Privacy Policy

This notice explains how we collect, use, share and protect personal information, and how you can exercise your data protection rights. It is intended for candidates, workers, client contacts, suppliers and website visitors. We process personal data under the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and other applicable data protection and electronic communications legislation.

Transform Recruitment (” We”) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This notice sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us.

Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

Transform Education Recruitment UK Limited, trading as Transform Recruitment, is the data controller responsible for the personal data described in this notice. Registered address: C/O Haines and Watts Wolverhampton, Keepers Lane, West Midlands, WV6 8UA.

Our privacy contact is Marc Ashford, Director. Email: m.ashford@transformrecruitment.com.

Who we are and what we do

We provide education recruitment services, including temporary and permanent placements in Primary, Secondary and SEND schools across Birmingham and the West Midlands, and international recruitment services for schools overseas. We collect personal data relating to:

• Prospective and placed candidates for permanent or temporary roles;
• Prospective and live client contacts;
• Supplier contacts to support our services;
• Employees, consultants, temporary workers;

We collect information about you to carry out our core business and ancillary activities.

Information you give to us or we collect about you

This is information about you that you give us by filling in forms on our site www.transformrecruitment.com (our website) or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. It includes information you provide when you register to use our site, to enter our database, subscribe to our services, attend our events, participate in discussion boards or other social media functions on our site, enter a competition, promotion or survey, through job applications, through job board watchdogs e.g., when a CV is uploaded and when you report a problem with our site.

Depending on your relationship with us, we may collect your name, address, contact details, CV, work history, qualifications, professional registrations, references, availability, job preferences and relevant professional profile information. For registration, compliance, payroll or international relocation purposes, we may also collect identity documents, date of birth, right-to-work and visa information, bank details, tax information and other necessary compliance records. We collect only information relevant to the purpose.

Information we collect about you when you visit our website

With regard to each of your visits to our site we will automatically collect the following information:

technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information if applicable, browser type and version, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform; information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time), products you viewed or searched for’ page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), methods used to browse away from the page and any phone number used to call our customer service number.

Information we obtain from other sources

This is information we obtain about you from other sources such as LinkedIn, corporate websites, job board websites, online CV libraries, your business card, personal recommendations. In this case we will inform you, by sending you this privacy notice, within one month of obtaining the data, or earlier where required, such as when first contacting you or before first disclosing your information of the fact we hold personal data about you, the source the personal data originates from and whether it came from publicly accessible sources, and for what purpose we intend to retain and process your personal data.

We are working closely with third parties including associated recruitment businesses where relevant, business partners, sub-contractors in technical, professional, payment and other services, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers, credit reference agencies, professional advisors. We may receive information about you from them for the purposes of our recruitment services and ancillary support services.

Special category and criminal offence information

Where necessary, we may process health or disability information for workplace adjustments, equality information where appropriate, and safeguarding or criminal-record information relevant to a role. Special category information requires both an ordinary lawful basis and an applicable additional condition, such as employment and social protection obligations, safeguarding substantial public interests or explicit consent where appropriate. Criminal offence information requires an applicable legal authorisation and safeguards. We will identify the condition relevant to the activity and maintain an appropriate policy document where required. Access will be restricted and collection limited to what is necessary.

Purposes of the processing and the legal basis for the processing

We use information held about you in the following ways:

To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts we intend to enter into or have entered into between you and us and to provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us or we think will be of interest to you because it is relevant to your career or to your organisation.

To provide you with information about other goods and services we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased, been provided with or enquired about.

The core service we offer to our candidates and clients is the introduction of candidates to our clients for the purpose of temporary or permanent engagement. However, our service expands to supporting individuals throughout their career and to supporting businesses’ resourcing needs and strategies.

Our legal basis for the processing of personal data is our legitimate interests, described in more detail below, although we will also rely on contractual obligations to which you are subject, legal obligations and consent for specific uses of data.

We will rely on contractual obligations if we are negotiating or have entered into a placement agreement with you or your organisation or any other contract to provide services to you or receive services from you or your organisation.

We will rely on legal obligation in some cases, where we are required by law or regulation to process your data.

We will in some circumstances rely on consent for particular uses of your data. Where we rely on consent, you will be asked for your express consent. Where marketing consent is legally required, we will obtain it before sending marketing communications.

Purposes for Safeguarding

We are committed to promoting the safeguarding and welfare of children and vulnerable adults. Personal data that we collect about you may, when appropriate, be shared with third parties (such as schools’, local authorities, regulatory bodies, police, or other relevant organizations) for the purposes of safeguarding and protecting children and vulnerable adults. This processing is carried out in accordance with our legal obligations and legitimate interests in ensuring the safety and welfare of children and vulnerable adults. Please refer to our Safeguarding Policy for further information.

Our Legitimate Interests

Our legitimate interests include providing recruitment services, matching candidates with suitable roles, maintaining professional relationships, protecting our business and preventing fraud. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we assess necessity and balance those interests against your rights and reasonable expectations.

As a recruitment business and recruitment agency we introduce candidates to clients for permanent employment, temporary worker placements or independent professional contracts. The exchange of personal data of our candidates and our client contact details is a fundamental part of this process.

In order to support our candidates’ career aspirations and our clients’ resourcing needs, we require a database of candidate and client personal data. The database will contain historical information as well as current resourcing requirements.

To maintain, expand and develop our business we need to record the personal data of prospective candidates and client contacts.

Consent

Should we want or need to rely on consent to lawfully process your data we will request your consent orally, by email or by an online process for the specific activity we require consent for and record your response on our system. Where consent is the lawful basis for our processing you have the right to withdraw your consent to this particular processing at any time.

Other Uses we will make of your data

We will also use your data:

• To administer our site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
• To improve our site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you when you are using your computer or other devices;
• To notify you about changes to our service;
• To allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;
• As part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure;
• To measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you;
• To make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our site about goods or services that may interest you or them.

Where recruitment software is used to suggest matches, it supports our team’s assessment rather than replacing it. Transform Recruitment does not make solely automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects under this notice. Any change to this approach will be explained before such processing begins.

You have the right to request human involvement in any decisions, to express your point of view, and to challenge a decision if you believe automated processing has affected you unfairly.

Do you have to provide us with personal data?

You may refuse to give us your personal and sensitive personal data. Furthermore, you have the right to ask us to delete, change or stop processing your data that we have already received or collected. If you do not provide us with personal or sensitive personal data, or if you request a restriction of processing however, we may not be able to provide you with the services that you have requested and that are stated in this policy.

Cookies

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to support essential functions, security, analytics and advertising. Where consent is required, we will request it before using those technologies and provide a way to withdraw it. You can also manage cookies through your browser settings. Details of the technologies used, their purposes and durations should be provided through our website cookie information and consent controls.

Disclosure of your information inside and outside of the UK and the EEA

We will share your personal information with:

Associated recruitment businesses where relevant to the service you request, subject to an appropriate lawful basis and necessary safeguards.

Selected third parties including:

• Clients for the purpose of introducing candidates to them;
• Candidates for the purpose of arranging interviews and engagements;
• Clients, business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance and compliance obligations of any contract we enter into with them or you;
• Subcontractors including email marketing specialists, event organisers, payment and other financial service providers
• Advertising and analytics providers, where used and lawfully permitted, subject to applicable consent requirements. We will not share identifiable candidate information for unrelated advertising without an appropriate lawful basis and clear notice.
• Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site;
• Credit reference agencies, our insurance broker, compliance partners and other sub-contractors for the purpose of assessing your suitability for a role where this is a condition of us entering into a contract with you.

We will disclose your personal information to third parties:

• In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
• If Transform Recruitment or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
• If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Transform Recruitment, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Independent recipients are responsible for identifying their own lawful basis. Service providers acting as our processors must follow our instructions and applicable data protection contracts. Relevant purposes and obligations may include:

• Their own legitimate interests in processing your personal data, in most cases to fulfil their internal resourcing needs;
• Satisfaction of their contractual obligations to us as our data processor;
• For the purpose of a contract in place or in contemplation;
• To fulfil their legal obligations.

Where we make a restricted international transfer, we will use an applicable adequacy arrangement or appropriate safeguards, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, together with any required assessment and supplementary measures. A statutory exception will be used only where applicable. Contact us for information about the safeguards relevant to your data.

Where we store and process your personal data

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the UK or European Economic Area (”EEA”). It may be transferred to third parties outside of the UK or the EEA for the purpose of our recruitment services. It may also be processed by staff operating outside the UK or the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. This includes staff engaged in, among other things, our recruitment services and the provision of support services. Providing your data does not, by itself, constitute consent to international transfers. Transfers must satisfy the applicable legal requirements. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy notice.

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data, including access controls, secure storage and encryption where appropriate. Where you have an account password, keep it confidential and do not share it with others.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Retention of your data

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, taking account of recruitment, employment, tax, safeguarding, regulatory and legal-claims requirements. Different categories of data may have different retention periods. Our retention arrangements must reflect the records we actually hold and the requirements that apply to them.

We do the following to try to ensure that the data we hold on you is accurate:

• Prior to making an introduction we check that we have accurate information about you;
• We keep in touch with you so you can let us know of changes to your personal data;
• Share our contact details in order for you notify us of any changes.

We segregate our data so that we keep different types of data for different time periods. The criteria we use to determine whether we should retain your personal data include:

• the nature of the personal data;
• its perceived accuracy;
• our legal obligations;
• whether an interview or placement has been arranged; and
• our recruitment expertise and knowledge of the industry by country, sector and job role.

We may store and handle your data in the following ways:

• We may archive part or all of your personal data, retain it on our financial systems only or delete all or part of the data from our main Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) system.
• We may keep limited suppression information to respect an objection or prevent unwanted future contact. Pseudonymised information remains personal data where individuals can still be identified.

For your information, Pseudonymised Data is created by taking identifying fields within a database and replacing them with artificial identifiers, or pseudonyms.

Our current retention notice is available upon request.

Your rights

Your rights apply subject to their legal conditions and exemptions. Where processing relies on consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of earlier processing. Data portability applies to qualifying automated processing based on consent or contract.

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for marketing purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for marketing purposes. We will collect express consent from you, if legally required, prior to using your personal data for marketing purposes.

You can exercise your right to accept or prevent processing for marketing purposes by checking the boxes on the forms we provide you when we collect your data. You can also exercise the right to not have your data used for marketing purposes at any time by contacting us at m.ashford@transformrecruitment.com

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

The UK GDPR provides you with the right to:

• Request access to your personal information and information about how it is used.
• Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
• Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
• Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party in certain formats, if practicable.
• Make a complaint to a supervisory body which in the United Kingdom is the Information Commissioner’s Office. The ICO can be contacted through this link: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.

Access to information

The Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR give you the right to access information held about you (commonly known as Subject Access Request or DSAR). You can exercise this right by contacting us at m.ashford@transformrecruitment.com

We will respond without undue delay and normally within one calendar month, calculated in accordance with applicable law. Where permitted, the deadline may be adjusted while necessary identity information or clarification is obtained. For complex or multiple requests, an extension of up to two further months may be available; we will explain any extension within the applicable initial deadline.

We will carry out a reasonable and proportionate search for information within the scope of your request. Archived or backup information will be considered where relevant; it is not automatically excluded.

No fee will apply unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, in particular because of its repetitive character. In such circumstances, we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to act on the request.

Complaints

If you have concerns about how we use your personal data, please contact Marc Ashford at m.ashford@transformrecruitment.com so that we can investigate. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.

Changes to our privacy notice

Any changes we make to our privacy notice in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy notice.

Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy notice are welcomed and should be addressed to m.ashford@transformrecruitment.com

Date of Issue: 09/10/2026

Policy owner: Marc Ashford, Director

Date of Next Review: 01/09/2027

Reviewed every 12 months (as a minimum)