Who we are
Family Equip is registered as a charitable incorporated organisation in England and Wales, charity number 1112769.
Our website address is: https://familyequip.co.uk.
If you have any questions or queries about this privacy policy or how we handle your data, please contact us by email, on FamilyEquipE2E@gmail.com.
This policy was last updated on 19th January 2026.
What personal data we collect
We may collect and store the following information about individuals we support and their family members:
- Contact information including names, email addresses, phone numbers, preferred method of contact, and signatures.
- Demographic information such as dates of birth, ages, addresses, and postcodes.
- School attended and year group at school.
- Medical information such as formal diagnoses, allergies, health conditions, and sensory needs. This is considered special category data under GDPR and is handled with particular care.
- Any other information relevant to supporting your family (including preferences and interests).
- Any email correspondence.
The above information may be collected via email, in-person, over the phone or through online consent forms.
When you donate or pay for an event or club, transaction details are processed and stored by our bank (Metro Bank) or by PayPal. We do not store any card or bank details ourselves. See How we store and protect your data below for more detail on this.
Our web hosting provider 34SP.com may also collect limited technical data, such as IP addresses and access logs, for security, performance, and maintenance purposes.
If you do not agree to provide some of the data listed above, then Family Equip will still try to support your family, but in some cases, we may be unable to support a family if we do not have the data we need. This may include situations where we are unable to assess needs, communicate effectively, or meet safeguarding requirements. See Why we collect this information below.
Photography at our events
At any Family Equip event where we are planning to take any photos and/or videos, we will tell all families by email before the event. We will only publish any photos/videos (e.g. on Facebook) if we have written consent from all adults who appear, and from the parents/carers of every underage person who appears, in the photo/video. This written consent may be obtained through Google Forms.
If you do not consent, then we will immediately delete any photos/videos containing you or your family, and we will never share them.
Why we collect this information
We have a legal basis for collecting the data listed above:
- Consent (e.g. legally obtaining your consent to keep working with your children and/or family).
- Legitimate interests (for us, the legitimate interests are understanding your family’s needs and providing you with a better service, as well as internal record keeping, such as maintaining lists of expected attendees).
- Legal obligation (e.g. safeguarding, financial records, Gift Aid).
We also require your contact information to:
- Contact you about your enquiry. This will always be either by email, phone, or mail.
- Occasionally send out emails about our services or other information which we think you may find interesting.
How we use cookies
This site uses cookies – small text files that are placed on your device to help the site provide a better user experience. On other websites, cookies can be used to retain user preferences, personalise ads and to collect anonymised tracking data.
This website uses only essential cookies required for the site to function correctly, as well as security-related cookies used to protect the site from hacks and malware. We do not use functional, analytics, advertising, or tracking cookies.
You can usually modify your browser settings to decline cookies if you prefer. However, this may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website. To do this, we suggest consulting the Help section of your browser or looking at the About Cookies website which offers guidance for all modern browsers.
Embedded content from other websites
This site includes embedded content (e.g. our promotional video on the homepage, and pictures) and links to other websites. When you view embedded content from third-party websites (such as our promotional video which is embedded from YouTube), and when you click on any links to other websites, those providers may collect data and use cookies in accordance with their own privacy policies.
How long we retain your data
We retain all the personal data listed above only for as long as necessary to support families, maintain appropriate safeguarding records, and meet our legal and administrative obligations. We may need to keep some types of data for longer than others, for example, safeguarding-related records may legally need to be kept for longer than general contact records.
We review personal data when families are no longer actively engaged with Family Equip, or when we get a request for deletion, to determine whether the information is still required. Where there is no ongoing need or legal requirement to retain data, it will be securely deleted.
You can request modification or deletion as specified below under What rights you have over your data.
What rights you have over your data
You can request by email at any time to receive an exported file of all the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request by email at any time that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data that we must keep for administrative, legal, safeguarding or security purposes.
If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please contact us via email as soon as possible. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect. Any requests for data, requests that we delete your data, and requests that we modify your data, will be actioned free of charge, unless a request is unfounded or excessive, in which case a reasonable fee may apply.
If you have concerns about how we handle your personal data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator.
How we store and protect your data
Family Equip relies on some trusted third-party services to store all the types of data listed above. Here is a breakdown of these services:
- Payment information - PayPal and Metro Bank
- Email & forms - Gmail, Google Forms, and Google Contacts
- Anything else - Cloud storage (Dropbox and Google Drive)
We have organisational accounts for all the above services, which are accessible to multiple Family Equip volunteers. This means that all types of data listed above are accessible to more than one authorised Family Equip volunteer. This approach helps ensure compliance with safeguarding, while limiting access to those who need it.
All these accounts are secured by passwords and by two-factor authentication.
Who we share your data with
With the exceptions of the trusted third-party services listed above, we will not share, sell, distribute or lease your data to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.
Where your data is sent
Some of the services we use (such as Gmail, Google Forms, or payment providers) may store or process data in countries outside the UK. Where this happens, we rely on these providers’ contractual commitments and safeguards to ensure that this personal data is protected in accordance with UK data protection laws. This is the only reason Family Equip may ever store data outside the UK.
What third parties we receive data from
We do not routinely receive personal data about individuals from third parties. Personal data is usually provided directly by families or individuals themselves.
What data breach procedures we have in place
Family Equip takes the security of personal data seriously. If a data breach is suspected or identified, we will take immediate steps to contain and investigate the issue, including securing accounts and limiting further access where necessary.
We will assess the risk to individuals and, where required by law, notify affected individuals and report the breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) within the required timescales.
Changes to this privacy policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time. When changes to the policy reflect important changes to how we manage data, we will send an email to all the families we currently support, to inform them of the changes. We will not send this email if the changes are not important (e.g. if the changes consist only of simplifying wording or of re-ordering paragraphs).