Child Bereavement UK respects your privacy. We support families and educate professionals when a baby or child of any age dies or is dying, or when a child is facing bereavement. We value the privacy of the families we support, the professionals we train and our supporters.

Contact us

Child Bereavement UK is a registered charity (registered in England and Wales: 1040419 and Scotland: SCO42910). Our registered address is:

Child Bereavement UK
Unit B, Knaves Beech Way
Loudwater
High Wycombe
Buckinghamshire
HP10 9QY

Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 01494 568949

This policy was last reviewed and updated April 2024.

For any data protection request, questions or concerns, please contact our Data Protection Officer [email protected].

We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). If you believe we are not processing your personal data in accordance with the law, you have the right to contact the ICO.

Your privacy

You have the right to: -

  1. Ask us what information we hold about you and receive a copy of this data
  2. Ask us to delete or stop communication with you
  3. Ask us to transfer a copy of your details to another organisation
  4. Ask us to update information about you, if any information we hold on you is incorrect or out of date

We will acknowledge and act upon your request without delay. If at any time we cannot oblige, due to legal or contractual reasons, we will explain this to you. 

We will only send fundraising or marketing material to you if we have clear consent or where there is a legitimate interest to do so. You can change your mind at any time, as most communication has a clear unsubscribe link. Alternatively, you can email us at [email protected] or telephone or write to us using the details above. 

Families receiving direct support from the charity will never receive marketing information, unless they give clear consent, which will be discussed with them at the closure of family support sessions. However, we value their feedback and may contact families from time to time to ensure our services are meeting their needs.

Your data

There is a variety of ways in which we may collect your personal information, for example:

  • Basic contact details when you make an enquiry, sign up for our newsletter or make a request for training information
  • Financial details when you purchase from our shop, donate, add gift aid, or enter an event
  • Specific details may be required when you access our direct family support, leave gifts in a will or sign up to be a volunteer

How we use your information

To provide information and support through our services and facilitate our training courses

Where you access one of our services, including our Helpline, or register for or enquire about attending one of our training courses, we will use the information you give us to ensure we provide the appropriate information and support, and to meet internal reporting requirements. Where this includes special category information, such as information about your health, we will ask for consent to store and use your information.

To respond to or fulfil any requests, complaints or queries you make to us

If you contact us directly, we will use the information you give to us to handle your enquiry or request. This may include responding to your query or feedback, or sending you relevant information, such as support information or fundraising materials. We may also keep a record of conversations we have with you, feedback you provide and any materials we send out to you. 

To process any donations you make, claim any relevant Gift Aid and maintain a record of your past or potential future financial contributions

This includes keeping a record of any pledges, gift agreements or any other indications that you are planning to donate to us. We keep a record of any donations we receive for audit purposes, and we are legally required to keep information related to Gift Aid. We may need to use your information to prevent fraud and maintain effective cyber security. We will also use your information to administer any raffles or auctions you participate in, for example, contacting you to let you know you have won a prize. 

We may receive this information when you contact us directly, or when you give to us through a payroll giving agency or a third party giving platform or website.

To provide you with information and support for any fundraising and campaigning events, activities or volunteering opportunities you sign up to

If you have completed a form or otherwise contacted us to register or enquire about an event or activity, or to sign up to one of our campaigns, we will consider this as a request to send you details about the event, activity or campaign. 

Where you provide contact details, we may provide information and support by post, phone, mobile messaging, email, via social media, and any other channels for which you have provided your details. When you have asked for details of an event, we will send you information including, where relevant, ideas for fundraising and reminders and key information about the activity. 

We may also receive information through event organisers or through third party giving platforms or websites so we know you are fundraising for us. 

Where appropriate, we will use the information you provide to us or to a third party (see above) to identify any help we can offer, specific to the activity you have signed up for, and to provide necessary information to event organisers.

To manage our recruitment

When applying for a role with us via our online recruitment portal and/or through a recruitment agency, the personal data you provide as part of the recruitment process will only be held and processed for the purpose of the selection processes and in connection with any subsequent employment unless otherwise indicated. You will be asked to provide certain information including your name, contact details, employment history and qualifications. 

We will use this information to consider your application, communicate with you about your application and, where successful, follow up with references to meet statutory and internal monitoring and reporting responsibilities. We may also view social media profiles of applicants, such as on LinkedIn, to the extent that it is relevant to your application. Unsuccessful applicant data will be held confidentially within the recruitment system for a period of one year before it is deleted in order that you can access and re-use data in future applications and we can respond to any statutory reporting requests.

Surveys

When we collect information for this purpose, we will always explain to you at the time we collect your information how it will be used and whether it will be held anonymously or not.

To keep our offices and the people in them secure

We have CCTV in operation at the entrances to our Loudwater office for security purposes, to help us deter crime and protect our staff and visitors. Similar security precautions may be taken at other premises rented by the Charity.

Sensitive data

Additional data will be collected in relation to families who access direct support from the charity, in accordance with our family bereavement support service record-keeping policy, to ensure safe and consistent support can be delivered. The details of information storage, consent, confidentiality and safeguarding will be discussed at the outset of any direct support work. This information is only accessible to staff authorised to see it and not to other staff or volunteers.

Children's data

Due to the nature of our charity’s activities, we hold personal information relating to children and young people when they access direct support. These details are only held with the explicit consent of the child’s parents/guardian, or a young person themselves if they are Fraser competent. Their details are kept securely with restricted access and handled with the greatest respect for privacy.

Special category

In some circumstances, we may collect sensitive data. An example would be data about ethnic origin. We only hold this information for specific purposes, for a limited time, and with your explicit consent. This information is only accessible to staff authorised to see it and not to other staff or volunteers.

Retention

We will retain your information for no longer than is necessary or for the lifespan of our active engagement with you and to meet any legal or regulatory requirements. To comply with professional standards all information in relation to family support work will be securely stored in compliance with the most recent NHS record-keeping policy.

Support partners

If you access our website through another site or search engine, or if our website has links to other websites which you click on – we have no control over other support partner sites.  Please refer to their Privacy & Cookie Policy. We may receive financial support through co-branding with a support partner. We never endorse or approve products and services from these partner brands. When you give a gift or fundraise for us, we may receive your information and donation from a support partner such as JustGiving, Eventbrite or Payroll Giving. 

We will never disclose your personal information to another party unless required by law. Sharing of information under safeguarding policies will be discussed with all families at initial contact.

Transferring your information abroad

To ensure we run the charity efficiently and offer an appropriate service, we use several systems and applications. The information in some of these systems may be transferred to one of our reputable service providers who may store and process this information outside the United Kingdom. We carry out our own due diligence and work under agreed Data Processing Agreements. 

We have suitable safeguards in place, which includes standard contractual clause agreements as required by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Data security

We take appropriate technical and organisational security measures to safeguard all personal information.   We use industry-standard high encryption security measures to protect from loss, misuse or alteration of data under our control. Information in relation to families who receive direct support is securely locked down, so it is only available to Bereavement Support staff and not to other Child Bereavement UK staff or volunteers. 

If we make any significant changes to the way we manage your personal information or communicate with you, we will update this policy and make you aware of these changes.

Research

On occasion we may carry out research to determine whether an individual may be a potential major donor or attendee of a special event. We use information available from public sources such as Google, Companies House, The Charity Commission, Electoral Roll Register, Zoopla, reputable news articles, company websites, professional biographies on networking sites as well as geographic and demographic information based on postcodes. 

The type of information we collect includes career overview, estimated gift capacity, history of giving to our charity and how the individual is connected with Child Bereavement UK, public information on any philanthropic activities and a top-line check on any ethical concerns. 

We may also research public records of an individual’s trusteeships and previous gifts made to charity or whether a company that the individual is connected to has a corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme. Occasionally we may also research any key networks that the individual is publicly known to be a member of such as being on the board of a not for profit or philanthropic body which may have relevance to our activities. 

We may also use profiling to produce short biographies of individuals where they are due to meet with one of our staff or attend an event that we may be hosting. This is to enable relevant staff members who are also attending the meeting or event to understand who those individuals are and what their interest or connection to Child Bereavement UK may be. 

We always seek to ensure that any research or profiling is done in a way that does not unreasonably or unexpectedly intrude on an individual’s privacy. 

Segmenting and targeting

We target fundraising supporters by type of supporter, levels of giving based on giving history, when the supporter last donated, and how engaged the supporter is within certain communication methods. We also use a propensity modelling software that uses machine learning technology to generate predictions about how donors are likely to behave. These approaches enable us to better target fundraising appeals and mailings that may be of interest to that individual and get them involved.

February 2024

Published:

Updated:

Author: Kirsty Wood

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