TRUE Fostering Ltd is a private limited company registered in England. You can find our registered company information in the About Us section of this policy, and contact details on the Contact Us page of our website at www.truefostering.com
We operate as independent foster care agency; recruiting, training and supporting foster parents and placing looked after children who are in the care of local authorities; with our parents. Depending on who you are, we may collect, process and share information about you, some of which could be sensitive personal information about you or your family.
How we will use your information
By accessing this website, you acknowledge and fully understand our Privacy Policy and freely consent to the information collection and use practices described in this Website Privacy Statement.
By clicking the appropriate link when browsing our website:
When you submit an enquiry form on our website, the contents of that form will be emailed to our office, as a backup (in case of email problems) the contents will also be stored on a secure web database for a period of no more than 60 days.
And on the forms a tick box:
Please tick to consent to your data being stored as set out in our privacy policy.
You are consenting to some personal information being collected.
TRUE Fostering Ltd collects your personal information through:
- Details you have specifically decided to provide to us when requesting information or communication from us
- Information collected by cookies placed on our website, either by a third party or hosted by TRUE Fostering Ltd
- Direct telephone calls to our Registered Office.
We will use your information to support your application to become a foster parent with us. We will ask you to provide information directly and will obtain information about you from other sources, such as, but not limited to, local authorities, the Disclosure and Barring Service, and your employers, referees and GP. We will combine this information to form a detailed picture about you, your past and your suitability to be a foster parent.
It may also be necessary for us to gather information about you if you are; or have been related to someone who wishes to become a foster parent with us. This allows us to contact you to help establish the full character of our parents.
We will also gather and use information about the children and young people placed in our care. This information will be used to ensure we provide the safe and supportive homes we believe all young people deserve, as well as to ensure the safety of our foster parents, our staff, and the people we work with.
All information provided is private and never sold to any third party.
Storage of your information
The below table sets out the timeframes for which we will store your information on our electronic database.
| Stage | Timeframe | Where |
| Enquiry: submitting an initial enquiry onto our website. | If your enquiry is closed down at the first phone call, your data will be held for 28 days for reporting purposes.
If your enquiry proceeds to home visit and is then closed; your data will be stored for 12 months for reporting and monitoring. |
Secure electronic database. |
| Application stage | Part of the application form is a consent form, once we receive this from you and your application is accepted, we will keep your data for 3 years. | Secure electronic database |
| Approved | Once you become an approved foster parent; your data will be kept for at least 15 years following your departure from the agency. (in exceptional circumstances, we may be required to keep data for longer than 15 years) | Secure electronic database |
Sharing your information with others
We will share your information with others where we are required to do so by law, or to help safeguard the people in our care. The organisations we may share your information with include local authorities, the police, education and health authorities, as well as people who work with us to help assess your suitability to become or remain a foster parent.
We may also share information about the young people in our care where required by law, to support the education and health of our looked after children, and to ensure personal safety.
Information Security
We take our responsibilities to protect your privacy very seriously. Technical safeguards, such as firewalls, antivirus software, and data encryption are used to help ensure that your information is kept safe and only disclosed to people who are authorised to view it. Where we are required to share your information with third parties, we will take reasonable technical and organisational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information and we will try to ensure that we only share it in ways that are secure, such as by encrypted email, using password protection or by using recorded post.
Unfortunately, information you submit online via our website, or share with us by email, can never be 100% secure. Any information you share in this way is communicated at your own risk. Where we provide you with a secure area of our websites protected by username and password you are required to keep those details confidential. Please do not share your password with anyone, including members of our staff. We will never ask you to share your password with us.
Visiting our websites and the use of Cookies
You can visit and browse our website without disclosing any personal information about yourself. Our website uses cookies. Cookies are small files of letters and numbers that are stored on your computer if you agree. They help us distinguish you from other visitors to our website to help us provide you with a good experience when you browse and it also assists us in making improvements to it.
Some of the cookies we use are analytical cookies that allow us to count the number of people who visit our website and see where they are visiting from. We use Google Analytics to help us do this.
Third Party Websites
Our website may contain links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of third party sites. If you follow a link to any other sites, please note that such sites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for their policies. Please check their policies before you submit any information to such sites.
GDPR 2018
Any information you share with us, including your email address and other contact details, is deemed as ‘personal data’ under the GDPR Act 2018. We must therefore, follow the principles set out in the Act when processing your personal information. For more information about the Act, including your rights as a Data Subject, please visit the Information Commissioner’s website at
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/.
Your right to a copy of the information we hold about you
You have the right at any time to request a copy of the information we hold about you. If you would like to do so, please write to us at the address below. We will respond to you within 28 days of receiving your request.
Data Subject Access Request
True Fostering LTD, The Fort Business Centre, Artillery Business Park, Oswestry, Shropshire SY11 4AD
About Us
TRUE Fostering Ltd is a private limited company, registered in England and Wales under company number 10888454. Our registered office address is:
True Fostering LTD, The Fort Business Centre, Artillery Business Park, Oswestry, Shropshire SY11 4AD
Contact
If you have any questions about this policy, or if you wish to make a complaint about how we have used your personal information, please contact us by email at info@truefostering.com
If you are not satisfied with how we handle your complaint, you are able to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner at:
Head Office Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745
Fax: 01625 524 510
