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Privacy Notice

Privacy Policy

We are Regional Foster Families. We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This policy sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect will be processed by us. Please read this privacy policy carefully to understand our views and practices and your rights regarding your personal data. By visiting regionalfosterfamilies.co.uk you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.

For the purpose of data protection legislation, the data controller is:

Regional Foster Families, Old Auster The Causeway, Mark, Highbridge, England, TA9 4QF

Our data compliance officer is Charlie Griffith (“DCO”).  If you have any queries, complaints or requests please contact our DCO via the contact form at www.regionalfosterfamilies.co.uk/general-contact or 01752 858 040

What information do we collect from you?

We will collect and process the following data about you:

  • Information you give us. This is information about you that you give us by filling in forms on our site or by corresponding with us by phone, email or otherwise. The information you give us may include your name, address, email address and phone number, financial and household information.
  • Information we collect from your use of our site. With regard to each of your visits to our site we will automatically collect the following information:
  • Technical information, such as the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your device to the Internet, whereabouts you connected to our service, your internet service provider (ISP), and what type of device you are using to access our service;
  • Information we collect throughout our relationship.
  • Information we collect when you call us. If you call us we will automatically collect the following information:
  • Recording of inbound and outbound calls, where necessary. This is made in text form, written by an operator. We do not make audio recordings of telephone calls.
  • Information we receive from other sources. We are working closely with other organisations, including:
    • Local Authorities
    • Disclosure and barring service
    • Police
    • Other professionals and agencies working around young people such as health care, educational establishments, social services, other support agencies.
  • Providing us with your details online. This is information you may choose to provide us with using the contact forms on our site. It includes your name, address, telephone number and email address. Please let us know if any of this information changes so we can keep our records up to date.

Why do we collect this information?

Information you give to us.

We use this information:

  • in order to take steps necessary to assess whether we can enter into a contract with you and in order to perform our contract with you. This includes carrying out our obligations to you and providing you with our products and services;
  • for the purpose of improving our service to you, to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your device;
  • to deal with any legal queries relating to your use of our service;
  • to provide you with service communications so that you receive a full and functional service and so we can perform our obligations to you. These may be sent by email [or post or, if the circumstances require it, we may contact you by phone]. These will include notifications about changes to our service;

Information we collect from your use of the site.

We will use this information for the following purposes:

  • to administer our site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
  • to improve our site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your device;
  • as part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure;
  • to measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you;

Information we collect throughout our relationship.

We will use this information to help us provide you with our services.

Information we receive from other sources.

See the ‘Who might we share your information with?’ section below for details of how we use information in conjunction with our associated third parties.

How long do we keep hold of your information?

  • We will keep information about you for a maximum of [6 years] after the end of our relationship with you unless obligations to our regulators require otherwise or we are required remove such data from our records. For example:
    • An approved foster carer, fostering family member and staff member data is kept for 15 years after the end of our relationship. This is to fulfil a regulatory requirement (Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011.

Who might we share your information with?

You agree that for the purposes set out in the ‘Why do we collect this information?’ section above, we have the right to share your personal information with:

  • Selected associated third parties, some of whom we appoint to provide services, including:
  • business partners, subsidiaries, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with you;
  • analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site;
  • Any member of our group, which means our subsidiaries.

Additionally, we will disclose your personal information to the relevant third party:

  • In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
  • If we are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
  • If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of our customers, our regulator, or others. [This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of safeguarding, fraud protection and prevention of money laundering and credit risk reduction].

How is your data stored and kept secure?

At Regional Foster Families, we take your safety and security very seriously and we are committed to protecting your personal and financial information. All information kept by us is stored within our secure cloud-based systems. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password that enables you to access certain parts of our service, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

We may transfer your data outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). We will only do so if adequate protection measures are in place in compliance with data protection legislation. We use the following protection measures:

  • using Commission approved model contractual clauses;
  • companies we transfer data to in the US to be signed up to US Privacy Shield.

Note: The data transferred outside of EEA is for the use of our online events booking system (training and events). This will include first and surnames. All other data is stored within the EEA.

Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

What are your rights?

Where processing of your personal data is based on consent, you can withdraw that consent at any time.

You have the following rights.  You can exercise these rights at any time by contacting us at:

Regional Foster Families, 3 Moorside Court, Yelverton, PL20 7SQ

OR via the contact form at www.regionalfosterfamilies.co.uk/general-contact

You have the right:

  • to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes;
  • to ask us not to process your personal data where it is processed on the basis of legitimate interests provided that there are no compelling reasons for that processing;
  • to ask us not to process your personal data for scientific or historical research purposes, where relevant, unless the processing is necessary in the public interest.
  • to request from us access to personal information held about you;
  • to ask for the information we hold about you to be rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
  • to ask for data to be erased provided that the personal data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, you withdraw consent (if the legal basis for processing is consent), you exercise your right to object, set out below, and there are no overriding legitimate ground for processing, the data is unlawfully processed, the data needs to be erased to comply with a legal obligation or the data is children’s data and was collected in relation to an offer of information society services;
  • to ask for the processing of that information to be restricted if the accuracy of that data is contested, the processing is unlawful, the personal data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or you exercise your right to object (pending verification of whether there are legitimate grounds for processing);
  • to ask for data portability if the processing is carried out by automated means and the legal basis for processing is consent or contract.

Should you have any issues, concerns or problems in relation to your data, or wish to notify us of data which is inaccurate, please let us know by contacting us using the contact details above. In the event that you are not satisfied with our processing of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority, which is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK, at any time.  The ICO’s contact details are available here: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.

Lawful basis for processing and data retention periods

The table below show’s our legal basis for processing data:

Enquiries from members of the public interested in becoming foster carers: Contractual basis; as it is at the request of a data subject to prepare for a potential contract. The data will be held for the duration of the enquiry process, until it is decided by either party that the enquiry would not continue to an application being made. The identifiable data will be deleted within 90 days.

Applications from a person or persons to become foster carer(s): Contractual basis. Once an application form is submitted, we have a regulatory obligation to retain the data for at least 3 years should the applicant(s) withdraw and be refused approval as stated in Fostering Regulations (England) 2011.

Foster carers: Contractual basis. We have a regulatory obligation to retain data for at least 10 years from the date on which their approval is terminated. Although under GDPR a contractal legal basis for processing personal data does not automatically give the right to portability, the Fostering Services Regulations 2011 states we have a regulatory obligation to make records compiled under regulation 30 or 31 in relation to a foster parent available for inspection by another fostering service provider within one month of a request under regulation 26(2)(d).

Fostering household and/or support network members: Legal Basis. Due to safeguarding, we have an obligation to process this personal data. In most cases the data is minimal usually consists of Name, date of birth and address.

The Fostering Regulations state we must keep the following data for ten years:

(a)the report prepared under regulation 26(3)(b) and any other reports submitted to the fostering panel,

(b)any recommendations made by the fostering panel,

(c)the notice of approval given under regulation 27(5)(a),

(d)the foster care agreement,

(e)any report of a review of approval prepared under regulation 28(4), and

(f)any notice given under regulation 28(12).

and

(a)a record of each placement with the foster parent, including the name, age and sex of each child placed, the dates on which each placement began and terminated, and the circumstances of the termination,

(b)the information obtained by the fostering service provider in relation to the assessment and approval of the foster parent, and in relation to any review or termination of the approval.

Staff members, Panel members and locum social workers etc. : Contractual. This data is retained for 15 years from the date of the last entry. This is a requirement of the Fostering Regulations (England) 2011.

Looked after (Foster) Children: The basis process this data is both contractual (where we act as a data processor for the local authority) and Legal where there are regulatory requirements. Data is retained until the 75th anniversary of the child’s date of birth, in line with the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010, unless requested by the local authority to return the records to them.

For more information please refer to The Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011

Cookies

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users of the App. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you use the App and also allows us to improve the App.

We use the following cookies for the following purposes:

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For all of the above:

Various duration: a mix of session and “permanent” cookies lasting 30 mins, 6 months, or 1-2 yrs. Anonymously tracks use of website.  These cookies are set or updated on any page visited. See here for full details.

Several cookies are set but all serve the same purpose; to see how people reached the site and used it, including search terms used and referring sites.

Please see below on how to disable cookies:

– Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-GB/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences

– Google Chrome: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/61416?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

– Internet Explorer: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies

Changes to our privacy policy

This policy may be updated from time to time. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

Contact us

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to Regional Foster Families, 3 Moorside Court, Yelverton, PL20 7PE or via the contact form at www.regionalfosterfamilies.co.uk/general-contact

Thinking of Fostering?
Thinking of Fostering?

Thinking About Fostering

If you are interested in becoming a foster parent and have or will have a spare room in the near future, then please don’t hesitate to call us on 08000 19 11 65 or fill in the enquiry form below.

Your region / location?

How did you hear about us?

Thinking of Fostering?
Thinking of Fostering?

Thinking About Fostering

If you are interested in becoming a foster parent and have or will have a spare room in the near future, then please don’t hesitate to call us on 08000 19 11 65 or fill in the enquiry form below.

Your region / location?

How did you hear about us?