Privacy Policy - Childhood First

This policy sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide, which will be processed by us. Please carefully read the following to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

Who we are

The Institute of Integrated Systemic Therapy is a charity which trades under the name Childhood First. We provide therapeutic and educational support to severely traumatised children and young people. We currently operate four residential communities as well as educational and support services and fostering care provision.

The information we collect

‘Personal data’ means any information that identifies a living person. This can include name, address, phone number or email address.

It also covers our use of any personal information you provide to us. This may be by phone, text message (SMS), email, social media, letter and other correspondence, and in person. It can include IP addresses and other technical identifying information.

This website uses cookies as outlined in our cookies policy. These are small data text files sent from websites which are then stored on users’ computers, tablets and phones when accessing the site.

We use Google Analytics cookies to give us information about how you use our website. This data includes:

Your IP address and details of the version of web browser you used to visit our website
Information on how you use our website to help us improve it

Google Analytics allows us to find out the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. The information is processed in a way that does not identify anyone. No attempt is made through Google Analytics to find out the identities of people visiting the website. For more information you can read the Google Analytics privacy policy.

We also collect the following data that is voluntarily submitted by users:

Details you give us if you apply for a job, to volunteer, to become a foster carer or if you make a general enquiry
Details you give us if you make a donation

We will not sell, rent or share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

When you are using our secure online donation pages, your donation is processed by a third party payment processor, who specialises in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions. If you have any questions regarding secure transactions, please contact us.

This privacy notice does not cover information gathered on other websites outside our control.

Why we hold your data

We hold your details to:

Communicate with you as a supporter
Tell you about the things you have told us you are interested in – if you have given us permission to
To carry out research on the demographics, background and interest of our supporters and users of our services. This is to get a better understanding of them and improve our services.
Respond to your enquiry or request for information
Process sales or donations, and to verify financial transactions
To keep a record of any contact we have had with you

How we collect data

We may collect and store information about you whenever you interact with us. For example, when you make a donation, register for an event or submit an enquiry. We also use your personal data to claim Gift Aid if applicable. Other examples include if you register for our services, apply for a job or volunteering opportunity, or otherwise give us any other personal information.

We may also receive information about you from third parties for a specific purpose. However, this will only happen if you have given them permission to share your information.

Where your data is stored

Data you submit via this website is transmitted normally over the internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems.

If you contact us for the following purposes, your data will be stored as follows:

Foster carer enquiries – on our fostering database
Job and volunteering applications – on our website database initially, before information is transferred to our internal HR database
Placement enquiries – on our email database
Fundraising enquiries – on our email database
Media enquiries – on our email database
General enquiries – on our email database

Sharing and Transfers

We will never sell, rent or trade your personal data. We may disclose your information if required to by law or to enforce our legal rights.

We do not transfer data outside the European Economic Area.

Marketing communication preferences

We will only process your personal data to send you direct marketing if we have your consent.

If you have given us permission to contact you about Childhood First news and information, our work or ways to support us, you are able to change your mind about how you would like us to contact you or tell us that you would no longer like to hear from us, by calling 020 7928 7388 or visit our Contact Us page.

Any marketing emails sent by Childhood First in future, will include the opportunity to unsubscribe from future correspondence.

Building profiles of supporters and targeting communications

We may use profiling and screening techniques to ensure communications are relevant and well timed. We may also use them to provide an improved experience for our supporters. Profiling also allows us to target our resources effectively. We do this because it allows us to understand the background of the people who support us. This helps us to make appropriate requests to supporters who may be able and willing to give more than they already do. It also helps us to raise more funds, sooner, and more cost-effectively, than we otherwise would.

When building a profile we may analyse geographic, demographic and other information relating to you. This is so we can understand your interests and preferences better in order to contact you with the most relevant communications. In doing this, we may use additional information from third-party sources when it is available. This information is gathered using publicly available data about you, for example addresses, listed directorships or typical earnings in a given area.

You are not required to provide personal data to us. Note, however that your failure to do so may affect our ability to provide the services you request. For example, we are unable to receive a donation from you if you do not provide payment information. Or we are unable to provide a receipt if you do not provide contact details.

To opt out of this processing, please see our section on Right of Access.

Right of Access

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies in your information corrected. However, a small fee based on administrative costs may be charged for repeat requests for the same information or if a request is deemed to be excessive or unfounded.

Incorrect data can be changed, blocked or destroyed.

Changing your communication preferences

You can change your communication preferences at any time. You can choose whether we contact you by mail, telephone, email, or text message. You can also choose whether or not you receive information on certain activities of Childhood First, such as appeals, campaigns and events. Just contact us – by phone on 020 7928 7388 or visit our Contact Us page.

You can ask Childhood First to stop using your personal data at any time. However, we usually keep the personal data of people who have requested no further contact. This is so that we can make sure we don’t include them in any activity aiming to recruit new supporters.

Sometimes it is necessary to process your data for us to comply with our legal obligations, for example, when we send Gift Aid information to HMRC.

How to make complaints or raise concerns

Requests for information about our privacy statement can be emailed to our data protection officer at: enquiries.

The data controller is ‘Childhood First’ and our Information Commission’s Office (ICO) registration number is Z7990565.

You also have the right to make a complaint direct to the UK’s data protection authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO can be contacted at: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Concerns can be also be logged via the ICO website

Changes to this privacy statement

We should regularly review our privacy statement. Updates be posted on the website and will apply from when they are updated on the website. Supporters that we are in contact with will be informed if there are major changes.

This privacy policy was last updated on 9th June 2020.