Privacy and Data Protection Policy

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Empower Fostering is part of the Empower Family Group. This privacy policy explains how we use any personal information we collect about you when you use the website and make an enquiry in accordance with The General Data Protection Regulations 2018.

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Note: ‘Us’ refers to Empower Fostering ‘You’, ‘User(s)’, ‘Visitor’ refers to any person who uses this website. This website is owned and controlled by Empower Fostering.

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What information do we collect about you?

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We collect information about you when you submit an enquiry form, send us a message via the website or sign up to an event. This information includes contact details such as your name, email address, telephone number and postal address. By continuing with the enquiry process Empower Fostering will be required to collect data categorised as sensitive personal data to help us understand your current situation as a potential Foster Carer, this may include but is not limited to your gender, marital status, sexuality, age, health and related experience. The enquiry process includes submitting an enquiry form via the website, email enquiries, telephone enquiries, attending an event and the initial home visit.

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Website visit information is collected using cookies. This information lets us keep track of “how many” times users are doing specific things – like visiting our site each month or what they are searching for – without being able to personally identify the user (unless they specifically tell us). More information on Cookies and how to restrict these is available below.

 

How will we use this information?

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We collect information about you to process your enquiry and contact you about becoming a Foster Carer with Empower Fostering. You will be contacted by a member of the recruitment team by telephone and email to talk through your enquiry and to arrange an initial home visit should you wish to progress your enquiry.

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We use the non-identifiable information gained from website cookies to analyse trends and statistics on the way users use the website. We use all this information to improve our content, plan site enhancements, and measure overall site effectiveness.

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We will use information to record your attendance at a Empower Fostering event which forms a part of the enquiry process.

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We will use contact details provided on the message form to reply to a message you send us via the website. If you go on to make an enquiry into becoming a Foster Carer the information you have provided will go on to be included as part of the enquiry process.

Guidance as to how the information is stored

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Your identifiable information will be stored securely by Empower Fostering on both electronic and cloud-based databases. Our cloud-based databases are provided by Social Care Network Solutions Limited and are controlled and accessed by Empower Fostering. Our IT services provider R&TT Consultancy have limited access to some electronic databases. All of our outsourced service providers comply with GDPR to ensure data is stored confidentially and securely.

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Your information given to Empower Fostering at the enquiry stage will be stored for a maximum of 1year and 1month from the date of enquiry. This is to allow Empower Fostering to report to the Government Department OFSTED on yearly enquiry figures. No personal data is transferred to OFSTED as part of this report.

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If you receive an Initial Home Visit (IHV) your personal data will be stored for a period of 10 years. If you decide to enquire to foster with Empower Fostering again; the information obtained in the IHV will inform part of the enquiry process.

Our databases are confidential and your data will never be sold to any third parties.

Marketing

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By making an enquiry you are agreeing to receive information on becoming a Foster Carer with Empower Fostering. You will be contacted by our recruitment team by telephone and/ or email.

You may opt out of receiving this information at a later date by contacting Empower Fostering’s Administration and Data team at info@empowerfostering.co.uk.

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Access to your information and your right to be forgotten

You have a right to request a copy of the information we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please email us at info@empowerfostering.co.uk You may ask us to correct or remove any information you think is inaccurate.

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If you would like to have your personally-identifiable information removed from Empower Fostering’s databases please email info@empowerfostering.co.uk We are required to hold residual information regarding enquiries, but this will not contain personally identifiable information.

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Other Websites

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Our website may include links to other third-party websites. This privacy policy only applies to www.empowerfostering.co.uk. You should read the privacy policies on other websites should you click on any links.

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Changes to our Privacy Policy

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We keep our privacy policy under regular review and will place any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated on 7th September 2020

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How to contact us You can contact us should you have any questions about our privacy policy or the information we hold about you: Email: info@empowerfostering.co.uk Telephone: 01823 756100

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What are Cookies?

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Cookies are small files which are stored on your computer. They are designed to hold data specific to your website visit on our site.

Cookies help to improve your visit to our website by helping with the following:

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• Remembering settings, so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you visit a new page

• Remembering information you’ve given (e.g. your postcode) so you don’t need to keep entering it

• Measuring how you use the website so we can make sure it meets your needs

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Please note that cookies can’t harm your computer and we do not store personally identifiable information in cookies we use on this website.

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We’re giving you this information as part of our initiative to comply with General Data Protection Regulations and Data Protection Act 1998, and to make sure we’re honest and clear about your privacy when using our website.

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How to remove cookies

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You can set your browser to not accept cookies and the following website can help you remove cookies from your browser. However please be aware that some aspects of our website may not function as well if cookies are disabled. If you would like to know how to remove cookies, please visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org

 

The Cookies we use:

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General website cookies

We use built-in session cookies to manage your session. When you navigate to the site, the server establishes a unique session that last for the duration of your visit.

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Measuring website usage – Google Analytics

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Google Analytics uses cookies to define user sessions, as well as to provide a number of key features in the Google Analytics reports. Google Analytics sets or updates cookies only to collect data required for the reports. Additionally, Google Analytics uses only first-party cookies. This means that all cookies set by Google Analytics for your domain send data only to the servers for your domain. This effectively makes Google Analytics cookies the personal property of this website domain, and the data cannot be altered or retrieved by any service on another domain.

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For further information about the Cookies, Google uses please visit this Cookie Information page.

 

Other 3rd Party Cookies we may use

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When you visit our website, you may notice some cookies that are collecting information for other websites. For example, if you visit a page that has video content, cookies from YouTube may be saved. We do not control the setting of these cookies and we recommend you visit the third-party websites for more information.

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