Privacy Notice — Sparks Fostering

Part 1 — For children and young people

Hello. Sparks Fostering finds foster families and helps them look after children. If you live with one of our foster carers, we keep some information about you. This part explains what we keep, and why.

If anything here does not make sense, ask your foster carer, your social worker, or any adult you trust. You can also email us at [email protected].

What do you keep about me?

Your name, your birthday, where you live and who you live with. Notes about your health and how you are doing at school. Things you like, things you need, and things you have told us. Information about your family and when you see them. Notes from meetings about you.

Where do you get it from?

Most of it comes from the council that looks after you. Some comes from your foster carer, your doctor, your school — and some comes from you.

Why do you keep it?

Because the law says we have to, and because we cannot look after you properly or keep you safe without it. We never use it to sell you anything.

Who else sees it?

Only people who need it to help look after you. That means your council, your social worker and your foster carer, and sometimes your doctor or your school. Ofsted see some of it too — they are the people who check we are doing a good job.

If we ever think you are not safe, we may have to tell someone who can help, even if you have asked us not to. If that happens we will try to tell you first.

Does a computer decide things about me?

No. We use a computer tool that helps our staff read long files and write things more quickly. A real person always checks what it has written, and a real person always makes the decision. A computer never decides anything about you.

How long do you keep it?

We keep records about children in foster care for 15 years after the last thing is written in them. The law says we have to. It also means that when you are older, you can ask to see them.

What can I do about it?

• You can ask to see what we have written about you. Just ask.
• If something is wrong, tell us and we will put it right.
• You can ask us why we keep something.
• If you are not happy about how we have looked after your information, tell us. We have to look into it properly and write to you with what we decided. Email [email protected] or ring 0161 262 0999.
• If you are still not happy, you can tell the Information Commissioner’s Office. They check that organisations look after information properly. Their website is ico.org.uk.

You do not have to do any of this on your own. Your foster carer, your social worker or another adult you trust can help you.

Part 2 — Full privacy notice

1. Who holds the information

Social Work Enterprise Ltd, trading as Sparks Fostering, is the controller of the personal data described in this notice.

Contact: [email protected].

2. What information is held, and where it comes from

Who	Categories of information	Where it comes from
Prospective and approved foster carers, and their households	Identity and contact details; household composition; employment and financial information; health; racial or ethnic origin; religion; relationship and family history; references; enhanced DBS disclosures; assessment, supervision and review records; allegations and investigations where they arise.	From the applicant or carer; from referees and employers; from the Disclosure and Barring Service; and from local authorities and social care record holders carrying out statutory checks.
Children and young people placed, or being considered for placement	Identity and contact details; care, placement and family contact history; health and medical needs; racial or ethnic origin, religion and cultural needs; education records; behavioural and developmental needs; risk and safeguarding information; offending information where relevant; case records.	From the placing local authority; and from NHS bodies, schools, CAMHS, the police, courts and other safeguarding partners.
Employees, independent and sessional workers, and panel members	Identity and contact details; qualifications and professional registration; DBS disclosures; references; right-to-work documentation; bank details; engagement, performance and training records.	From the individual; from referees; from the Disclosure and Barring Service; and from professional registers.
Birth parents, family members and other people named in a child’s records	Identity and contact details, and information about them relevant to the child’s care, including family and contact history and, where relevant, health, safeguarding and offending information.	From the placing local authority; from the child and the foster carer; and from other safeguarding partners.
Staff at local authorities and other agencies	Name, job title, employer and work contact details.	From the individual, or from their employer.
Visitors to the website	Device and browser information, IP address, pages viewed and how the site is used, and any details submitted through an enquiry form.	From the visitor’s device, through cookies and similar technologies; and from the visitor, where an enquiry form is completed.

Some of this information is about people who have not given it to us themselves — for example birth parents, family members and other people named in a child’s records. It usually reaches us from the local authority that placed the child. We publish this notice so that it is available to them.

Foster carers, children and the people who work for us can see the records we hold about them at any time, and we tell them regularly what we hold and why.

3. Why it is used, and the legal basis

Purpose	Article 6	Article 9 / Article 10
Recruiting, assessing, approving, training, supervising and reviewing foster carers, including DBS checks, panel, and termination of approval	6(1)(b) contract; 6(1)(c) legal obligation	9(2)(g) substantial public interest; Article 10 for DBS
Matching, placing and supporting children, and responding to safeguarding concerns and allegations	6(1)(c) legal obligation	9(2)(g); Article 10 where offence data arises
Handling complaints and independent reviews, and reporting to Ofsted and to placing local authorities	6(1)(c) legal obligation	9(2)(g)
Engaging, managing and paying employees, independent and sessional workers and panel members	6(1)(b) contract; 6(1)(c) legal obligation	9(2)(b) employment and social protection; Article 10 for DBS
Responding to enquiries made through the website	6(1)(b) steps before entering a contract; 6(1)(f) legitimate interests	Not applicable
Website analytics and marketing	6(1)(a) consent	Not applicable
Keeping the website available and secure	6(1)(f) legitimate interests	Not applicable

The legitimate interests relied on are responding to enquiries made through the website, keeping the website online, protecting it from attack, and protecting the people who use it.

Cookies and similar technologies are used on the website. The cookie notice published on the website lists them and explains how consent is given, changed and withdrawn.

Artificial intelligence

We use an approved AI tool to help us work with long records — reading them, picking out the main points, and preparing first drafts of documents. It only ever works on information we already hold, and only for the purposes set out above.

AI does not make decisions about anybody. Every decision about a child, a foster carer or a person who works for us is made by a qualified person. That person checks the AI’s work against the original records and is responsible for what they decide. Because a person is always meaningfully involved, no decision about anyone is made by a computer on its own.

4. Who the information is shared with

• Local authorities.
• Ofsted, and the independent review mechanism.
• The Disclosure and Barring Service, and HM Revenue and Customs.
• NHS bodies, schools, CAMHS, the police, courts and other safeguarding partners.
• The Information Commissioner’s Office.
• Technology suppliers who host and process information on Sparks Fostering’s behalf: document and email services, case workflow, video meetings and transcription, and website hosting, analytics, advertising and security providers.

5. Information sent outside the UK

Suppliers process personal data in the European Economic Area, the United States and Australia. Transfers to the European Economic Area are made in reliance on UK adequacy regulations.

Transfers to the United States and Australia are made under the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, under the EU Standard Contractual Clauses with the ICO’s International Data Transfer Addendum, or under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. The International Data Transfer Agreement and the Addendum are published by the Information Commissioner’s Office; the Standard Contractual Clauses are published by the European Commission; and organisations certified under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework are recorded on the Data Privacy Framework list.

6. How long it is kept

Information	Kept for
Approved foster carers	Ten years from the date on which approval is terminated
Applicants not approved	Three years from the refusal or withdrawal of the application, including where an application is not taken forward at the initial stage
DBS certificate information	Deleted within six months of the decision it was obtained for. A record that the check was carried out — the date, the certificate number and the outcome — is kept with the carer, worker or panel member record
Children placed	Fifteen years from the last entry in the child’s record
Children not placed	Six months from the decision not to place
Records of accidents to children in placement	Fifteen years from the last entry
Complaints and independent reviews	Ten years from closure
Personal data breach records	Ten years from the date the breach is recorded. Where the breach forms part of a child’s or a foster carer’s record, it is also kept for the period applicable to that record
Employees, independent and sessional workers, and panel members	The record of people working for the agency required by Schedule 2 to the Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011: fifteen years from the last entry. Other engagement, supervision and training records: six years from the end of the employment or engagement. Payroll records: six years from the end of the tax year
Meeting transcripts and meeting summaries	Six months from the date of the meeting
Emails and other communications	Kept with the case or personnel record they belong to; otherwise deleted when no longer needed
Enquiries made through the website	Deleted when the enquiry is closed and in any event within twelve months, unless the enquiry leads to an application, in which case it is kept with the application record
Website data	How long each cookie lasts is listed in the cookie notice on our website. Analytics and advertising data is kept for no more than 26 months. Hosting and security logs are kept for twelve months

Where information is relevant to an allegation, investigation, complaint, regulatory inquiry or legal claim, we keep it until that matter is concluded, even if the period above has passed.

7. Whether information must be provided

Foster carers must provide the information required by the Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011 and by the foster carer agreement; without it an application cannot proceed and continued approval may be affected. Employees, workers and panel members must provide the information needed to engage them lawfully; without it they cannot be engaged. Visitors to the website are not required to accept cookies that are not strictly necessary, and the website can be used without them.

8. Rights of individuals

You can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it if it is wrong. In some situations you can also ask us to delete it, ask us to stop using it for a while, or ask us to pass it to another organisation.

Where we are using your information because you gave us consent, you can take that consent back at any time. That does not affect anything we did before you told us.

You can withdraw consent to cookies that are not strictly necessary at any time by deleting this website’s cookies in your browser settings. The cookie banner will then appear again on your next visit.

Your right to object

You have the right to object to us using your information where we rely on “legitimate interests”. We rely on legitimate interests for two things only: answering enquiries sent through our website, and keeping the website online and secure. If you object, tell us and we will stop using your information for that purpose, unless we can show strong reasons to carry on. This right is given by Article 21 of the UK GDPR.

You also have the right to object at any time to your information being used for direct marketing. If you object, we will stop straight away.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information

Please tell us first. Contact the Data Protection Lead at [email protected] or on 0161 262 0999. You have a legal right to complain to us under section 164A of the Data Protection Act 2018.

We will confirm we have received your complaint within 30 days. We will then look into it, keep you updated, and tell you the outcome in writing.

If you are not happy with our answer, or we do not reply, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office under section 165 of the Data Protection Act 2018. Their website is ico.org.uk.