Privacy & Cookies

Information about how we process and manage data, information and cookies.

How to contact us

If you would like to request information about our privacy policy or to raise any concerns/complaints or provide suggestions for improving our procedures, you can email us at [email protected] or write to:

Data Protection Officer
WellChild
Office 23, Sunningend Business Centre
22 Lansdown Industrial Estate
Cheltenham
Gloucestershire
GL51 8PL

Website Privacy Notice

We will obtain personal information from you in a variety of ways including when you make an online enquiry, apply to undertake a challenge event, purchase tickets for a social event, make a donation, make a WellChild Award nomination, apply to join the WellChild Family Tree, apply for a Helping Hands project, complete a Contact Us form, apply to become a volunteer or otherwise provide us with personal information.

When we collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

The types of information collected might include names, date of birth, e-mail address, postal address, telephone and/or mobile phone number, fax number, credit/debit card or bank details, relative’s details and medical information, photographic images and film.

We will use your personal information to provide you with the services, products or information you have requested, for administration purposes and to further our charitable aims. We may need to share your information with our service providers, associated organisations and agents for these purposes.

A variety of third parties are used to support the functionality of the website as follows:

WPEngine – Our website is hosted on WPEngine, the leading WordPress digital experience platform.

WordPress – WordPress is the content management system used to maintain and manage the content of the website – it includes a limited analytics function that tells us about users’ activity on the site, for example the number of users viewing pages on the site, to monitor and report on the effectiveness of the site and help us improve it.

Google Analytics – Google Analytics is used to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website.

Payment processing – We use market leading services for collecting and administering online payments via the website – either Stripe, or Raisor’s Edge Online Express (for debit and credit card payments). We also use JustGiving Checkout for collecting and processing online donations.

Collecting information – We use Gravity Forms and Raiser’s Edge Online Express to create website forms improve the flexibility and functionality of all forms on our website for us and for the user.

Email Communications – We use MailChimp and SendinBlue to deliver emails to those who have opted in to receive email communications from us and for sending automated email responses to those who have filled in a website form. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies including clear gifs to help us monitor and improve our email communications.

Akismet – We use Akismet as a spam filter for all our website forms.

Relevanssi – Relevanssi is used to replace the default WordPress search engine. This means visitors to the website will find what they are looking for quicker.

PCA Predict – PCA Predict provides an address lookup and verification function for all the forms on the website. This means it is quicker for the user and that the information provided is correct.

Woobox – We use Woobox as an online voting tool.

Hotjar – We use Hotjar in order to better understand our users’ needs and to optimize their experience. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users’ experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behavior and their devices. This includes a device’s IP address (processed during your session and stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), and the preferred language used to display our website. Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymized user profile. Hotjar is contractually forbidden to sell any of the data collected on our behalf. For further details, please see the ‘about Hotjar’ section of Hotjar’s support site

We use leading technologies and encryption software to safeguard your data, and keep strict security standards to prevent any unauthorised access to it. We work with a third party digital partner, Reason Digital, to help us develop and maintain the security, performance and useability of the website.

If your personal details change, please help us to keep your information up to date by notifying us at Office 23, Sunningend Business Centre, 22 Lansdown Industrial Estate, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL51 8PL, by telephoning 01242 530007 or email to [email protected]

As a data subject, you have a number of rights:

  • to be informed about how we will process your data;
  • to confirmation that your data is being processed and to access and obtain a copy of your data on request;
  • to require the organisation to rectify incorrect or incomplete data;
  • to be forgotten – to require the organisation to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing; and
  • to stop, restrict or suppress the processing of your data in certain circumstances.

You can read more about these rights here – https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact [email protected] or write to Data Protection Officer, Office 23, Sunningend Business Centre, 22 Lansdown Industrial Estate
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL51 8PL

If you believe that WellChild has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/your-personal-information-concerns

WellChild tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.

This privacy notice was drafted with brevity and clarity in mind. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of our collection and use of data. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to the address below. If you would like to make a complaint about the way we have processed your personal information, please contact us using the address information below.

This privacy notice does not cover the links within this site linking to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last reviewed in July 2023.

In Your Area (IYA) is an interactive directory of services and support. IYA is primarily for parents and carers of children with complex needs, but other groups may use the resource, including young people with complex needs, and health, social care, and education professionals.

The platform gives users the opportunity to add services not currently listed and share their experiences of listed services with other users by rating and commenting on a listing page.

Please read the terms of use here >> 

Cookies Policy

This site offers e-commerce or payment facilities and some cookies are essential to ensure that your order is remembered between pages so that we can process it properly.

If you create an account for our forums then we will use cookies for the management of the signup process and general administration. These cookies will usually be deleted when you log out however in some cases they may remain afterwards to remember your site preferences when logged out.

We use cookies when you are logged in so that we can remember this fact. This prevents you from having to log in every single time you visit a new page. These cookies are typically removed or cleared when you log out to ensure that you can only access restricted features and areas when logged in.

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

In some special cases we also use cookies provided by trusted third parties, for example Google Universal and Google Analytics 4 which is one of the most widespread and trusted analytics solution on the web for helping understand how you use the site and ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit so we can continue to produce engaging content.

What types of cookies do we use?

Necessary Cookies

Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.

Cookie NameProviderDescriptionExpiry
__stripe_midwellchild.org.ukThis cookie is necessary for making credit card transactions on the website. The service is provided by Stripe.com which allows online transactions without storing any credit card information.1 year
__stripe_sidwellchild.org.ukThis cookie is necessary for making credit card transactions on the website. The service is provided by Stripe.com which allows online transactions without storing any credit card information.1 day
ASP.NET_SessionIdbbox.blackbaudhosting.comPreserves the visitor's session state across page requests.Session
AWSELBpayments.blackbaud.comUsed to distribute traffic to the website on several servers in order to optimise response times.Session
AWSELBCORSpayments.blackbaud.comRegisters which server-cluster is serving the visitor. This is used in context with load balancing, in order to optimise user experience.1 day
com.adobe.reactor.data ElementCookiesMigrateddocumentcloud.adobe.comUsed in context with the cache-function on the website, facilitating data transfer between Adobe DRM onto Adobe LaunchPersistent
CONSENTyoutube.comUsed to detect if the visitor has accepted the marketing category in the cookie banner. This cookie is necessary for GDPR-compliance of the website.5963 days
CookieConsentwellchild.org.ukStores the user's cookie consent state for the current domain.1 year
incap_ses_#blackbaud.comPreserves users states across page requests.Session
mm.stripe.comDetermines the device used to access the website. This allows the website to be formatted accordingly.2 years
NSC_#bbox.blackbaudhosting.comUsed to distribute traffic to the website on several servers in order to optimise response times.Session
test_cookiedoubleclick.netUsed to check if the user's browser supports cookies.1 day
visid_incap_#blackbaud.comPreserves users states across page requests.1 year

Statistics

Statistic cookies help website owners to understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting information anonymously.

Cookie NameProviderDescriptionExpiry
_dc_gtm_UA_#wellchild.org.ukUsed by Google Tag Manager to control the loading of a Google Analytics script tag.1 day
_gawellchild.org.ukRegisters a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor users the website.2 years
_gatwellchild.org.ukUsed by Google Analytics to throttle request rate.1 day
_gidwellchild.org.ukRegisters a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.1 day
collectgoogle-analytics.comUsed to send data to Google Analytics about the visitor's device and behaviour. Tracks the visitor across devices and marketing channels.Session
p.giftypekit.netKeeps track of special fonts used on the website for internal analysis. The cookie does not register any visitor data.Session
_hjSessionUser_{2822415}hotjar.comEnsures data from subsequent visits to the same site are attributed to the same user ID.365 days
_hjidhotjar.comEnsures data from subsequent visits to the same site are attributed to the same user ID.365 days
_hjFirstSeenhotjar.comIdentifies a new user’s first session.Session
_hjUserAttributesHashhotjar.comUser Attributes sent through the Hotjar Identify API are cached for the duration of the session. Enables us to know when an attribute has changed and needs to be updated.Session
_hjCachedUserAttributeshotjar.comStores User Attributes sent through the Hotjar Identify API, whenever the user is not in the sample.Session
_hjViewportIdhotjar.comStores user viewport details such as size and dimensions.Session
_hjSession_{2822415}hotjar.comHolds current session data. Ensures subsequent requests in the session window are attributed to the same session.30 minutes
_hjSessionTooLargehotjar.comCauses Hotjar to stop collecting data if a session becomes too large.Session
_hjSessionRejectedhotjar.comApplied in extremely rare situations to prevent severe performance issues.Session
_hjSessionResumedhotjar.comSet when a session/recording is reconnected to Hotjar servers after a break in connection.Session
_hjLocalStorageTesthotjar.comChecks if the Hotjar Tracking Code can use local storage. If it can, a value of 1 is set.Under 100ms
_hjIncludedInPageviewSamplehotjar.comSet to determine if a user is included in the data sampling defined by site's pageview limit.30 minutes
_hjIncludedInSessionSamplehotjar.comSet to determine if a user is included in the data sampling defined by site's daily session limit.30 minutes
_hjAbsoluteSessionInProgresshotjar.comUsed to detect the first pageview session of a user.30 minutes
_hjRecordingEnabledhotjar.comSet when a Recording starts. Read when the Recording module is initialized to see if the user is already in a recording in a particular session.Session
_hjClosedSurveyInviteshotjar.comSet when a user interacts with an external link Survey invitation modal. Ensures the same invite does not reappear if it has already been shown.365 days
_hjDonePollshotjar.comSet when a user completes an on-site Survey. Ensures the same Survey does not reappear if it has already been filled in.365 days
_hjMinimizedPollshotjar.comSet when a user minimizes an on-site Survey. Ensures that the Survey stays minimized when the user navigates through your site.365 days
_hjShownFeedbackMessagehotjar.comSet when a user minimizes or completes Incoming Feedback. Ensures the Incoming Feedback will load as minimized if the user navigates to another page where it is set to show.365 days

Marketing

Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites. The intention is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby more valuable for publishers and third party advertisers.

Cookie NameProviderDescriptionExpiry
_fbpwellchild.org.ukUsed by Facebook to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers.3 months
ads/ga-audiencesgoogle.comUsed by Google AdWords to re-engage visitors that are likely to convert to customers based on the visitor's online behaviour across websites.Session
IDEdoubleclick.netUsed by Google DoubleClick to register and report the website user's actions after viewing or clicking one of the advertiser's ads with the purpose of measuring the efficacy of an ad and to present targeted ads to the user.1 year
nlbi_#blackbaud.comUnclassified.Session
trfacebook.comUsed by Facebook to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers.Session
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVEyoutube.comTries to estimate the users' bandwidth on pages with integrated YouTube videos.179 days
YSCyoutube.comRegisters a unique ID to keep statistics of what videos from YouTube the user has seen.Session
yt.innertube::nextIDyoutube.comRegisters a unique ID to keep statistics of what videos from YouTube the user has seen.Persistent
yt.innertube::requestsyoutube.comRegisters a unique ID to keep statistics of what videos from YouTube the user has seen.Persistent
yt-remote-cast-availableyoutube.comStores the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video.Session
yt-remote-cast-installedyoutuve.comStores the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video.Session
yt-remote-connected-devicesyoutube.comStores the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video.Persistent
yt-remote-device-idyoutube.comStores the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video.Persistent
yt-remote-fast-check-periodyoutube.comStores the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video.Session
yt-remote-session-appyoutube.comStores the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video.Session
yt-remote-session-nameyoutube.comStores the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video.Session

Unclassified

Unclassified cookies are cookies that we are in the process of classifying, together with the providers of individual cookies.

Cookie NameProviderDescriptionExpiry
LTK__<2a63fdfc5e344459b61cbfa109a87abe>documentcloud.adobe.comUnclassified.Persistent

General Privacy Notice

People interact with WellChild in many ways including as a beneficiary of our services, donating to WellChild, taking part in an event, supplying goods or services, volunteering, as a health professional, celebrity or nominating a child or health professional for a WellChild Award. Each and every person is incredibly important to us and however you are involved, we will always respect your rights and choices and we are committed to protecting your privacy.

We are responsible for protecting your personal information as a ‘data controller’ under applicable data protection legislation (including the UK GDPR General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018). We have a legal duty to protect any information we collect from you and we keep strict security standards to prevent any unauthorised access to it.

This privacy notice aims to give you information about how WellChild collects and processes your personal data. It is important that you read this notice together with any other privacy or fair processing notices we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data.

WellChild is a charity registered in England and Wales (charity number 289600) and in Scotland (SC045010). We are also a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (company number 1815689). Our registered office is at Office 23, Sunningend Business Centre, 22 Lansdown Industrial Estate, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL51 8PL

We will obtain personal information from you in a variety of ways including completion of an application or nomination form, over the phone, attending an event, making an online enquiry, when making a donation, via competitions and from other organisations (for example an online fundraising platform).

We will only collect this information from you where we have a legitimate reason to do so and/or you give your explicit consent.

When we collect personal information from you we will be up front about this and we will make it clear what we intend to do with it. The types of information collected might include names, date of birth, e-mail address, postal address, telephone and/or mobile phone number, fax number, credit/debit card or bank details, relative’s details and medical information, photographic images and film.

You may provide us with information about others. You must ensure that they are happy and have agreed to you providing us with their information. In certain circumstances and especially in the case of you providing us with sensitive information about them for example a reference to an illness or health condition, we will require separate consent from them.

We may collect information that is available in the public domain for example newspaper or online media items and Companies House listings.

We collect information for the purposes set out above (What information do we collect?) which also includes the lawful basis for which the information is processed:

  • Where processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party. If you fail to provide this information, we may be unable to perform the contract.
  • Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
  • Where processing is necessary for the purpose of the legitimate interest pursued by us or a third party, except where your rights as a data subject override our legitimate interest.

Where processing is not necessary for the above reasons, we only process your information with your consent, or as otherwise required or permitted by law.

We will only use your information for the purpose disclosed at the time of its collection, as set out by this Notice, or where it is required and authorised by law. We will not use the information for any other purpose without first seeking your consent.

We will use your personal information:

  • to provide you with the services, products or information you have requested
  • to manage our relationship with you
  • for administration purposes such as thanking you for donations received and to ask you about gift aid or to update you about changes to our services or policies
  • to exercise our rights in relation to agreements or contracts
  • to further and promote WellChild’s charitable aims
  • to perform due diligence

We will only use your personal information for marketing purposes if we have your consent. You can change your marketing preferences at any time by emailing [email protected] or telephoning 01242 530007.

Data will be stored in a range of different places, including but not limited to paper records, online and hard copy forms, on our customer relationship management system (Raisers Edge NXT) and on other IT systems (including email).

We would like to keep you informed about our work, or the fun events, fundraising and volunteering you can get involved with. This includes sending you our regular supporter newsletter. In order to do so we will ask you if and how you would prefer to hear from us:

  • Email
  • Post
  • Phone
  • SMS
  • WhatsApp

Where you have indicated you would like to receive communications from us, we will use the personal preferences which you have told us about. You can unsubscribe from receiving electronic messages at any time or change your preferences by contacting us using the contact details below.

Events

If you have attended/participated in a specific event in the past, you may be sent information about the similar events taking place in the future. We consider that this will be of interest to you.  You will be able to opt out of communications at any time.

Legitimate Interest

Where the processing is reasonably necessary for the purpose of a legitimate interest pursued by us or a third party and your privacy rights do not override the legitimate interest.  Our “legitimate interests” include pursuing the aims and ideals of WellChild through advocating and campaigning for the welfare of children, supporting children and families through our work in the UK, fundraising through direct marketing campaigns, appeals, and special events.  However, “legitimate interests” can also include your interests, such as when you have requested information from us.

We rely on legitimate interests for activities such as sending marketing communications by email, post or telephone unless you have told us that you would prefer not to hear from us in this way, contacting you as a representative of an organisation about charity partnerships or in order to organise an event, and analysing your interaction with us to improve our internal business processes.

Legitimate interests’ examples could include, an enquiry that you have made, where you have participated, volunteered or attended an event.

Provide and Improve Services: We may use your personal information to deliver the products or services you requested, respond to your enquiries or requests, and enhance our offerings based on your feedback.

In any event, where we are relying on legitimate interests to process your personal information, we will consider any potential impact on you (positive or negative), your rights under data protection laws, and will not use your personal information for activities where the impact on you overrides the legitimate interests in the processing.

Where we process sensitive personal data (as mentioned above), we will make sure that we only do so in accordance with one of the additional lawful grounds for processing that type of data, such as where we have your explicit consent, or you have made that information manifestly public.

We may need to share your information with a number of trusted partners such as service providers, contractors, associated organisations and agents who provide services on our behalf. This will only be done to the extent necessary to enable us to provide you with those services. These third parties include:

  • third party service providers who process information on our behalf to help run some of our internal business operations including email distribution, IT services and customer services
  • third party service providers who provide services on our behalf
  • banks and payment providers – to authorise and complete payment transactions
  • our legal and professional advisors including our auditors
  • HM Revenue & Customs, but only if we need to authorise claims for Gift Aid or other forms of tax efficient ways of giving
  • law enforcement bodies in order to comply with any legal obligation or court order and, where we are otherwise requested to provide information, we may provide it but only in accordance with applicable privacy and data protection laws

We will only share information with organisations where we have your permission to do so, in accordance with this Notice, or there is legal authority to do so.

We only work with third parties where we are satisfied that adequate levels of protection are in place to protect any information provided to them and that they understand and comply with their obligations in relation to data protection. We have contracts in place with our data processors. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us without permission. They will hold it securely and retain it for the period we instruct.

Where data/information is provided or collected for a young person who is 13 years or over, we will require their permission (where they are able to provide it) to process this. If they are unable to provide consent, then consent will be obtained from their parent or guardian.

You do not have to provide your personal information to us, but if you do not provide certain information we may only be able to provide limited services to you or no services at all.

In some circumstances, we may be required by law, or as a consequence of any contractual relationship we have, to collect certain personal information. If you fail to provide this information to us, it may prevent or delay us from fulfilling obligations or performing services.

We will use our best endeavors to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure that the information disclosed to us is kept secure, accurate and up to date.

We will keep your information for as long as we need to operate the service and in accordance with legal, tax and accounting requirements. Where your information is no longer required, we will ensure it is disposed of in a secure manner.

If your personal details change, please help us to keep your information up to date by notifying us at WellChild, Office 23, Sunningend Business Centre, 22 Lansdown Industrial Estate, Cheltenham
Gloucestershire, GL51 8PL, by telephoning 01242 530007 or email to [email protected]

As a data subject, you have a number of rights:

  • to be informed about how we will process your data;
  • to confirm that your data is being processed and to access and obtain a copy of your data on request;
  • to require the organisation to rectify incorrect or incomplete data;
  • to be forgotten – to require the organisation to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing; and
  • to stop, restrict or suppress the processing of your data in certain circumstances.

You can read more about these rights here – https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact [email protected] or write to Data Protection Officer, WellChild, Office 23, Sunningend Business Centre, 22 Lansdown Industrial Estate, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL51 8PL.

If you believe that WellChild has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/your-personal-information-concerns

WellChild tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.

This privacy notice was drafted with brevity and clarity in mind. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of our collection and use of data. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to the address below. If you would like to make a complaint about the way we have processed your personal information, please contact us using the address information below.

This privacy notice does not cover links to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.

We keep this privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last reviewed in August 2021.

Privacy Notice – Job Applicants, Current and Former WellChild Employees

WellChild collects, processes and retains personal information, in various formats, about our current, past and potential future employees (staff data) for a variety of purposes as set out below. We are responsible for protecting your personal information as a ‘data controller’ under applicable data protection legislation (including the UK GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 ). We have a legal duty to protect any information we collect from you and we keep strict security standards to prevent any unauthorised access to it. We are committed to being transparent about how we collect and use that data and to meeting our data protection obligations.

This privacy notice aims to give you information about how WellChild collects and processes your personal data. It is important that you read this notice together with any other privacy or fair processing notices we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data.

WellChild is a charity registered in England and Wales (charity number 289600) and in Scotland (SC045010). We are also a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (company number 1815689). Our registered office is at Office 23, Sunningend Business Centre, 22 Lansdown Industrial Estate, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL51 8PL

WellChild collects a range of information about you. This includes:

  • your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number
  • details of your education, qualifications, skills, experience, training and employment history
  • referee contact information
  • whether you hold a driving licence
  • information about your entitlement to work in the UK
  • any other information you wish to give in support of your application

WellChild may collect this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms, CVs, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment.

We may also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers and information from criminal records checks. This will only be sought once a job offer has been made to you and we will inform you that we are doing so.

We may process special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation or religion or belief, to monitor recruitment statistics. This is not mandatory information – if you don’t provide it, it will not affect your application. We may also collect information about whether or not applicants are disabled to make reasonable adjustments for candidates who have a disability. For some roles, WellChild is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. We process such information because it is necessary to carry out our obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

We do not collect more information than we need to fulfill our stated purposes and will not retain it for longer than is necessary. The information we ask for is used to assess your suitability for employment. You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to us during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, we may not be able to process your application or employment properly or at all.

All of the information you provide during the process will only be used for the purpose of managing the recruitment process, assessing and confirming a candidate’s suitability for employment and to decide to whom to offer a job. It may also be necessary to process data to fulfill legal or regulatory requirements (for example, to check a successful applicant’s eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts or to respond to and defend against legal claims from job applicants).

Your information may be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes with members of the HR and recruitment team, interviewers involved in the recruitment process, managers in the business area with a vacancy and IT staff.

We will not share any of the information you provide during the recruitment process with any third parties for marketing purposes or share or store any of your information outside of the UK. If your application is successful and we make you an offer of employment, we will share your data with third party data processors – see below.

Data will be stored in a range of different places, including but not limited to your application record, on employee files, in HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).

We might ask you to complete tests which are relevant to the job role you are applying for and we might take interview notes. Information will be generated by you and by us and be held by WellChild.

Final recruitment decisions are made by hiring managers and members of our recruitment team. All of the information gathered during the application process is taken into account.

You are able to ask about decisions made about your application by emailing [email protected]

If we make a conditional offer of employment, we will ask you for information so that WellChild can carry out pre-employment checks. You must successfully complete pre-employment checks to progress to a final offer. We are required to confirm the identity of our staff, their right to work in the United Kingdom and to seek assurance as to their trustworthiness, integrity and reliability.

You will therefore be required to provide:

  • Proof of your identity – you will be asked to attend our office with original documents, we will take copies.
  • Proof of your qualifications where necessary – you will be asked to attend our office with original documents, we will take copies.
  • We will contact your referees directly (once you have given us permission to do so) using the details you provide in your application, to obtain references.
  • Some roles will require a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and we will ask you to complete an application form and provide identification documents.

If we make a final offer and you begin employment, we will also ask you for the following:

  • Bank details – to process salary payments and expenses.
  • Tax information such as a P45.
  • Driving license information and vehicle documentation – to enable you to drive vehicles provided by WellChild or your own vehicle for business purposes.
  • Emergency contact details – so we know who to contact in case you have an emergency at work.
  • Any medical information you wish us to be aware of.

The purposes for which we may use staff data (including sensitive personal information) include:

  • Employment matters (including promotion, training & development, conduct, attendance, appraisals, managing progress, grievance investigations, disciplinary actions and complaints, sickness pay and records).
  • Maintaining staff records.
  • Administering finance (e.g. salary, expenses, pension and any other staff benefits).
  • Complying with statutory requirements.
  • Providing operational information.
  • Promoting our services and other operational reasons (including displaying staff details on our website where appropriate, handling external business calls via our reception team and/or commissioning photographs or films for promotional purposes).
  • Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of staff and other stakeholders.
  • Ensuring the safety and security of our staff and other stakeholders.
  • Dealing with complaints.

We may disclose limited data to a variety of recipients but will only do so with your consent or where we have another lawful basis to do so. This could include:

  • Potential future employers of our staff (to provide references).
  • Government departments and agencies where we have a statutory obligation to provide information (e.g. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the Home Office (in connection with UK visas and immigration).
  • Third parties who work with us to provide staff support services (e.g. counselling and occupational health services).
  • External organisations including funders and third party clients (for example, where a member of staff is named as part of a funding application or the job role is being funded by another organisation.
  • Crime prevention or detection agencies.
  • Relatives/next of kin.
  • Internal and external auditors.
  • Courts and tribunals.
  • Press and the media.

Data processors are third parties who provide elements of the recruitment/employment service for us. We have contracts in place with our data processors. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us without permission. They will hold it securely and retain it for the period we instruct.

Royce Peeling Green (RPG)

If you are employed by WellChild, relevant details about you will be provided to RPG who provide payroll services to WellChild. This will include your name, bank details, address, date of birth, National Insurance Number, pension and salary details and other job role information.

Attivo Financial Planning and Scottish Widows

Your details may be provided to Attivo and will be provided to Scottish Widows who administer the workplace pension on WellChild’s behalf. If you qualify, you will be auto-enrolled into the pension scheme and the details provided to them will include your title, name, address, date of birth, sex, National Insurance number, marital status, nationality, residency and salary. Your bank details will not be passed to them.

Gecko Technology

Limited information will be provided to Gecko Technology who provide IT support to WellChild.

Mayflower Disclosure Services Limited & Disclosure and Barring Service

Your details will be provided to Mayflower and the Disclosure and Barring Service if a DBS check is required for your employment with WellChild.

It is important that you tell us promptly about any changes to the data we hold about you. This is particularly important for your contact, next of kin and bank account details.

Staff will, during their employment with WellChild, come into contact with personal data from many sources (including that of other staff members). We expect staff to handle data about other people responsibly and in accordance with our Data Protection Policy.

We encourage the use of social media as it can be a valuable tool for the communication and promotion of the work WellChild undertakes and can assist in the work of staff. Staff are reminded that the usual standards of behaviour and conduct that WellChild expects on a day–to–day basis apply equally to the use of social media. Further information on this can be found in our Acceptable Use & Social Media Policy. Misuse of social media can cause significant distress to others, and we may take disciplinary and/or legal action against those responsible.

If your application for employment is successful, the information you provide during the application process will be retained by us as part of your employee file for the duration of your employment plus three years following the end of your employment. This includes any DBS checks and references. After three years following the end of your employment, only enough information will be held so that a reference including employment dates and job title can be provided to future employers at your request.

If your application for employment is unsuccessful, we will hold your data on file for six months after the end of the relevant recruitment process. In some circumstances, we may request your permission to keep your personal data on file for a further 12 months for consideration for future employment opportunities. At the end of these periods or earlier if you withdraw your consent, your data will be deleted or destroyed in a secure manner.

We will use our best endeavors to protect your personal information, from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure that the information disclosed to us is kept secure, accurate and up to date.

As a data subject, you have a number of rights:

  • to be informed about how we will process your data;
  • to confirm that your data is being processed and to access and obtain a copy of your data on request;
  • to require the organisation to rectify incorrect or incomplete data;
  • to be forgotten – to require the organisation to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing; and
  • to stop, restrict or suppress the processing of your data in certain circumstances.

You can read more about these rights here – https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact [email protected] or write to Data Protection Officer, WellChild, Office 23, Sunningend Business Centre, 22 Lansdown Industrial Estate, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL51 8PL.

If you believe that WellChild has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner  – https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/your-personal-information-concerns

WellChild tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.

This privacy notice was drafted with brevity and clarity in mind. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of our collection and use of staff data. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to the address below.

If you would like to make a complaint about the way we have processed your personal information, please contact us using the address information below.

This privacy notice does not cover links to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.

We keep this privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last reviewed in August 2021.

How to contact us

If you would like to request information about our privacy policy or to raise any concerns/complaints or provide suggestions for improving our procedures, you can email us at [email protected] or write to:

Data Protection Officer
WellChild
Office 23, Sunningend Business Centre
22 Lansdown Industrial Estate
Cheltenham
Gloucestershire
GL51 8PL