In line with the GDPR guidelines as of 25th May 2018, Little Forest Folk are committed to protecting your data. if you have any queries about data protection at little Forest folk, please contact us at info@littleforestfolk.com.

The dedicated ICO (Information Commissioner's Office) GDPR helpline for any queries regarding breaches of data is 0303 123 1113

Please see our privacy policy below for more information about how we protect your data.

Little Forest Folk

Privacy Policy for Parents

Date Created: April 2018

Reviewed: 6th March 2024

Little Forest Folk is committed to protecting your privacy. This statement explains how we use any information you give to us and the ways in which we protect your privacy. We ask you to read it carefully. We may be required to change it from time to time so we also ask you to check it occasionally to make sure you are aware of the latest version. Please read this policy in conjunction with our Information Sharing Policy. 

How we comply with GDPR and  the DPA 2018 to be effective from 25th May 2018

We treat any personal information (which means data from which you can be identified, including your name, address, e-mail address, etc.) that you provide us, or that we obtain from you, in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act. Under this Act, we have a legal duty to protect any information we collect from you. Any amendments to this policy will continue to be in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018)

How we collect information about you

When you send your children to Little Forest Folk, we receive information about you and any children who attend our nurseries in a number of different ways.

You may give us the information when you:

apply for, or we offer you, a place at Little Forest Folk

apply for, or we offer you, a funded place

apply for holiday camp with us

When you sign up to any of our waiting lists

when you let us know about a change in your personal circumstances (for example, if you change your name when you get married or move house).

We may receive it from another organisation, for example, should we be required to work with the local council.


How we use your personal information

We use information that we have about you and your children for the running of Little Forest Folk and to comply with our Ofsted requirements. These generally fall into the following areas.

1. Administration – This applies to past, current and potential future children and their parents / guardians.

We use this information for the provision of childcare.

The types of personal information we collect and use include:

The personal details of your child;

The payment of fees due;

Details of the child’s Family (so we can contact you in case of an emergency)

Medical information (so we can cater for any special needs)

Ethnic background of your child (this is collected by the local council as part of the process to obtain Nursery Education Funding for your child). This is also used when Little Forest Folk applies for grants and funding from Government bodies.

2. Provision of Education – This applies to past, current and potential future children and their parents / guardians.

We use this information to ensure that your child’s development needs are catered for.

The types of information we collect and use include:

Education and Training Details (so we can ensure your child’s development needs are catered for).

3. Keeping you informed – This applies to current, past and potential future children and their parents / guardians.

We use this information to keep you updated about events at Little Forest Folk e.g., to let you know about news, events, and changes to schedules.

The types of information we collect and use include:

Email address. For us to email you updates and newsletters.

(Note: This is optional, and you can opt out of receiving email updates at any time).

How long we keep your information for:

We are required to keep certain personal information including registers, medication records and accident records pertaining to the children for at least 3 years after the child has left Little Forest Folk (sometimes much longer). This is in order to comply with ‘Early Years Foundation Stage Welfare Requirements’ (given legal force by Childcare Act 2006) and other legislation (e.g. Limitation Act 1980/The Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Act 1991).

Who we share your information with

Generally, we only use your information within Little Forest Folk.  There are some occasions when we need to share personal information about you and / or your child with third parties. Please refer to the Information Sharing Policy as these include:

If you choose to pay for your child’s care using vouchers (e.g. Childcare vouchers) we will share the minimum amount of your personal information necessary with the voucher scheme operator, so they can identify you and make the appropriate payments to Little Forest Folk on your behalf.

If your child is entitled to Nursery Education Funding, we are required to share your personal details with the local council authority in order to identify your child and prove entitlement to funding.

Every now and again, we receive requests for information from schools, government departments, the police and other enforcement agencies. If there is a proper legal basis for sharing your personal information, we will provide it to the organisation that is asking for it.

In case of an emergency, we may need to share with the emergency services details of your child including details of any medical conditions as provided to us by you.

To contact you when we want to inform you about events at Little Forest Folk

In line with our Information Sharing Policy, we are obliged to share confidential information WITHOUT authorisation from the person who provided it (or to whom it relates) if it is in the public interest to do so. Such situations may include (amongst others):

  • When it is to prevent a crime from being committed or to intervene where one may have been;

  • To prevent harm (physically or emotionally) to a child or adult;

  • When not sharing the information could be worse than the outcome of sharing it.

  • Where there is evidence that the child is suffering, or is at risk of suffering, significant harm; 

  • Where there is reasonable cause to believe that a child may be suffering, or is at risk of suffering, significant harm; 

  • To prevent significant harm arising to children or adults, including the prevention, detection and prosecution of serious crime.

Where data is stored:

We use third party data processors, these are secure online systems and any personal information shared with us is stored securely for necessary use by Little Forest Folk. 

The following systems are in use and their privacy statements and policies can be found below.

Famly: This software is our main software system for storing data about our families, producing registers and sending invoices from. You can find their privacy policy here.

Wufoo: At the point of enrolment, we use Wufoo form creator for our online enrolment forms. Wufoo is also used for parents to give consent for us to share information between other childcare settings, via an online consent form. Wufoo [under Survey monkey] terms of service: “We do not use your survey data other than as described in this privacy policy or unless we have your express consent. We do not sell your survey data to third parties without your permission.” Wufoo privacy policy can be found here. 

Google drive: Google drive, an online cloud-based storage system, is used for necessary data storage including personal information when relevant. Google Drive terms of service state, "You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours." Google privacy policy can be found here.

Mailing lists: When we contact you via a mailing list we use an external platform called Mailchimp and their privacy policy can be found here. You can opt out of receiving mailing list emails at any time.

Holiday camps:  We use a booking system called Bookwhen to take and manage our holiday camp bookings. Bookwhen’s privacy policy can be found here. 

Sage Intacct: We use this software for all accounting purposes and Sage Intacct’s privacy policy can be found here.

Our Squarespace Website:

Our website is hosted by Squarespace and collects personal data to power our site analytics, including:

  • Information about your browser, network, and device

  • Web pages you visited prior to coming to this website

  • Your IP address

  • This information may also include details about your use of this website, including:

  • Clicks

  • Internal links

  • Pages visited

  • Scrolling

  • Searches

  • Timestamps

We share this information with Squarespace, our website analytics provider, to learn about site traffic and activity.

Cookies:

Our Squarespace website uses cookies and similar technologies, which are small files or pieces of text that download to a device when a visitor accesses a website or app. For information about viewing the cookies dropped on your device, visit The cookies Squarespace uses.

Making payments on Squarespace:

When you pay for something on our website, we collect personal information from you to fulfill the order. We may collect information like your:

  • Billing and shipping address

  • Details relating to your purchase (for example, your shirt size)

  • Email address

  • Name

  • Phone number

We share this information with Squarespace, our online store hosting provider, so that they can provide website services to us.

As you go through checkout, this site may auto-complete your shipping and billing address by sharing what you type with the Google Places API and returning suggestions to you to improve your checkout experience.

Form block submissions/ mailing list sign ups:

When you submit information to our website via webform, we collect the data requested in the webform in order to track and respond to your submissions. We share this information with Squarespace, our online store hosting provider, so that they can provide website services to us. We also share this information with Google Drive and Mailchimp for storage.

Where we process personal information

As we use third party storage systems (detailed above), personal information may be stored in servers outside of the United Kingdom. We will only use your personal information in the United Kingdom. 

Our Commitment to you

We will process your personal information in line with the Data Protection Act. This means that we will:

only collect and hold information about you which we need for some reason;

keep your personal information up to date and accurate (to help us do this, please let us know if any of your details change);

take appropriate steps to protect your personal information from being used without permission, or illegally, and to safeguard your rights; and

destroy your personal information in a secure way once we no longer need it.

Your rights over your personal information

You have certain rights over your personal information. Most importantly, you have a right to ask for a copy of all the personal information we hold about you but there are some legal exceptions to this, such as information which is confidential to Little Forest Folk. If you would like a copy of your personal information, you will need to submit a data access request to us in writing.


 
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