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.
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 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 live chat, 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.
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 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 [email protected], 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 | |
| Name | Yes | Yes |
| Email Address | Yes | Yes |
| Location | Yes | |
| Age of children | Yes | Yes |
| Date of birth of children | Yes | Yes |
| Special Category Data* | Yes | |
| Website usage data | Yes | Yes |
| Conversation transcripts | Yes | |
| Other information relevant to the service | Yes | Yes |
| Marketing preferences | 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:
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.
Your personal information, conversations and notes will be stored on Intercom (the platform for our live chat service) and Action for Children servers and only shared with partner organisations: selected government organisations (such as Department of Education), health services, and children’s agencies, for the purpose of contacting families to provide appropriate and timely services, evaluate service provision and for statistical analysis. You will be informed of any organisations that we intend to refer you to.
Any confidential information regarding your family will not be passed onto organisations outside of relevant agencies, as mentioned above, where possible without your consent.
For users of our live chat service we will only share personal information shared in the live chat if we need to talk to other professionals to get the best support for you. In the majority of cases, we will discuss this with you first. You do not have to share further personal information in the live chat, if you do not wish to.
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 only keep your information up to a maximum of six years.
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 [email protected], 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:
Controlling cookies
You can use your web browser’s cookie settings to determine how our website uses cookies. If you do not want our website to store cookies on your computer or device, you should set your web browser to refuse cookies.
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.