Privacy Policy

PRIVACY NOTICE

This privacy notice covers the treatment of personally identifiable information that Adoption West collects when you are using the Adoption West website, when you email us, or when you complete and submit an online form via our website.

How and why we collect and use your personal information

Adoption West is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office. Full details of the registration are available at ICO register of data controllers.

We will process personal data for the following purposes:

For the purpose to which you provided the information, e.g. processing information given on an adopter enquiry form for the purpose of processing your enquiry, and to monitor Adoption West’s performance in responding to your request.
To allow Adoption West to be able to communicate and provide services appropriate to your needs, e.g. to be able to arrange suitable access arrangements where the customer has mobility difficulties.
To ensure that Adoption West meets its legal requirements.
Where necessary to comply with legal requirements, where Adoption West is legally obliged to undertake such processing.
Where the processing is necessary for Adoption West to comply with its legal obligations, e.g. the prevention and/or detection of crime.
To process financial transactions including grants, payments and benefits involving Adoption West, or where Adoption West is acting on behalf of other government bodies, e.g. Department for Work and Pensions.
Where you have consented to the processing.
Where necessary to protect individuals from harm or injury or
Where otherwise permitted under the Data Protection Act 2018, e.g. disclosure to comply with legal obligations.

Adoption West may also use your personal data, after it has been anonymised, to allow the statistical analysis of data to allow Adoption West to effectively target and plan the provision of services. Anonymised data will be provided as part of national data collection and reporting to government departments and partner organisations including Ofsted.

Find out more information on the Data Protection Act 2018 from the Information Commissioner.

What this notice covers

Adoption West holds and processes personal data in accordance with all current legislation relating to data protection and complies with the Data Protection Act 2018 and EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679.

Adoption West also automatically receives and records information on server logs from your browser including your IP address and the page you requested.

Adoption West uses the information for:

Fulfilling your request for information or services
As input to improving our site
To inform you about improvements to our site

Information collection and use

You can visit our site and use many of the services without telling us who you are or giving us any personally identifiable information.

Overview

As a Voluntary Adoption Agency, Adoption West collects, holds and uses personal data to allow it to provide services on behalf of its customers and partners and to allow us to provide services effectively. These services include, among others, assessing prospective adopters, family finding for children in care and providing support services to adoptive families and birth relatives.

Adoption West recognises that this information is important to our customers and that it is responsible to customers for the information it holds about them. As such, it takes seriously its responsibilities to ensure that any personal information it collects and uses is done so proportionately, correctly and safely.

Find out more information about what personal data is from the Information Commissioner. Essentially it is information which relates to or can identify a living individual.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

Adoption West will continually review and update this privacy notice to reflect changes in our services and feedback from service users, as well as to comply with changes in the law. If there are substantial changes to this statement or in how Adoption West will use your personal information, we will advertise the updated notice on the front page of the Adoption West web site.

Adoption West encourages you to periodically visit our website to review this notice and to be informed of how Adoption West is protecting your information.

Please see the respective service’s websites for any additional specific privacy notices which may apply to services delivered in partnership with Local Authorities or other discrete services.

Further information

At all times, Adoption West will comply with the legal requirements set out by the Data Protection Act 2018 and EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 in relation to the collection, holding and processing of your personal data.

If you would like to know more or have any concerns about how your information is being processed please contact info@adoptionwest.co.uk

If you require general information about the Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulation, information is available from the Information Commissioner.

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number.

Your rights

You have the right to request that Adoption West cease processing your personal data in relation to any of our services. Where possible, Adoption West will seek to comply with your request; however, ceasing to process your information may cause delays or hinder Adoption West’s ability to provide services to you. There may be some situations where it will not be able to do this, e.g. where Adoption West is required to hold or process information to comply with a legal requirement or obligation.

You are also legally entitled to request access to any personal information held by Adoption West about yourself. Again, Adoption West will seek to comply with your request but there may be some situations where it may not be able to do this in full, e.g. where information held was given in confidence, and to do so will disclose the source, contrary to a third party’s privacy rights. For further information about either requesting access to your personal data or to cease processing personal data please contact info@adoptionwest.co.uk.

While Adoption West tries to ensure that any personal data it holds about you is correct, there may be situations where the information it holds is no longer accurate. If you find that this is the case, please contact info@adoptionwest.co.uk so that any errors can be investigated and corrected, or your details updated.

Adoption West will not use your personal data for third party marketing purposes without your prior express consent.

Adoption West will not pass any personal data on to third parties, other than those who either process information on our behalf or because of a legal requirement, and it will only do so, where possible, after Adoption West has ensured that sufficient steps have been taken to protect the personal data by the recipient.

Accessing your or your child’s information

You are entitled to apply for personal information recorded about you and/or your child by making a Subject Access Request under Article 15 of the General Data Protection Regulation. Please note you can only obtain information which is about yourself (or your child/ren if under the age of 13, after which they may have capacity to apply in their own right).

If you wish to make any such application, please write to: Adoption West, Floor 2 Old County Hall, Trowbridge BA14 8JN or email info@adoptionwest.co.uk to make your request. Please be as specific as you can about the information you seek as this helps us to find it and respond as quickly as possible.

Before providing you with your personal information, we will need to see evidence to confirm your identity (this can be by scan or photocopy of a passport or driving licence or birth certificate) and address (similarly by scan/copy of a utility bill or official letter header). Your identity evidence will not be retained after it has been examined.

If you are seeking information from your child(ren)’s records, in addition we will need to see something to prove parental responsibility such as copies of the child(ren)’s birth certificates.

Information sharing and disclosure

Adoption West will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to anyone, or use the data for any other purpose incompatible with the purpose for which it was originally collected.

Adoption West will only send personally identifiable information about you to other companies when we have your consent, or have a legal reason to do so. We may also use your information in response to subpoenas, court orders or other legal process. We will only hold your information for as long as necessary for these purposes.

Equalities

Adoption West may use information about your ethnic background, first language, gender, sexual orientation and age (“equalities data”) for the purposes of compiling statistical data about the population of the region and the take up of our services by various groups, both to assist in complying with legal obligations and to assist Adoption West in the effective planning and provision of future services.

Such statistical data or statistical analysis will not allow the identification of any specific individual nor will it have any impact on any individual’s entitlement to Adoption West services and facilities.

Such equalities data may also be used to allow Adoption West to provide sufficient assistance where required, e.g. to provide translation services or access facilities, e.g. induction hearing loop, where appropriate.

Using your personal data

In deciding what personal data to collect, hold and use, Adoption West is committed to ensuring that it will:

Recognise that any personal data handled by Adoption West is held on behalf of that person and that we ensure we respect that responsibility.
Adopt and maintain high standards in respect of the handling and use of that personal data.
Only collect, hold and use personal data where it is necessary and proportionate to do so.
Securely delete any personal data when no longer needed.
Keep your personal data secure and safe.
Not unnecessarily and without good reason, infringe the privacy of individuals.
Consider and address the privacy risks first when planning to use or hold personal information in new ways, such as when introducing new systems.
Be open with individuals about how we use their information and who we give it to.
Make it easy for individuals to access and correct their personal information.
Ensure that there is effective safeguards and systems in place to make sure personal information is kept securely and does not fall into the wrong hands.
Provide training to staff who handle personal information and treat it as a disciplinary matter if they misuse or don’t look after personal information properly.
Put appropriate financial and human resources into looking after personal information to make sure we can live up to our promises.
Regularly check that we are living up to our promises and report on how we are doing.

Adoption West may disclose personal data to third parties, but only where it is necessary, either to comply with a legal obligation, or where permitted under the Data Protection Act, e.g. where the disclosure is necessary for the purposes of the prevention and/or detection of crime, or where it is necessary to allow a third party working for or on behalf of Adoption West.

Adoption West will strive to ensure that any personal data in its care will be kept safe and that where your information is disclosed to a third party, Adoption West will seek to ensure that the third party has sufficient systems and procedures in place to prevent the loss of personal data.

Where Adoption West seeks to disclose sensitive personal data, such as medical details, to third parties, we will do so only with your prior express consent or where we are legally required to do so.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics (GA) to collect statistical data about our visitors and how they use our site so that we can improve our website. The GA cookies collect information including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited.

We collect this information in a way that does not identify you and the data is not shared with anybody else.

Cookies

A cookie is a collection of information that some websites leave on your computer to identify you if you use or return to the site. We use cookies to make our website easier for you to use. You can remove any cookies already stored on your computer.

Contact us

Business Manager

Adoption West
County Hall
Bythesea Road
Trowbridge
BA14 8JN
info@adoptionwest.co.uk