Legal
Privacy Notice
This notice explains how Safe Support Ventures Limited collects, uses and protects personal data — including the personal data of children in our care — and sets out your rights under UK data protection law.
We are Safe Support Ventures Limited (we, us, our), a private limited company registered in England and Wales under company number 13491537, with a registered office at 31 Eresby Place, London NW6 4JT, United Kingdom. We operate Ofsted-regulated residential children's homes.
We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data. This Privacy Notice describes how we collect, use and look after personal data when we provide our services and when you visit our website safe-support.co.uk (our Website). It also tells you about your rights and how the law protects you.
1. Who we are and our role
Safe Support Ventures Limited provides residential care for children. Depending on the circumstances, we act as a controller of personal data (where we decide how and why data is processed — for example, the data of our own staff and job applicants, or website enquiries), or as a processor (where we process data on the documented instructions of a placing local authority who remains the controller).
Safeguarding comes first. Where the safety or welfare of a child requires it, we will collect, record and share personal data with the relevant authorities — including local authorities, the police, health services and Ofsted — in line with our safeguarding duties and the law. We may do this without consent where we are permitted or required to by law.
2. Children's personal data
A significant part of the data we process relates to children placed in our care. We treat this data with the highest level of care and only process it for the purposes of providing safe, lawful, high-quality care and meeting our legal, regulatory and safeguarding obligations.
We process special category data about children — most commonly health data, and information that may reveal racial or ethnic origin — where this is necessary for the provision of social care, for safeguarding, or where another lawful condition applies. We do not use children's data for marketing.
3. The data we collect
We may collect, use, store and transfer the following kinds of personal data:
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Identity data | Name, date of birth, gender, and identifiers used in care records. |
| Contact data | Address, email address and telephone number. |
| Care & placement data | Placement plans, daily records, incident and safeguarding records, and correspondence with local authorities and other professionals. |
| Special category data | Health information (medical history, diagnoses, treatment and medication), and information that may reveal racial or ethnic origin, where necessary for care and safeguarding. |
| Staff & applicant data | Identity, contact, recruitment, right-to-work, DBS/vetting and employment records for our staff and job applicants. |
| Financial data | Bank and payment details, used to administer placements, payroll and supplier payments. |
| Technical & usage data | IP address, browser type, and information about how you use our Website. |
We do not routinely collect information about criminal convictions except where required for staff vetting or safeguarding purposes.
4. How we collect personal data
- Directly — when you make an enquiry, correspond with us, apply for a role, or interact with our Website.
- From placing authorities — local authorities and other professionals share information with us so we can provide care.
- From the child — through day-to-day care and the records we are required to keep.
- Automatically — limited technical data when you browse our Website (see Cookies).
5. How we use your personal data
We only use personal data when the law allows us to. The lawful bases we rely on include:
| Lawful basis | When we rely on it |
|---|---|
| Legal obligation | To meet our duties under children's social care, Ofsted, safeguarding, employment and tax law. |
| Public task / legitimate interests | To provide and administer care safely and effectively, and to run our organisation. |
| Contract | To deliver services agreed with placing authorities, and to manage our staff. |
| Consent | In limited situations where we ask for it, for example certain website enquiries. |
For special category data (such as health data) we additionally rely on conditions relating to the provision of social care, safeguarding of children, and substantial public interest.
6. Who we share personal data with
We only share personal data where there is a lawful reason to do so, and we require recipients to protect it. We may share data with:
- Placing and host local authorities, social workers and Independent Reviewing Officers;
- Health professionals, CAMHS, GPs and other care providers;
- The police, courts and other agencies for safeguarding or legal reasons;
- Ofsted and other regulators;
- Our IT, hosting and software providers acting as processors under contract;
- Professional advisers (auditors, insurers, lawyers) and HMRC.
7. International transfers
We aim to keep personal data within the UK. Where a provider stores or processes data outside the UK, we ensure an appropriate safeguard is in place — such as a UK adequacy decision or the ICO's International Data Transfer Agreement — so the data receives a similar level of protection.
8. Data security
We operate appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss, misuse and unauthorised access. Access is restricted to those who need it for their role, under confidentiality obligations. We have procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify the ICO and affected individuals where we are legally required to do so.
9. Data retention
We keep personal data only as long as necessary for the purposes we collected it for, including legal, regulatory and accounting requirements. Children's care records are retained in line with statutory retention periods for social care records, which can be many years. Basic business records are kept for at least six years for tax purposes. We may anonymise data for statistical purposes and retain it indefinitely in that form.
10. Your legal rights
Subject to certain conditions, you have the right to:
- request access to your personal data;
- request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data;
- request erasure of your data;
- object to processing, or request that we restrict it;
- request the transfer of your data; and
- withdraw consent where we rely on it.
Some of these rights are limited where we hold data to meet legal or safeguarding obligations. Where a request concerns a child, it may be made by the child or by a person with parental responsibility, depending on the child's age and understanding. You will not usually have to pay a fee, and we aim to respond within one month.
11. Cookies
Our Website uses a small number of cookies and similar technologies to function and to understand how the site is used. Where required, we will ask for your consent. You can control cookies through your browser settings.
12. Contact and complaints
If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, or wish to exercise your rights, please contact us in writing by email at management@safe-support.co.uk, or by post at the registered office address above.
Safe Support Ventures Limited is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a data controller, under registration reference ZB860174.
You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at www.ico.org.uk at any time. We would appreciate the chance to address your concerns first, so please contact us in the first instance.