Parent Talk privacy policy
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.
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.
This privacy policy describes how Action for Children protects and makes use of the information you give us when you use our digital parenting support services.
Our digital parenting support services
You can access our digital parenting support services via: www.parents.actionforchildren.org.uk
This website provides a variety of information, advice, and guidance for parents of children aged 0-19, on topics from emotional wellbeing to behaviour, nutrition to sleep. During our opening hours (noted on this website), you can also access our free, confidential live chat service with our parenting coaches.
Our live chat feature allows you to chat online to us, on webchat or WhatsApp, about whatever is on your mind relating to your children or family – you don’t necessarily have to have a question ready to ask, we’re just here to listen and support you. You will need to provide your email address to use the webchat, so you can securely log in and see previous live chats you’ve had with our parenting coaches. If we recognise that your email address has been used before, we will send you a quick email to verify that it’s you. Once logged in, you will be able to start a new conversation or read previous ones. By using our live chat service, you understand and give your explicit consent to this.
You can also sign up to receive parenting tips and updates. For this, you will need to provide us with your name and email address. We may also ask you for your child’s age and date of birth so we can tailor the information appropriately. By supplying this personal information in the online form, you consent to us storing the information for the stated purpose.
Action for Children is committed to protecting the privacy of its supporters and stakeholders. All your personal information will be treated in accordance with data protection law including the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and the Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law 2017 and other applicable data privacy legislation.
We review our privacy policies regularly so this policy may be updated from time to time. The latest version will always be published on this website. This version was updated on 8 July 2024.
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please email dataprotection@actionforchildren.org.uk or write to: Data Protection Officer, Action for Children, 3 The Boulevard, Ascot Road, Watford WD18 8AG.
We gather and use certain information about you in order to provide our digital parenting support services to you and enable functions on our website. We also collect information and report on service use in order to better understand how you are using this service and so that we can make timely and relevant improvements.
These services are offered on a voluntary basis – you are under no obligation to access these services. Our live chat service incorporates a consent form; our lawful basis for providing this service to you will be based on your consent.
We only collect personal information when you specifically provide it to us. This may happen when you are having a conversation with us, if you complete an evaluation form after a conversation, or you fill out an online form on our website.
When signing up to receive parenting tips and updates, if you want to, you can also opt-in to receive news about our latest campaigns and how you can continue to support our vital work.
If you change your mind, you can unsubscribe to emails at any time, by clicking the link in the emails, emailing ask.us@actionforchildren.org.uk, or by calling 0300 123 2112.
We may collect and store the following information depending on which digital parenting support service feature you use:
| Live Chat Service | Parenting Newsletter | Visitors to Site | |
| Name | Yes | Yes | |
| Email Address | Yes | Yes | |
| Phone number | Yes | ||
| Location | Yes | Yes | |
| Age of children | Yes | Yes | |
| Date of birth of children | Yes | Yes | |
| Special Category Data* | Yes | ||
| Website usage data | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Conversation transcripts and recordings | Yes | ||
| Other information relevant to the service | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Marketing preferences | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Device and browser Information | Yes | Yes |
*When using the live chat service, we also may collect Special Category Data (SCD) which includes health data in order to target the support you require including health services. The lawful basis for collecting this information is consent and the special condition as required by data privacy legislation is your explicit consent.
Collecting this information allows us to provide the service for you and understand how users may interact with the service so that we can improve it in future.
Specifically, we may use data:
- To provide the service to you
- To signpost you to appropriate local services
- To escalate safeguarding concerns
- To contact you in response to a specific enquiry
- To evaluate the service
- To improve the service we provide
- To contact you for feedback
We are legally obliged to make sure that we only use your information for the purpose for which it was requested, and to make sure it is kept securely.
The Parent Talk chat service is hosted by Salesforce and Twilio and we send evaluation forms hosted on Typeform to users of the chat service. You may access the chat service through WhatsApp. 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.
We may share your personal data with partner organisations or other support agencies for the purpose of contacting families to provide appropriate and timely services, evaluate service provision and for statistical analysis. This may include selected government organisations (such as the Department of Education), health services, and children’s agencies. You will be informed of any organisations that we intend to refer you to.
For users of our live chat service: You don’t have to share your details with us – there are lots of reasons why you might want to remain anonymous, which we will respect.
All chats and calls 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.
We may share anonymised case studies and transcripts from our live chat service in reports to our commissioners. We may also share anonymised quotes and case studies from our live chat service for marketing and promotional purposes. If you provide feedback at the end of a chat, we may contact you by email to see if you are happy for us to use your feedback along with your name.
We keep your information up to a maximum of seven years on Salesforce. Data on Twilio will be stored up to a maximum of three years. Data captured on Twilio, through webchat or WhatsApp conversations, and Typeform is stored on Salesforce. Data captured on Typeform is immediately transferred and deleted from Typeform.
Some data may be retained for longer where serious safeguarding concerns have been identified.
Action for Children has robust Information Security and Data Protection policies in place to protect all the data it holds, including your personal data.
You can ask to see any information Action for Children holds about you, to have the information corrected or erased. 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 at dataprotection@actionforchildren.org.uk, or write to us at: 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.
For more information about your information rights please visit www.ico.org.uk or 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 based in Guernsey for more information about your information rights please visit www.odpa.gg or 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
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.
- Use Hotjar and Microsoft Clarity to better understand our users’ needs to collect data on their behaviour and devices. This includes a device’s IP address (stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), and the preferred language used to display our website.
- Use React & Share to collect feedback and analyse web traffic data.
- Use Recite Me to store your accessibility preferences so that these do not need to be selected on each return to the website. This includes collecting a device’s IP address which is stored on Recite Me’s UK based server for three months.
- 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.
- To 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.
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.
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.
