• Registered Charity in England and Wales No. 1192653
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Privacy and Cookie Notice

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Last updated: April 2026

Introduction

The Belay Foundation (“our”, “us”, “we”) is a registered charity in England and Wales with charity number 1192653. The purpose of this Privacy and Cookie Notice (“Notice”) is to provide you with information on how we collect, use, store, share and transfer your Personal Data. “Personal Data” is any information which identifies you personally, whether directly (for example: your name) or indirectly (for example: information about your use of our services).

The Belay Foundation  is the data controller in respect of your Personal Data. We are fully committed to respecting and protecting your Personal Data and processing it in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”). When you choose to provide us with – or we otherwise process – Personal Data, it will only be used to support your relationship with us and in line with this Notice.

Should you have any questions or concerns about this Notice or our use of Personal Data, please contact us using the details provided at the end of this Notice.

What Personal Data do we collect and why?

The type of Personal Data that we collect will vary depending upon your relationship with us. We may collect Personal Data when you visit our website, make a donation or use our services, such as:

  • Information provided in correspondence. For example, any information provided in the Contact Form on our website, emails, letters, or telephone calls, as well as any information provided as part of feedback or complaints.
  • Information about visits to our website. For example, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, and the resources accessed.
  • Information about the parents, carers, and families we support. For example, details about your family; your name, contact details, and home address; accessibility needs; reason for referral or accessing our services; and any relevant information about the children and young people in your care.
  • Information about donors and fundraisers. For example, contact details, bank details for regular payments, credit or debit card details for one-off payments, and tax status for Gift Aid purposes.
  • Information about staff. For example, names, contact details, dates of birth, emergency contact information, bank details, tax and national insurance information, employment history, qualifications and the results of DBS checks.
  • Information about volunteers. For example, names, contact details, dates of birth, emergency contact information, relevant skills or experience, Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check results and references.
  • Information about freelance contractors. For example, contact details, bank details, invoicing information and the results of DBS checks.
  • Information about trustees. For example, CVs, applications, Personal Data required for registration with the Charity Commission (which may include passport details) and the results of DBS checks.
  • Information provided when applying for a job or becoming a member of staff. For example, a CV, motivation and any related information.
  • Information about other service users. For example, the names, dates of birth, gender, employment details, and any relevant information required to ensure the effective delivery of our training and supervision sessions for professionals supporting families and other individuals who access our services.
  • Equality data. For example, information about ethnicity, religion, disability and other protected characteristics, which enables us to understand the extent to which we are reaching diverse communities and to take steps to identify and overcome barriers to accessing our services.
 

Our website is not intended for children, and we do not knowingly collect Personal Data relating to children through the website. We do, however, hold Personal Data about the children and young people in connection with providing support to their parents, carers and families.  We will only collect and use children’s Personal Data where it is necessary for the purposes described in this Notice and where we have a lawful basis for doing so.

How do we obtain Personal Data from you?

We may collect Personal Data about you at a number of stages in your relationship with us, such as:

  • Referral. You may be referred to our service by a social worker or other support organisation that is providing services to you. Where they refer you to us, they will usually ask for your consent to do so. As part of the referral, they may share with us your contact information and the reason for their referral.
  • Registration. When you access our resources and services, we will ask you to provide registration details, including your name, email address and some further personal information.
  • During your work with us. If you engage with us directly through 1:1 support sessions or supervision, we may need to make notes about you and your children to give you advice and offer you the best service. We collect this information so that we can keep in touch with you during the course of the work we are doing with you, to work out how best we can help you, to record the work that we have done and to assess how that work has gone.
  • Through third-party platforms. We use a number of third-party platforms to support our work, including donation and fundraising platforms such as Charities Aid Foundation, JustGiving, and Enthuse, as well as booking and scheduling tools such as Calendly and online training platforms such as Trainer Central. We may receive Personal Data through these platforms, such as your name, contact details, donation or Gift Aid information or appointment details.
  • Feedback on our services. We will from time to time ask you to provide feedback on the resources and services we have provided via surveys. Completion of surveys is voluntary.
  • If you make a complaint. The details of the complaint will be recorded and processed to investigate and resolve the issue. Information will only be provided to members of the team with a need to know.
 

In addition, we may collect Personal Data from you when you make a donation, register as a volunteer, take part in a campaign, make a referral, apply for a vacancy, contact us via the form on our website or otherwise communicate with us.

When you use our website, we collect Personal Data using “cookies” and other tracking methods. For further details on the cookies and tracking methods we use, please see the section titled “What are cookies?”

What are our legal grounds for processing your Personal Data?

Our legal basis for collecting and using the Personal Data described above will depend on the information concerned and the specific context in which we collect it.

We process your Personal Data on the following legal bases:

  • Consent. Where you have given your specific consent to the processing of your Personal Data, for example where you have opted in to receive marketing communications, agreed to participate in research or feedback activities or where a parent or guardian has consented to our processing of Personal Data about a child in connection with our services;
  • Performance of a contract with you. Where the processing of your Personal Data is necessary to fulfil a contract, for example where we need to communicate with you in relation to the products and services provided, process a donation or payment made to us, or fulfil our contractual and other obligations such as notifying you about changes to our services;
  • Legal obligation. Where the processing of your Personal Data is necessary to comply with a legal obligation that we are subject to, for example safeguarding, financial and regulatory obligations, fraud detection and prevention and lawful requests from authorities.
  • Legitimate interests. Where the processing of your Personal Data is necessary for our legitimate interests, except where our interests are overridden by the potential impact on you and your rights. These interests include delivering, managing, operating and growing our charitable activities, developing and promoting our services and monitoring the use of our website.
 

Please note that there are certain services we will not be able to provide if you do not supply us with the relevant Personal Data. However, the provision of some Personal Data is entirely optional — for example, the details you provide in order to receive our marketing communications, updates and newsletters.

Special Category Data

Some of the Personal Data we collect is “special category data” under the UK GDPR, which is subject to a higher level of protection. This includes, for example, information about the health, medical conditions or disabilities of the children and young people we support, as well as equality and diversity information such as data about ethnicity, religion, or disability.

Where we process special category data, we do so only where we are able to rely on an additional legal basis under Article 9 of the UK GDPR, in addition to our lawful basis under Article 6. Depending on the circumstances and the category of data involved, the relevant Article 9 condition will include one or more of the following: explicit consent (where a parent, guardian or the individual concerned has given their explicit consent to the processing of their special category data), health and social care purposes (where the processing is necessary for the provision of health or social care), and substantial public interest (where the processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest under applicable law).

Who do we share your Personal Data with?

We may transfer your Personal Data to the following organisations or category of organisations: 

  • Trusted service providers who act as data processors on our behalf, such as website hosting, payment processing or event management providers. These may include platforms such as CAF, JustGiving, Enthuse, Calendly and Trainer Central;
  • Statutory and regulatory authorities, including the Police, Probation Service, and Children’s Social Care Services, where we have a legal duty to share Personal Data for the prevention and detection of crime, or to fulfil our safeguarding obligations under applicable legislation;
  • If your service is being funded by a Local Authority, Regional Adoption Agency or Voluntary Adoption Agency, we will need to share information about your family with them to ensure good working practice. We will seek your consent regarding this.
 

In some cases, Personal Data we collect from you may be transferred outside the UK for the purposes described above. Please note that the laws of certain destination countries may not afford the same level of protection to your Personal Data as those in the UK. Where any such international transfer takes place, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with the requirements of the UK GDPR. If you would like to receive a copy of these safeguards, please contact us using the details set out in the “How to contact us” section below.

How long do we store and keep your Personal Data for?

We will only keep Personal Data about you for the length of time it is necessary to do so in order to engage with you in the way that you have requested and in accordance with our legal obligations. When your Personal Data is no longer needed, we will ensure that it is disposed of in a secure manner. We may anonymise data in order to retain it for a longer period than might otherwise be required, in order to ensure we have a record of the services we have delivered.

If you would like us to delete any Personal Data we hold about you, please contact us using the details set out in the “How to contact us” section below.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files which are sent to and stored on your computer, tablet or smartphone that help our site to remember who you are and record information about your visit. Cookies make it easier for you to visit our site again and configure our site to make it more useful to you. Most major websites use cookies.

What cookies are used on this website?

The cookies we use on our website are broadly grouped into the following two categories:

  • Essential – Some of the cookies on our website are essential to enable us to provide you with the service or product you have requested. An example of this could be a cookie used to enable you to log into your account on our website or which allows communication between your browser and our website. Our cookie preference cookie (described in the section “How can I reject or opt out of receiving cookies?”) is also an essential cookie. You may not be able to use our website without these cookies. 
  • Analytics – We use analytics cookies to help us understand how users engage with our website. For example, a cookie counts the number of different people visiting our website, or using a particular website feature, rather than simply counting the total number of times the website or feature is used. This allows us to analyse and improve website performance.

How can I reject or opt out of receiving cookies?

You may choose not to accept cookies by activating the relevant setting on your browser to refuse the setting of cookies. Please note, however, that doing so may leave you unable to access certain parts of our website. If you do not activate this setting, our website will issue cookies when you visit. You can find out how to refuse cookies by accessing the help menu on your browser. Most browsers also provide you with the option of being notified when you receive a new cookie and the ability to disable cookies altogether. For more information about cookies, including how to prevent cookies from being installed or how to delete existing cookies from your hard drive, please visit: www.allaboutcookies.org.

What are your rights?

You have the following rights regarding your Personal Data:

Your right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your Personal Data. 

Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify Personal Data you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete. 

Your right to erasure – You have the right to ask us to erase your Personal Data in certain circumstances. 

Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your Personal Data in certain circumstances. 

Your right to object to processing – You have the right to object to the processing of your Personal Data in certain circumstances. 

Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the Personal Data you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances. 

Your right to withdraw consent – When we use consent as our lawful basis, you have the right to withdraw your consent. 

Your right to make a complaint to us or the data protection authorities – If you have any concerns about our use of your Personal Data, you can make a complaint to us using the contact details below. If you remain unhappy with how we’ve used your Personal Data after raising a complaint with us you can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”).

How to contact us

If you would like to exercise your data protection rights or if you are unhappy with how we have handled your Personal Data, please contact us by email at info@thebelayfoundation.org.uk.

If you’re not satisfied with our response to any enquiries or complaint, or believe our processing of your Personal Data does not comply with data protection law, you can make a complaint to the ICO by:

  • writing to: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF;
  • calling: 0303 123 1113; or
  • submitting a message through the ICO’s website at: ico.org.uk

Links to other websites

Our website may contain hyperlinks to websites owned and operated by third parties. This Privacy Policy does not apply to those other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit, as they will govern the use of any personal data you provide when visiting those websites. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy practices of such third party websites, and your use of such websites is at your own risk.

Changes to this Notice

This Notice may be updated periodically, so you may want to check it each time you provide Personal Data to us. We will update the date at the top of the Notice each time we make updates.

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