Privacy Notice
Last updated: 14 August 2026
Little Acorns Fostering Ltd is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information fairly, lawfully and transparently.
This Privacy Notice explains how we collect, use, store and share personal information when you visit our website, contact us, make an enquiry about fostering, request information, sign up to receive communications from us, or begin the process of becoming a foster carer.
It also explains your rights in relation to your personal information.
Who we are
Little Acorns Fostering Ltd is an independent fostering agency registered in England and Wales.
Company number: 08142014
Registered office: Rook Tree Barn, Withersfield Road, Great Wratting, Haverhill, Suffolk, CB9 7HD
Telephone: 01440 732 010
Email: [email protected]
For the personal information described in this Privacy Notice, Little Acorns Fostering Ltd will generally be the data controller, which means that we determine why and how your personal information is used.
In some circumstances, particularly where we work with local authorities or other statutory agencies, another organisation may also be a data controller. Where appropriate, we will explain this to you.
Questions about data protection can be sent to the above email address, marked for the attention of the Data Protection Lead.
Who this Privacy Notice applies to
This notice primarily covers people who:
- visit or interact with our website;
- contact us by telephone, email, online form or social media;
- make an enquiry about becoming a foster carer;
- request an information pack or further information;
- attend an information event or other recruitment activity;
- complete a survey or provide feedback;
- subscribe or agree to receive information from us; or
- begin the fostering enquiry or assessment process.
Approved foster carers, foster carer applicants undergoing formal assessment, employees, children and young people, and people using our other services may also receive more detailed privacy information relevant to the particular way in which we process their information.
What personal information we collect
The information we collect depends upon how you interact with us.
When you visit our website, we may collect technical information such as your IP address, browser and device information, pages visited, referring website, approximate location and information collected through cookies or similar technologies.
When you make an enquiry or contact us, we may collect information including your name, email address, telephone number, address or postcode and the information you choose to provide in your message or enquiry.
If you decide to explore fostering further, we may collect additional information about you and your household. This may include your family circumstances, accommodation, employment, experience, availability and other information relevant to fostering.
If you progress into a formal fostering assessment, we will need substantially more detailed information in order to fulfil our safeguarding and regulatory responsibilities. This may include identity information, employment and financial information, references and information concerning your household and family relationships.
It may also include special category personal information, such as information about your health, racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation or other particularly sensitive information, where this is relevant to the fostering assessment.
Fostering assessments may also require us to process information relating to criminal convictions, offences, allegations or safeguarding matters, including information obtained through appropriate statutory checks.
We will only collect information that is relevant and necessary for the purpose for which it is being used.
Where we obtain personal information
Most personal information is provided directly by you, for example when you complete a form, contact us, make an enquiry, speak to a member of our team, complete a survey or begin a fostering assessment.
We may also receive information from other sources where this is appropriate and lawful. During a fostering assessment this can include local authorities, the Disclosure and Barring Service, referees, previous employers, health professionals, other fostering or adoption agencies and other organisations involved in statutory checks or safeguarding.
We may also receive contact information through advertising platforms, social media or other online services where you have chosen to submit an enquiry to Little Acorns through that service.
How and why we use your information
We use personal information only where we have a lawful reason to do so.
| Purpose | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Responding to an enquiry or request for information | Our legitimate interests in responding to people who have contacted us and providing information about fostering |
| Contacting you about an active fostering enquiry | Our legitimate interests in managing and following up your enquiry |
| Assessing your suitability to become a foster carer | Compliance with our legal and regulatory obligations and our legitimate interests in recruiting and assessing suitable foster carers |
| Carrying out statutory, safeguarding and background checks | Compliance with legal obligations and the performance of our statutory and regulatory responsibilities |
| Processing special category information during a fostering assessment | Where necessary for substantial public interest, safeguarding and/or health or social care purposes under applicable data-protection legislation |
| Processing criminal offence information | Where authorised by law and where an appropriate condition under the Data Protection Act 2018 applies |
| Sending email, text or other electronic marketing | Your consent where consent is required by law, or our legitimate interests where electronic marketing law permits us to rely on them |
| Operating, maintaining and securing our website and IT systems | Our legitimate interests in operating a safe, secure and effective organisation |
| Understanding how our website is used | Consent where required for analytics technologies, together with our legitimate interests where applicable |
| Complying with legal, regulatory, safeguarding, insurance or professional requirements | Compliance with a legal obligation and/or our legitimate interests |
| Establishing, exercising or defending legal claims | Our legitimate interests and other applicable legal conditions |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider whether our interests are necessary and proportionate and balance them against your rights, interests and reasonable expectations.
Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw your consent at any time.
Special category and criminal offence information
Because fostering involves safeguarding children and assessing the suitability of adults to provide care, we may need to process particularly sensitive information if you progress beyond an initial enquiry.
We will only process this information where there is both a lawful basis for processing personal information and an additional legal condition allowing us to process special category or criminal offence information.
We apply additional safeguards to this information and limit access to staff and other people who need it for a legitimate professional, safeguarding, regulatory or legal purpose.
Direct marketing and keeping in touch
We may contact you with information about fostering, events, campaigns or opportunities to become a foster carer where you have asked us to do so or where the law otherwise permits us to contact you.
Where electronic marketing requires your consent, we will only send it where appropriate consent has been obtained.
You can change your mind at any time. Every marketing email we send will provide a straightforward way to unsubscribe, and you can also contact us at [email protected].
You have an absolute right to object to the use of your personal information for direct marketing. If you ask us to stop using your information for direct marketing, we will do so.
We may retain a minimal suppression record after you unsubscribe so that we can make sure we do not inadvertently contact you again for marketing purposes.
Who we share personal information with
We do not sell your personal information.
Where necessary and lawful, information may be shared with organisations or people involved in providing our services, assessing prospective foster carers, safeguarding children, meeting our regulatory obligations or operating our organisation.
These may include local authorities, Ofsted, the Disclosure and Barring Service and organisations assisting with DBS checks, health professionals, referees, previous employers, fostering panels, safeguarding agencies, police or other statutory bodies where appropriate.
We also use organisations that provide services to us, including website hosting, IT support, cloud storage, email, survey, customer relationship management, communications and email-marketing services.
Where relevant, this can include services such as Mailchimp and SurveyMonkey.
Website analytics, advertising and social-media providers may also process information where those technologies are used and you have provided any consent required for them.
We may also disclose information to professional advisers, accountants, auditors, insurers or legal advisers, or where disclosure is required or permitted by law.
Where another organisation processes personal information on our behalf, we require appropriate contractual and security arrangements to protect that information.
International transfers
Some of the technology and service providers we use may process or store information outside the United Kingdom.
Where personal information is transferred internationally, we will ensure that an appropriate legal mechanism is in place. This may include transferring information to a country recognised as providing an adequate level of data protection or using appropriate contractual safeguards recognised under UK data-protection legislation.
You can contact us if you would like further information about the safeguards used for international transfers relevant to your personal information.
How long we keep information
We do not keep personal information for longer than is reasonably necessary.
How long information is retained depends upon its nature, why it was collected, whether an enquiry progresses and whether legislation or regulatory requirements require us to retain it for a particular period.
Initial fostering enquiries that do not progress are normally retained only for the period required under our records-retention arrangements to manage and appropriately follow up the enquiry.
Where a person formally applies to become a foster carer but subsequently withdraws or is not approved, fostering legislation requires certain records to be retained for a minimum period.
Records relating to approved foster carers are subject to separate statutory and regulatory retention requirements.
Website and technical information is retained for periods appropriate to its purpose and security requirements.
Where you have opted out of marketing, we may retain sufficient information on a suppression list for as long as necessary to ensure that your preference continues to be respected.
Information may occasionally be retained for longer where necessary for safeguarding, legal claims, investigations, regulatory requirements or another lawful reason.
Cookies and similar technologies
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies.
Some technologies are necessary for the website to work correctly. Other technologies, such as certain analytics, advertising or tracking technologies, will only be used where permitted by law and where any required consent or other user choice has been provided.
You can manage your choices through our cookie controls.
More detailed information about the technologies we use, their purposes and how long they remain on your device can be found in our Cookie Policy.
How we protect your information
We take the security and confidentiality of personal information seriously.
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, loss or destruction.
These measures include appropriate access controls, secure systems, staff confidentiality requirements, data-protection procedures and security requirements for organisations processing information on our behalf.
No method of transmitting information over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure. We therefore continually review the measures we use to protect information.
Your data-protection rights
Depending upon the circumstances and the lawful basis on which we process your information, you may have rights to:
- request access to the personal information we hold about you;
- ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
- ask us to erase personal information in certain circumstances;
- ask us to restrict how we use your information in certain circumstances;
- object to certain uses of your information;
- receive certain information in a portable format and ask us to transfer it elsewhere where the right to data portability applies; and
- withdraw consent at any time where we are relying upon consent.
Some rights do not apply in every situation. For example, we may be legally required to retain certain fostering or safeguarding records even if you ask us to delete them.
You will not normally have to pay a fee to exercise your data-protection rights.
To exercise your rights, contact us at [email protected], stating that your request relates to data protection.
Automated decision-making
We do not currently make decisions about whether someone is suitable to become a foster carer solely by automated means without meaningful human involvement.
If this changes, we will provide appropriate information about how such processing works, why it is used and the safeguards available to you.
Children and young people
Our website contains information intended to help children and young people understand fostering and Little Acorns.
We do not use the public website to routinely collect personal information from children for marketing purposes.
If a child or young person contacts us directly, we will handle their information with particular care and use it only where there is an appropriate reason to do so, including responding to them or meeting any safeguarding responsibilities.
Children and young people whose information we process as part of our fostering service should receive privacy information appropriate to their circumstances and age.
Complaints about how we use your information
If you have a concern or complaint about how we have collected or used your personal information, please contact us in the first instance.
Email [email protected] and state that your message is a data protection complaint, or write to:
Data Protection Lead
Little Acorns Fostering Ltd
Rook Tree Barn
Withersfield Road
Great Wratting
Haverhill
Suffolk
CB9 7HD
We will acknowledge a data-protection complaint within 30 days, investigate the matter appropriately and provide you with the outcome without undue delay.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent regulator for data protection.
Information about making a complaint is available from the ICO’s website.
Changes to this Privacy Notice
We keep this Privacy Notice under review and may update it from time to time to reflect changes in our services, technology, suppliers or legal and regulatory requirements.
The latest version will always be published on our website and the date at the top of this notice will show when it was last updated.
Where a change materially affects the way we use your personal information, we will take reasonable steps to bring the change to your attention where appropriate.
Contact us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, how Little Acorns uses personal information, or your data-protection rights, please contact:
Data Protection Lead
Little Acorns Fostering Ltd
Rook Tree Barn
Withersfield Road
Great Wratting
Haverhill
Suffolk
CB9 7HD
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 01440 732 010