Privacy Notice

The Children's Home Hub (CHH) is the public-facing service and brand operated by BUZZBYTES DESIGN & MARKETING LTD (company number 15965308). CHH is an independent resource providing guidance, tools, research and consultant support for England's children's residential care sector. CHH is not affiliated with or endorsed by Ofsted or the Department for Education.

We collect personal information only when you choose to provide it. We do not require an account to read guidance or use tools. The information we collect depends on what you do:

• Newsletter: your first name, email address and sector role, provided when you sign up.
• Research Panel: your email address, and optionally your role and organisation type, provided when you opt in to hear about CHH research. This is separate from the general newsletter.
• Feedback: the feedback type, the area of the site you were using, your message and the page URL, all provided when you submit feedback.
• Practitioner reviews of our tools: your role, experience level, optional name, and your structured and written feedback about a specific tool.
• Consultant support enquiries: your name and email address, and any organisation, role, support area, home stage, location, timeframe and message you choose to provide. Please do not include information that identifies a child.
• Consultant applications: your name, business name, email, telephone, website, company number, trading status, services offered, specialisms, experience history, qualifications, professional indemnity insurance details, client references, geographic coverage, fee types, commercial interests and conduct declarations. You may also upload supporting evidence files.
• Consultant references: referee name, organisation, email, phone, the service referenced, and the reference responses provided.
• Consultant reviews: the service you used, structured feedback on delivery, pricing, timescales and reliability, whether you would use the consultant again, written comments, and an incentive disclosure. Your name and email are collected to allow verification.
• Concerns about a consultant: the concern type, your details, and the details of the concern.
• Reconsideration requests: the decision being challenged, your reason, any new evidence, and your name and email.
• Consultant responses to reviews: the response text provided by the consultant.

Tool data is stored in your browser, not on our servers. When you use My Hub tools such as the Ofsted Readiness Checker, Regulation 44 Tracker, Training Matrix, Supervision Tracker, Compliance Calendar or Opening Tracker, the information you enter is saved in your browser's local storage on the device you are using. It is not transmitted to CHH or to our hosting provider unless you choose to create and download a backup file.

We use personal information for the following purposes:

• Newsletter: to send you occasional updates about new resources and Hub news. Lawful basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
• Research Panel: to email you about new CHH research surveys, opportunities to contribute to research, and published research findings. Lawful basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time. Participating in a survey does not automatically add you to the Research Panel.
• Feedback and practitioner reviews: to improve our guidance, tools and platform. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in improving the service.
• Consultant support enquiries: to respond to your request with guidance and, if appropriate, discuss a consultant introduction. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in responding to a request you make. Sharing relevant enquiry details with a consultant uses your separate, optional consent on the form; you can still enquire without opting in.
• Consultant applications and supporting evidence: to assess whether an applicant meets the CHH Entry Standard and to operate the Consultant Register. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in running a transparent register, and the applicant's consent to the assessment process.
• Consultant references: to verify claims made in applications. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in verifying applications, and the referee's consent to provide a reference.
• Consultant reviews: to collect, review and publish client feedback on consultant profiles in accordance with our published review and verification process. Lawful basis: the reviewer's consent to publish their feedback.
• Concerns and reconsiderations: to investigate and respond to concerns about listed consultants and to reconsider decisions. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in maintaining the integrity of the register.
• Consultant responses: to publish the consultant's reply to a review. Lawful basis: the consultant's consent to publish their response.
• Analytics: to understand which tools and resources are used, so we can improve them. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in understanding and improving the service. See our Cookies and browser storage page for details.

Consultants applying to the register may upload evidence files to support their application, such as identity documents, insurance certificates, qualification certificates and experience evidence.

Uploaded evidence files are stored securely. Access is restricted to CHH administrators. Evidence files are not published or shared publicly.

We apply the following retention rules to consultant evidence:

• Identity documents are normally deleted within 30 days of completion of the identity check. A record that the check was completed is retained.
• Insurance evidence is retained while the listing is active and reviewed at renewal. Expired insurance evidence is deleted when no longer needed for the current listing.
• Qualification and experience evidence is retained while the listing is active and reviewed at renewal.
• All evidence is reviewed at least annually as part of the policy review cycle.

Consultants can request deletion of their evidence and listing at any time by contacting us.

CHH tools and forms are not designed to collect special category personal data (such as health information) or information about identified children.

Please do not include names or identifying information about children in any CHH form, tool or feedback field. Our tools are intended for operational tracking at the home or organisational level, not for individual case recording.

If you are submitting a concern about a consultant and the concern involves an allegation, describe the conduct issue without including identifying details about any child or young person involved.

We do not sell or rent personal information. We share information only as follows:

• Hosting provider: CHH is hosted on the Base44 platform. Data submitted through forms such as newsletter, feedback and consultant applications may be stored on Base44 servers. Base44 acts as a processor on our behalf.
• Email provider: consultant support enquiries are sent to CHH by email using Resend, which processes the message on our behalf. We do not store these enquiries in a public consultant directory. We share relevant details with a consultant only if you opt in to an introduction.
• Consultant register: information that appears on a public consultant profile (name, business name, services, experience, checks, reviews) is visible to all site visitors. This is the purpose of the register.
• Reference checks: when a consultant provides a referee's contact details, CHH contacts the referee directly to verify claims. The referee's responses are visible to CHH administrators but are not published.
• Survey administration: CHH research surveys, including the Recruitment & Retention Survey 2026, are administered externally by BuzzBytes. Survey responses are collected by BuzzBytes on its platform. CHH receives the survey data for analysis and publication. The relationship between BuzzBytes and CHH is governed by a separate data processing arrangement.
• Legal obligations: we may disclose information if required by law or to protect the rights, property or safety of CHH, our users or others.

Our hosting provider, Base44, may store data on servers located outside the UK. If personal data is transferred outside the UK, appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement will be in place. Legal review required to confirm the specific transfer mechanisms and server locations.

• Newsletter entries: retained until you unsubscribe or request removal.
• Research Panel entries: retained until you unsubscribe or request removal. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in research emails or by contacting us.
• Feedback and practitioner reviews: retained for as long as useful for improving the platform, then deleted.
• Consultant support enquiries: retained in CHH's email system while we respond and for a reasonable period afterwards to manage follow-up, then deleted when no longer needed.
• Consultant applications and evidence: retained while the listing is active and for a reasonable period after removal to support the audit trail. Evidence files are deleted according to the retention rules above.
• Consultant reviews and responses: retained while the review is published on the profile, and for a reasonable period after removal to support moderation records.
• Concerns and reconsiderations: retained while the matter is open and for a reasonable period after closure.
• Tool data in your browser: retained in your browser's local storage until you clear it, use the clear data function in My Hub, or clear your browser data. CHH does not control this data.

Where a specific retention period is not yet defined, this is recorded as a gap in our internal legal review checklist.

Under UK data protection law, you have the following rights:

• The right to be informed about how we use your data (this notice).
• The right of access to your personal data.
• The right to rectification if data is inaccurate or incomplete.
• The right to erasure (the right to be forgotten) in certain circumstances.
• The right to restrict processing in certain circumstances.
• The right to data portability for data you have provided.
• The right to object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• The right to withdraw consent at any time where consent is the lawful basis.
• The right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

To exercise any of these rights, please use the feedback link in the footer or contact us through the About page.

If you have a concern about how we handle your personal data, please contact us first and we will try to resolve it. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.

We may update this notice from time to time. The date of the last review is shown at the bottom of this page. We will not reduce your rights under this notice without notifying you.