Privacy Policy

This Privacy Notice tells you about what information we collect about you, how we use that information and who we share it with.

1. Who we are and what we do?

Local Community Fostering, Greater London East is a collaboration partnership between six London local authorities:

• London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
• London borough of Havering
• London borough of Newham
• London borough of Redbridge
• London borough of Tower Hamlets
• London Borough of Waltham Forest

Local Community Fostering-Greater London East provides a central front door and support hub for enquiries, applications and initial recruitment processing of prospective Foster Carers. It allows the above authorities to work together to widen the pool of prospective Foster Carers who can provide loving and stable homes for children in need, and to use the network to match children with the right families much more quickly. It also provides support for prospective Foster Carers going through the process and information for those considering Fostering.

For the purposes of data protection, the partner local authorities are joint data controllers with respect to personal data processed by Local Community Fostering-Greater London East, by continuing the application you are consenting to the use of your data for the purposes of processing your application.

2. What type of personal information do we collect and how do we collect it?

The following information will be collected from the enquirer about themselves and any joint applicant:

• Date of Birth
• Telephone
• Email
• Address
• National identity
• Ethnic origin
• Religion
• Gender
• Gender identity
• First language
• Second language
• Sexual orientation
• Disability
• Marketing source
• Method of Enquiry (i.e. web enquiry, telephone call)

The data will be collected through an on-line enquiry form and from enquiries received over the phone.  Once your information has been transferred to a local authority, monthly updates about stages of your fostering journey will be shared between the local authority and Local Community Fostering.

Other data collected at enquiry stage by a trained professional will include:

• Brief pen portrait of the applicant and their interest in fostering
• Whether the applicant has done any research about fostering already
• Whether the applicant know anyone who fosters
• Whether there any specific things the applicant wants to know more about
• Whether the applicant is currently an approved foster carer with an Independent Fostering Agency
• What type of foster care the applicant might be interested in providing
• Whether there are there any friends / family / other visitors who frequently come to the household and their relationship to the applicant
• An overview of the configuration of the home / household and the sleeping arrangements of the family.
• Whether the applicant, or anyone else in their household, has applied to be a foster carer before OR if they have a fostering application currently in process elsewhere
• Whether the applicant, or anyone else in their household, has previously been deregistered as a foster carer
• Whether the applicant, or anyone else in their household, has a child of their own who is subject to a child protection plan
• Whether the applicant, or anyone else in their household, has a child of their own who is currently looked after by a local authority
• Whether the applicant, or anyone else in their household, smokes or vapes
• If the applicant is religious, whether they are prepared to support children from other religions
• Whether the applicant has any current or planned building work on the property
• Whether the applicant has any significant ongoing health concerns
• Whether there are there any pets in the household
• Whether the applicant, or anyone else who is considering fostering with them, is currently on a student visa
• Whether the applicant, or anyone else in their household, has current involvement with a debt management agency or a current county court judgement
• Whether the applicant, or anyone else in their household, has previously been declared bankrupt or has significant debt (excluding any mortgage)
• Whether the applicant is a British citizen? If not, what type of visa the applicant currently holds
• Whether the applicant currently works? If yes, details on their occupation, hours worked and level of flexibility to care for children
• Whether the applicant has a preference to foster for a specific local authprity within the cluster?
• Whether English is written and spoken at home by all applicants
• Which local authority the applicant pays council tax to
• Which local authority the applicant believes their community, friends and family are mostly based in

3. What is our lawful basis to obtain and use your personal information?

The lawful basis for Local Community Fostering, Greater London East to process your data is Article 9 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of processing of special categories of personal data (the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of their personal data) and Article 10 of processing of personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences.

Also to process the data provided under Article 6 of the UK GDPR:

1(c) processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject

1(e) processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.

Local authorities rely on statutory provisions which confer implied and express data processing powers across a broad range of legislation when supporting children in need. Specific laws in relation to local authority – supported Fostering include:

• Children Act 1989 (as amended)
• Fostering Agencies Regulations 2005 and National Minimum Standards

4. What is your personal information used for?

Information you provide will be used for the following purposes:

• To respond to your enquiry to the Local Community Fostering, Greater London East service and commence your application to foster.
• To support applicants’ journeys from enquiry to formal fostering application,
• To pass formal fostering applications to the appropriate partner local authority for completion, and
• To provide communications such as advice, guidance and newsletters about the service. You can opt out of receiving these communications at any time by contacting us.
• To support in the independent evaluation of the Local Community Fostering, Greater London East service your data will be shared with the Department for Education and an independent evaluator. We use your data to contact you to invite you to participate in research that is relevant to you. You are under no obligation to participate in any research we invite you to. We will not contact you about research using your data if you tell us not to

5. Will your personal information be shared?

Local Community Fostering, Greater London East will share your personal data with partner local authorities above to deliver these purposes but will not pass your information to other organisations without a legitimate lawful reason to do so.

As your query and application progresses, it will be necessary to share personal data about prospective carers with social workers and others in your relevant Council’s Fostering Service to support the application process.

Your application will be processed by the local authority you have applied to through Local Community Fostering, Greater London East, and the relevant agency will process all subsequent information provided by you and received from others in respect of your application. Information collected after your initial enquiry will not be routinely shared between the other local authorities.

Local Community Fostering, Greater London East will share your personal information with the Department for Education and the independent evaluator for the purposes of evaluation and research in respect of the service. The Department for Education also acts as a data controller.

How do we keep your information secure?

The information you provide is held safely and securely and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018. By continuing the application you are consenting to the use of your data for the purposes of processing your application’

Information provided to the Local Community Fostering, Greater London East hub is held on a secure database hosted by UKFast, the hosting provider for CHARMS, which is ISO27001 accredited and can only be accessed by trained authorised members of staff through secure password controls.

Information transferred between the Local Community Fostering, Greater London East hub, the appropriate local authority Fostering Service and the Department for Education (DfE) and its independent evaluator will be through secure, encrypted channels.

Each of the partner local authorities has a range of procedures, policies and systems to ensure that access to your records are controlled safely and securely.

Anyone who receives information from Local Community Fostering, Greater London East is also under a legal duty to only use the information for the purposes agreed and keep the information secure and confidential.

7. How long will we keep your personal information?

After we deliver a service to you, we will keep your information as a business record of what was delivered.

Information will be held by the Local Community Fostering, Greater London East hub for reporting purposes and will be retained for a minimum of three years following the date of your last contact or the completion of your fostering application.

Information passed to the local authorities, the Department for Education and its independent evaluator will be held in accordance with their retention and destruction schedules.

8. Is Personal information processed outside of the UK?

All hub information and backup information is held in the UK. We do not process your data outside of the UK.

9. Marketing

Local Community Fostering, Greater London East may contact you with information that may be helpful or of interest to you in connection with your enquiries and/or fostering application.

Please click the box if you do not wish to receive marketing updates from Local Community Fostering, Greater London East

 10. What are your information rights?

Your Information Rights are set out in the law. Subject to some legal exceptions, you have the right to:

• request a copy of the personal information held about you
• challenge and request correction of inaccurate information;
• ask us to erase your personal data;
• place a restriction on our processing of your data, and;
• object to processing of your data;

To learn more about these rights please see the Information Commissioner’s Office website.