This privacy policy sets out how Family Solutions uses and protects any information that you give us.

Family Solutions is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected.

All information you give us will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

Family Solutions may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page regularly to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This latest version of our privacy policy is effective from June 2024 and includes the requirements of the GDPR.

What we collect

• Depending on what you do on our website, personal information such as your name, your contact information such as email address, mobile or telephone number and details of your enquiry.  
• Information received in referral forms which might include your name, your child/ren’s names, your contact information such as your email address, telephone number, address.  
• Information you give to us directly 
• Information you give to us indirectly such as: 
  • Data about your visits to our website, for example, your location data or IP address when you use our find your nearest search engine. 
  • Information about how you navigate our website, although this cannot be used to personally identify you. 

In addition to this, we will keep: 

• if you attend an Assessment Appointment – a record relating to the content of this appointment   
• if you attend one of our solutions – a record relating to the content of those meetings/sessions 
• personal information about you without your knowledge or permission if provided to us by your ex-partner as part of the assessment process.

What we do with the information we gather

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

• To carry out our obligations arising from any enquiries, projects or contracts entered into by you and us, compliance with a legal obligation, vital interests, a public task or legitimate interests.
• Internal record keeping.
• Dealing with complaints.
• We may use the information to improve our products and services.
• We may periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided.
• From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone or mail.
• From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for your feedback about your experience with us. We may contact you by email, phone or mail.
• We may use the information to customise the website according to your interests.
• We may collect IP addresses of visitors to our website for the purposes of protecting our website from hacking attempts or email SPAM.
• We may collect and store personal data as part of web servers logs for the purposes of detecting and preventing fraud and unauthorized access and maintaining the security of our systems.

When will this information be shared? 

All your information is treated as confidential, but there are circumstances in which your personal information may be shared with others such as: 

• if, in our opinion, you are a danger to yourself or others 
• if, in our opinion, a young person under the age of 18 or a vulnerable adult is at risk of harm 
• under a legal requirement, eg you are involved in terrorist activity 
• if ordered by a court of law 
• if a complaint is made about our service, we may share information with our regulatory bodies (for details of which body applies, please see our Complaints Policy)
• If you have been referred to our service by a family law professional or the court, we may share with the referrer whether you have attended a statutory Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM) and continued into mediation or one of the other services that we offer.  
• In cases where we are working with more than one client, and where specifically requested by you and your ex-partner, we will send your information to the court, lawyers, financial advisors or other professionals. 
• In cases where we are working with you alone, and where specifically requested by you, we will send your information to the court, lawyers, financial advisors or other professionals. 
• If our service has been provided to you as a result of a grant or other funding, we may give the funder completely pseudo-anonymised information about you, in accordance with the funding/grant conditions, so the funder can understand how their money has been used and its impact. 

Good practice means our team members may use appropriate internal or external supervisory support, and the supervisor may be given completely pseudo-anonymised information about you for the purpose of the supervisory process.

The Legal Aid Agency

If our service to you has been funded by the Legal Aid Agency, we are required to share your personal information with them.  This is carried out subject to their Privacy Notice, which you can access here (link to https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1086093/LAA_Unified_Privacy_Notice_v4.1.pdf)

How long do we keep this data for?

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us. We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect on-line.

Transfer of personal data outside of the EU

There may be occasions where data may be transferred outside of the EU for storage or processing (e.g. bulk email providers). Where necessary, we will take steps to ensure that there are adequate safeguards in place to protect your personal data.

For example, for servers located in the US, we would look for compliance with the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework, which offers compliance with EU data protection requirements when transferring personal data from the European Union to the United States.  You can find more information about Privacy Shield at https://www.privacyshield.gov/welcome. You can also check specific companies certification at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant_search.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which is placed on your computer’s hard drive which helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual enabling it to tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. For more information and a guide to deleting and controlling cookies, please refer to aboutcookies.org, provided by international law firm Pinsent Masons.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and helps us to identify ways to improve our website in order to tailor it better to our customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better and more usable website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may however limit some functionality and prevent you from taking full advantage of the website. For details on how to do this, please refer to aboutcookies.org, provided by international law firm Pinsent Masons.

We use Google Analytics to collect data on how our users are using our website and their demographics (age, gender) and interests which enables us to evaluate how our users’ behaviour varies by demographics and interests in order that we can improve our website content, marketing and services for our clients. The information generated by the cookies about your use of our website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google undertakes not to associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

The Google Analytics features we implement may be based on Display Advertising (e.g. Remarketing, Google Display Network Impression Reporting, the DoubleClick Campaign Manager integration, or Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting).

Users can opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customize Google Display Network ads using the Ads Settings. If you prefer that Google Analytics does not collect any data from you when you visit a website that has it incorporated, information for opting out can be found on Google Analytics’ currently available opt-outs for the web.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Controlling your personal information

Under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), you have the following rights:

• the right to be informed
• the right of access
• the right to rectification
• the right to erasure
• the right to restrict processing
• the right to data portability
• the right to object
• the right not to be subject to automated decision-making including profiling

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:

• whenever you are asked to fill in a form on the website, look for a box, or boxes, that you can select to indicate your consent.
• if you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing or other purposes, you may change your mind at any time by writing to us at Family Solutions, 23 East Street, Havant, Hampshire, PO9 1AA or emailing us at info@familysolutionsnow.co.uk.

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.

We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.

We do not create derived or inferred data about people by profiling.

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the GDPR (previously the Data Protection Act 1998). If you would like a copy of the information held on you please email us at info@familysolutionsnow.co.uk.

General 

You may not transfer any of your rights under this privacy policy to any other person. We may transfer our rights under this privacy policy where we reasonably believe your rights will not be affected. 

If any court or competent authority finds that any provision of this privacy policy (or part of any provision) is invalid, illegal or unenforceable, that provision or part-provision will, to the extent required, be deemed to be deleted, and the validity and enforceability of the other provisions of this privacy policy will not be affected. 

Unless otherwise agreed, no delay, act or omission by a party in exercising any right or remedy will be deemed a waiver of that, or any other, right or remedy. 

This policy is governed by and interpreted according to the law of England and Wales. All disputes arising under the policy will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English and Welsh courts. 

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please email us as soon as possible, at info@familysolutionsnow.co.uk. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.