1. INTRODUCTION
This privacy policy refers to Family Mediation Services Ltd (FMS), a company limited by shares and registered in England.
You can contact us, about anything documented in this notice on 0300 365 2700 or admin@familymediationservices.co.uk
This privacy notice sets out the standards you can expect from FMS when we process personal information (‘personal data’) about you.
2. DATA COLLECTED
DATA STORAGE LOCATION
The data we collect and process is needed if you make use our services; you join as a member; you attend an event or training course, you are an employee; or a visitor. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.
COMMENTS
When you leave comments on the website we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
HOW DO WE COLLECT THIS INFORMATION?
We collect personal information:
- from visitors to our website
- from publicly available sources: e.g. networking, social media, internet services, exhibitions, direct referrals, other Corporate bodies
- from guests, contractors or visitors
GOOGLE ANALYTICS
We use Google Analytics on our site for anonymous reporting of site usage. So, no personalized data is stored. If you would like to opt-out of Google Analytics monitoring your behavior on our website please use this link: Google Analytics Opt-out.
what data do we collect?
- We will only ever collect the information we need – including data that will be useful to help improve our services. We collect the following information
3. CLIENTS
In order to administer your membership and provide you with your member benefits, we need to process the following personal data about you:
your personal details including your name, address, date of birth, gender, email address, phone numbers
- your marital status
- your dependants
- medical or health information including whether or not you have a disability
- information about your sexual orientation, religion or belief and ethnic origin
- your bank details and financial information
- your national Insurance number
- details of your criminal record
We collect data about you in a variety of ways and this will usually start when you first make an enquiry or we receive a referral for one of our services. Further information will be collected directly from you in the course of us providing our services, for instance when you attend a mediation appointment.
In some cases, we will collect data about you from third parties, such when a solicitor makes a referral to mediation or CAFCASS make a referral to a Parenting Programme.
Personal data is kept in individual case files and on FMS’s case management system.
Why We Process Your Data
Data protection laws allow us to process your personal data only under specific conditions, including:
- To fulfill a contract we are involved in
- To meet legal obligations
- To pursue our legitimate interests
- To safeguard your interests
- When processing is carried out in the public interest
All the data processing we perform falls within these legal grounds.
Individuals Using Our Services
Family Mediation Services (FMS) offers a variety of services, such as family mediation, parenting programs, mediation training, and mediator registration. We collect personal data to manage your case or respond to your inquiry effectively. The information we collect is relevant to the service you receive and may include your name, address, phone number(s), or email address.
During mediation, you may also share details about your family or financial situation or provide information related to current or past legal proceedings involving you and your family.
If you contact us with an inquiry, we will process your contact details and correspondence solely for the purpose of responding to your inquiry.
The legal basis for processing your personal data is that it is necessary to serve our legitimate interests.
In some cases, you may provide “special category data” while using our services. Processing this type of information requires us to obtain your explicit consent. Please refer to Section 5, “Special Categories of Personal Data,” for further details.
Website Visitors
When you visit our website, we may collect certain technical information about your device, including your IP address, operating system, browser type, duration of your visit, and how you interact with the site. This information helps us monitor and improve the performance of our website and the services we offer.
We may track your use of the website through cookies and similar technologies. Additionally, we may collect traffic, location, and other related data. Some of this data is aggregated or statistical, meaning it does not identify you personally.
Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit a website. They are widely used to remember user preferences, track items in shopping carts, and analyse website traffic.
We may share aggregated, anonymous information (from which you cannot be personally identified) with third parties, such as analytics and search engine providers, to help improve and optimize our website. We do not share any personally identifiable information.
The legal basis for processing your personal data is that it is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests.
Individuals Making a Complaint
If you file a complaint about FMS or one of its member services, we process your personal data to address and resolve your concerns. We collect information relevant to the complaint, which may include your name, address, phone number, email address, and details about the complaint and any related correspondence.
The legal basis for processing your personal data is that it is necessary to serve our legitimate interests.
4. THIRD PARTY ACCESS – WHO HAS ACCESS TO YOUR DATA
Access to your personal information is only allowed when required by law or is required as part our fulfilling our service obligations.
We do make use of carefully selected third-party service providers to help us fulfil our services and where we do the third party is required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and we only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
We use third party providers for:
- support in the administration of our systems and databases
- the administration of our HR, events, payroll, invoicing and accounting
- for our marketing and communications
- for the delivery of our training
- For our websiteWe may share your personal information with colleagues or contractors working for FMS when it is necessary for them to carry out their responsibilities. This could include, for example, sharing information with our trainers and mediators, or with our finance team when processing a payment.
At times, we may need to share the personal information we handle with other organisations. When this is required, we will adhere to all relevant data protection laws. We do not share information for commercial purposes.
We will only disclose your information to third parties under the following conditions:
- When we engage a third party solely to process data on our behalf, and we have a data processing agreement in place with them that meets our legal obligations regarding third-party data processors; or
- When we are legally obligated to share your data; or
- When you have provided your consent, such as if you are transferring to a different mediation provider.
The types of organisations we may share your personal information with include:
- Public and Local Authorities. For example, the Legal Aid Agency or Children’s Services if safeguarding concerns arise.
- IT Companies. This may include providers of website hosting, cloud-based software, and IT support.
We do not share your data with organisations outside the European Economic Area.
5. HOW LONG WE RETAIN YOUR DATA
We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
Details of retention periods for other aspects of your personal information are available in our Data Processing Register which is available from: admin@familymediationservices.co.uk
In general terms we will retain:
Complaints data for a period of three years after the process for the complaint, including any appeal, is completed.
If you have made an enquiry, we will retain your contact details for three years.
If you have subscribed to our bulletins, we will retain your contact details for the duration of your subscription.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
We keep mediation Services data 6 years after we close your file
6. YOUR DATA RIGHTS
GENERAL RIGHTS
It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your working relationship with us.
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under UK Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) in relation to your personal information. You may have the right to:
- be informed of how we will use your data as provided by this Policy
- access the information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with data protection law;
- object to us processing or ask us to restrict our processing of your personal information for any of the purposes listed in this policy, at any time.
- ask us to update and correct any out-of-date or incorrect personal information that we hold about you free of charge.
- ask us to erase or delete your personal information (in certain circumstances). We will do our best to respond to such requests, but these are subject to certain limitations such as legal requirements.
- Request a transfer of your personal information (again in certain circumstances).
If you wish to exercise any of the above rights or to review, verify, correct or question anything detailed in this policy; are unhappy with any aspect of how we use your data or wish to remove your consent please contact us at: email admin@familymediationservices.co.uk or phone 0300 365 2700.
7. Contact us
We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we amend this Privacy Policy, we will update this page accordingly and require you to accept the amendments in order to be permitted to continue using our services.
You also have the right to make a complaint at any time and we appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns in the first instance.
To register a complaint about our privacy policy please email us or phone 0300 365 2700.