Our commitment

Action for Children is committed to protecting your privacy.

We follow data protection law when treating your personal information. This includes: the UK Data Protection Act 2018, the Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law 2017 and other applicable laws.

We review our privacy policies on a regular basis, so this policy may change from time to time. The latest version will always be on this website.

This version was updated on 19 February 2024.

Do you have questions? Email [email protected] or write to: Data Protection Officer, Action for Children, 3 The Boulevard, Ascot Road, Watford WD18 8AG.

Purposes of processing

UpLift community

UpLift is an online community for care-experienced young people aged 16-25. When you sign up to UpLift you can post anonymously on the message board with your work-related questions and issues. When you post, your username and message will be visible to other members who have signed up to UpLift.

Your participation in UpLift is on a voluntary basis - you are under no obligation to engage with the service.

The information you share will help us to support you. It will also help us to learn more about issues faced by care-experienced young people.

Our lawful basis for this is legitimate interests. As a children’s charity, we have a legitimate interest in using your data to support you.

One-to-one instant messages

You have the option to have a conversation with an Action for Children volunteer guide instant message. Conversations in your one-to-one chat are not visible to other members of the UpLift community and can only be accessed by Action for Children staff.

Feedback about the service

During the pilot we will occasionally ask you some questions about what you think about UpLift through short surveys and an optional online video call.

We may share anonymised quotes and case studies from the service with people and organisations who want to fund UpLift, like commissioners and funders. Anonymised means you can’t be identified. This could be from:

• the UpLift community message board
• one-to-one web chats
• feedback forms and conversations

We do this to tell people about UpLift and to get funding for the service. We also do it to measure the impact UpLift is making and improve the service.

When we anonymise a quote or a case study, we remove or change details that could identify you or the people around you. This includes removing details like your name, your age, where you live, or specific details about your life.

What information we gather and how

We collect your personal information when you sign up to UpLift. This includes:

• your email address
• your chosen username
• any other personal information you choose to share with us

The lawful basis for collecting this information is legitimate interests. This means that when you tell us about yourself, we collect this information to give you the best support and advice possible.

How we use this information

We collect this information to support you and to understand how young people use UpLift, so we can improve it in future.

Specifically, we may use information you share to:

• provide the service to you
• signpost you to appropriate local services
• escalate safeguarding concerns
• contact you in response to a specific enquiry
• evaluate the service
• improve the service we provide
• contact you for feedback
• update you on the work we are doing to support care-experienced young people (only with your consent)

What we will do with your personal information

Action for Children is the data controller for your personal information. By law, we have to make sure we:

• only use your information for the purpose for which it was requested
• keep your information secure

You don't have to share any details other than your email address with us – there are lots of reasons why you might want to remain anonymous, which we will respect.

If you use instant message chat, all chats are confidential, and we will always seek your agreement before we share any of your details with other organisations. The only time we will share information without your consent is if we think there is a life-threatening situation, or if you or someone else might be at risk of significant harm. On these occasions we may need to contact the Police, Ambulance Service or Children’s Social Care.

The chat service is hosted by Twilio and we send evaluation forms hosted on Microsoft Forms. Twilio use servers that are in the United States. We have contracts and controls in place to make sure that your data is held to the same standard as it is in the UK, and to make sure that your rights under data protection legislation can be met.

How long will we keep your information?

We only keep your information up to a maximum of seven years.

Action for Children has strong data protection and security policies in place to protect your personal data.

Your information rights

You can ask to see any information Action for Children holds about you, to have information corrected or erased. We are responsible for protecting your personal information, and we take this responsibility very seriously.

If you have any questions or concerns about how we use your personal information, you can:

• Email the Data Protection Officer at [email protected],
• Write to us at: Data Protection Officer, Action for Children, 3 The Boulevard, Ascot Road, Watford, WD18 8AG.

For more information about your information rights, please visit www.ico.org.uk. If you are based in Guernsey for more information about your information rights please visit www.odpa.gg.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, you have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office to lodge a complaint.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, you have the right to contact the Office Data Protection Authority to lodge a complaint.

Cookies and how we use them

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small file placed on your computer’s hard drive. It enables us to identify your computer as you view different pages on our website.

Cookies enable us to see information like how many people use the website/service and how people use it.

How we use cookies

We may use cookies to:

• analyse our web traffic using Google Analytics. Aggregated usage data helps us improve the website structure, design, content, and functions.
• identify whether you are signed-in to our website.
• store information about your preferences. The website can then present you with information you will find more relevant and interesting.
• recognise when you return to our website.

Cookies do not provide us with access to your computer or any information about you, other than that which you choose to share with us.

Strictly necessary cookies

Cookies described as strictly necessary are used to remember things like the information you’ve entered on a form or any orders or services you have requested. These cookies make sure you connect to the correct service on our website when we make any changes to the site. These cookies are essential for the websites to operate effectively.

Performance cookies

The performance cookies on our website are used to collect information about how you use our website, pages visited and any errors you may experience. These cookies don’t collect any information that could identify you – all information collected is anonymous and is only used to improve how our website works, understand what interest’s users and measure the effectiveness of our advertising.

Targeting cookies

Targeting cookies are linked to services provided by third parties. The third party provides these services in return for recognising that you have visited our website. We use ‘targeting’ cookies to link to social networks who may subsequently use information about your visit to target advertising to you on other websites or to provide advertising agencies with information on your visit so that they can present you with adverts that you may be interested in. You can control whether or not these cookies are used, but preventing them may stop us from offering you some services. All of these cookies are managed by third parties and you may alternatively use the third parties’ own tools to prevent these cookies.

Controlling cookies

We use OneTrust to manage how users opt in and out of the cookies on our website. You can update your preferences for the cookies on our website through your profile. Please note that our websites will work without cookies, but you will lose some features and functionality if you choose to disable them.

Manage settings

If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies which are set on your device then you can do this through your browser settings for details, see aboutcookies.org. You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. If you do this, however, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site and some services and functionalities may not work.

Links from the site

Our website may contain links to other websites. You may also be sent links during your conversations with us to other websites.

Please note that we have no control of websites outside the Action for Children domain. If you provide information to a website to which we link, we are not responsible for its protection and privacy.

Always be wary when submitting data to websites. Read the site’s data protection and privacy policies fully.