Privacy Policy – FindADoula.co.uk
Effective Date: 11 August 2026
FindADoula.co.uk (“Find a Doula”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is a UK-based professional platform that helps individuals and families discover and connect with end of life doulas, practitioners, organisations and related support services.
Find a Doula is the data controller responsible for deciding how and why personal data collected through the Platform is processed.
Operator: Find A Doula
Location: United Kingdom
Contact Email: [email protected]
Find a Doula is an independent professional profile, discovery and signposting platform.
We do not directly provide end of life doula services, medical care, nursing care, counselling, legal advice, emergency assistance or other regulated professional services.
Our Platform allows individuals and families to discover and contact independent practitioners and organisations. Members are responsible for the accuracy of their profiles and for the services they provide, except where particular information is expressly shown as having been independently verified by Find a Doula.
We may work with recognised training providers, professional organisations and membership bodies to verify particular training, certification or membership information and, where appropriate, to support safeguarding and suitability processes.
Any communication, engagement, support arrangement or service agreement between a visitor and a Member is entered into independently and at the parties’ own discretion.
We may collect and process the following categories of personal data.
If you create a professional profile, information that you choose to include in that profile may be published publicly on FindADoula.co.uk.
This may include your name, photograph, business or organisation name, professional description, qualifications, services, areas covered, contact details and links to external websites or social-media profiles.
You should not include confidential, highly sensitive or unnecessary personal information in your public profile.
Payments are processed by third-party payment providers such as Stripe.
We may receive and retain payment-related information including:
We do not receive or store your full payment-card number or card security code. Payment providers process payment information in accordance with their own privacy policies and legal obligations.
If you request or apply for a verified profile, we may process information required to confirm your training, qualification, graduate status, professional membership or other relevant eligibility.
This may include:
Where possible, our verification systems are designed to minimise the disclosure of directly identifying information.
For certain verification arrangements, including our collaboration with Living Well Dying Well Training Ltd (“LWDW Training”), names and email addresses are not exchanged between Find a Doula and LWDW Training as part of the routine verification process.
Instead, a cryptographic hash is used to enable secure verification while minimising the personal information exchanged between the organisations.
Where verification takes place, we may receive limited information from a relevant training provider, professional body, membership organisation or other approved verification partner.
The information received will normally be limited to information necessary to:
We do not ordinarily require verification partners to provide full course records, assessment materials or other information that is unnecessary for the verification purpose.
In exceptional circumstances, we may receive information about a Member from a training provider, professional organisation, membership body, safeguarding body or other relevant organisation where there is a concern relating to:
For example, LWDW Training may, in accordance with its own policies and applicable data protection law, notify Find a Doula of a safeguarding or suitability-to-practise concern relating to a learner or former learner.
Where appropriate, information provided may include the nature of a concern, the outcome of an investigation, relevant restrictions or conditions, or other information reasonably necessary for Find a Doula to consider whether action should be taken on the Platform.
This type of information sharing is separate from the routine automated training-verification process described elsewhere in this Policy.
Find a Doula will independently determine what, if any, action should be taken under its own Terms of Service and procedures.
When you use the website, we or our service providers may collect technical information including:
We may use personal data to:
We will not use information obtained for professional verification or safeguarding purposes for unrelated advertising or promotional profiling.
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”), we must have a lawful basis for each purpose for which we process personal data.
Depending on the circumstances, we rely on the following lawful bases.
We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform our contract with you, including to:
We may process personal data where necessary for our legitimate interests or those of another party, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms.
Our legitimate interests may include:
Where we receive information concerning a safeguarding, conduct or suitability matter, we will consider the nature of the information, the purpose for which it has been provided and the rights and interests of the individuals concerned before deciding how it should be processed.
We rely on your consent where required, including for:
Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.
Information may continue to be processed after withdrawal of consent where another lawful basis applies, including where necessary for legal compliance, safeguarding, security, dispute resolution or the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
We may process personal data where necessary to comply with legal obligations, including accounting, taxation, fraud-prevention and lawful disclosure requirements.
Safeguarding or suitability information may occasionally contain health information or other special category personal data.
Where we process special category personal data, we will do so only where both an Article 6 lawful basis and an appropriate additional condition under Article 9 of the UK GDPR and/or the Data Protection Act 2018 applies.
Some Members may be eligible to obtain a verified profile or verification badge.
The purpose of verification is to help confirm whether a Member satisfies specified criteria relating to training, qualification, graduate status, professional membership or another relevant status.
Verification does not constitute an endorsement, recommendation, professional guarantee or assessment of the quality, suitability or safety of a Member’s services.
Find a Doula works with Living Well Dying Well Training Ltd (“LWDW Training”) to enable eligible Members to verify their LWDW training or certification status.
Where you choose to use this verification service, Find a Doula may securely check relevant LWDW Training records using a cryptographic hash derived from limited identifying information.
Names and email addresses are not exchanged between Find a Doula and LWDW Training as part of the routine verification process.
Only the minimum information necessary to establish and maintain the relevant verification status is processed.
Find a Doula and LWDW Training remain independent organisations and are each responsible for the personal data they process.
We may retain:
We will not ordinarily receive or retain unnecessary underlying course records, assessment materials or detailed learner records from LWDW Training.
A verified status may be periodically rechecked so that information displayed on Find a Doula remains accurate.
This may include receiving an indication that a relevant training or certification record has changed and making a subsequent status check using the reference identifier associated with that Member.
The purpose of these checks is to maintain the accuracy and integrity of information expressly shown as verified.
Routine verification is distinct from safeguarding or suitability-related information sharing.
LWDW Training may, in accordance with its policies and applicable law, notify Find a Doula where it considers that a matter concerning a learner or former learner may raise a safeguarding or suitability-to-practise concern.
It may also, where appropriate and lawful, provide relevant information concerning the outcome of an investigation, restriction or decision.
Find a Doula may process that information for purposes including:
Receiving such information does not mean that Find a Doula will automatically take the same action as LWDW Training.
Find a Doula will consider the information independently and determine any Platform action under its own Terms of Service and procedures.
You may ask us to stop optional professional verification by contacting [email protected].
Where verification is withdrawn:
Withdrawal does not invalidate processing that lawfully took place previously and does not necessarily prevent processing undertaken on another lawful basis.
Professional verification is optional unless a particular membership category or feature is expressly described as being available only to verified applicants.
Choosing not to request verification will not prevent you from using general visitor features of the website. However, you may not be eligible for verification-specific badges, discounts, membership categories or other associated features.
We may share personal data with trusted third parties where necessary for the purposes described in this Policy and where there is an appropriate lawful basis.
These recipients may include:
Where another organisation acts as a service provider on our behalf, we require it to process personal data only for authorised purposes and to apply appropriate safeguards.
Where another organisation, such as LWDW Training, determines its own purposes and means of processing, it may act as an independent data controller and is responsible for its own compliance with data protection law.
We do not sell or rent your personal data.
For routine LWDW training verification, names and email addresses are not exchanged between Find a Doula and LWDW Training.
The verification service instead uses a cryptographic hash and processes only the minimum information necessary to establish and maintain the relevant verification status.
Information may be shared separately between Find a Doula and LWDW Training where this is reasonably necessary and lawful for safeguarding, suitability, legal or similar purposes.
Where such information is shared, each organisation remains responsible for its own processing of that information.
We may send communications concerning:
Essential account, contractual, verification, safety and service messages are not marketing communications and may be sent where necessary to administer your account or provide the service.
Where permitted by law, we may send limited business-to-business communications to professional or organisational contacts where we have a legitimate interest in doing so.
We will obtain consent where consent is required for electronic direct marketing.
You can opt out of marketing communications at any time by using the unsubscribe link in the message or by contacting [email protected].
Opting out of marketing will not prevent us from sending essential messages about your account, payments, membership, verification, security or other non-marketing matters.
We use cookies and related technologies for different purposes.
Essential cookies are used to:
These cookies are required for the website to function and do not require consent where they are strictly necessary.
With your consent, we may use Google Analytics or similar services to understand how visitors use the website and to improve its performance.
Analytics technologies will not be activated until the required consent has been provided.
We use Google Maps services to provide location entry, address search, mapping and geographic-search functionality.
When Google Maps is enabled or used, technical information such as your IP address, device information, search input and interaction data may be transmitted to Google.
Where required, Google Maps will be blocked until you enable the relevant cookie or service category.
You can accept, reject or manage non-essential cookies through the cookie controls displayed on the website.
You can change or withdraw your cookie preferences at any time using the website’s cookie-preference control.
Further details about individual cookies and services are available in our Cookie Policy or cookie settings panel.
We retain personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including legal, accounting, security, safeguarding and dispute-resolution requirements.
Typical retention periods include:
We may retain information for longer where required by law or where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
When personal data is no longer required, we will delete, anonymise or securely dispose of it.
Depending on the circumstances, UK data-protection law may give you the right to:
These rights are not absolute and may be subject to legal limitations or exemptions.
To exercise a right, contact:
We may need to request information to confirm your identity before responding. We will normally respond within one month, subject to any lawful extension.
We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal data against unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, loss or destruction.
These measures may include:
Although we take reasonable precautions, no online system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
Some service providers may process personal data outside the United Kingdom.
Where personal data is transferred internationally, we will take appropriate steps to ensure that the transfer is lawful and that suitable safeguards are in place.
These safeguards may include:
Additional information about relevant safeguards may be requested by contacting us.
Our website may contain links to third-party websites, Member websites, social-media profiles and external services.
We are not responsible for the privacy practices, security or content of independent third parties.
When you contact or engage a Member listed on Find a Doula, that Member may become an independent data controller for information you provide directly to them. You should review the Member’s own privacy information where appropriate.
Training providers, verification partners and other professional organisations with which we work may also operate as independent data controllers and maintain their own privacy policies.
Visitors should avoid sending unnecessary medical, health, religious or other highly sensitive personal information through general website enquiry or contact facilities.
If information about health, beliefs or another special category of personal data is voluntarily included in a message, or is lawfully provided to us in connection with a safeguarding or suitability matter, we will process it only where an appropriate lawful basis and additional condition applies.
We will limit access to sensitive information to those who reasonably require it and will not make safeguarding or suitability information public merely because it has been received.
Member profiles should not disclose sensitive personal information about clients, patients, families or other identifiable individuals.
Membership services and professional profiles are intended only for people aged 18 or over.
We do not knowingly allow children to create professional Member accounts.
Our public Platform may be viewed by people of different ages, but children should not submit personal information without the involvement of a parent, guardian or appropriate responsible adult.
If you believe that a child has provided personal data to us inappropriately, please contact us.
We do not currently use personal data to make solely automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects on individuals.
Technical systems may automatically assist with matching professional-verification records, determining whether specified verification criteria are satisfied and updating verification information.
A technical verification result does not constitute a solely automated assessment of a Member’s professional competence, conduct or suitability.
Where a verification result is disputed or appears inaccurate, the Member may contact us and request a manual review.
Decisions concerning safeguarding, conduct, suitability, suspension or removal from the Platform will not be determined solely by an automated verification system.
We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our services, verification partners, safeguarding arrangements, legal obligations or data-processing practices.
The latest version will be published on this page with an updated effective date.
Where a change materially affects how we use Member data, we may also notify affected Members through the website, their account or email.
If you have a question or concern about how we process personal data, please contact us first:
Email: [email protected]
You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.
Information Commissioner’s Office
Website: https://ico.org.uk/
Telephone: 0303 123 1113