Privacy Policy

We manage social media interactions in-house. The social media platforms that we use are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Please see each of the individual social media websites for the terms of their privacy policies in how they manage the information you share via their platforms.

If you send us a private or direct message via social media the message will be stored in line with each platform’s privacy policy. If you send us personal information through private messaging 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 use our online services

We will not give your contact information to any other organisation unless legally obliged to do so.

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, 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.

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 retain information that you have provided to us at this stage in line with our retention schedule for three years.

If a decision is made to move to the assessment stage of the process you will be required to complete an application and consent form which will ask for additional information such as your nationality, religion, employment, previous employment, GP details, and referee details.

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 checks, 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 United Fostering 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 three 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 United Fostering, 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 information in our case management system.

To be approved and continue approval as a Foster Carer with United 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, criminal record checks, and health and safety checks.

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

• Information you consent to provide to United Fostering 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 United Fostering 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.

We use information held about you in the following ways:

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 – United Fostering 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 United Fostering 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 United Fostering, or in relation to a previous contract with United Fostering whereby you are happy to continue to receive such information.

Consent (Direct Marketing)- We use information held about you to provide you with information on products and/or services that you request from us, or which we feel may interest you where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes. Where consent has been provided to United Fostering, it is a recognised right of the Data Subject that this consent can also be withdrawn. Should you wish to withdraw consent, please email info@ unitedfostering.co.uk or by writing to Dhirendra Shrivastava, Data Compliance Officer at United Fostering Services, 101 Lockhurst Lane, Coventry, CV6 3LD. Alternatively, you can contact Dhirendra Shrivastava on 07552155121.

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

Our commitment to Data Security

To prevent unauthorised access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

Any changes we may make to our Privacy Policy in the future will be posted on our website.

Your rights relating to Personal Data

Under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) you have a number of ‘rights’ to ensure you are treated fairly by United Fostering Ltd.

You have the right to be informed – all individuals have the right to know what, why and in what way their personal information will be processed, and we hope we have explained this in our privacy policy, if you feel that we could explain the use of your data in a better or clearer way we would be pleased to hear from you. Please email info@ unitedfostering.co.uk or by writing to Dhirendra Shrivastava, Data Compliance Officer at United Fostering Services, 101 Lockhurst Lane, Coventry, CV6 3LD. Alternatively, you can contact Dhirendra Shrivastava on 07552155121.

The right of access – GDPR gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised at any time. United Fostering operates both a Data Subjects Rights procedure and a Subject Access Rights Procedure to ensure that all rights exercised by data subjects relating to personal data are managed appropriately. You have the right to access personal information we hold on you by making a request in writing to us at any time.

The right to rectification –If any of your personal data changes, or if you have any questions about how we use data that relates to you, please contact your local office in writing where we will ensure that we make the necessary rectifications.

The right to erasure (The Right to be Forgotten) – You have the right to have your personal information erased and to prevent processing in some specific situations, however, please be aware that United Fostering can refuse to comply with some or all of a request as we are legally bound to retain certain information to comply with fostering service regulations.

The right to restrict processing – you can request that we restrict processing your personal information, e.g. if you decide during the application process that you no longer want to continue to become a foster carer then once the decision is finalised and documented we will restrict processing of your data to that processing we are obliged to comply with under the fostering regulations and will continue to store your data in line with our retention policy.

The right to data portability – you have the right to request personal information that you have provided to us for your own purposes. To request information please contact our office in writing.

The right to object to processing– once you have consented to us to process information with regards to your application to foster you no longer have the right to object. United Fostering will continue to process your information to comply with our legal obligations under the fostering service regulations.

Automated decision-making and profiling – Safeguards for individuals have been introduced by GDPR to protect against decisions being made without human intervention - United Fostering does not use automated decision making or profiling in its work. From time to time, our website may contain links to and from our strategic partner(s), partner network(s), strategic sponsor(s), advertiser(s), and affiliate(s). If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies.

Retention of your information

United Fostering operates a clear Retention policy and associated Retention Schedule to ensure personal data is kept only for so long as is necessary for the purpose for which such information is used.

Disclosure of your information

As part of our GDPR compliance obligations, we are duty-bound to check when personal data may be shared with third parties to ensure that they apply the same or greater controls in terms of data protection. The use of non-disclosure agreements forms part of our third-party data sharing controls.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties:

• in the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets; or
• if we or substantially all of our assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about our customers will be one of the transferred assets; or
• 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 other agreements; or
• to protect the rights, property, or safety of United Fostering, our customers, or others.

United Fostering Services, Management