Adoption Now is coordinated by Bolton MBC and is responsible for carrying out the following functions on behalf of Blackburn with Darwen, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale and Tameside local authorities:
- Recruitment of adopters
- Family finding for children who need to be adopted
- Support of adoptive families
- Ensuring that support services are in place for families of children who have been placed for adoption
Regional Adoption Agencies are provided for in The Adoption and Children Act 2002 and the Education and Adoption Act 2016 section 15. Their aim is to find adoptive families for children who need them, to support the adoptive family in caring for that child and to ensure that birth families receive the support which they need.
The six participating local authorities are working closely together to ensure that adoption services are delivered effectively, efficiently and to a high standard. Working together as five authorities it is possible for us to:
- Match children and adopters more quickly and more effectively
- Recruit adopters to meet the specific needs for the children waiting to be adopted
- Provide a comprehensive range of support services to adoptive families
- Manage the adoption mail box service
General
Adoption Now respects your privacy and recognises how important it is that personal information remains secure. This statement describes how Adoption Now collects and uses information about people who visit our website. If you have any questions about this statement please contact:
Karen Barrick – Head of Adoption Now.
Your personal data is protected by UK legislation, specifically the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) 2003. We aim to exceed our legal obligations by following best practice and reviewing our procedures. Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner for the United Kingdom for the purposes for which personal information is collected on this website.
Your use of our website is governed by our website Terms & Conditions and use of other Adoption Now services is governed by any applicable terms as well as this Privacy Notice.
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What information does Adoption Now collect about me and how is it obtained?
Personal information is anything that enables us to identify you in some way, such as your name and email address. For instance, we may collect personal information from you when you complete online forms as part of communicating with Adoption Now (e.g. signing up to events or enquiring about our services), or otherwise provide us with personal information when you specifically and knowingly provide it.
If you supply such information we are legally bound by the Data Protection Act 2018 to ensure that such information is only used for the purpose for which it was requested and also to ensure that the data is held securely.
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How does Adoption Now use my information?
We will use your information to provide you with the services, products or information that you have requested.
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How secure is the information which I give to Adoption Now?
Adoption Now takes the care of your data seriously and undertakes to protect your personal information in a range of ways. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. These measures include the use of secure servers, firewalls and SSL encryption.
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How does Adoption Now use 'Cookies'?
We use cookies to gather information and details about your visit. We do this to find out things such as the most popular areas of the website.
A cookie is a small piece of text stored on your computer, phone or other device which you use to browse the web. Cookies keep track of your movements within the site, help you resume where you left off, remember your registered login, theme selection, preferences, and other customization functions.
Cookies usually don't contain much information except for the web address of the website that created the cookie, the duration of the cookie's abilities and effects, and a random number. Due to the little amount of information a cookie contains, it usually cannot be used to reveal your identity or personally identifying information.
The way we collect information about your visit to the Council website means that no-one is personally identified nor do we make any further attempt to find out your identity whilst using our website.
We will not associate any data gathered from this site by cookies with information which identifies you from any source. If we do want to collect information which identifies you personally through our website, we will be clear about this and tell you at the point your information is collected. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.
We encourage you to accept the cookies our website uses as they not only help us to improve the user experience for you and many others, they also help to make the website work more efficiently.
More information about cookies is available on www.allaboutcookies.org and further guidance on the new EU e-Privacy Law can be found on the Information Commissioner's Office website.
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What about links to other websites?
Adoption Now’s 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 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.
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Does Adoption Now share my information with anyone else?
Adoption Now will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information. We may share your information with partner agencies or commissioning agents providing services on our behalf.
When the local authority is inspected, Ofsted will be given access to records held as part of their inspection process.
ASGLB Quarterly Data Collection
The ASGLB (Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board) data return is completed by every local authority, regional adoption agency and voluntary adoption agency in England on a quarterly basis.
Each quarterly return is commissioned on the first working day of the following quarter and we are to submit our data within the month. As a Regional Adoption Agency we are asked to provide adoption data that covers the full financial year - 1st April through to 31st March.
The aim is to collect information about children & prospective adopters in the adoption process and also data on Special Guardianship Orders. The collected information will be shared with Ofsted and will help with decision making at a national, regional and local level.
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How can I access the information that Adoption Now holds about me?
You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies in your information corrected. If you wish to exercise these rights, please write to:
Data Protection Adoption Now
Information Governance Team Leader
2nd Floor
Town Hall,
Victoria Square
Bolton
BL1 1RU