Privacy Policy

This privacy policy sets out how Autism Champions uses and protects any information that you give us when you access this website or commission our services.

Our promise

  • To keep your data safe and private.

  • To only use your personal data for the specific purposes stated.

  • To keep you informed about how we use your information.

  • Not to sell your data.

  • To only ask you for the minimum amount of data or information we need.

We are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. We may change this policy from time to time and will amend this page accordingly.

Confidential Information

Confidentiality and transparency is at the heart of our relationships with our clients. All our conversations, the information we share together and the records that we keep are totally confidential and will not be disclosed to any person without your consent. We only use your data as necessary to carry out the performance of our contract with you, and where processing is necessary in order to comply with a legal requirement or where you have given explicit consent for us to do so. We only ever ask you for the minimum amount of data that we need.

What we keep and what we do with it:

The information, that you or someone who has referred you to us – shared in our Referral form, is kept to:

  • Enable us to work with you effectively

  • Schedule our meetings

  • Invoice you

  • Keep in touch occasionally

You will see on our referral form that only some information is mandatory. The other information is therefore optional.

Session/Workshop Notes

Any notes from our conversations are to help us support you. These notes are anonymised as far as possible. Any physical notes are kept locked away when not in use and destroyed 2 years after we have finished working together. At the end of our sessions we will make notes that are stored electronically. If requested these will be shared with you. We have in place appropriate security measures to prevent unauthorised or unlawful access to or accidental loss of or destruction or damage to your information. We store your personal data in the UK. We will not sell or share your information with anyone or any organisation for any purpose other than to comply with legal requirements.

All electronically held session notes are kept for 8 years from the date of completion of our work/contract together.

All staff and consultants working for Autism Champions receive regular supervision and they may refer to you anonymously in those sessions. The supervision relationship is itself a confidential relationship and bound by the same Data Protection rules.

Data Sharing

In order for us to deliver our services, we will also share your data as required with the following categories of recipients:

  • city and county councils when working on Annual reviews, tribunals;

  • the school that your child is attending or will be attending.

  • We will also share your data if:

    • we are legally required to do so, for example, by law, by a court;

    • to enforce or apply the terms and conditions of your contract with Autism Champions;

    • to protect your child and other children by sharing information with the Safeguarding Authorities;

    • we will never share your data with any other organisation to use for their own purposes.

Our Newsletters

If you have signed up for one of our e-newsletters, we use your name and email address to contact you regarding news and updates from Autism Champions. This personal data will be retained for a period of three years from the date of your last interaction with the marketing communication (i.e. opening an email or clicking on a link within the email) at which point all of your personal details are removed from our systems.

Cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie 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. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better 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 prevent you from taking full advantage of the website. If you wish to decline cookies, you should adjust your settings for each web browser you use, on each device you use to access the Internet.

Find out more information about cookies.

Traffic Analysis

We use Google Analytics traffic log cookies, which track the pages of our website, including

  • pages visited;

  • geographic areas users are located in;

  • operating systems, devices and browsers used;

  • websites users have visited before they visit theautismchampions.co.uk

This helps us analyse web page traffic and to improve our website. We use this information for statistical analysis purposes only. Individuals are not identified. As it is technically possible for Google employees to access personally identifiable data, we have limited our Google data sharing to

  • Benchmarking: that is we contribute anonymous data to an aggregate data set to enable features like benchmarking and publications that can help us understand data trends. All identifiable information about our website is removed and combined with other anonymous data before it is shared with others.

  • Technical support: that is we let Google technical support representatives access our Google Analytics data and account when necessary to provide service and find solutions to technical issues.

Find out more about how Google complies with GDPR.

Changing, Updating or Deleting Your Data

Please contact us if:

  • any of your personal data changes;

  • you would like to request a copy of your data that we hold about you (proof of identity may be required);

  • you have any changes, questions or requests regarding how we hold or use your personal information;

  • you would like to request erasure of any of your information or to object to how your information is used.

Please email us at: enquiries@autismchampions.co.uk

Autism Champions CIC is a registered Community Interest Company in England and Wales (No 13001184).

We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, our registration number is C1097011. If you would like to make a complaint to the ICO, please visit the ICO website.

Holly Davies is responsible for our Data Protection and can be contacted at dpo@autismchampions.co.uk

We are committed to reviewing our policies and good practice annually. This document will be part of that review.

Policy last reviewed: 28 March 2022
Next review due: 27 March 2023