Privacy notice for children and young people

Who we are

We are St Wilfrid’s hospice, a charity that helps people who are very sick and nearing the end of their lives. We help families and carers too. We also support children and young people (CYP).

When someone you love dies, this is called bereavement. In our CYP Seahorse service, our friendly counsellors are here to listen to you and talk about how you're feeling. They can help you understand and work through what it's like when you lose a parent, brother, or sister. We don’t have to know you already. We're happy to help anyone who needs it.

Our trained counsellors can talk to you over the phone, online using video calls, or in one of our counselling rooms. We can also offer support to parents or other adults involved in your care.

Personal information - what's that?

When we talk about information that can identify you, we mean things like your name or email address. It could also be your phone number, address, or even a picture or a recording of you. To help you, our counsellors need to know certain things about you. Sometimes, this might include private and personal details about what has been happening and how you are feeling.

Where we get your personal information from?

Basically, we get it from you – but If you're under 13, your mum, dad, or guardian would provide information so that we can help you. We might also get some information from your school to make sure we can help you the best way possible. We would only do this if you or your parent or guardian say it’s okay.

What we do with it?

If you talk to us about losing someone or you might be losing someone soon, we'll take some notes from those talks, along with your answers to our questions. We store this information safely in our computer system. When you come back for your next chat, we will look at those notes to understand how to support you better.

We will also sit down with you to explain everything, making sure you understand what’s happening. We'll talk to you about the process and check that you feel okay with this and how we keep your personal information safe, because it belongs to you!

Consent - lawfully processing your information

Sometimes, we may need to ask you for some personal details like your name, birthday, where you live, and how we can get in touch with you. But we only do this if you are over 13 years old. The first thing we want to know is how old you are.

If you are between 13 and 18, you can say it's okay and ‘consent’ for us to collect information about you for specific reasons, as long as we keep it safe and secure. This helps us make sure we're following the rules about using your information.

If you are under 13, we need to ask a parent, guardian, or another adult who takes care of you to provide that information for you.

We explain to them how we keep that information safe in our full ‘Privacy Notice,’ which is a bit longer than this one! They can also ask to see that information whenever they want.

Who we share information with

It’s really important to us that you know we take good care of your information.

Everyone here is trained in safeguarding which means that we know how to keep you safe and that includes how we keep your information safe. We won’t share it with anyone unless you say it’s okay, or if we’re really worried about your safety. If we think you might be in danger, sharing that information can help keep you or someone else safe. We may also have to share it because of the law.

How long we keep your data for

We only keep your personal information for as long as it’s reasonable, or if the law requires us to. We have a list showing how long we keep different types of information. Rest assured, we keep everything very safe, just as you would expect.

When you fill out a form on our website to ask for help, or if you send us an email or text, you're sharing some personal information with us. We keep this safe for a little while and then delete it.

We only keep your information to help you with ongoing services or to send you something you asked for. Regardless, it’s protected and deleted after a set amount of time. If you want to know how long we keep it, just ask us!

Your rights

You have all the same ‘rights’ with regard to your personal information as adults do – this is a very good thing. For example, you can tell us to correct your phone number if we got it wrong the first time. There are 12 rights and details can be found here: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/ 

How to contact us - get in touch

If you have any concerns or if there is anything else you want to ask about the personal information we process then let us know. If you are under 13 your parent or carer would need to do this.

If you are over 13 then you can contact us yourself.

Contact Ella Williams, Counselling Services Manager. St Wilfrid’s Hospice (Eastbourne), 1 Broadwater Way, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN22 9PZ

Telephone 01323 434257

Email Ella.Williams@stwhospice.org

This privacy notice was last updated by adults in June 2025. It will be reviewed annually.