Apply for a grant Donate
Home > Department for Education: Privacy Notice for Support for Families with Disabled Children programme (SFDC) 

Department for Education: Privacy Notice for Support for Families with Disabled Children programme (SFDC) 

This Privacy Notice explains how the Department for Education (The Department for Education) uses personal information in Support for Families with Disabled Children programme (SFDC) that is managed by the contractor Family Fund Trust, a charity registered in England under registered charity number 1053866 Scottish Charity no. SC040810, and a company limited by guarantee in England under registered company number 3166627. Family Fund Trust’s registered office is at Unit 4, Alpha Court, Monks Cross Drive, Huntington, York, North Yorkshire, YO32 9WN, United Kingdom. Family Fund Trust is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under reference number 912508.

This Privacy Notice includes information you give to us, or information that we may collect about you.

The purpose of the Support for Families with Disabled Children (SFDC) programme is to improve the lives of low-income families in England raising disabled or seriously ill children or young people by providing grants that allow these families to benefit from items and activities that would otherwise be inaccessible. The types of support provided includes, amongst others: 

  • Holidays and outings / family breaks;
  • Recreation / home entertainment;
  • Computers;
  • Clothing and bedding;
  • Furniture;
  • White goods;
  • Hospital visiting costs

By providing the Department for Education and Family Fund Trust with your information, including sensitive personal information, signifying consent on the application form or verbally you will be providing your explicit consent to the Department for Education and Family Fund Trust using any sensitive personal information contained within your application for the above purposes and for the purposes of discussing your application with you.

Why we get your personal data 

When we collect and use this information, we need to follow the law. The main laws are the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA18) and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The Department for Education is the Data Controller for your personal data. We must have a reason to collect your personal data. This is called a ‘lawful basis’.

We can use the following lawful basis to process your personal data:

  • We need it to perform our public task under article 6(1)(e) of UK GDPR

When we use your sensitive information, this is ‘special category’ data. We use the following lawful basis to process special category data:

  • Substantial Public interest based in law under article 9(2)(g) of UK GDPR

What we need 

We will collect the following types of personal information, some of which may be special category data, directly from you:

  • Personal Info of parent/carer applying for funding which may include title, name, address, DOB, etc.
  • Personal info of applicant’s partner which may include, title, name, DOB, relationship to applicant and child.
  • Personal info of disabled or seriously ill child, which may include name, date of birth, sex, and age.
  • Disabled or seriously ill child’s circumstances, which may include details of the child or young person’s condition or diagnosis, date of diagnosis, Disability Living Allowance details, medication needs, etc.
  • Household information, which may include details of household income.
  • Nursery, School or College information for the disabled or seriously ill child or young person, which may include details of support received in their education setting, and any specific plans in place such as EHC Plans.
  • Information from family surveys about wellbeing and the impact of the funding.

Why we need it and what we do with it 

On behalf of the Department for Education, Family Fund collects and processes your personal information in relation to SFDC

  • to provide you with grant-making services that you have requested
  • to deal with any enquiries and requests that you send to Family Fund Trust
  • where necessary for the substantial public interest, to demonstrate that Family Fund Trust is running the SDFC programme efficiently and effectively.
  • To remind you to redeem any grant that Family Fund Trust has agreed to provide you with, if it is near its expiry date.
  • To generate performance data and evidence reports about the SFDC programme that may be published on both the Department for Education and the Family Fund Trust website.
  • Family Fund Trust gathers some information for these reports from surveys. Participation in these is optional, and you can decide whether or not to take part. If you do not want to be contacted about survey opportunities at all, email [email protected] or write to the Family Contact Team at Family Fund Trust, at the address on page one of this Privacy Notice.
  • Please note that any such reports and summaries will contain general information on trends and/or issues.
  • Responding to appeals or complaints- where Family Fund Trust processes any sensitive personal data for this purpose in relation to the SFDC programme, it will be to the extent necessary for the substantial public interest in Family Fund Trust ensuring that it carries out our activities in an appropriate manner.
  • Department for Education’s own research purposes (or for the legitimate research purposes established by organisations with which we are associated). This may involve providing your contact details to a trusted
    research organisation conducting research on our behalf. If you’re contacted for research purposes and you don’t want to be involved, you can say that you don’t want to be contacted again as set out in this privacy notice. Please note that any such research reports will contain general information on trends and/or issues and will not identify you.
  • Please note that if you withdraw your consent to Family Fund Trust processing your personal data for any of the purposes described above in this privacy notice, this may result in Family Fund Trust being unable to carry out a relevant action or provide you with any related feedback or response.
  • If you withdraw your consent to Family Fund Trust processing your data in connection with an application for a grant, Family Fund Trust will be unable to consider your application any further.

How long we keep it

  • The Department for Education will only keep your personal information in relation to the SFDC programme for up to 7 years after the contract end date. We decide how long to keep your personal information based on the needs of the department and the law.
  • When The Department for Education and Family Fund Trust no longer need your information, both parties shall remove all references to your family and securely destroy it.
  • A copy of our data retention policy is available from us upon request.
  • Family Fund Trust will take necessary steps to keep your information safe. It will then be securely destroyed when it is no longer needed.
  • Where possible Family Fund Trust will keep your record accurate and up-to-date, but to help us achieve this you need to keep Family Fund Trust informed of any changes to your circumstances.
  • Should you perceive the changes to your circumstances as being particularly sensitive you must take extra care with how you notify Family Fund Trust of those changes.

Do we use any data processors?

A Data Processor is an organisation that processes your information on The Department for Education’s behalf.

The Support for Families with Disabled Children programme’s Data Processor is Family Fund Trust (FFT), a charity registered in England under registered charity number 1053866, Scottish Charity no. SC040810, and a company limited by guarantee in England under registered company number 03166627. It will collect and process data throughout the lifetime of the contract when you apply for a grant through the SFDC programme.

We only use Data Processors for these activities:

  • to provide you with grant-making services that you have requested or which we otherwise agree to provide to you; and
  • to deal with any enquiries and requests in relation to your grant application, and
  • where necessary for the substantial public interest, to ensure that the contract with Family Fund is being administered effectively and efficiently.

Do we transfer your personal information overseas?

When the Department for Education stores personal information outside the UK, we will make sure we keep your personal data safe. We follow the data protection law. We also use extra security measures, contracts and data sharing agreements.

For the SFDC programme, The Department for Education and Family Fund Trust will not transfer your personal information overseas as this is not applicable to the SFDC programme
contractable service.

Do we share your personal information?

If the law allows it, we might share your personal information with other parts of The Department for Education including the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), and with other government departments.

We will share your personal information with:

  • organisations that request information to help prevent and detect crime or fraud

The Department for Education may share your personal information to:

The Department for Education Personal Information Charter gives you more information on how we use your personal information.

Your data protection rights 

More information about how the DfE handles personal information is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education/about/personal-information-charter 

Under the Data Protection Act 2018, you are entitled to ask if we hold information relating to you and ask for a copy, by making a ‘subject access request’. For further information and how to request your data, please use the ‘contact form’ in the Personal Information Charter at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education/about/personal-information-charter under the ‘How to find out what personal information we hold about you’ section. 

If you need to contact us regarding any of the above, please do so via the DfE site at: https://www.gov.uk/contact-dfe. 

Further information about your data protection rights appears on the Information Commissioner’s website at: Individual rights | ICO 

How to contact us or make a complaint 

If you have a question, or feel your data has been mishandled, you can contact us by:

using our secure The Department for Education contact form or writing to: 
Emma Wharram
Data Protection Officer
Department for Education (B2.28)
7 & 8 Wellington Place
Wellington Street
Leeds
LS1 4AW

You can also complain to the ICO by writing to:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113. Or use the online ICO contact form.

Page last reviewed: