Privacy Notice

This notice covers enquiries made through this website. It does not replace the privacy information given to children, families and staff.

Who we are

Stepping Stone Homes Ltd is the data controller for information submitted through this website.

Privacy and data-protection contact: governance@steppingstonehomes.co.uk. You can also call 07787 100025.

What we collect

Where	What	Why
Initial placement enquiry	Your name, role, organisation, work email, telephone, the age band of the child, your required timescale, and a short non-identifying summary.	To decide whether an initial conversation about a placement is appropriate.
Careers enquiry	Your name, email, telephone, the role you are interested in, and anything you tell us about your experience.	To respond about current and future vacancies.
General enquiry	Your name, email, organisation if given, topic and message.	To answer your question.

We ask you not to send confidential child or case information through this website. The initial enquiry form requires you to confirm that it contains none. Detailed referral information is exchanged through an approved secure route after an initial conversation.

Special category data

The forms on this website are not designed to collect health, safeguarding or other special category information, and we ask you not to provide it. Our form handler screens free-text fields and refuses submissions containing patterns that look like a date of birth, an NHS number or a postcode. Where such information reaches us anyway, we record only the minimum required and dispose of the rest in line with our retention standards.

Service providers

We use trusted service providers to support website hosting, business email, IT and security, recruitment administration and secure information storage. These providers process personal data only for the purposes of providing those services and are subject to appropriate contractual and confidentiality requirements. We do not sell personal data.

International transfers

Website enquiry data is not transferred or stored outside the UK under our current arrangements. If our technology arrangements change and involve an international transfer, we will review the safeguards required and update this notice before relying on the new arrangement.

How long we keep it

These are Stepping Stone Homes’ retention standards. A longer or shorter period may apply where justified by law, safeguarding, claims, regulatory requirements, or the purpose for which the record is held.

• General website enquiries: normally 12 months after the enquiry is closed or the last meaningful contact.
• Unsuccessful referral enquiries: normally 12 months after closure.
• Unsuccessful recruitment applications: normally 6 months after the recruitment decision.
• Talent-pool or future-opportunity details: normally 12 months where the person has agreed to future contact.
• Where an enquiry becomes a placement, employment record, formal complaint, safeguarding record or other operational record, it moves into the relevant controlled retention schedule.

Your rights

You have the right to ask for a copy of your information, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict or object to how we use it, and to data portability where it applies. To exercise any of these, contact governance@steppingstonehomes.co.uk.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Cookies and website technologies

See our cookies and website technologies page.