Data Protection and Privacy Policy

This Privacy Notice summarises, and forms part of, our Data Protection and Privacy Policy. At Family Rights Group, we are committed to protecting your rights and providing a clear route for you to contact us about any personal data we process relating to you.

In carrying out our day-to-day activities, we process and store personal information whether you are visiting our website, seeking information, participating in research, supporting our work, shopping, or campaigning. We comply with the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

Key Terms:

• Processing data: This means obtaining, recording, holding, or carrying out any operation on information, such as organising, disclosing, or deleting it.
• Direct marketing: This refers to communicating any advertising or marketing material directed to specific individuals.
• Administration: This is the processing of data for purposes other than direct marketing. Examples include: sending thank-you letters for donations, communicating with applicants during recruitment, providing information to participants in charity activities, sending requested materials for fundraising, research, training or events, and issuing advance notifications for direct debits or invoicing.

The type of communications and information you receive about our charity and the ways in which you can get involved are your choice. You can change your mind at any time, or ask to see the information we hold about you, by contacting: Family Rights Group, 101 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9LG, or by phone on 0207 923 2628 or via email at office@frg.org.uk.

We collect information about:

• Visitors to our website (WordPress), discussions forums (phpBB) and owned social-media channels (Family Rights Group’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube channel).
• Our subscribers via e-marketing newsletter tools (Vertical Response and Mailchimp).
• Respondents to surveys (Survey Monkey), website training and events forms and applications (WordPress, Yammer, Eventbrite and Wufoo).
• Our customers who have purchased products via our online shop (WordPress) i.e. credit/debit card details (if making a purchase or donation – PayPal, Enthuse, BACS).
• Our supporters (including our past and present donors, event participants, individuals giving non-financial assistance), prospective supporters, beneficiaries and members of the public who make contact with us, including those who share their personal information with us.
• Complainants and other individuals in relation to a data protection or freedom of information complaint or enquiry.

We collect:

• Personal data. Examples are names, dates of birth, email addresses, telephone and postal addresses. We also collect Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. This is information a computer uses to identify a networked computer to which it transmits.
• Non-personal data. An example is the web pages accessed on a computer. We collect this information so that we can help tailor future content and provide insight into problems in current implementations.

Consent:

• We seek your consent if consent is necessary. To assess whether consent is necessary we carry out a balancing exercise between your rights and expectations, and our legitimate interests to carry out the data processing activity, consistent with the law. Confidentiality will normally be assured to anyone seeking advice or advocacy or with whom we have contact.
• Workers who are employed in any capacity by Family Rights Group will not pass on information to other agencies without the direct permission of the client. In most situations this permission will be requested in writing, unless it is agreed that there is a matter of urgency and then verbal permission will suffice in which case written confirmation will be sought as soon as possible.

Your data:

• We will never sell your data to any individual or organisation.
• We keep the information we hold about you accurate and up-to-date so far as we are able.
• We follow the Code of Fundraising Practice for the UK, issued by the Fundraising Regulator, to ensure that we treat all donors, including vulnerable donors, fairly.
• If you ask us to remove your personal information from our records, we will make efforts to ensure we have identified the correct record on our system, and we will review the data to ensure that we are not required to hold it for legal reasons. If, once these actions have been taken, we determine that we have no legal obligation to keep your data, we will retain your key details – i.e. your name, home address and email address – on a suppression list to make sure that we do not contact you again, and we will destroy all other information we hold about you. (If we were to remove your details completely we would have no record of your wishes, and therefore someone from Family Rights Group might inadvertently contact you again.) The only exception to this will be if we are required to keep a record of your gifts for Gift Aid and financial audit purposes, in which case we will anonymise your record and retain the relevant data in a locked note which can only be accessed by a relevant employee.
• We use a secure server for all areas of our website which collect personal information.
• We use cookies to help us track the success of our online advertising and to monitor the use of our website.
• We review and update our application of this policy at least every four years.

Family Rights Group was established in 1974 by a group of lawyers, social workers, and academics concerned about how families were treated when social services became involved with their children.

As a registered charity, our main objective is to enable children to be raised safely and thrive within their family and community. We work with parents whose children are in need, at risk, or are in the care system, as well as with relatives and friends who are raising children unable to live with their parents.

To further this objective, Family Rights Group undertakes a range of activities including providing advice and support, undertaking research, campaigning, delivering training, and facilitating networks. Some of these activities involve the collection and processing of personal information.

Family Rights Group processes personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). We are committed to handling your information lawfully, fairly, and transparently.

The purpose of this Data Protection, Privacy, and Communications Policy is to explain how your personal information is processed, and to inform you about your rights under current data protection legislation. For each of Family Rights Group’s activities that involve personal data, we provide details about what information we collect, how we use it, and what happens to your information when it is no longer required.

For further details about your rights or how we process your data, please refer to our full Data Protection and Privacy Policy and Cookies Policy, or contact us directly.

In carrying out our day-to-day activities, we process and store personal information relating to our supporters and adhere to the current requirements of UK data protection law. The UK Data Protection Act 1998 has been replaced by the Data Protection Act 2018, which works alongside the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) that came into force following the UK’s exit from the European Union.

We take our responsibilities under data protection regulation seriously and ensure that all personal information we obtain is held, used, transferred, and otherwise processed in accordance with:

• The Data Protection Act 2018
• The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)
• The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR)
• Any other applicable UK data protection laws and regulations

Our commitment means we regularly review our policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the latest legal requirements and best practices in data privacy and protection.

We hold and process personal data:

• To send our supporters marketing information about our projects, upcoming training and events and appeals where we have their consent or are otherwise allowed to.
• To fulfil contractual obligations entered into with customers e.g. on-line purchases via our web shop (WordPress) i.e. credit/debit card details (if making a purchase or donation – Paypal, Enthuse or BACS).
• On visitors to our website (WordPress), discussions forums (phpBB) and owned social-media channels (Family Rights Group’s BlueSky, Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube channel).
• On subscribers via e-marketing newsletter tools and to ensure we do not send unwanted information to members of the public who have informed us they do not wish to be contacted i.e. unsubscribed lists (Vertical Response and Mailchimp).
• To contact respondents who have expressed consent in surveys (Survey Monkey), website training and events forms and applications (WordPress, Yammer, Eventbrite and Wufoo).
• To keep a record of donations made and actions taken by our supporters and our communications with them and to claim gift aid on donations.
• To contact supporters (including our past and present donors, event participants, individuals giving non-financial assistance), prospective supporters, beneficiaries and members of the public who make contact with us, including those who share their personal information with us.
• To contact complainants and other individuals in relation to a data protection or freedom of information complaint or enquiry.

For information about why and how our advice and advocacy service collects and uses personal data see here.

We undertake regular reviews of who has access to the information we hold to ensure that your data is only accessible by appropriately trained staff, volunteers, and contractors.

We have appropriate technical and organisational controls in place to protect your personal details. For example, our online forms are always encrypted, and our network is protected and routinely monitored.

For financial and technical reasons, we may occasionally need to use the services of suppliers located outside the United Kingdom. If this occurs, we ensure that your information is held in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and any other applicable data protection laws. Where your data is transferred outside the UK or European Economic Area (EEA), we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as standard contractual clauses or other lawful transfer mechanisms.

By submitting your personal information, you agree to this transfer, storing, or processing at a location outside the UK or EEA where necessary. We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data is kept secure and in accordance with this privacy policy.

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, for example we will keep a record of donations subject to gift aid for at least seven years to comply with HMRC rules and we reserve the right to change it to reflect subsequent changes in those rules and obligations.

If you request that we stop sending you marketing materials we will keep a record of your contact details and appropriate information to enable us to comply with your request not to be contacted by us.

Under the GDPR, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal information. You have the right to:

• request access to your personal information;
• request rectification of your personal information which means you are able to have inaccurate personal information corrected without undue delay;
• request erasure of your personal information when certain conditions apply;
• restrict processing under certain circumstances;
  object to processing;
• data portability in some circumstances.

There may be occasions when Family Rights Group is unable to comply with requests to exercise the rights above. Should this apply to a request you make, it will be explained to you why Family Rights Group is unable to comply with the request and any options available. For some data processing activities we may need your consent before we can contact you. We carry out a balancing exercise to assess whether or not we need your expressed consent to conduct our activities. To do this, we consider both the content of the personal data that we collect and the way in which we wish to use that data.

Where your personal information is being processed using consent, one further right is the right to withdraw your consent at any time. You should be aware that, while Family Rights Group will stop using your information for that purpose with immediate effect, it may not always be possible to remove information from the public domain, for example where it has been used in hard copy publications. You should also be aware that the ability to withdraw consent only applies to information considered to be personal. It does not usually apply to information about groups or organisations.

We may supplement or add to the information we hold about you with information that is available through, or we receive from, other sources, e.g. public registers, or third-party information services. This allows us to send you the most relevant information and promote those fundraising opportunities that we believe you are most likely to be interested in.

You may withdraw your consent at any time for allowing your information to be used for marketing purposes.

If you share a personal story with us via our website, advice service or social media channels we may invite you to consent to future communications from us and to sharing your story more widely. Occasionally Family Rights Group is invited by journalists to contribute to news stories relating to our cause, and in this situation we may invite you to participate or to allow us to use your story for these purposes.

If you are not happy with the way we have handled your data, and are unable to resolve the issue with us personally, you can complain to the ICO.

The following third parties are involved with our website. They will only use your information for the processes specified. They will not use your personal data for their own purposes and take their own measures to protect it.

• MailChimp and Vertical Response. They handle our mailing lists and hold your e-mail address, if you give your consent.
• Enthuse (formerly known as Charity Checkout). They securely handle the processing of your online donations.
• PayPal. They process payments for our training and events on our site. Any financial details are handled by PayPal.
• JustGiving. They handle donations or fundraisers via their own website.
• Eventbrite. They manage our event guest list.
• Google Analytics. They track the time spent on our website and what pages you have visited so as to allow us to improve our website based on user feedback.

To ensure that we communicate with our supporters through their preferred channels, and to enable us to share updates about our work, we need to collect different types of information, including personal data.

If you consent to receive regular updates relating to the activities of Family Rights Group via our e-newsletters, your data will be processed and shared with and you will be contacted by the third party organisations Vertical Response and Mailchimp. Your data will be on Vertical Response’s and Mailchimp’s servers and offices which are located in the United States, so your information may be transferred to, stored, or processed in the United States.

We use Vertical Response and Mailchimp to gather statistics about the number of emails opened and clicks made using industry standard technologies. This helps us monitor and improve our mailings. You can unsubscribe to our mailings at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of our emails or by emailing: office@frg.org.uk. For more information, please see Vertical Responses’ privacy policy here and MailChimp’s privacy policy here.

We use SurveyMonkey to conduct research on behalf of the organisation. When completing online research surveys for Family Rights Group, most surveys will be anonymous. However depending on the nature of the research to be carried out, Family Rights Group from time to time will ask for your contact details i.e. name, address, organisation, telephone number and email address. Surveys are currently completed via a secure external online survey called Survey Monkey which is password protected. In compliance with the Data Protection Act, Survey Monkey complies with the EU-US Privacy Shield Program and will take all steps, reasonably necessary to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of personal information. The data collected through these surveys will be used for research analysis for Family Rights Group and its associated projects only. SurveyMonkey’s Privacy policy can be found here.

As part of any recruitment process, Family Rights Group collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants.

When you visit our work for us page, you may be asked to provide certain information about yourself, including your name, contact details, date of birth and job history. Some of the information is mandatory in order for the organisation to consider an application for a vacancy or meet its statutory monitoring and reporting responsibilities.

Family Rights Group collects a range of information about you:

• your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number;
• details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history;
• information about your current level of remuneration; and
• whether or not you have a disability for which Family Rights Group needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process.

Family Rights Group may collect this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment.

Family Rights Group may also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks.

Data will be stored in a range of different places, including on your application record, in HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).

Google Analytics:

A significant number of websites across the globe use Google Analytics in order to analyse data relating to the number of unique visitors visiting their websites on a daily basis. Google Analytics gathers information about website use by means of cookies. The information which Google provides enables companies to monitor the success of the website which in turn enhances the users’ visiting experience.

We use Google analytics as it enables us to monitor how long each user spends on each individual page, meaning that we can observe carefully, the length of time each visitor spends on each page. We can therefore remove any content which is not viewed and replace this material with more helpful material therefore enhancing both the users’ visiting experience and the functionality of our website. For more information on Google Analytics please see here.

Use of Cookies:

To provide the best possible experience on frg.org.uk, we use cookies, which are small text files placed on your device, to enable essential site functions, remember your preferences, and help us understand how visitors interact with our website. Some cookies are necessary for the site to work, while others help us improve content, personalise your experience, or deliver relevant advertising.

You can control your cookie preferences at any time, including opting out of non-essential cookies. For full details on the types of cookies we use, their purposes, and how you can manage your settings, please see our Cookie Policy.

Links to other sites:

Our website contains hyperlinks to many other websites. We are not responsible for the content or functionality of any of those external websites (but please let us know if a link is not working by using our ‘Contact us’ details (located at the footer of our website).

If an external website requests personal information from you (e.g. in connection with an order for goods or services), the information you provide will not be covered by the Family Rights Group’s Privacy Policy. We suggest you read the privacy policy of any website before providing any personal information.

When purchasing goods or services from any of the businesses that our site links to, you will be entering into a contract with them (agreeing to their terms and conditions) and not with Family Rights Group.

If you would like to request information about our privacy policy, you can email us on office@frg.org.uk, telephone 020 7923 2628 or write to:

Family Rights Group
101 Pentonville Road
London N1 9LG

Changes to this Privacy Policy:

This Privacy Notice was last updated on 17 June 2025 and will be reviewed and updated from time to time. Older versions can be obtained by contacting us.

In relation to your data:

• We will never sell your data to any individual or organisation.
• We keep the information we hold about you accurate and up-to-date so far as we are able.
• The private notice sets out how we will respond to any request to remove personal information from our records.
• We use a secure server for all areas of our website which collect personal information.
• We review and update our application of this policy at least every four years.