Privacy and Cookies

Privacy and Cookies

This page explains what happens to your personal data when you visit bainescutler.com or contact us through it. If you deal with us as a school, client, prospective client, supplier, or event attendee, our full privacy notice (Privacy Notice: Clients, Contacts, and Website Visitors, PDF) explains how we handle your data in those relationships. We update this page from time to time and the latest version is always published here. 

Who we are

Baines Cutler Solutions Limited (BCS) is a data and business consultancy to independent schools. We are registered in England and Wales (company number 08396603) at Orchard Grove, Knockholt Road, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent TN14 7EU, and with the UK data protection regulator (registration ZC082559). We are the controller of the personal data described on this page, and we handle it in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Protection Act 2018, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, and our own Data Protection Policy. Our Data Protection Lead is Ben Walker: email privacy@bainescutler.co.uk, or write to the registered office.

What we collect and why

• If you contact us through the site: the details you enter (name, role, organisation, email address, telephone number, and your message). We use them to reply and to follow up your enquiry. Lawful basis: our legitimate interest in responding to people who contact us.
• When you browse: the technical information your browser sends (IP address, browser and device type, pages requested), held in our hosting provider's server logs to keep the site secure and working. Lawful basis: our legitimate interest in running a secure website.
• If you accept analytics cookies: Google Analytics records how the site is used (pages viewed, time on page, device type, and approximate location from a truncated IP address) so that we can improve it. Lawful basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time through Cookie settings.

We use only aggregated, non-identifying statistics to improve the site. We do not sell, lease, or distribute personal data, and we make no automated decisions about you. If you are a business contact at a school, we may send you sector research and service updates relevant to your role, with an opt-out in every message; the full notice explains this.

Who we share it with

We share personal data only with the providers that run our business, each acting on our instructions under a written contract:

• our website hosting and support provider;
• our email, document, and collaboration platform;
• our analytics provider, only if you accept analytics cookies;
• our client relationship management system, if we record your enquiry;
• an AI assistant service that may help us handle correspondence.

None of them may use your data for its own purposes or to train AI models. We share personal data with public authorities only where the law requires. The full notice names each provider.

Where your data goes

Some of our providers process data outside the UK. Where personal data leaves the UK we rely on UK adequacy regulations, the International Data Transfer Agreement, or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, and the full notice gives the details.

How long we keep it

• Form entries: the website holds a copy for no more than 30 days after forwarding it to us. We keep your enquiry for as long as we need to deal with it; if it leads to work together, it becomes part of our client records (see the full notice).
• Server logs: 12 months.
• Analytics data: 14 months.
• Cookies: see full notice.

Cookies

We use a small number of cookies. Strictly necessary cookies keep the site working and are set without asking you; two of them appear only when our own editors sign in to the site's content management system. Analytics cookies are set only if you accept them in the banner shown on your first visit. We set no advertising or marketing cookies; if that ever changes, we will ask for your consent through the same banner and update this page first. We hold your information securely. To prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we use appropriate physical, electronic, and organisational safeguards, including restricted access and multi-factor authentication on our systems, under our Information Security and Cyber Policy.

Links to other websites

Our website contains links to other websites. We have no control over websites outside the bainescutler.com domain, and if you provide information to a site we link to, that site's own privacy information applies. Where information about your organisation is already public, we may refer to it or link to your website; we will correct or remove such information on request.

Children

Our website is for school leaders, governors, and business contacts. It is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect personal data about children through it.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of your personal data, ask us to correct or delete it, object to or restrict our use of it, and withdraw your consent to analytics cookies at any time. Email privacy@bainescutler.co.uk and we will reply within one month. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please complain to us first at the same address: we acknowledge complaints within 30 days and tell you the outcome without undue delay. You can also complain to the Information Commission (the UK regulator, formerly the ICO) at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Contact details

Baines Cutler Solutions Limited, Orchard Grove, Knockholt Road, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent TN14 7EU. Telephone 01242 806 949 (Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm). General enquiries: info@bainescutler.com. Data protection: privacy@bainescutler.co.uk.