Privacy policy

In this notice, wherever you see the word Parentkind, It refers to the Parentkind Charity, Parentkind Enterprises Ltd and Parentkind Trading Ltd.

We work with a wide variety of people, so our privacy notice is split up into different sections. Please click on the section relevant to you to find out what we do with your personal information.

On this page

1. If you are linked a PTA or Parent Council
2. Recipients of our subscription services and visitors to our website
3. If you (or the people who look after you) have responded to our Parenting Language quiz
4. Players of The Parents Lottery
5. School staff and representatives
6. Commercial partners
7. Suppliers
8. Media contacts
9. Applicants for employment
10. Key education sector stakeholders
11. Volunteers
12. Donors and individual fundraisers
13. Attendees of webinars and events
14. Marketing
15. Who do we share your data with
16. International transfers
17. How long do we keep your data
18. Security
19. Everybody’s rights
20. If you’re not happy
21. If you need to get in touch directly
22. What the lawful basis means

1. If you are linked to a PTA or Parent Council

For example, you might be on the committee of your PTA or Parent Councils or be registered as linked to it on our website 

Parentkind is the UK membership body for Parent Teacher Associations, and for Parent Councils in Scotland. If the association you represent is one of our members, we will process your personal data to fulfil various functions your association signs up to when you become one of our members. We might speak to you to provide your association with advice, or we might meet with representatives of local schools and PTAs in live social forums to discuss relevant issues and share ideas.

The type of information we collect

• Your name and contact details, along with which associations and schools you have links to
• Email and password combinations to provide access to our website and your account area
• Details of how long for, and which role links you to your association
• Whether or not you are a staff member at the school your association is linked to
• Details on how you engage with our website and/​or communications we send you and digital data such as your IP address
• Financial details if you chose to pay on behalf of your association for their membership

How we get the personal information

• Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you, or by your association through the process of joining or maintaining your membership with us.
• We also use reliable secondary data sources, for example, school and PTA websites and the Charity Commission database, where the information clearly indicates a link between the association and yourself
• In a small number of cases, we receive personal information from our member benefit partners about individuals who have signed up with them to receive the benefit that is available to your association through our membership

Why we have, and how we use the personal information

The table below outlines what personal information we have about you and why:

2. Recipients of our subscription services and visitors to our website

If you subscribe to our one of our non-member newsletters, such as our Parents eBulletin, Schools eBulletin, or Be School Ready, we will provide you with regular updates on relevant topics such as how parents can support and have a say on your child’s education.

Our website allows people to engage with us and to find out about what we do.

The type of information we collect

• Your name and email address, along with which associations and schools you have links to
• Your geographic location and digital data such as your IP address
• Details on how you engage with our website and communications we send you

How we get the personal information

• We will only process your personal data if you have provided it to us yourself (although please check the section on PTA membership if you are also linked to an association)

Why we have the personal information

The table below outlines what personal information we have about you and why:

3. If you (or the people who look after you) have responded to our Parenting Language quiz

If you are a parent or a person with parental responsibility, your child’s school will provide you with details on how you can take part in our online Parenting Language quiz. This includes questions about your parenting style and about how you feel about the school, including things like how safe you feel your child is. We analyse your responses to the quiz and use this information to provide you with some insights into your parenting style and what this means for you and your child. We then convert this into statistical information which we use for research, archiving and statistical purposes in the public interest. This information is stored on an aggregated and anonymised basis and is only ever shared with third parties (like schools) in a form which does not allow them to identify an individual parent or child.

If you are a child and we have collected information about you, then you have the right to be informed about this and to ask us to share that data with you or to delete it. You can find out more in the section ​‘Everybody’s Rights’ below.

The type of information we collect

• Your name and contact details
• Your responses to our questions
• Information about your child to help understand how the responses we receive vary by different groups of children

How we get the personal information

• We obtain this information through an online survey you complete, using a link provided to you by your child’s school.

Why we have the personal information

The table below outlines what personal information we have about you and why:

4. Participants in the Parents Lottery

Some of our main activities as a charity are around raising funds to help us to achieve our charitable objectives. One of the ways we do this is through operating the Parents lottery, which enables people to support us and our members through buying tickets. To do this, we collect some information about the people we liaise with on behalf of participating PTAs, Parent Councils and schools, as well as some information about people who buy tickets to take part. 

The type of information we collect

• The names, contact details, and transaction details of people who represent participating PTAs, Parent Councils and schools
• The names, contact details, and transaction details of players, including details of any winnings

How we get the personal information

• We obtain this information directly from you when you sign up on behalf of your PTA, Parent Council or school, or where you buy a ticket to take part

Why we have the personal information

The table below outlines what personal information we have about you and why:

5. School staff and representatives

Teachers, Employees, Governors, Trustees, representatives of academies etc. 

This section covers the ways we process personal information for people involved in providing education. This includes people like school staff and representatives, but it is also relevant if you are a school staff member who is engaged in your PTA.

The type of information we collect

• Your name and contact details, along with schools, academies or governing or policymaking bodies you have links to
• Details of any training courses, or engagement you have had with us about parent participation
• Details of your role
• Details on how you engage with our website and/​or communications we send you and digital data such as your IP address
• Financial details if you chose to pay on behalf of your school for products and services

How we get the personal information

• In many instances you will have provided this yourselves in signing up to one of our services
• We ascertain contact details of key individuals at schools, local authorities and other bodies delivering public services from Freedom of Information requests or occasionally from commercially managed mailing lists

Why we have the personal information

The table below outlines what personal information we have about you and why:

6. Commercial partners 

To raise funds for our charity and supply the best possible services for our members we engage with commercial partners. If you work for one of these partners or prospective partners, we may process some of your personal information.

The type of information we collect

• We collect names and contact details, alongside your position in the organisation
• Details on how you engage with our website and/​or communications we send you
• Financial details if you choose to engage with us as a commercial partner
• How we get the personal information

We may get your personal information directly from you

• We may search for publicly available information about the right representatives to talk to at an organization about an opportunity we want to work with you on

Why we have the personal information

The table below outlines what personal information we have about you and why:

7. Suppliers

We maintain relationships with suppliers to assist us with delivering our products and services and meeting our charitable objectives.

The type of information we collect

• Your name, business contact details and role within your company

How we get the personal information

• We obtain this information directly from you

The table below outlines what personal information we have about you and why:

8. Media contacts

We maintain relationships with media contacts to help us to publicise the work we do.

The type of information we collect

• Full name, contact details, records of communications

How we get the personal information

• Through our direct interaction with you
• From events you have engaged with, such as networking events
• Professional social media sites

Why we have the personal information

The table below outlines what personal information we have about you and why:

9. Applicants for employment

If you apply for one of our roles, you are asked to submit a CV, Cover Letter, and equal opportunities form. The equal opportunities form is separated from the application and this information is stored anonymously. Please note, employees have a separate privacy notice, available internally.

The type of information we collect

It is up to the applicant what information is provided, however we normally receive and process:

• Name and contact details
• Employment history
• Demographic details for equal opportunities
• Reference details

How we get the personal information

All the personal information we receive is provided directly from you with one exception:

• Referees may provide a reference which is about you

Why we have the personal information

The table below outlines what personal information we have about you and why:

10. Key education sector stakeholders

This is how we describe partners and potential partners we work with to improve parental participation in education. Some examples are policy makers in government, representatives of teaching professionals etc. 

Engagement of stakeholders is vital to the work of Parentkind and for achieving our charitable objective of greater parental engagement in education.

The type of information we collect

• Your name and contact details, along with which policy or decision-making organisations or government bodies you have links to which may be relevant to our work
• Details of our interactions and engagement levels

How we get the personal information

• We may get your personal information directly from you
• We may search for publicly available information about the right representatives to talk to at an organization about an issue or opportunity to work together

Why we have the personal information

The table below outlines what personal information we have about you and why:

11. Volunteers

As a charity, we encourage people who want to volunteer to support us in the work we do.

The type of information we collect

• Full name, contact details
• Information about the voluntary work you carry out on our behalf and/​or under our supervision

How we get the personal information

• We obtain this information directly from you when you engage with us as a volunteer

Why we have the personal information

The table below outlines what personal information we have about you and why:

12. Donors and individual fundraisers

As a charity we depend on charitable contributions by donors and people who gather donations on our behalf. This means we need to collect information about donors and people who gather donations for us, including information which can allow us to claim Gift Aid, which is a form of tax relief on charitable donations we receive.

The type of information we collect

• Full name, contact details, address
• Whether you are a UK taxpayer
• The amount of any donation

How we get the personal information

• We obtain this information directly from you when you arrange to make a donation

Why we have the personal information

The table below outlines what personal information we have about you and why:

13. Attendees of webinars and events

We provide various services to support members of PTAs and Parent Councils, parents, school staff and representatives, and other stakeholders. This includes hosting webinars and events.

The type of information we collect

• Full name, contact details
• Attendance at a webinar or event
• IP address, browser details

How we get the personal information

• We obtain this information directly from you when you register to attend a webinar or event

Why we have the personal information

The table below outlines what personal information we have about you and why:

14. Marketing

We may send you some information about things which we think might interest you. 

If you are linked to a PTA or Parent Council which is a member, we may use your personal data to send you information about things like events, campaigns, benefits, offers and the work we do to raise funds to promote our objectives. We may analyse your data to understand your interests and preferences so that we can make our communications and advertising more relevant to you. This may involve grouping people based on shared characteristics or behaviours or using services like Meta Custom Audiences which enable us to show relevant adverts and exclude existing members from campaigns aimed at potential members. We make sure any data we share about you for this with Meta or any other partner is fully hashed and encrypted. You have the right to opt out of this, and to object to profiling and targeted advertising activities generally, at any time (see the section on ​‘Everybody’s Rights’ below).

We believe in what we do, so we want as many PTAs and Parent Councils to join or rejoin our membership family as possible. If your PTA or Parent Council is no longer a member, has never been a member, or your school doesn’t have a PTA or Parent Council yet, we may process your personal data to encourage you to join us.

If you have subscribed to our Parents eBulletin, we may also send you information about carefully chose offers from third parties.

The type of information we collect

• Your name and contact details, along with which associations and schools you have links to
• Information about your interests and preferences
• Details on how you engage with our website and/​or communications we send you

How we get the personal information

• If you are linked to a PTA or Parent Council which is a member, we obtain data directly from you whenever we discuss things with you relating to your association’s membership.
• If you are linked to a school, we may obtain information directly from you when discussing things relating to the school or we may obtain your information from external sources where it is publicly stated that you are connected to the school.
• For people linked with a PTA or Parent Council which is not a member, your personal data may have been provided to us by your association when it was a member
• We also use reliable secondary data sources, for example, school and PTA or Parent Council websites and the Charity Commission database, where the information clearly indicates a link between the association and yourself, and we may have conversations with the school connected to the PTA or Parent Council you are part of and obtain data this way.

Why we have, and how we use the personal information

The table below outlines what personal information we have about you and why:

15. Who do we share your data with

We may share your personal data with other organisations where this is necessary in circumstances such as in the examples below.

• Where we need support in delivering a service to you or fulfilling certain functions on our behalf, we may engage external service providers for this. We will only engage suppliers who have been properly vetted and who have committed themselves to respecting the security of your personal data and treating it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our suppliers to use your personal data for their own purposes, and we only permit them to use your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
• Part of what we do involves gathering information for the purposes of providing statistical data to a school or to a government agency, to further our purposes of empowering people with parental or educational responsibility to improve the life chances of children, young people and their communities. We will ensure that any personal data you have shared with us is anonymised so that you cannot be identified by the organisation in question.
• We may also share information with partners such as Government bodies, education sector partners, and fundraising partners (i.e. corporate partners).

16. International transfers

Where we are transferring your personal data to service providers that carry out certain functions on our behalf, this may involve transferring personal data outside the UK to countries which have laws that do not provide the same level of data protection as the UK law. For these transfers, we make sure that there are specific standard contractual terms in place which are approved for use in the UK and give the data the same protection as it has in the UK.

17. How long do we keep your data

Parentkind will only retain your data for the period for which it is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we obtained it and we will then securely delete the data.

People linked to a PTA or Parent Council

• If you are no longer a representative of your association, we will usually retain your data for 30 days from the date we are informed of your change of status
• If your association is no longer a member of Parentkind we will retain your data for no longer than 2 years after the PTA or Parent Council membership end date
• If you have provided a case study or a blog article, we will keep in keep this under review to make sure it is still relevant, and remove your data 6 months after the decision to stop using the case study or article is taken
• If you have paid on behalf of your PTA or Parent Council we will retain your payment record for 6 years plus the current financial year, unless in the case of Direct Debit Mandates which we are required by law to retain indefinitely
• Where you use our advice line, information will usually be retained for 3 years from the date the case was opened
• Calls monitored and recorded for insurance compliance purposes will be retained for a maximum of 12 months
• You can ask to be removed from an of our marketing mailing lists at any time and Parentkind will usually delete your contact details from the list within 7 days. Please note that we will continue to hold your details where you are a representative of your association. Also note that the laws surrounding email marketing and suppression lists mean that if you opt out of all communications through the ​‘unsubscribe’ link, our processor will retain your email address to prevent us from ever emailing you again.
• If your data is collected through accessing one of our services, we may keep it for up to 5 years. Details of payments will be held for up to 6 years and feedback to measure the success of training products for up to 2 years
• We refresh our Freedom of Information Request data at least annually, and your data will be removed from our records when you are no longer linked to an educational establishment

Recipients of our subscription services and visitors to our website

• You can ask to be removed from the mailing list for the Parents eBulletin at any time and Parentkind will usually delete your contact details within one month. There may be some circumstances where your details will be retained on our systems, for example if you are also a contact for your association, however you will no longer receive the Parents eBulletin. Also note that the laws surrounding email marketing and suppression lists mean that if you opt out of all communications through the ​‘unsubscribe’ link, our processor will retain your email address to prevent us from ever emailing you.
• We retain information about users of our website for 14 months after your use of the website

Parenting Language quiz

• We retain the data you provide in the Parenting Language Quiz for 14 days after which we remove any information which can identify you so that is retained in an aggregated and anonymised form for research, archiving and statistical purposes

Participants in the Parents Lottery

• If you have provided your details to facilitate a disbursement of funds to your association, we will retain your data for 2 years
• If you have purchased a lottery ticket, we will retain your data for 7 years

School Staff and Representatives

• If your data is collected through accessing one of our services, we may keep it for up to 5 years. Details of payments will be held for up to 6 years and feedback to measure the success of training products for up to 2 years
• We refresh our Freedom of Information Request data at least annually, and your data will be removed from our records when you are no longer linked to an educational establishment

Commercial Partners

• Up to 5 years if no relationship is established
• This period may be extended to 6 years past the end of any commercial relationship

Suppliers

• 6 years after termination of contract

Press contacts

• 2 years after departure from relevant role

Applicants for Employment

• Up to 6 months for unsuccessful candidates

Key education sector stakeholders

• 1 year after relevant role ends

Volunteers

• 1 year after completion of the voluntary activity

Donors and fundraisers

• 7 years from the date of the funding

Attendees of webinars and events

• 2 years after the webinar or event

18. Security

We take the security of personal data very seriously and have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure.

These measures include:

• Access controls – personal data is only accessible to authorised staff and volunteers who need it to carry out their roles
• Encryption and secure systems – we use secure systems and, where appropriate, encryption to protect data in transit and at rest
• Regular monitoring and review – our security practices are reviewed periodically to ensure they remain effective and up to date
• Training and awareness – staff and volunteers receive training on data protection and information security

Where we work with information relating to children or special category data, we apply additional safeguards. Any such data used for analysis or reporting is handled in aggregated and anonymised form, meaning individuals cannot be identified. For example, when we collect information relating to the Parents Survey,

• We do not ask for the parent’s email address or for the child’s first name to ensure that the data remains anonymised
• When we share the survey results with schools, we do not include any information about a child where the sample size is less than 10, to ensure the child cannot be identified
• We require any third-party supplier collecting this survey information on our behalf to delete it within six months. 

We have procedures in place to respond to suspected data breaches and will notify individuals and regulators where we are legally required to do so.

19. Everybody’s rights

Under relevant data protection law including UK GDPR you have rights in relation to your personal information. You have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information
• Request that any inaccurate data about you be corrected
• Request erasure of your personal information when certain conditions apply
• Restrict the processing of the data under certain circumstances
• Object to the processing of the data
• Data portability in some circumstances

Requests that relate to rectification, erasure or restricting processing will be passed to any recipients of your personal information.

There may be occasions when Parentkind is unable to comply with requests to exercise the rights above. Should this apply to a request you make, it will be explained to you why Parentkind is unable to comply with the request and any options available.

Where your personal information is being processed using consent, you also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. You should be aware that, while Parentkind will stop using your information for that purpose with immediate effect, it may not always be possible to remove information from the public domain, for example where it has been used in hard copy publications. You should also be aware that the ability to withdraw consent only applies to information considered to be personal. It does not usually apply to information about groups or organisations. You can find out how your personal information is being lawfully processed under the section How Will Parentkind Use My Information?

You may withdraw your consent at any time where we are relying on this to send you information for marketing purposes.

20. If you’re not happy

Should you be unhappy with the way in which Parentkind have processed your personal data, we would like to try and resolve this directly with you in the first instance. Please get in touch using the details below and we would gladly discuss it with you. Ultimately you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner, who regulates data protection legislation across the UK if you’re not happy with our response. Their contact details can be found at www.ico.org.uk.

21. If you need to get in touch directly

Parentkind is the Data Controller for information collected and processed for each of the purposes described above unless stated otherwise.

If you have any queries regarding any of the information in this privacy policy, in the first instance please contact Parentkind’s Data Compliance Lead:

Teck Kua

Data Compliance Lead

Parentkind

16 Old Queen Street

London

SW1H 9HP

E: [email protected]

T: 0300 123 5460

22. What the lawful basis means

This section provides further explanation of some of the legal terms used above, together with information about the rights available to you when Parentkind process your personal data.

Parentkind is required to provide information to demonstrate that the way in which it is processing personal information is lawful, which includes providing information on the legal basis for processing.

To process personal information, data protection law generally requires one or more of the following to apply:

• Parentkind has consent from the person whose personal information is being processed. This will apply where we are using your information for marketing purposes;
• The processing is necessary for performance of a contract or to enter into a contract with the person whose personal information is being processed;
• Parentkind is required to process personal information to comply with a legal obligation;
• The processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the person whose information is being processed or another person;
• The processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority. This is unlikely to apply to the work carried out by Parentkind;
• The processing is necessary for the purposes of legitimate interests of Parentkind or third party, unless these interests are detrimental to the interests of the person whose information is being processed. Where Parentkind are relying on this basis, we have to explain what our legitimate interest is, which is included in the relevant sections above;
• Processing is in the public interest

The legal basis for processing personal information used for each of our activities is provided under the section ​‘Why we have the personal information’.

For information, any new legislation that is passed by the UK Parliament that relates to the way in which personal data is processed will automatically apply to Parentkind activities.

Where we are processing certain sensitive personal data like ethnicity or health data, we are also obliged to meet one of the relevant additional special conditions, such as the following:

• You have given your explicit consent;
• Because of right and obligations relating to employment, social security and social protection law;
• To protect someone’s vital interests;
• The individual has already made the data public;
• For the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims;
• For reasons of substantial public interest;
• For public health reasons;
• For archiving, scientific, historical research purposes or statistical purposes.

Disclosures of your personal information

We may share your personal data where necessary with third parties for the purposes set out in the table above.

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.

International transfers

We may transfer your personal data to service providers that carry out certain functions on our behalf. This may involve transferring personal data outside the UK to countries which have laws that do not provide the same level of data protection as the UK law.

For such international transfers, we ensure that specific standard contractual terms approved for use in the UK which give the transferred personal data the same protection as it has in the UK, namely the International Data Transfer Agreement, are incorporated.

How we store your personal information

Your information is securely stored on a number of systems that have been through thorough purchasing and security assessments that are regularly reviewed.

How long we keep your information

• If you are no longer a representative of your association, we will usually retain your information for 30 days from the date we are informed of your change of status
• If your association is no longer a member of ours we will retain your data no longer than 2 years after the PTA membership end date
• If you have provided a case study or a blog article, we will keep in review the use and relevance of the case study, and remove your data 6 months after the decision to no longer use this particular case study or story is taken
• If you have paid on behalf of your PTA we will retain your payment record for 6 years plus the current financial year, unless in the case of Direct Debit Mandates which we are required by law to retain indefinitely
• Where you use our advice line cases will usually be retained for 12 months, 18 months if they relate to PTA membership payment renewals
• Calls monitored and recorded for insurance compliance purposes will be retained for a maximum of 12 months
• You can ask to be removed from the mailing lists for information that may be of benefit to your group (marketing communications) at any time and Parentkind will usually delete your contact details from that list within 7 days. Please note that we will continue to hold your details where you are a representative of your association. Also note that the laws surrounding email marketing and suppression lists mean that if you opt out of all communications through the​‘unsubscribe’ link, our processor will retain your email address to prevent us from ever emailing you again.