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Privacy policy

Your privacy is important to us. Here’s how we protect and respect your details

At Action for Children, we're honest, we're analytical, we're straightforward – it's part of our values.

We apply these values to everything we do– including how we treat your personal information.

Your ongoing support is invaluable to us. Without it, we cannot continue to help the hundreds of thousands of children, young people, and families we reach every year, across the UK.

To keep your support, we know we need to earn your trust, so we treat your personal information as you'd expect – with respect.

Below is our promise to you – whether you're a supporter, donor, fundraiser, campaigner, volunteer, foster carer, adoptive parent, or someone who uses our services: we've included an outline of how, why, and when we obtain and use your personal information, and how we keep it safe and secure.

Individual rights request

Make an individual rights request for Action for children, including a subject access request

Make a request (opens in a new tab)

Our promise to you

We are responsible for protecting your personal information, and we take this responsibility very seriously.

If you have any queries or concerns about how we use your personal information, please contact the Data Protection Officer:

By email: [email protected]

By post: Data Protection Officer, Action for Children, 3 The Boulevard, Ascot Road, Watford, WD18 8AG.

You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

So, we promise…

  1. To only collect personal information (or 'data') from those who directly interact with us: supporters, donors, fundraisers, event attendees, volunteers, campaigners, foster carers (and/or those who make enquiries), adoptive parents (and/or those who make enquiries), those who use our services, those who use our website and those who request access to our records e.g. a genealogy request.
    Action for Children also, through collaboration with universities or research centres, at times apply for and act as data controller for national data on children such as National Pupil Data in order to analyse the characteristics, pathways and outcomes of children through the care or education system. We may therefore receive anonymised or pseudonymised data that we may use in our research as per point 13 below. Where we receive pseudonymised data we are unable to identify the individual that the information relates to.

2. We – Action for Children – may be the 'data controller' or ‘data processor’ in respect of your personal information depending on the service provided, and are responsible for what happens to it, where it goes, and who sees it … and you can hold us to account for this.

3. That we will never ever sell your data to third parties for their own marketing needs.

4. To collect the minimum personal information we need, limited, where relevant, to your:

  • Name
  • Age/date of birth
  • Gender
  • Contact number(s)
  • Email address(es)
  • Postal address
  • Contact preferences (do you prefer emails or SMS messages?)
  • Information for 'market analysis'
  • Records of fundraising events you've attended
  • Campaigns you've supported
  • Lobbying events you’ve attended
  • Historical details relating to your foster or adoptive family (if relevant to you as an individual)
  • Record of your contact with us – whether a query, compliment, or complaint
  • For our research we may also process data relating to demographic information, education, ethnicity, health and social care.

5. To only obtain and use this information, where relevant, to:

  • Raise further awareness of Action for Children and the work we do
  • Help raise further funds to support children and families across the UK
  • Learn how best to contact you (and what about)
  • Keep a record of your support
  • Some information may be used to help us profile donors to support with our approach to communications
  • Progress applications (employment, volunteering, fostering, adoption) or any other enquiries
  • Learn how to improve our products and services (including through feedback surveys)
  • Learn about other audiences who may be interested in supporting the work of Action for Children (and the new products, services, and information they may be interested in).

6. To keep your data for personal information for:

  • As long as you are an active campaigner, donor, or fundraiser – and only for as long as necessary after your last interaction with us.
  • Up to five years if you make a genealogy request.
  • Up to six years in relation to Gift Aid (in compliance with HMRC regulations)
  • Up to seven years if you volunteer with us
  • As long as is necessary in relation to fostering and adoption and any other enquiries
  • As long as necessary if you have pledged a Legacy to us.

7. That you can opt out of receiving communications from us at any time.

We will only be able to send communications, updates, or information to those who have stated they are happy for us to do so.

8. That you can request to access, change, or delete your information at any time.

9. To only share your personal information with carefully selected third party partners, where relevant – and never for third party sale purposes – for:

  • Secure storage
  • Business Reporting
  • Market analysis (looking at the types of people who engage with us, and why)
  • Screening data, so that we don’t send information to an old address, or call an old phone number
  • Emailing via our email partners
  • Calling you, via Ethicall
  • Sending printed material (newsletters, updates, magazines, appeals)
  • Securely processing Direct Debits
  • Looking for prospective supporters, of a similar background, via Facebook
  • Securely processing donations from text giving platforms, using selected partners.

But… please be mindful that our website may contain links to and from other websites – partners and affiliates – and they will have their own privacy policies, which we do not accept any responsibility or liability for.

10. That the previously mentioned third parties can only act on our strict instructions, in line with our contracts with them, and cannot use your personal information for any reason outside of those instructions, or sell those details to any other organisations.

11. To protect your personal information by:

  • Only keeping it for as long as is strictly necessary
  • Only passing it to carefully selected third parties
  • Anonymising your personal details when using data for market analysis
  • Encrypting your personal information when using it to develop new services or products, or looking for supporters of a similar background or age
  • Ensuring all online forms are encrypted and that our network is protected
  • Securely destroying your identity documents once we've acted on an Access to Records or Genealogy request
  • Acting upon any requests to view, change, or delete your information, within one calendar month unless the request is complex and more time is required.

12. If you are unhappy with how we've handled your personal information, or a complaint you've made in respect of this, you have the right to contact the Information Commissioner's Office.

13. Action for Children on occasion carry out research projects with the aim to improve well-being, care and services for children and their families within the UK. Sometimes this is in partnership with other organisations such as research funders or Universities. If Action for Children request the research they are often the Data Controller. Other times where Action for Children just use the information they are the Data Processor. Where AfC works in collaboration with other organisations there may be two or more Data Controllers. In these instances AfC will have agreements in place that outline the responsibilities of all parties. AfC promises to respect the confidentiality and sensitivity of personal information. When conducting research on outcomes where possible AfC collect, use and share anonymised data. The data will be kept in accordance with our data retention schedules. Personal data contained within such datasets will be safeguarded appropriately in order to protect the rights and interests of the data subjects and particular care will be taken with highly sensitive personal data such as gender, ethnicity, or disability, etc. Appropriate safeguards will be in place as follows:

  • The research will not cause substantial damage or distress to the data subject (i.e. substantial physical harm, financial loss or psychological pain). It will not be used to make any individual decisions about children. 
  • The research will have approval from a research ethics committee.

The lawful basis for processing this data is legitimate interest. This is to support our research and campaigning aids that have a wider societal benefit. The special condition for processing special category data is Article 9(2)(j) Archiving, research and statistics. The associated condition set out in DPA (2018) Schedule 1, Part 1 that is relied upon for these research projects is condition (4) Research.

Who we are

1. In the legal sense

Action for Children is a leading UK children's charity, registered in England and Wales (Charity Number: 1097940), and in Scotland (SC038092). We are also a company limited by guaranteed registered in England and Wales (company number: 04764232). Our registered office is at 3 The Boulevard, Ascot Road, Watford, Hertfordshire, WD18 8AG

Action for Children and other Action for Children Group Companies are the data controller for the information you give us. We use your consent, or legitimate interest, as the lawful basis for processing personal information.

2. In plain English

Action for Children is a charity supporting 687,755 children, young people, and families across the UK, every year.

We support them through practical, evidence-based programmes and services, proven to work:

  • Helping families stay together
  • Supporting children in their early years
  • Stepping in early to stop abuse and neglect
  • Finding loving foster parents
  • Supporting young carers
  • Supporting children with disabilities
  • Steering young people away from trouble – into training and employment.

And we continue to campaign to change flawed policies – to make life better for children, from the moment they’re born.

We've been supporting children for 156 years – from our humble beginnings as the National Children’s Home to our role as Action for Children; protecting hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children and young people, right across the country.

In that time, we’ve worked with thousands of supporters, donors, campaigners, volunteers, foster and adoptive parents, and we continue to do so – as Action for Children.

We couldn’t do what we do without you. Thank you for helping so many children.

Fostering applicants

We will only ever use the information you provide, in our online form, for:

  • Sending you information about fostering
  • Contacting you follow-up calls
  • Market analysis

When we say 'market analysis’, we're simply looking to learn more about the types of people who might be interested in fostering, and we’ll always use minimal personal details when doing this.

However, you can contact us, at any time, to object to the use of your information for market analysis.

You can also withdraw your initial application, if you do not wish to go ahead and foster.

In terms of securely storing your information, this is done through our partners, SCN (Social Care Network), who manage a system called Charms on our behalf.

We only keep your information for as long as we need. If you decide to progress your enquiry to become a foster carer, or adopt, then the length of time your information is held changes, and is determined by law.

When you apply to be a foster carer or adoptive parent, Action for Children may collect the following information about you to create your record, containing:  

  • Personal details such as your name, date of birth, gender, nationality, address and contact details; including email address and telephone number;
  • Sensitive personal details such as your ethnicity, sexuality, health, disability and religion or beliefs;
  • Your childhood, family and other relationships including current and past marital status, education experience, employment history and finances;
  • References from previous and current employers and other relevant references.

If approved as a foster carer, we will need to collect additional details about you these will be added to your foster carer record: 

  • Bank account information;
  • Records of the children placed with you and how you care for them;
  • Any training or courses you complete;
  • Updates and changes to your health or circumstances;
  • Records of your supervisions, meetings and annual reviews;
  • Any complaints or allegations about you;
  • Information from the children you look after;
  • Information from parents of the looked after children;
  • Checks obtained in respect of other people within your household.

We will ask you to give us most of this information. We will obtain information from others: the relevant disclosure body conducting a criminal records checks, personal referees and employers, your doctors. We will only approach these parties where you have provided consent.

Verifile, Access NI and Disclosure Scotland
The above parties complete criminal record check on behalf of Action for Children/ Action for Children Developments Ltd (t/a “Spring Nurseries”. If you are successfully selected for a role then we will provide you with instructions on how to complete these online.
Here is a link to their Privacy Notices
Verifile - https://www.verifile.co.uk/privacy
Access NI – http://www.accessnichecks.co.uk/privacy
Disclosure Scotland – https://www.mygov.scot/privacy/

We may also obtain information from children you are looking after, their parents or family, and from professionals working with the children and any other relevant sources who might bring information to our attention.

Personal information about others in your family and/or living in your household is collected as part of your foster carer record. Most of this information is provided by you, by them directly, or occasionally by others. Please inform your family and household members about this, according to their age and understanding, and tell them that they can read this privacy notice if they wish.

Action for Children will only use your information to fulfil legal obligations as a fostering service, for the following reasons:  

  • Assessing your suitability to be a foster carer;
  • Matching you with children who need to be fostered;
  • Supporting and supervising your activity as a foster carer;
  • Reviewing at least annually your continued suitability to foster;
  • Maintaining your application if approved as a foster carer;
  • Meeting legal obligations and fostering and adoption regulations.

We may share some of the above information about you where we have a legal obligation, this includes the following:

  • To undertake checks and references as part of the fostering assessment, and only where you have explicitly consented;
  • Panel members who approve foster carers and at subsequent reviews;
  • Local authority commissioning services who are considering whether you might be suitable to foster a specific child they are seeking to place;
  • Regulatory bodies when they are inspecting the fostering service as required by law;
  • To allow your information to be held securely on our database that is commissioned from the Social Care Network;
  • With the Independent Review Mechanism if you ask for a review of any decision by the fostering service about your suitability or continued suitability to foster.

We have a system to ensure that your information is only accessed by individuals authorised by us in the performance of their duties.

Your personal data that is held electronically on a system called Charms is only accessible to legitimate persons.

All of our staff are trained in data protection duties, and are required to comply with our data protection policies.

We only keep your information as long as we need to; the law expects us to keep your information for: 6 years if you withdraw your application or your application is unsuccessful.

If your application is approved your details are kept for 10 years from the date on which approval is terminated.

Access to records and genealogy requests

If you make a genealogy request, to trace a member of your family, or request access to our historical records, we’ll collect information to:

  • Check your identity
  • Keep a record of all enquiries received
  • Help locate the information you’ve requested
  • Monitor our service

We’ll never share your data with any other organisation, unless required by law, and once we’ve acted upon your request, your identity documents will be securely destroyed.

Any other information in relation to your request, such as notes from meetings, is added to your file and stored according to the data protection legal requirements – for example:

  • For residential care files – 75 years from date of birth
  • For adoption files – 100 years
  • For Genealogy enquiries – 5 years
  • For all other files – 6 years (unless the law requires otherwise).

Campaigns

When you support us by campaigning – for example, lobbying government to change a policy affecting children – we collect the information you provide, but only with your consent, to:

  • Keep a record of your support;
  • Send you relevant information about campaigns;
  • Request further support;
  • Keep records of our contact with you – updates or information we send, and any enquiries or complaints you make.

We may sometimes use your data for our legitimate interest, helping us to become more effective as a children's charity – for example:

  • Understanding the types of people who support Action for Children;
  • Finding new supporters of a similar background or age group;
  • Developing new products and services.

The data we use would be completely anonymised and we’d only use the minimum amount required.

We may share limited information about you with our third party partners, but this will only be so that we can contact you in relation to Action for Children campaigns, appeals, or updates on events or services.

As mentioned, these partner organisations can only act on our instructions.

And, if you'd rather this information wasn't shared, you can ask to have it changed, withdraw your consent, or object to it being used (in our legitimate interests), at any time. See Your rights, below, for more details.

Fundraising, donations and legacies

When you support our work by fundraising; taking part in an Action for Children event (such as Spring Ladies Lunch or the Giant Wiggle); raising funds for us via a third party event (like the London Marathon); making a donation via a third party platform for example Facebook, donating your own money or money raised by a group; or choosing to leave a gift in your will, we’ll collect the information you provide and only use it to:

  • Keep a record of your support;
  • Keep a record of your preferred method of contact (phone, email, post, SMS);
  • Send you relevant information about our work, including campaigns or fundraising events;
  • Ask for further support;
  • Note fundraising events you’ve taken part in;
  • Keep records of our contact with you – updates or information we send, and any enquiries or complaints you make;
  • Keep information about donations and Gift Aid, to comply with HMRC requirements.

We may carefully use some of your personal information for our legitimate interests – fully encrypted – to help us in:

  • Understanding the types of people who support Action for Children;
  • Finding new supporters of a similar background or age group;
  • Developing new products and services;
  • Understanding how we can improve existing products and services;
  • Advertising those products and services to people with similar interests to you.

We may share limited information about you with our third party partners, but this will only be so that we can contact you in relation to Action for Children campaigns, appeals, or upcoming events.

As mentioned, these partner organisations can only act on our instructions.

We keep information about donations and Gift Aid for 6 years, to comply with HMRC requirements.

And, if you’d rather this information wasn't shared, you can ask to have it changed, withdraw your consent, or object to it being used to help us (in our legitimate interests), at any time. See Your rights for more details.

We use tools that scan the internet and social media sites to collect and analyse information individuals publish online about Action for Children and relevant issues so that we can plan our campaigning and fundraising strategically.

Communications:

We will use Legitimate Interests to contact you via Post and by phone if you are not registered with the Telephone Preference Service. This is aligned with the PECR law of 2003. You have the right to object to this and update your preference by calling 0300 123 2112 or by emailing [email protected].

Job applicants

Action for Children is the data controller for the information you provide during the process unless otherwise stated. If you have any queries about the process or how we handle your information please contact us at [email protected].

Action for Children is the data controller for the information you provide for the purposes of your application for employment with Action for Children/ Action for Children Developments Ltd (t/a “Spring Nurseries”). If you have any queries about the process or how we handle your information please contact us at [email protected].

Our purpose for processing this information is to assess your suitability for a role you have applied for and to help us develop and improve our recruitment process.

The lawful basis we rely on for processing your personal data is article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR*, which relates to processing necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request, before entering a contract.

If you provide us with any information about reasonable adjustments, you require under the Equality Act 2010 the lawful basis we rely on for processing this information is article 6(1)(c) to comply with our legal obligations under the Act.

The lawful basis we rely on to process any information you provide as part of your application which is special category data, such as health, religious or ethnicity information is article 9(2)(b) of the GDPR, which relates to our obligations in employment and the safeguarding of your fundamental rights. The processing condition is Schedule 1 part 1(1) of the DPA2018 which again relates to processing for employment purposes.

We process information about applicant criminal convictions and offences. The lawful basis we rely on for processing your personal data is article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR, which relates to processing necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request, before entering a contract. The processing condition is Schedule 1 part 1(1) of the DPA2018 which again relates to processing for employment purposes.

*The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been retained in domestic law now the Brexit Transition period has ended. The “UK GDPR” sits alongside an amended version of the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018.

All of the information you provide during the process will only be used for the purpose of progressing your application, or to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements if necessary.

We will not share any of the information you provide during the recruitment process with any third parties for marketing purposes or store any of your information outside of the European Economic Area. The information you provide will be held securely by us and/or our data processors whether the information is in electronic or physical format.

We will use the contact details you provide to us to contact you to progress your application. We will use the other information you provide to assess your suitability for the role you have applied for.

We do not collect more information than we need to fulfil our stated purposes and will not retain it for longer than is necessary.

The information we ask for is used to assess your suitability for employment. You don’t have to provide what we ask for but it might affect your application if you don’t.

We will use any feedback you provide about our recruitment process to develop and improve our future recruitment campaigns.

If you use our online application system, this will be collected by our data processor eArcu on our behalf.

We ask you for your personal details including name, contact details and an updated curriculum vitae. We will also ask you about your previous experience, education, referees (to be provided if you are successful in securing the role) and for answers to questions relevant to the role you have applied for. Our recruitment team will have access to all this information.

You will also be asked to provide equal opportunities information. This is not mandatory – if you do not provide it, it will not affect your application. This information will not be made available to any staff outside of our recruitment team, including hiring managers, in a way which can identify you. Any information you do provide, will be used only to produce and monitor equal opportunities statistics.

The hiring team will shortlist applications for interview based on the criteria within the person specification. For certain roles there may be external panel members involved from the shortlisting stage through to interview. This for example may include our young people or statutory agencies. They will not be provided with your equal opportunities information where you have provided it.

We might ask you to participate in assessment days; complete tests or occupational personality profile questionnaires; and/or to attend an interview – or a combination of these. Information will be generated by you and by us. For example, you might complete a written test or we might take interview notes. This information is held by Action for Children/ Action for Children Developments Ltd (t/a “Spring Nurseries”.

If we make a conditional offer of employment we will ask you for information so that we can carry out pre-employment checks. You must successfully complete pre-employment checks to progress to a final offer. We are required to confirm the identity of our staff, their right to work in the UK and seek assurance as to their trustworthiness, integrity and reliability.

You will therefore be required to:

  • Provide proof of your identity – you will be asked to provide your original documents; we will require copies.
  • Provide proof of your qualifications – you will be asked to provide original documents.
  • To complete a criminal records declaration to declare any unspent convictions.
  • Provide your email address to the relevant Disclosure Body to enable an application for a Criminal Record check via the DBS, Disclosure Scotland, or Access NI, which will verify your declaration of unspent convictions.
  • Provide details for referees whom we will contact, using the details you provide as part of the onboarding checks, directly to obtain references.
  • Complete a questionnaire about your health. This is to establish your fitness to work and where appropriate will be referred to our Occupational Health service. This is done through a data processor (please see below).
  • Share any reasonable adjustments you may require under the Equality Act 2010. This information will be shared with relevant Action for Children/ Action for Children Developments Ltd (t/a “Spring Nurseries” staff to ensure these are in place for when you start your employment.
  • If we make a final offer, we will also ask you for the following:
  • National insurance number and bank details – to process salary payments.
  • Emergency contact details – so we know who to contact in case you have an emergency at work

Data processors are third parties who provide elements of our recruitment service for us. We have contracts in place with our data processors. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us. They will hold it securely and retain it for the period we instruct.

  1. eArcu - If you use our online application system, you will provide the requested information to eArcu who provide this online service for us. Once you click ‘apply now’ you will be taken to eArcu website and they will hold the information you submit but Action for Children will have access to it.
    Here is a link to their Privacy Notice http://www.earcu.com/privacy
  2. MHR - If you accept a final offer from us, some of your personnel records will be held on MHR Itrent which is an internally used HR information system.
    Here is a link to their Privacy Notice - https://www.mhr.co.uk/privacy-policy/
  3. PAM Group - PAM Group provide our Occupational Health service. If we make you a conditional offer, we will ask that you complete a questionnaire which will help to determine if you are fit to undertake the work that you have been offered, or advise us if any adjustments are needed to the work environment or systems so that you may work effectively.
    We will send you a link to the questionnaire which will take you to PAM Group website. The information you provide will be held by PAM Group who will provide us with a fit to work certificate or a report with recommendations. You are able to request to see the report before it is sent to us. If you decline for us to see it, then this could affect your job offer. If an occupational health assessment is required, this is likely to be carried out by PAM Group.
    Here is a link to their website where you can review their Privacy Notice - https://www.pamgroup.co.uk/

Verifile, Access NI and Disclosure Scotland
The above parties complete criminal record check on behalf of Action for Children/ Action for Children Developments Ltd (t/a “Spring Nurseries”. If you are successfully selected for a role then we will provide you with instructions on how to complete these online.
Here is a link to their Privacy Notices:
Verifile - https://www.verifile.co.uk/privacy
Access NI – http://www.accessnichecks.co.uk/privacy
Disclosure Scotland – https://www.mygov.scot/privacy/

Employee Files

If you are successful, the information you provide during the application process will be retained by us as part of your employee file for the duration of your employment plus 6 years following the end of your employment. This includes your criminal records declaration, fitness to work, records of any security checks and references. Your Right to Work check will be kept for 2 years after employment ceases.

Recruitment Files

If you are unsuccessful at any stage of the process, the data is archived after an application has been in a status for 365 days, unless you make a request to the Recruitment Service to remove this. The exception to this is if you have been Hired in which case, they are stored in the eArcu system for 2555 days.

If you have created a profile, it will be retained in the eArcu system for a minimum of 365 days after creation. Profiles that have existed in the system for more than 365 days and have no applications will be archived.

The exceptions to this rule are:

1. Your profile has an active subscription to job alerts.

2. Your profile has explicitly consented to be contacted beyond this period i.e. in our talent or reserve pool.

eArcu will provide us with management information about our recruitment campaigns. This is anonymised information which tells us about the effectiveness of campaigns, for example, from which source did we get the most candidates, equal opportunities information for monitoring purposes. This anonymised information will be retained indefinitely years from the end of the campaign.

Final recruitment decisions are made by hiring managers and members of our recruitment team. All of the information gathered during the application process is taken into account.

You are able to ask about decisions made about your application by speaking to your contact within our recruitment team or by emailing [email protected]

Under the Data Protection legislation and GDPR, you have rights as an individual which you can exercise in relation to the information we hold about you. This can be done by emailing [email protected]

You can request to see any information we hold about you and ask to have any inaccuracies corrected. You can read more about these rights here – https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/

Action for Children tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.

This privacy notice was drafted with brevity and clarity in mind. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of Action for Children’s collection and use of personal information. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to the address below.

Volunteers

We'll only ever use the information you provide, and references from your chosen referees, to:

  • Assess and progress your application
  • Contact you regarding volunteer opportunities

Your information is securely stored with Better Impact, a data storage company in Canada – a country recognised as providing robust protection by the European Commission.

You can find more details on Better Impact's Privacy Policy here.

Verifile, Access NI and Disclosure Scotland
The above parties complete criminal record check on behalf of Action for Children/ Action for Children Developments Ltd (t/a “Spring Nurseries”. If you are successfully selected for a volunteer role then we will provide you with instructions on how to complete these online.
Here is a link to their Privacy Notices
Verifile - https://www.verifile.co.uk/privacy
Access NI – http://www.accessnichecks.co.uk/privacy
Disclosure Scotland – https://www.mygov.scot/privacy/

How we use profiling

We are grateful for every single penny we receive from our supporters – every penny that goes towards changing children’s lives for the better.

But we want to ensure that what we ask of our supporters is fair, reasonable, and relevant, to them.

For this reason, we do something called 'profiling'.

It's standard practice across the charity sector, and simply means we look at your personal information – your background – and consider what’s appropriate to ask of you, or send to you.

We do this manually, by looking at information that you’ve given us, or information that’s publicly available – for example, on social media and other public sources.

It means we can tailor communications so that they are relevant (perhaps in relation to one of our services in your area), timely, and respectful – only asking for donations that are within a supporter’s means, or appropriate for those who may be able/willing to give more than they already do.

It also enables us to identify those who are in the fortunate position of being able to help us fund entire projects or services, and whether they would like to meet us to develop a more personal relationship and/or discuss future opportunities to support our work in helping children.

In turn, this approach means we can raise funds sooner, and more cost-effectively – something we know to be of great importance to our supporters.

If you would rather your personal information is not used for the purposes of profiling, please contact us using the details in the Your rights section of this policy.

Changes to this privacy notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 14th Feb 2022

How to contact us

If you want to request information about our privacy policy or to make a complaint you can email us or write to:

Information Governance Team, Action for Children, 3 The Boulevard, Ascot Road, Watford, WD18 8AG or email [email protected]

If – having contacted us about the use of your personal information – you are unhappy with our response, you can register a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk/concerns

Privacy Notice for Civil Claims

Action for Children is a leading children's charity. During the process of lodging a civil claim against Action for Children and group companies, (for ease of reference hereinafter called "the Company"), the Company will collect, use and hold ("process") your personal data. Read more about this below.

Download
Privacy Notice for Civil Claims

Your rights

Individual rights request

Make an individual rights request for Action for children, including a subject access request

Make a request (opens in a new tab)

You have the right to:

  • Ask what information we hold about you – and be given that information;
  • Ask us to correct, change, or update any information we hold about you;
  • Withdraw your consent for us to use your information;
  • Ask us to delete your information entirely;
  • Make a complaint or ask any other question in relation to your information.

In relation to fundraising, legacies, donations or campaigns, you have the right to:

  • Opt out of communications;
  • Object to your data being processed by us (for legitimate interests) – for market research/analysis purposes.

The above rights do not apply in all circumstances and this will be explained when you make the request.

If you wish to do any of the above, please contact our Supporter Care team on 0300 123 2112, or email [email protected]

You can also write to us at:

Action for Children,
3 The Boulevard,
Ascot Road,
Watford
WD18 8AG.

If – having contacted us about the use of your personal information – you are unhappy with our response, you can register a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. If you are based in Guernsey you should contact the Office of the Data Protection Authority at [email protected].

Privacy policy updates

Our Privacy Policy is regularly reviewed, and may be updated, based on certain requirements.

With that in mind, you are advised to revisit the policy for the most up-to-date information.