AT THE CODE · Independent family advocacy

Who is responsible

Farrah Thomas is a self-employed sole trader using the name AT THE CODE for this referral service. She decides how information submitted here is used.

Referral and privacy enquiries: atthecode@icloud.com

ICO registration reference supplied by AT THE CODE: 00015761464. Registration does not mean ICO endorsement of this service.

What we collect and why

The form asks for the adult referrer’s name, area, safe contact route, case stage, selected concerns, requested support, a brief situation summary and any relevant meeting date. A professional making a referral gives their own details. Please use “Child 1”, “Child 2” and similar labels and leave out names, dates of birth, schools, full addresses, documents and detailed allegations about others.

We use these details to review your request, contact you safely, decide whether to propose an independent social worker or family solicitor, record your agreement, and track a requested call or follow-up. We use the intake information to take steps you ask for before providing a possible service (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(b)). Separate consent is requested before sharing with a named professional or exchanging optional progress updates (Article 6(1)(a)). If you include sensitive information about yourself, the form asks for explicit permission to use it for this limited purpose (Article 9(2)(a)).

The first referral intake is free. Submitting the form does not make you a client of a solicitor or guarantee that a professional will take the case. There is no automated decision on eligibility or case outcome.

This is a public beta of the free referral route. New requests appear in AT THE CODE’s private review area; they are not automatically emailed or sent to an independent professional. We check the review area and contact you by the safe method you choose. Please seek urgent help elsewhere rather than waiting for a reply from this form.

To reduce automated submissions, the site stores a count keyed to a one-way hash of the contact route you enter and, where available, your connection address. The hash uses a private server secret. Entries older than seven days are cleared when a later referral arrives, so a quiet beta may retain them longer. Your contact details in the referral itself follow the referral retention description below.

If an appointment or AT THE CODE package is arranged, the private workspace also holds its date and provider, the preparation notes you choose to submit, your signed package agreement, the letter drafts or letters issued to you, and a signed recording preference. The owner uses these details to provide and administer the service requested. A package signature does not process payment. Please avoid adding children’s identifying information to preparation forms.

For an AT THE CODE package, an approved booking may offer a secure Stripe checkout after the full service and cancellation/refund terms have been supplied. Stripe processes the payment and sends a signed receipt event to this app. We store the checkout reference, amount, payment status and booking time; no case summary is sent to Stripe. A separate live Payment Link may instead be checked manually by AT THE CODE. A return from Stripe is not, by itself, proof of payment.

Who can see it

AT THE CODE reviews the intake first. A proposed professional is named in your return area, where you can approve the listed details before an introduction is made. A professional referring another adult cannot give that adult’s direct sharing approval for them. Website hosting and storage providers process data to run this service. No HEARD by THE CODE conversation is imported into the referral.

The private workspace lets you approve each named coordinator, advocate or solicitor separately and withdraw future sharing. After a signed and recorded handover, a named person may receive a separate code for their own appointment view. That view contains the meeting time, provider name and access to the appointment’s private room, but not the client’s case details. The in-app room uses a video service to connect participants; the provider processes audio and video during the call. Calls do not record automatically. A recording preference is not permission to start recording. AT THE CODE must set a specific private purpose, and the owner, client and any expected named professional must sign the separate room notice before the owner can ask the provider to record. The app stores each signed choice and the provider’s recording status. A participant may withdraw and request a stop. The room shows an active alert only when the provider confirms recording. The provider makes a finished recording available to the owner for up to seven days; the app does not automatically store the video. Any downloaded copy must be handled under a separately established secure storage and deletion arrangement. Advocacy meeting footage is not a podcast and is not published here.

Podcast studio

The AT THE CODE owner can record a solo podcast using her device camera and microphone. Optional camera blur and a robot voice effect are processed on the device and included in the recorded file when selected. Face blur is positioned manually and does not follow a moving face; the voice effect does not guarantee anonymity. A solo recording remains in the browser on that device until she chooses to download it or save it as a private episode draft. Choosing to save uploads the file to the private video bucket; publication is a separate owner action after review. Leaving the page before downloading or saving an unsaved recording may lose it.

AT THE CODE may invite named guests to a separate private podcast room. The studio stores the session title, date and time, guest display names and a record of any signed recording acknowledgement. Guest access uses a private code. If recording is planned, the room shows its stated purpose and whether publication is intended before a guest joins. A guest can withdraw their recording agreement in the room; this stops an active app-controlled recording and leaves the room. Recording must be started by the host and a prominent alert shows when the video provider reports that recording is active.

Podcast recordings are held by the video provider and normally remain available for download for up to seven days. AT THE CODE may download a recording for the purpose shown to guests and must tell them separately where any downloaded copy is held and when it will be deleted. A podcast recording is separate from an advocacy case meeting; client case details should not be brought into a podcast session.

The Tell Your Story waitlist asks for an adult’s name, email, brief story outline, preferred appearance, safe contact instructions and a typed signature on the displayed agreement. It gives a private reference and code to check the request. A £10 booking link is offered only after review. The owner records a receipt reference before assigning a ten-minute date. The waitlist agreement is separate from recording acknowledgement and permission to publish.

Published podcast episodes and optional previews are stored in a private video bucket. Full episodes are delivered only after a current £5 monthly subscription is checked with Stripe. Stripe processes subscription payment; AT THE CODE stores a subscription ID, status, subscriber email where provided and a private device session token hash. Video viewing requests are checked against Stripe. Playback is streaming, and this access control does not prevent a viewer from making their own screen recording.

Where subscriber email access is enabled, AT THE CODE uses a verified email delivery provider to send an eight-digit sign-in code to the checkout email. The code is stored only as a hash, expires after ten minutes and is limited to five attempts. Email requests are rate limited, and the reply does not confirm whether an address is subscribed.

If an urgent safeguarding situation requires information to be shared with an appropriate authority, that would be assessed separately under the applicable law. This form is not monitored as an emergency service.

How long we keep it

We keep the referral and its linked appointments, preparations, agreement records, letters and recording choices while the referral or follow-up is active. Once it is closed, we review the record after 90 days and delete it when it is no longer needed for the service, a complaint or a legal obligation. Story waitlist requests and signed terms are reviewed when closed; the final retention schedule for edited and published recordings must be set before public launch. Viewer sign-in sessions expire after 30 days and subscriptions remain in Stripe according to its retention policies. You can request deletion sooner; we will review the request and explain if any part must be retained. Deleting this app’s copy cannot remove information already sent to a professional, who is responsible for their own records.

Your choices and rights

Use your reference and private access code in the return area to withdraw future sharing or request a copy, correction or deletion of your referral. You can also use the public contact email above. The right to deletion is not absolute. You may ask about access, correction, restriction, objection and the use of consent. You can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.