Local Community Fostering privacy notice

Local Community Fostering is a regional collaboration partnership between the following local authorities:

• London Borough of Barking & Dagenham
• London Borough of Havering 
• London Borough of Newham
• London Borough of Redbridge
• London Borough of Tower Hamlets
• London Borough of Waltham Forest

Local Community Fostering provides a central front door and support hub for initial inquiries and screening of prospective Foster Carers.  It allows the above authorities to work together to widen the pool of prospective Foster Carers who can provide loving and stable homes for children in need, and to use the network to match children with the right families much more quickly.  It supports prospective Foster Carers going through the process and information for those considering Fostering.   

For the purposes of data protection, the partner local authorities are joint data controllers with respect to personal data processed by Local Community Fostering.         

If you have questions regarding this service or our privacy practices, you can contact us by e-mail or in writing at the address below.

In order for individuals to register an interest in fostering and receive further information the following information will need to be collected:

• First name
• Last name
• Telephone number
• Email
• Postcode

As this falls under direct marketing, individuals will provide their explicit consent to be contacted. An opt in box will be provided and individuals will be able to opt out at any time – Article 6 (1)(a) UK GDPR.

For the initial screening process, LB Waltham Forest will collect the additional personal information:

• Full name of enquirer including middle names
• Any other name known by
• Date of birth
• Full postal address
• Email address
• Preferred contact telephone number
• Financial information 
• Occupation
• Which Council you pay Council Tax to
• An overview of your interest in fostering
• Details of whether you, or anyone else who is considering fostering with you, currently resides in the UK on a student visa or have less than five years leave to remain in the UK
• Details of whether English written and spoken at home by all applicants
• Details of whether you, or anyone else in your household, has:
• current involvement with a debt management agency or a current county court judgment?
• previously been deregistered as a foster carer
• ever had any involvement in children's social services for safeguarding reasons
• ever been convicted by the courts or cautioned, reprimanded or given a final warning by the police for an offence against children or other people
• ever been disqualified from working with children or vulnerable adults or subject to any other sanctions imposed by a regulatory body
• Special Category Information, including Gender, Sexual Orientation,  Ethnicity, Disability and Religion 
• Dates of key stages in the Fostering process
• Reasons for not proceeding to the next stage

If applying with a partner or spouse

• Partner's full names including middle names
• Any other name known as partner is known by
• Partner's date of birth

Monthly updates about stages of your journey will be provided by professionals. 

Where you have provided us with personal data about other individuals, such as family members or dependants please ensure that those individuals are aware of the information contained within this notice.

Information you provide will be used for the following purposes:

• To respond to your enquiry to the Local Community Fostering service and commence your application to foster.
• To support applicants' journeys from enquiry to formal fostering application,
• To pass formal fostering applications to the appropriate partner local authority for completion, and
• To provide communications such as advice, guidance and newsletters about the service. You can opt out of receiving these communications at any time by contacting us.
• We may use your data to contact you to invite you to participate in research that is relevant to you. You are under no obligation to participate in any research we invite you to. We will not contact you about research using your data if you tell us not to.

The lawful basis for Local Community Fostering to process your data is provided under Article 6 of the UK GDPR:

1(c) processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject

1(e) processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller

Local authorities rely on statutory provisions which confer implied and express data processing powers across a broad range of legislation when supporting children in need. Specific laws in relation to local authority - supported Fostering include:

Children Act 1989 (as amended)

Fostering Agencies Regulations 2005 and National Minimum Standards

Local Community Fostering will share your personal data with partner local authorities above to deliver these purposes but will not pass your information to other organisations without a legitimate lawful reason to do so.

Your application will be processed by the local authority you apply to through Local Community Fostering, and the relevant agency will process all subsequent information provided by you and received from others in respect of your application. Information collected after your initial enquiry will not be routinely shared between the other local authorities.    

All hub information and backup information is held in the UK. We do not process your data outside of the UK. 

After we deliver a service to you, we will keep your information as a business record of what was delivered.

Information will be held by the Local Community Fostering hub for reporting purposes and will be retained for a maximum period of seven years following the date of your last contact or the completion of your fostering application, whichever is later. 

Information passed to the local authorities will be held in accordance with their retention and destruction schedules.

Our Data Protection Officer

Our Data Protection Officer is Mark Hynes, you contact him by email at data.protectionofficer@walthamforest.gov.uk

Protecting your information

Please see the relevant section of the Corporate Privacy Notice.

Your information choice and rights

Please see the relevant section of the Corporate Privacy Notice.

Complaints and contact details

These are included in the relevant section of the Corporate Privacy Notice.

Information Commissioner’s Office

If we’re unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)