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Privacy notice Your privacy.
What we collect about families, children and carers, why we need it, who sees it and how long we keep it. In plain English.
Draft. [Have a solicitor or data protection adviser review this notice before launch, and fill in the highlighted details.] Last updated: 12 October 2026.
The short version
- We only collect what we need to match families with carers, keep children safe and take payments.
- Carers see a family’s area, dates and children’s ages, but not their name, address or contact details until a booking is confirmed.
- Children’s health information (allergies, medical needs) is only stored with a parent’s permission, and only shared with the carers they book.
- We never sell your information. Analytics and advertising cookies are only used if you say yes, and never on your account pages.
- You can download your information or delete your account from your account page at any time.
1. Who we are
Little Village Childcare is run by [legal business name], [registered address]. We decide how your information is used, which makes us the “controller” under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018).
We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), registration number [ICO registration number]. For anything about your information, email [Email address].
Carers who use Little Village are self-employed. When a carer looks after your children, they also use your information to do that safely, and they must keep it private.
2. What we collect
Families
| Your detailsName, email, phone number, home address and postcode, password or the account you sign in with (Google, Apple or Facebook) |
| Your childrenFirst names, dates of birth or ages, and anything you choose to tell us: allergies, medical conditions, additional needs, routines |
| Emergency contactsName, relationship and phone number. Please let them know you’ve given us their details |
| BookingsWhat you’ve asked for, dates, times, venue, the carers you’ve met or booked, sit start and finish times, invoices and receipts |
| PaymentsHandled by Stripe. We see the last four digits of your card and what you’ve paid, never your full card number |
| Reviews and reportsReviews you leave for carers, and any concerns you report to us |
Carers
| Your profileName, photo, contact details, postcode area, experience, qualifications, languages, rates and availability |
| ChecksPhoto ID, right to work in the UK, enhanced DBS certificate details, paediatric first aid, insurance, Ofsted registration if you have it, two references and notes from your interview |
| Work and payJobs you apply for, bookings, sit times, no-shows, reviews from families and payouts. Your bank details are held by Stripe, which pays you |
Everyone
| MessagesMessages you send through Little Village, and reports about them. If you message us from the help panel on our website (“Message us”), we receive your name, email, phone number if you give it, your message and which page you were on, by email, so we can reply |
| Account activityWhen you signed up, agreed to our terms, signed in, and changes made by our team (kept in an audit log) |
| TechnicalYour IP address and browser type, which our hosting and security providers record to keep the site working and safe. If you accept analytics or advertising cookies, also which pages you visit, the ad or link that brought you here, and whether you sent a booking request |
3. How we use it, and why we’re allowed to
The law requires a “lawful basis” for each use of your information. Ours are:
| What we do | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Run your account, share requests, introduce families and carers, take payments and pay carers | Our contract with you |
| Check carers before introducing them to families | Legitimate interests (keeping children safe), and for criminal records, the safeguarding condition in the Data Protection Act 2018 |
| Store and share children’s health information | Your explicit consent (see section 4) |
| Read messages and investigate reports to keep children safe and stop contact details being swapped before a booking | Legitimate interests (safeguarding and running our service) |
| Keep invoices, receipts and tax records | Legal obligation (tax law) |
| Share information with the police, the local authority or Ofsted about a safeguarding concern | Legal obligation, or protecting someone’s vital interests |
| Send booking emails and texts | Our contract with you |
| Send news and offers | Your consent. Unsubscribe from any email |
| Count requests, bookings and income to run the business | Legitimate interests. We use our own records |
| Measure visits to our website, and which of our ads lead to booking requests | Your consent, through the cookie banner. Change it any time with “Cookie settings” |
We don’t make decisions about you by computer alone. The site suggests carers near a family and hides contact details in messages automatically, but our team makes every decision about approving, introducing or removing anyone.
4. Children’s health information
Allergies, medical conditions and additional needs are “special category” information, so we only store them if you tick the box to agree. We share them only with carers you book, and our team, so your children are safe. You can change or remove them, or withdraw your consent, from your account at any time. If you do, carers won’t see that information, so please tell them directly.
Children don’t have accounts. Everything about a child comes from their parent or guardian.
5. Carer checks and DBS
DBS certificates are criminal records information, which the law protects closely. We only use them to decide whether a carer can work with children, and only our team can see them. Families see that a check was passed, not the certificate.
We delete the copy of your DBS certificate within 6 months of checking it. After that we keep a record of the certificate number, its date and our decision. [If you use a DBS umbrella body, name it here.]
6. Messages
To keep children safe, the Little Village team can read messages between families and carers. Phone numbers, email addresses and social media handles are hidden automatically until a booking is confirmed. We look at messages when someone reports them, when we’re checking a concern, or to help with a booking. We don’t use them for anything else.
7. Who we share it with
- Carers and families. Before a booking, carers see a family’s area, dates and children’s ages. Once a booking is confirmed, the carer sees the family’s name, address, contact details, children’s details and emergency contacts, and the family sees the carer’s contact details. Families always see a carer’s profile, reviews and which checks they’ve passed.
- Companies that run parts of our service for us. They can only use your information to provide that service:
- Supabase: our database, logins and file storage, in London
- Cloudflare: hosts our website and protects it from attacks (it sees your internet address and basic details of your browser), and forwards emails sent to our hello@ address
- Google (Gmail): our email inbox, where booking requests and messages you send us arrive
- Stripe: card payments, invoices and paying carers. Stripe also checks carers’ identity for payouts, under its own privacy policy
- Resend: our emails
- Twilio: our text messages
- Cloudflare also checks that the booking and join forms are sent by a person, not a bot (it sees your internet address and basic details of your browser)
- Google Analytics, Google Ads, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and TikTok, only if you accept those cookies (see section 10)
- Google, Apple or Facebook, if you choose to sign in with them
- Authorities. The police, the local authority (including the Local Authority Designated Officer), Ofsted or a court, if the law requires it or a child may be at risk.
- Our advisers. Our accountant, insurer and solicitor, when they need it.
To stop spam, when you send us a form we keep a scrambled code made from your internet address for 24 hours, so we can limit how many messages one connection sends. We can’t turn it back into the address, and then it’s deleted.
We never sell your information. If you accept advertising cookies, Meta, Google and TikTok see your visits to our public pages and may also use that under their own privacy policies, for example to show you our ads elsewhere. They never see your name, contact details, your children’s details or anything you type into a form. If you message us on WhatsApp or Instagram, those apps’ own privacy policies also apply.
8. Information outside the UK
Our main database is in the UK. Cloudflare, Stripe, Resend, Twilio, Google, Meta and TikTok may process some information in the US or elsewhere. When they do, they use the safeguards UK law requires, such as the UK–US data bridge or the UK’s international data transfer agreement.
9. How long we keep it
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Your account, profile and children’s details | Until you close your account, then deleted within 30 days |
| Messages | 2 years after the conversation ends |
| Bookings, invoices, receipts and payments | 6 years after the end of the financial year (tax law) |
| Copies of DBS certificates | Up to 6 months, then only the number, date and decision |
| Other carer checks | While you’re a Little Village carer, then 6 years |
| Carer applications that don’t go ahead | 6 months after our decision |
| Safeguarding concerns and reports | As long as safeguarding guidance requires, usually at least 10 years |
| Marketing consent | Until you unsubscribe |
| Your cookie choice | 12 months, then we ask again |
[Confirm these periods with your adviser.]
10. Cookies and similar storage
Cookies are small files a website stores in your browser. We use three kinds. Essential ones are always on. Analytics and advertising cookies are only used if you say yes in our cookie banner, and you can change your mind at any time.
| Cookie | What it’s for | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Essential (always on) | ||
| lv-consent | Remembers your cookie choice | 12 months |
| lv-intro-seen | Remembers you’ve seen our welcome message | 90 days |
| lv-theme | Remembers dark mode, if you turn it on | Until you clear it |
| Sign-in | Keeps you signed in to your account | Until you sign out |
| lv-team | Only on our own team’s devices: stops our visits being counted in our analytics | Until cleared |
| Stripe | Fraud checks when you pay, on Stripe’s payment page | Set by Stripe |
| Analytics (only if you say yes) | ||
| _ga, _ga_… | Google Analytics: counts visits and which pages are used | Up to 2 years |
| lv-source | Which ad or link brought you here, so we can add it to a booking request you send. Never shared | Until you close the tab |
| Advertising (only if you say yes) | ||
| _fbp, _fbc | Meta (Facebook and Instagram): which of our ads led to a visit or booking request | Up to 90 days |
| _gcl_au | Google Ads: the same, for our Google ads | Up to 90 days |
| _ttp | TikTok: the same, for our TikTok ads | Up to 13 months |
Analytics and advertising tools never run on your account pages, and we’ve switched off their automatic reading of forms and buttons. If you withdraw your permission, we delete their cookies from your browser.
11. Your rights
You have the right to:
- get a copy of your information. Download it from your account page, or ask us;
- correct anything that’s wrong;
- have it deleted. Close your account from your account page, or ask us. We’ll keep only what the law or safeguarding requires (see section 9);
- object to, or ask us to limit, how we use it;
- take it to another service in a common format;
- withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on it.
Email [Email address]. We’ll reply within one month, and it’s free.
12. Complaints
If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please tell us first and we’ll put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.
13. Changes to this notice
If we make an important change, we’ll tell you by email or when you next sign in. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.