Privacy & safeguarding
How we handle your personal data, why we ask for so little about each child, and how to raise a safeguarding concern.
Last updated: April 2026
Who we are
The Courant Fund for Children is a registered Scottish charity (SC017462). We are the data controller for any personal information you provide to us. You can reach us via our contact form.
What information we collect
When you apply for a grant we ask for:
- Your details as the applicant: name, professional role, employer, work email, phone and work address.
- Whether you have applied to The Courant Fund before, and if so a brief context of that previous application.
- Minimal information about the child or the project: age range, first name or initials only, postcode area only, and a description of the circumstances and the request.
We deliberately do not ask for the child's full name, full address, or date of birth. Please do not include these in your application.
Why we collect it / lawful basis
We process applicant personal data on the basis of consent (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(a)) for assessing your application, and legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) for follow-up correspondence about the application.
Where information about a child's health, disability or family circumstances is provided, this is special-category data. We process it under Article 9(2)(g) substantial public interest – specifically the safeguarding and welfare of children at risk – as set out in the Data Protection Act 2018.
How long we keep it
Application records are retained for 6 years in line with Charity Commission and OSCR record-keeping guidance, then deleted. Successful grant records may be retained longer where required by accounts retention rules.
Who sees your information
Submissions arrive in a single charity mailbox monitored by the trustees. We do not share your information with any other organisation.
Cookies and tracking
This site uses Basin's lightweight Ahoy submission tracker, which records form views and submissions so we can keep our application form working properly. It does not set marketing cookies and does not track you across other websites.
Your rights
Under UK GDPR you have the right to access, rectify, erase (subject to our retention rules), restrict, or object to our processing of your personal data, and to withdraw consent at any time. To exercise any of these rights, please contact us via the contact form.
Complaints
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
Safeguarding
The Courant Fund's purpose is to improve the lives of children in the Lothians. We expect everyone applying on behalf of a child to be a bona fide professional with direct contact with that child through their work.
If you have a safeguarding concern about a child, please raise it directly with your local authority or with Police Scotland. Our contact form is not a safeguarding reporting route and we cannot act on safeguarding referrals.