Privacy Policy

First Steps Family Mediation Privacy Policy.

This privacy notice tells you how First Steps Family Mediation (‘ First Steps Family Mediation’, ‘we, ‘our’) uses and protects your personal information when you contact us or use one of our services.

You can contact us by emailing info@firststepsfamilymediation.co.uk

Who we are

First Steps Family Mediation provides mediation services to clients/customers in relation to Children, Divorce, Separation and Finances. 

First Steps Family Mediation is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy policy. Refer to ‘Protecting your information’ section below for more details.

Our role as data controller

First Steps Family Mediation is defined as a Data Controller for most of our processing. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) (Registration No. ZB340075.) 

INFORMATION WE COLLECT FROM YOU AND WHY 

Your contact details Ltd copyright document 

We collect name, date of birth, address and other contact details from information you give us when you arrange an appointment for a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (‘MIAM’) or mediation services or fill in a referral form through our website, or by the phone, letter or email, or when a communication from your solicitors or another organisation you already know asks us to contact you about a meeting. 

Other personal data 

In order to provide our MIAM or mediation services we normally need you to provide us with a lot of information about your family situation, your finances, your relationship, and the circumstances in which it has broken down. More specifically: 

• We need to establish the identities of your partner or former partner, and any children you may have together or children you have brought up as part of your family together.
• Under the rules of financial mediation you will need to disclose financial and other information relevant to your situation to the other party, and we will need to include a record of this in our case file. 
• In addition, in the course of a mediation, some clients might sometimes need to reveal information of a kind that is classed as ‘special categories’ of sensitive personal data such as information about your physical or mental health, sexual matters, religious beliefs, racial or ethnic origin, or criminal offences. 
• If you are eligible for Legal Aid we must retain records of your proof of earnings and assets. 
• When you are responsible for payment of our fees we may need to use some of your personal details to invoice you. If you are in receipt of Legal Aid we will need to share your details with the Legal Aid Agency to obtain payment of our fees from them. e Ltd 

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Information you may give to a mediator in a MIAM or mediation is not shared with the other party unless you consent to this, or a court orders its disclosure, or where the law imposes an overriding obligation of disclosure on mediator to do so.ate Ltd copyright document 

It is necessary for us to collect all these types of information so that we can conduct and record our services properly under the rules that apply to Legal Aid or to family mediation, or the codes of conduct which govern our mediators. We process the information to record our discussions with you, to write up summaries of meetings with you, or a parenting plan, and to prepare what is called ‘memorandum of understanding’ and an ‘open financial statement’ which can form the basis for a separation agreement or a consent order to be made by the Family Court. 

For MIAM and mediation clients the legal basis for processing your personal data is normally that it is necessary for the performance of our contract with you (or at your request prior to entering into a contract with us). 

The legal basis for processing special categories of data is that this is necessary for legal or prospective legal proceedings. Information on racial/ethnic origin may be collected to monitor and review equality in the provision of services. 

Even though you might not have contacted us yourself about our MIAM and mediation services we might need to use your contact details to write to you directly after your partner or former partner has attended a MIAM with us. The reason for this (and the legal basis for us processing your personal data for this purpose) is we are obliged under Practice Direction 3A of the Family Procedure Rules to contact you to discuss your willingness to attend a MIAM as well. 

If we have obtained your specific consent to use information in certain ways you have the right to withdraw this consent at any time, without that affecting the lawfulness of processing based on the consent before its withdrawal. (However the withdrawal of your consent will not override any continuing duty we may have in the public interest to notify the authorities for the protection vulnerable person in accordance with our Safeguarding Policy). Please be aware however that normally the legal bases for us processing your data do not rely on your specific consent. 

ONLINE MEETINGS 

Where you agree to take part in an online meeting instead of a meeting in person we will need to use a third-party service provider such as Zoom or Microsoft teams. First Steps Family Mediation has no control over or responsibility for the way any such service provider may use your data. You should refer to the websites of the relevant service provider for their privacy policies. 

HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION 

Our MIAM and mediation files will be archived after the case is closed. We will normally retain our records for six and a half years after that, at which point they are destroyed. 

YOUR RIGHT TO ACCESS INFORMATION 

The law gives you the right to access information held about you (a ‘data subject access request’) and you ask us for this in writing via the contact details above. We may require further information from you in order to verify your identity before disclosing any personal information to you. 

YOUR RIGHT TO CORRECT DATA WE HOLD 

You also have the right to have any inaccurate information about you corrected. We want to make sure that your information is accurate and up to date or to have incomplete data completed. You may ask us to correct our records or remove any information that you think is no longer up to date. Please contact us using the contact details above if you would like any changes made to your information we hold. 

YOUR RIGHT TO REQUEST US TO RESTRICT OR STOP USING YOUR INFORMATION OR TO ERASE DATA WE HOLD 

If you have concerns about how we deal with your information we hope these can be dealt with swiftly under our Complaints Policy – see below. However you do have certain rights to ask us formally to erase your personal data or restrict its processing in certain circumstances, and we must then either do as you ask or explain why we consider our actions are justified. For more details please refer to the website of the Information Commissioner’s Office at http://www.ico.org.uk or call their helpline on 0303 123 1113). 

COMPLAINTS 

We will listen carefully to any concerns that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. If you do not already have a copy of our Complaints Policy this is available to clients upon request. If we are unable to resolve your complaint internally you can take the matter up to the Information Commissioner’s office - see http://www.ico.org.uk/for-the-public/raising-concerns/ or call their helpline on 0303 123 1113. 

REASONS WE MAY NEED TO SHARE YOUR DATA WITH OTHERS (AND WE ONLY DO SO IN CONFIDENCE)
(We never share your information with advertisers or with other businesses seeking to supply you with goods and services). 

• As with most organisations, when you make payments to us with a debit or credit card your identity and card details are shared with a provider of secure payment services. (We use WorldPay). When you pay this way via our website or over the phone to us we do not retain your card details. 
• It is necessary for us to share your information with mediators who we engage to provide mediation services for you. 
• When we need to communicate with and send documents to your solicitors about your mediation outcomes. 
• It may be necessary for us to give access to or store certain information about you to organisations which provide us with business support or professional services, on the understanding that they keep your information secure and confidential. 
• When the law, regulatory bodies or the public interest permits or requires it. (This may include any disclosures to the authorities for the protection vulnerable people under our Safeguarding Policy). 
• When the Legal Aid Agency is funding our fees for you, or a public body which has referred you to us under scheme for services we are contracted to provide for them, they impose contractual terms on us which oblige us to send them information about you or to allow them to audit your file. (Please refer to the privacy policy of the Legal Aid Agency or other relevant public body for how and why they process your personal data). 
• If (under our Complaints Policy) you make a complaint about a mediator to a supervisory body, your mediation file will be shared with them, provided you have given us your consent to do so. 
• When we need to exchange information with other organisations for the purposes of fraud protection, credit risk reduction, or civil proceedings for the recovery of our unpaid fees. 
• If First Steps Family Mediation or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its clients and other will be one of the transferred assets. 

Data retention

We only keep your personal information for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected unless there are any legal or compliance reasons that apply.

When deciding the appropriate retention period, we consider a number of factors such as the nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes for which it is processed and if those purposes can be achieved by alternative means and any relevant legal requirements.

You can contact us for further by email info@firststepsfamilymediation.co.uk 

Sharing your information

We will only share personal information about individuals as part of our contracted service with you or where we have your permission or required by law to do so. 

In all circumstances where data is shared, we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

We use trusted data processors who are third parties who provide elements of services for us. We have contracts in place with our data processors. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us. They will hold it securely and retain it for the period we instruct, unless legal or compliance reasons apply.

Information is shared with your allocated mediator, parties attending the mediation, our administrators and PPC where required. Other third parties may include third party IT platforms (including cloud‐based platforms) and suppliers of IT support or other specialist services.

On rare occasions, we may be obliged to disclose data, for example:

• under certain laws or by order of court or other competent regulatory body or may be permitted to disclose it under applicable data protection laws.
• if First Steps Family Mediation merges with another business entity or divests a part of its business or carries out internal restructuring, your information may be disclosed to First Steps Family Mediation business partners or owners or the new corporate entities. 

When hosting events, delegate information may be shared with other delegates and partner organisations.

Your rights

Data protection laws in the UK give people a number of rights concerning their personal data, although those rights may not apply in all cases or to all information that we hold about you. For example, we may need to continue to hold and process information to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights.

Each link below will take you to the Information Commissioner’s Office’s website where further detail is provided in section ‘When does the right apply’.  These rights are:

• Right to be informed – this privacy policy aims to be transparent about what data we process and for what purposes.
• Right of access – you have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you and so details of how to make a subject access request are below.
• Right to rectification – If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please contact us as soon as possible by emailing First Steps Family Mediation. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.
• Right to erasure – under some circumstances you can ask for the data we hold about you to be erased from our records. There may be circumstances where this is not possible, for example, where we are obliged to retain records of the service that we have provided to you. 
• Right to restrict processing – where certain conditions apply to have a right to restrict the processing of the data that we have about you.
• Right to data portability – you have the right to have the data we hold about you transferred to another organisation.
• Right to object – you have the right to object to certain types of processing such as direct marketing. Where you have consented to us processing your personal data, you may withdraw your consent at any time.
• Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling– you also have the right not to be subject to the legal effects of automated processing or profiling.

If you have a query or wish to exercise any of your rights, please contact us by emailing info@firststepsfamilymediation.co.uk. We will respond to your request as soon as we can. Generally, this will be within one calendar month from when we receive your request but on occasions it may take longer to deal with your request and in such circumstances, we will inform you.

If we are not sure of your identity, we may require you to provide further information in order for us to confirm who you are. 

Requesting a copy of your information

Typically, we receive information from solicitors dealing with your case, the health and care organisations who provided your care and mainly directly from you.  We pass this information on to your mediator so that they can provide you with the service.

You may wish to consider directly contacting the organisation that you provided the information to in the first place (your solicitor or care organisation) for a more complete record of your care or treatment. Our mediators do not hold your whole medical or care record.

If you would like to request a copy of your personal data that First Steps Family Mediation is processing then you will need to put this in writing and send to info@firststepsfamilymediation.co.uk.

We will respond to your request (including providing information on whether the rights apply in the particular circumstances) within the applicable statutory time period. 

If we are not sure of your identity, we may require you to provide further information in order for us to confirm who you are. 

Incorrect information may cause delay in processing your request as we may need to request further information from you.

Complaints

If you consider we are using your information in a way which breaches UK Data Protection law, you have the right to complain to us and, if you remain unhappy following our response to your complaint, you have the right to raise a further complaint with The Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

If you have a query, complaint or wish to exercise any of your rights, please contact us by emailing info@firststepsfamilymediation.co.uk

We will respond to your request as soon as we can. Generally, this will be within one calendar month from when we receive your request but on occasions it may take longer to deal with your request and in such circumstances, we will inform you.

The ICO can be contacted via their website www.ico.org.uk or postal address: Customer Contact, Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow. SK9 5AF.

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We use the following cookies:

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Please note that you cannot opt-out of these cookies being used as they are necessary for website performance or services to visitors.

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.