuring your privacy is protected.

Cookies

This Website may place and access certain Cookies on your computer. UK Fostering Ltd uses Cookies to improve your experience of using the Website. UK Fostering Ltd has carefully chosen these Cookies and has taken steps to ensure that your privacy is protected and respected at all times.

All Cookies used by this Website are used in accordance with current UK and EU Cookie Law.

Before the Website places Cookies on your computer, you will be presented with a message bar requesting your consent to set those Cookies. By giving your consent to the placing of Cookies, you are enabling UK Fostering Ltd to provide a better experience and service to you. You may, if you wish, deny consent to the placing of Cookies; however certain features of the Website may not function fully or as intended.

This Website may place the following types of Cookies:

Type of Cookie	Purpose
Strictly necessary cookies	These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.
Analytical/ performance cookies	They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
Functionality cookies	These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
Targeting cookies	These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.

 

Please note that third parties that use cookies through our website (we have made assurances that they are used with our legitimate interest. We do not control or are liable for these cookies and to opt out of their use you will need to do so directly on their own sites.

You can choose to enable or disable Cookies in your internet browser. By default, most internet browsers accept Cookies but this can be changed. For further details, please consult the help menu in your internet browser.

You can choose to delete Cookies at any time; however you may lose any information that enables you to access the Website more quickly and efficiently including, but not limited to, personalisation settings.

It is recommended that you ensure that your internet browser is up-to-date and that you consult the help and guidance provided by the developer of your internet browser if you are unsure about adjusting your privacy settings.

For more information generally on cookies, including how to disable them, please refer to aboutcookies.org. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your computer.

General

You may not transfer any of your rights under this privacy policy to any other person. We may transfer our rights under this privacy policy where we reasonably believe your rights will not be affected.

If any court or competent authority finds that any provision of this privacy policy (or part of any provision) is invalid, illegal or unenforceable, that provision or part-provision will, to the extent required, be deemed to be deleted, and the validity and enforceability of the other provisions of this privacy policy will not be affected.

Unless otherwise agreed, no delay, act or omission by a party in exercising any right or remedy will be deemed a waiver of that, or any other, right or remedy.

This Agreement will be governed by and interpreted according to the law of England and Wales. All disputes arising under the Agreement will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English and Welsh courts.

Changes to this privacy policy

UK Fostering Ltd reserves the right to change this privacy policy as we may deem necessary from time to time or as may be required by law. Any changes will be immediately posted on the Website and you are deemed to have accepted the terms of the privacy policy on your first use of the Website following the alterations.

You may contact UK Fostering Ltd by email at [email protected].