Foster for Bradford is Bradford Children & Families Trust’s (BCFT) fostering service. BCFT was set up in 2023 to run children’s services for Bradford Metropolitan District Council. The Trust is owned by, but is independent from, the Council.
The Foster for Bradford website is intended to provide information to those people interested in becoming foster carers with us. Any information collected from the general public is to enable us to contact you, with your agreement, to provide you with this information / discuss your interest in fostering further.
This notice explains what personal data (information) we hold about you, how we collect, how we use and may share information about you. We are required to give you this information under data protection law.
Foster for Bradford, as part of Bradford Children & Families Trust, collects, uses and is responsible for certain personal information about you. We are regulated under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and we are responsible as ‘controllers’ of that personal information for the purpose of those laws.
Foster for Bradford assesses, approves, supports and pays foster carers, and provides them with ongoing support, guidance and training to ensure they are fully skilled to be effective foster carers. Foster for Bradford also works with the Trust’s employees and a range of fostering agencies to ensure that children are placed with the most appropriate family.
Personal information we collect and use
Information collected by us
In the course of approving and supervising foster carers, we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:
- personal information (such as name, address, contact details, date of birth, gender, language)
- special category characteristics (such as ethnicity, disability, religion and medical information)
- family network and relationship information
- employment information
- financial information
- information relating to assessments and approvals for suitability to foster children
Information collected by other sources
We also obtain personal information from the following other sources:
- the local authority in whose area you live
- other Bradford Council and Trust departments
- Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
- past and present employers
- social media
- references (personal and employment)
- previous partners
- health
- schools
How we use your personal information
We use your personal information to:
- process foster carer applications
- assess suitability to become a foster carer
- monitor the progress and stability of placements, to safeguard and support children
- provide ongoing support, advice and training to foster carers
- prevent or detect crime or fraud
- assess and evaluate our services
- inform future service planning and the commissioning of services
- ensure that foster carers receive the correct payments
How long your personal data will be kept
We keep your information securely in line with the retention periods shown below, after which time it is archived or securely destroyed, unless we are required by legal reasons to retain records for longer than the stated retention period.
| Category | Retention period |
| Foster carers approved by Bradford Council and/or the Trust – including any person with whom a child is placed (under Regulation 34 or 38 of the Fostering Services Regulations 2002) and records of foster carer applicants who are not approved | Date of last contact with foster carers plus 75 years |
| Finance and procurement, financial services, payments: all records relating to the payment of foster carers | 6 years |
Reasons we can collect and use your personal information
The legal basis for using your personal information is Legal Obligation (UK GDPR Article 6.1.c). We collect and use your personal information to comply with our legal obligations under The Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011.
If we need to collect special category (sensitive) personal information, we rely upon reasons of substantial public interest (equality of opportunity or treatment) for the provision of social care; for social security or social protection law; and for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims whenever Courts are acting in their judicial capacity.
Who we may share your personal information with
- Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS)
- Chief Probation Officer
- health visitors
- local safeguarding teams
- other local authorities
- other independent fostering agencies
- schools and nurseries
- your doctor
- Disclosure and Barring Service
- The Fostering Network / FosterTalk
- online training providers
- Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Families Association (SSAFA)
- Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (OFSTED)
- Certificate of good conduct checks (out of country checks)
We share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law.
Your rights
Under the UK GDPR, you have rights you can exercise which allow you to:
- know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it
- ask to see what information we hold about you (subject access request)
- ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you
- object to direct marketing
- make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office
- withdraw consent at any time (if applicable)
Depending on our reason for using your information, you may also be entitled to:
- ask us to delete information we hold about you
- have your information transferred electronically to yourself or to another organisation
- object to decisions being made that significantly affect you
- object to how we are using your information
- stop us using your information in certain ways
We will always seek to comply with your request, however we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties.
Please note, your request may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you.
For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the UK GDPR.
If you would like to exercise a right, please contact the Information Governance Team at dpo@bradfordcft.org.uk.
Keeping your personal information secure
We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed in an unauthorised way.
We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.
Contact
Please contact the Corporate Information Governance Team at dpo@bradfordcft.org.uk to exercise any of your rights, or if you have a complaint about why your information has been collected, how it has been used or ow long we have kept it for.
You can contact our Data Protection Officer at dpo@bradfordcft.org.uk or write:
Data Protection Officer
Sir Henry Mitchell House
4 Manchester Road
Bradford
BD5 0QL
The UK GDPR also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office, who are the supervisory authority responsible to regulate and monitor the legislative obligations within the UK and can be contacted on 0301 231113.
This privacy policy was last updated on 30 March 2023.