do I need a privacy caveat?

[yumcha888]

Hi lawyers!

I've started a Cantonese playgroup in Central London and we need to collect money and keep in touch with all the mums. We'll be asking for standard information (name, email, age and names of kids, expectations of the group...) but I'm thinking that we should put one of those 'we won't be passing this information on to anyone' bits at the end of the form. Can I just write this myself? If not, is there a standard one I could use (I've tried googling but I'm not sure what it would be called)? Do I need to keep this information in a special place or is just putting it on my laptop ok?

TIA for any advice - this group is run by volunteers (all working mums) and we are desperate not to get into trouble!

You should have a tick box acknowledgement statement saying why you arevtaking details and what you will do with them e.g.you acknowledge your details will be used for us to update you with future events, we will not pass your details to third parties. Lots of websites have a tick box when you register with them.

Will you be taking photos at playgroup? If so you need parents' consent and will need to tell them what pictures will be used for etc.

If you have a look at the information commissioner website there is lots of info on data protection etc. How to store details. They also have a helpline which might be useful.

Unless this is a 'stay and play' type group, you probably need:

Ofsted registration
Insurance
CRB checks
Some kind of formal constitution
etc.

Your local authority's Family Information Service might be a good place to start.

Thanks Angel and Mranchovy!