Privacy Notice

Who We Are

We are BSN Social Care hereafter referred to as “we”, “us”, or “our”. We provide support to a family of fostering agencies operating across the United Kingdom.

BSN Social care is registered as a controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) our registered number is ZA888103.

Personal and Special category data we may collect

We may collect, use, store, and transfer different kinds of personal and special category data about you and your personnel, including but not limited to:

1. Identity Data: includes first name, last name, job title, organisation name, date of birth.
2. Contact Data: includes billing address, work address, email address, telephone numbers.
3. Professional Data: includes details about your role, qualifications, references, employment history, and professional affiliations.
4. Technical Data: includes internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access our systems.
5. Usage Data: includes information about how you use our website, products, and services.
6. Health Data: We may collect specific health information about you but would obtain your direct consent before doing so.
7. Marketing and Communications: Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
8. Financial Data: In order to pay you under our contract with you

How we collect your personal information

We use various methods to collect data from and about you, including:

1. Direct interactions: You may give us your personal information by filling in forms, corresponding with us by post, phone, email, or otherwise, or via meetings and events.
2. Automated technologies or interactions: As you interact with our website or digital platforms, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns using cookies, server logs, and similar technologies.
3. Third parties or publicly available sources: We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources such as Companies House, regulatory authorities, and professional networking platforms.

Purposes for Which We Use Your Personal Data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to.

Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

1. To manage and administer our relationship with you.
2. To provide support and services to our subsidiary fostering agencies.
3. To undertake due diligence, regulatory checks, and compliance monitoring.
4. To communicate with you regarding updates, services, and events.
5. To fulfil contractual obligations and exercise our legal rights.
6. To ensure the security of our IT systems and network.
7. To improve our website, services, and communications through data analytics.
8. To comply with legal and regulatory requirements.

Legal Basis for Processing Your Data

We process your personal data under the following legal bases:

1. Contract: where processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with you or your organisation.
2. Legal obligation: where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
3. Legitimate interests: where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
4. Consent: where you have given us explicit consent for specific processing activities, such as receiving marketing communications.

How We Use Your Information

We will use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason that is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Who We Share Your Personal Data With

We may share your personal data with the following categories of recipients:

1. Our subsidiary fostering agencies to enable seamless support and service provision.
2. Service providers who provide IT and system administration services.
3. Regulatory authorities, government departments, or law enforcement agencies when required by law.
4. Other partner organisations or third parties as necessary to facilitate our business relationship or as required by law.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

BSN and our subsidiary agencies may use approved artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to enhance efficiency, improve service delivery, and support administrative processes. Any AI tool used within BSN Social Care must be reviewed and approved before use within our organisation.

Where AI tools process personal data, BSN and its subsidiary agencies will only use them where we have identified an appropriate lawful basis under UK data protection law and where their use is necessary, proportionate, and transparent. We will not use AI tools to make decisions about individuals without appropriate human oversight.

One of the tools we use is Magic Notes, an AI-powered application designed to assist with notetaking, summarisation, and organisation of key information. This tool helps authorised staff capture important details during meetings and interactions, supporting accurate records and communication across teams.

We are committed to using AI responsibly and transparently. All personal data processed through Magic Notes is handled in accordance with our Data Protection Policy and applicable data protection legislation. Information is used only for legitimate business purposes, access is restricted to authorised users, and records are retained only for the period set out in our retention schedule before being securely deleted. If you have any questions about our use of AI or Magic Notes, please contact our Data Protection Officer for further information.

You can also read the Magic Notes Privacy Notice here: Magic Notes.

We are also currently trialling Microsoft Copilot and Claude AI with a limited number of authorised users. These tools are being assessed for suitability, and personal data must not be processed through them unless they have been formally approved for that purpose.

If you have any concerns about the use of AI within BSN Social Care, please contact our Data Protection Officer

International Transfers

We comply with UKGDPR, Data Protection Act 2018 and DUAA 2025 regarding international transfers outside of the UK.

There are circumstances where we may need to send personal information to, or make personal information accessible by, organisations located outside the UK.

The UK GDPR contains specific rules where personal information is transferred to a separate organisation located outside the UK and that transfer is not otherwise covered by the UK GDPR.

The transfer rules apply where we initiate the transfer of personal information to an organisation outside the UK and the organisation receiving the information is a separate legal entity.

In these circumstances, the transfer is known as a restricted transfer.

Where a restricted transfer is necessary, we will only make the transfer where it is permitted under UK data protection law. This may include where the destination country is covered by UK adequacy regulations, where appropriate safeguards are in place such as the International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or where a specific exception applies.

We will assess any proposed international transfer before it takes place and will only transfer the minimum personal information necessary for the relevant purpose.

If you have any concerns about this you can speak to our Data Protection Officer. 

Data Security

We have implemented appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors, and other third parties who have a business need to know.

Procedures are in place to deal with any suspected data breach, and we will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

Data Retention

We will only retain your personal data 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.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal and special category data that we hold, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes for which we process your personal data, and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means. We will always follow our internal retention policy and schedule with regards to how long we should keep our data. 

Your Legal Rights

Below is a list of the rights that all individuals have under data protection legislation, they do not apply in all circumstances, please see below for further information or you can contact our Data Protection Officer.

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data, including:

Your rights and access to information

1. The right of access to copies of your personal information, allowing you to request details about the personal data we hold on you and how it is processed. This ensures transparency and gives you greater control over your personal information.
2. Right to be informed about the processing of your personal information. This is covered by our Privacy Notice and policy.
3. Right to the restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
4. Right to Data Portability. This enables you to transfer your data to your nominated third party in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
5. Right to request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “Subject Access Request- SAR) This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it and for its accuracy.
6. Right to Data Rectification of your personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected; however, we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
7. Right to erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where we no longer have a reason to process it or it is different to the purposes for which we originally collected it. However, we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons.
8. Right to object to the processing of your personal data Where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your situation which you believe impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms. 
9. The right to complain You have a right to complain about how your data has been handled. Contact the data protection officer if you feel your data has not been handled correctly. 
10. Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent only to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdrew your consent.  This will not apply where there is another legal basis or legitimate interest that overrides this consent.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact the DPO using the form provided below.

Contact Details

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or our privacy practices, please contact our Data Protection officer using the online form below

Due to changes in Data protection legislation, the Data Use and Access Act 2025 (DUAA) was introduced. Following these changes you now have the right to make a complaint about how we have handled your personal data. You can do this at any time and we have 30 days to respond to you. Please contact our Data Protection Officer using the details below. 

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. Any changes we make will be posted on this page. We encourage you to review this notice periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information.

Get in touch with the Data Protection Officer

If you would like further information on our data handling practices, to make a complaint or to exercise your individual rights.

Please contact our Data Protection Officer. DataProtectionBSN@bsnsocialcare.co.uk .

This Privacy Notice was updated on the 22/06/2026