Privacy
Policy
We at Apex Fostering Limited respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it.
For the purpose of the UK data protection laws, the Data Controller is Apex Fostering Limited, registered office at Brickfield House High Road, Thornwood, Epping, Essex, England, CM16 6TH.
Our Data Protection Officer is Sali Walker
Email address: Info@apexfostering.uk
Contact number: 07885 808075
This policy sets out the basis on which any personal information we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal information and how we will treat it.
1. Types of Data Collected
We may collect, use, store and transfer personal data from you. This may include but is not limited to
1.1. Identity Data, such as your name, title, marital status, date of birth, gender, a copy of your passport and driving licence,
1.2. Lifestyle Data, such as your current living arrangements, number of dependents, details of languages spoken, employment details, significant relationships, and details of any previous fostering arrangements
1.3. Contact Data, such as your address, email address and telephone number,
1.4. Financial Data, such as bank account and payment card details, national insurance number, confirmation of personal insurance and details of any benefits you may be in receipt of,
1.5. Special Category Data, including your race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious or philosophical beliefs and details about your health,
1.6. Criminal Records Data including details of any spent convictions, cautions or warnings,
1.7. Medical Data, including a medical assessment report and details of any social care support you may be receiving,
1.8. Transaction Data, including details about payments to and from you,
1.9. Technical Data, including IP addresses, your log-in data, browser type and version, time-zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access our website,
1.10. Usage Data, including information about how you use our website, products and services, and Marketing Data, such as your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties, and your communication preferences.
1.11. Referral Data, placement information shared at the matching stage from local authorities relating to children or young persons.
1.12. Care Data, covering the key care documents and information relating to children and young persons including care plan, placement plan, risk assessments, personal education plan, pathway plan and other related reports.
1.13. Education Data, such as children or young’s school/other educational information and grades relating to their school performance.
1.14. Special Category data: your racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, details of any criminal convictions and details about your health.
2. How Data is Collected
2.1. Collected Through direct interaction,
collecting through
2.1.1. Complete an application form to become a foster carer either in paper form or via our website,
2.1.2. request further information about becoming a foster carer,
2.1.3. attend one of our fostering information or training events,
2.1.4. complete one of our feedback forms either in paper form or via Survey Monkey,
2.1.5. participate in our assessment process to become a foster carer;
2.1.6. subscribe to our services or publications, or otherwise requesting marketing material to be sent to you, or
2.1.7. correspond with us by phone, email, letters or otherwise.
2.2. Collection through the use of Cookies and Similar technologies
2.2.1. local authorities and other foster care agencies,
2.2.2. Form F assessors and panel members responsible for evaluating your application,
2.2.3. Your GP or medical practice,
2.2.4. Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS),
2.2.5. your employer or other referees,
2.2.6. analytics providers (such as Google),
2.2.7. advertising networks,
2.2.8. search information providers
2.2.9. providers of technical, payment and delivery services,
2.2.10. Companies House, LinkedIn and the electoral register.
3. How the Data Collected is Used
Your personal information will only be used as legally allowed.
3.1. Generally it will be used when
3.1.1. you have given us consent,
3.1.2. we need to perform a contract we are about to enter into, or have entered into, with you,
3.1.3. where it is necessary for our or a third party’s legitimate interests and your interests and rights do not override those interests, or
3.1.4. where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
3.2. To maintain records of:
3.2.1. all children placed with foster carers;
3.2.2. all persons who apply to become foster carers;
3.2.3. all approved foster carers;
3.2.4. all employees;
3.2.5. all accidents occurring to children while placed with foster parents;
3.3. To process your application to become a foster carer
3.4. To carry out criminal records and background checks and obtain references from your employer or other personal referees to assess your suitability as a foster carer.
3.5. To register you as an approved foster carer and keep an ongoing case record.
3.6. To assess your suitability to accept the placement of a child into your care
3.7. To provide details of the placement to the relevant authority
3.8. To notify you about changes to this privacy policy
3.9. To administer our website and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes, to allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so, to measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you and to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our website about services that may interest you or them
3.10. To provide you with information about special offers and other products we sell that are similar to those that you have already received from us
3.11. It will be necessary to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract. Where this involves special category data, it will be necessary for the provision of social care or treatment, or the management of health or social care systems and services.
3.12. It will be necessary for us to comply with a legal obligation to which we are subject under Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011 legislation. It will be necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us. Where this involves special category data, it will be necessary for the provision of social care or treatment, or the management of health or social care systems and services.
3.13. It will be necessary for our legitimate business interests, namely to ensure you are aware of our current terms and conditions
3.14. It will be necessary for our legitimate business interests to ensure you receive the best experience possible when accessing and using our website. We will comply with our cookie policy when processing this information
3.15. Where you have previously received marketing communications from us, then it will be necessary for our legitimate business interests, namely to ensure you continue to receive communications that you have previously agreed to receive In all other cases, we will only do this if you give us your consent
Personal information will only be used for the purpose for which we have collected it. Your personal information may be processed, without your consent or knowledge, in compliance with the above rules, where it is required or permitted by law.
4. Cookie Policy
4.1. This website uses cookies to better the users experience while visiting the website. Where applicable this website uses a cookie control system allowing the user on their first visit to the website to allow or disallow the use of cookies on their computer / device. This complies with recent legislation requirements for websites to obtain explicit consent from users before leaving behind or reading files such as cookies on a user’s computer / device.
4.2. Cookies are used to track, save and store information about the user’s interactions and usage of the website. This allows the website, through its server to provide the users with a tailored experience within this website.
4.3. Users are advised that if they wish to deny the use and saving of cookies from this website on to their computers hard drive they should take necessary steps within their web browsers security settings to block all cookies from this website and its external serving vendors.
4.4. This website uses tracking software to monitor its visitors to better understand how they use it. This software is provided by Google Analytics which uses cookies to track visitor usage. The software will save a cookie to your computer’s hard drive in order to track and monitor your engagement and usage of the website, but will not store, save or collect personal information. You can read Google’s privacy policy here for further information [ http://www.google.com/privacy.html ].
4.5. Other cookies may be stored to your computer’s hard drive by external vendors when this website uses referral programs, sponsored links or adverts. Such cookies are used for conversion and referral tracking and typically expire after 30 days, though some may take longer. No personal information is stored, saved or collected.
5. Disclosure of your information
We may share your personal information with the parties set out below:
5.1. providers of IT and system administration services to our business, including CHARMS, Survey Monkey, website, and Intranet.
5.2. providers of email marketing platforms and web-based project management applications to our business, including MailChimp, Egress, Survey Monkey and CripTo,
5.3. our professional advisers (including solicitors, bankers, auditors and insurers),
5.4. HM Revenue & Customs, the Information Commissioner’s Office, regulators and other authorities who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances,
5.5. The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS),
5.6. other foster care agencies, social workers, police, Ofsted and local authorities where necessary,
5.7. Form F assessors and panel members,
5.8. training providers or external events organisers,
5.9. social media outlets, including Facebook and Twitter,
5.10. our property landlords, or their agents, for our serviced or leased offices,
5.11. analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our website, and
5.12. third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal information in the same way as set out in this policy.
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal information and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal information for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal information for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
6. Where we store your personal information
All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers .We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely, including taking the following safeguards:
6.1. Building entry controls. There is a reception. Our office is locked and only accessed by senior management.
6.2. Secure lockable desks and cupboards. Desks and cupboards are kept locked when not in use if they hold confidential information of any kind.
6.3. Methods of disposal. Paper documents are disposed of by shredding in a manner that ensures confidentiality.
6.4. Firewalls and encryption. We apply industry-standard firewall protection and encryption technology.
6.5. Password protections, a password protector is used to save passwords.
6.6. Training. We ensure our employees are trained in the importance of data security and the use of password protectors.
6.7. Cyber Essentials. Maintenance of cyber essentials accreditation.
6.8. Overseas transfers. Whenever we transfer your personal information outside the United Kingdom, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring that we apply appropriate safeguards (either by transferring data only to recipients in the European Union, to recipients in countries approved by the European Commission, to recipients that are party to the EU-US Privacy Shield, or by using specific contracts approved by the European Commission).
If you are concerned about the levels of data security in any of those countries, please let us know and we will endeavour to advise what steps will be taken to protect your data when stored overseas.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our website; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
7. How long we will store your personal information
The length of time that we will store your data will depend on the ‘legal basis’ for why we are using that data, as follows:
Length of time
10 years from the date on which their approval is terminated
15 years from the date of the last entry
3 years from the date or refusal or withdrawal
15 years from the date of the last entry
15 years from the date of closure
Relevant time to support the relevant inquiry or concern
For all other data!
We will use/store your data for as long as it is necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us
We will use/store your data for as long as it is necessary for us to comply with our legal obligations
We will use/store your data until you ask us to stop. However, if we can demonstrate the reason why we are using/storing your data overrides your interests, rights and freedoms, then we will continue to use and store your data for as long as it is necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us (or, if earlier, we no longer have a legitimate interest in using/storing your data)
We will use/store your data until you ask us to stop
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature and sensitive of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
8. Your rights
You have various legal rights in relation to the information you give us, or which we collect about you, as follows:
8.1. You have a right to access the information we hold about you free-of-charge, together with various information about why and how we are using your information, to whom we may have disclosed that information, from where we originally obtained the information and for how long we will use your information.
8.2. You have the right to ask us to rectify any information we hold about you that is inaccurate or incomplete.
8.3. You have the right to ask us to erase the information we hold about you (the ‘right to be forgotten’). Please note that this right can only be exercised in certain circumstances and, if you ask us to erase your information and we are unable to do so, we will explain why not.
8.4. You have the right to ask us to stop using your information where: (i) the information we hold about you is inaccurate; (ii) we are unlawfully using your information; (iii) we no longer need to use the information; or (iv) we do not have a legitimate reason to use the information. Please note that we may continue to store your information, or use your information for the purpose of legal proceedings or for protecting the rights of any other person.
8.5. You have the right to ask us to transmit the information we hold about you to another person or company in a structured, commonly-used and machine-readable format. Please note that this right can only be exercised in certain circumstances and, if you ask us to transmit your information and we are unable to do so, we will explain why not.
8.6. Where we use/store your information because it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, you have the right to object to us using/storing your information. We will stop using/storing your information unless we can demonstrate why we believe we have a legitimate business interest which overrides your interests, rights and freedoms.
8.7. Where we use/store your data because you have given us your specific, informed and unambiguous consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
8.8. You have the right to object to us using/storing your information for direct marketing purposes
Where we use/store your data because you have given us your specific, informed and unambiguous consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
You have the right to object to us using/storing your information for direct marketing purposes.
If you wish to exercise any of your legal rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer by writing to the address at the top of this policy, or by emailing us at info@apexfostering.uk.
You also have the right, at any time, to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office if you believe we are not complying with the laws and regulations relating to the use/storage of the information you give us, or that we collect about you.
9. Opting out of receiving marketing communications
You can ask us to stop sending you marketing communications at any time by writing to the address at the top of this policy, or by emailing us at info@apexfostering.
10. DBS Privacy Policy
10.1. Apex Fostering agency shall undertake relevant DBS checks on employees, foster carers, other household members, Form F assessors, panel members and other relevant third parties engaged with the agency. Please see the relevant link providing relevant information on the DBS Standard/Enhanced Check Privacy Policy for applicants – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dbs-privacy-policies
10.2. This also covers how the DBS will process my personal data. Where a person is undertaking Regulated Activity, it is the agency’s expectation that an Enhanced Check (including a check of the barred list) will be undertaken.
Automated decision-making – We do not use automated decision-making processes.
11. Third party links
11.1. Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.
12. Changes to our policy
Any changes we make to our policy in the future will be posted on our website and, where appropriate, notified to you by email or via social media. Please check our website frequently to see any updates or changes to our policy.
13. Contact
Questions, comments and requests regarding this policy are welcomed and should be addressed to our Data Protection Officer by writing to the address at the top of this policy, or by emailing us at info@apexfostering.uk
This policy set out the framework within which Apex Fostering Limited work people connected with Apex Fostering and Apex’s affiliated companies, including but not limited to children, young people, families, foster carers and social workers. The framework is underpinned by a range of legislation, including but not limited to:
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Children Acts 1989 and 2004;
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Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000;
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Care Standards Act 2000;
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United Nations Convention on the Rights of The Child;
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Human Rights Act 1998;
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Adoption and Children Act 2002;
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Data Protection Act 1998;
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Children and Families Act 2014;
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Children and Social Work Act 2017
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Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003
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Twitter
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Facebook
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Google
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Linkedin
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Mailchimp
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Constant Contact Policy