All personal information shared with Children In Hospital Ireland service will be treated with strict confidentiality at all times.

When you provide us with your personal information you are agreeing to this policy and consenting to our collection and use of that information as set out in this policy.

We may be required to update this policy at any time without notice to you, so please check it regularly.

If you have any queries about this policy, please contact:

How we collect information

We do not accept third party referrals, individuals who wish to engage with our service must contact us directly. We may obtain personal information from you when you ask us for information or support, if you register with us to attend a support group, if you send or receive an email, make contact via social media, or make a donation, or otherwise provide us with personal information. All information collected is processed in accordance with our legal requirements and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) We process personal data on the legal basis of legitimate interest. We process data in order to provide our service to clients, who contact us directly, and to advocate for improved services with associated stakeholders.

We will never share personal information about an individual with a third party without that individual’s express consent.

What information we collect

The type of information we collect depends upon the purpose of your interaction with Children In Hospital Ireland service, whether it is to access the peer support services, or other interactions such as with hospital staff, fundraisers or other services.

This information could include (but is not exclusive to) your full name, email address, details of your pregnancy (if applicable), hospital you are linked with, and telephone number. You can also see our data retention policy for detailed information on how long we store information you have provided. Generally we do not keep sensitive personal details for longer than two years , and we anonymise case information on our contact records.

Fundraising: At this date most of our donations are processed by third party sites. These are ……

We do not collect or hold any banking details; but we may hold information on donation dates, values and if they were for a specific purpose.

Our website:

We may also collect details of your visits to our website, including but not limited to traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data. Please see our data privacy statement and cookies policy.

Where we send an email directly, we will include the option to opt-out of further contact.

If you would like to opt-out of communications directly, please contact us, either by phone at :

We do not share your personal information with any other organisations. We collect the information you provide when you contact us directly in order to:

• Respond to your queries or requests – such as in the provision of our peer. support or helpline services, email or social media queries.
• Informing you about events and training, or other information that you have. made enquiries about.
• Record any contact we have with you so that we may track our services usage numbers.
• Keep you up-to-date on CHILDREN IN HOSPITAL IRELAND events updates and news, but only if we believe this falls under the category of legitimate interest to you, according to the GDPR guidelines.
• Keep you up to date with new support or learning materials available – this applies to both parents and professionals.
• To prevent or detect fraud or abuses of our website, and to enable third parties. to carry out technical, logistical or other legitimate functions on our behalf.

Children In Hospital Ireland will never share or sell your details. When dealing with your personal information we will always comply with the General Data Protection Regulation, a strict ethos of confidentiality, and any other applicable legislation.

How we protect your personal information

We take the security of your information very seriously and have put appropriate measures in place to minimise the risk to your information from loss, theft or misuse. These include:

• Restricted access control, including the use of regularly changed passwords, to your information stored on our systems.
• Taking measures to ensure the information provided is accurate, up-to-date and kept only for as long as is necessary for the purposes to which you have given consent.
• We have contractual agreements between working partners for third party donation collectors for payment transactions that require compliance with GDPR
• Your information is only accessed by volunteers or board members who have received data protection and compliance training. Records of support provision, which are gathered to help us track and improve services, are anonymized and stored securely.
• We limit access to our database. Our social media and email communication systems are all password secured and access is restricted.

Links to third-party websites

If you access other websites via a link on our website please ensure you read their privacy policy as they are independent from CIH and we have no control over how they manage your personal information that is collected from their website.

Social media sites

This policy covers how we will use your information from our social media pages that you visit, but you will also need to read how the providers of the social media websites themselves will use your information. Please ensure you read their Privacy policy before sharing data and make use of their privacy settings and reporting mechanisms to control how your data is used.

Do we share your information?

We will never share your information to third parties.

Right of access

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, why we hold your data, how it is processed and to have any inaccuracies in your information corrected. To request this information please by phone on or send a request in writing to We will respond to your request within 30 days

Right to be forgotten:

You have the right to have your data permanently erased. This will also apply to third parties and does not require a formal withdrawal of consent.

Your contact details

If you wish to stay in touch, and your personal details change, please help us to keep your information up-to-date by notifying us.

If at any time you’d like us to change the way we contact you, or if you would like to opt-out of our communications altogether please contact a member of our team by email.

We will only email or text you if we have your consent to do so, but if you receive anything you would rather not, please let us know.

We include an unsubscribe option within every mass email message we send so you are always in control of what you receive.

Your consent

By providing us with your personal information you consent to the collection and use of the information you have provided in accordance with the above purposes and this Privacy policy.

Information we provide

All information published in publication or on our website is provided to the best of our knowledge. You may print any for your own information, but you may not sell it, reproduce it on the internet, alter it, or reprint it in any publication without permission from Children In Hospital Ireland

Complaints

If you have a complaint about Children In Hospital Ireland, or any of our policies or procedures please contact us on or

You may also contact the Data Protection Commission directly:

Data Protection Commission

21 Fitzwilliam Square

South Dublin 2 DO2 RD28