Supply Circle Privacy Policy

1. Who is responsible

Supply Circle (“we” or “us”) is responsible for the platform and acts as controller for its accounts, profiles and operation. Contact us about privacy at info@supply-circle.com. A school receiving a candidate's information will generally be responsible for its own recruitment use of that information.

2. Information we collect

For education professionals, this may include contact and account details, a photograph, location and preferred working area, role, subjects and age groups, qualifications, work history, availability, preferred rate, profile text, messages or enquiries, and information about credentials. You may choose to upload DBS certificates, qualification certificates and other professional documents to your profile. These may contain sensitive information, including criminal offence data. For school users, we may collect names, work contact details, school identity, account activity, searches and communications. We also receive information when someone contacts us, reports a concern, or uses the website, including technical identifiers and usage information.

Only provide information relevant to your professional profile. Do not upload pupil information or confidential material belonging to a school or previous employer. Check any document for information you do not wish to share with schools before uploading it.

3. How we obtain information

We usually receive information directly from you when you sign up, complete a profile, communicate through the platform or contact us. We may receive account details from a school administrator who invites colleagues, and reports or concerns from other users. Technical information can come from your device and cookies or similar technologies, subject to your choices and applicable rules.

4. Purposes and lawful bases

• To create and manage accounts, publish or display professional profiles to authorised schools, enable searches and introductions, and provide support: performance of our contract with you, or steps taken at your request before entering it.
• To maintain platform security, prevent misuse, investigate reports, improve the service and keep proportionate business records: our legitimate interests in a reliable and safe service, balanced against your rights.
• To comply with applicable legal duties, respond to lawful requests and maintain legally required records: legal obligation where one applies.
• To send optional direct marketing: consent where required by electronic marketing rules, or another lawful basis only where the law permits it. You can opt out at any time.
• To use non-essential cookies or similar technologies: consent where required. A separate cookie notice or consent tool should identify the actual technologies used.

We do not treat agreement to the Terms as blanket consent for every use of personal information. If a new use requires consent or a different lawful basis, we will seek it or provide appropriate information first.

5. Profiles and visibility

Professional profile thumbnails may be visible to visitors. Full profile details, including your contact details, postcode and daily rate, are available to verified school accounts for finding and contacting staff. Documents you upload are not shown to schools: a school can see which types of document you have provided, but only you and Supply Circle can open the files themselves. A school must not treat a profile or uploaded document as confirmation that Supply Circle has independently verified its contents. Schools should use information obtained through Supply Circle only for genuine staffing and recruitment purposes, and handle it under their own privacy notices and policies.

6. Safeguarding and sensitive information

You may choose whether to upload a DBS certificate or other professional document. If you do, Supply Circle stores it privately as part of your profile. A DBS certificate may contain criminal offence data. Schools cannot open your documents; they see only which types of document you have provided. Access to the files themselves is limited to you and to Supply Circle, and we use them only to provide the profile service and address related safety or legal concerns. You can remove a document from your profile or ask us to remove it at info@supply-circle.com. Schools remain responsible for making their own lawful safeguarding and suitability checks before engaging anyone; an uploaded certificate is not a verification by Supply Circle.

7. Who receives information

Verified school account users may see profile details and contact information. We use Render to host the website, Turso to store the database, Cloudflare for network security and for storing uploaded photographs and documents, Microsoft 365 for email, and postcodes.io to turn a postcode into an approximate location. We may use other contracted providers for support and security. They may access information only as needed to provide their services and subject to appropriate arrangements. We may disclose information to advisers, authorities or another party where required by law, necessary to protect users, or as part of a business transfer with appropriate safeguards. We do not sell profile information to data brokers.

8. International transfers

Supply Circle serves UK schools and education professionals, but the companies providing its technology may store or access information elsewhere. Our database is hosted in Ireland. Our website hosting currently runs in the United States, which means profile information is processed on servers there. Uploaded photographs and documents are stored on Cloudflare's network. Where UK data transfer rules apply, we use an applicable adequacy arrangement or contractual safeguards. Contact info@supply-circle.com for information about the safeguards relevant to your data.

9. How long we keep information

We keep an active account and its profile while it remains in use. If you close an account, we remove its visitor-facing and school-facing profile within three months and delete or anonymise account data within three months, except where we need particular records for a legal obligation, security matter or dispute.

We retain enquiries, support and security records only for as long as their purpose reasonably requires. Schools may retain copies they lawfully received under their own policies; we cannot delete those copies for them.

10. Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information, including access controls and arrangements with service providers. No online service can promise absolute security. Please protect your login details and tell us promptly if you suspect unauthorised account access.

11. Your rights and choices

Depending on the circumstances, you may ask for access, correction, erasure, restriction, portability or objection to our use of your information. You can withdraw consent for processing based on consent without affecting earlier lawful use. You may request account closure at info@supply-circle.com or use the account controls if available. Contact info@supply-circle.com to exercise a right; we may need to verify your identity. You can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, and may also contact us first so we can address your concern.

12. Cookies and analytics

Essential technologies may be needed for login, security and operation. If we use optional analytics or advertising cookies or similar technologies, we will explain them and provide the choices required by law before they are used.

13. Children and external links

The service is intended for adult education professionals and authorised school staff, not pupils or children. Do not put pupil personal information into a profile or message. Links to third-party websites are governed by those sites' privacy notices.

14. Changes

We may update this policy as the platform changes. We will publish the revised version with a new date and draw material changes to the attention of affected users where appropriate.