Last updated: 4 August 2026 · This policy covers this website only — see our Safeguarding statement for how we keep young people safe, and the national Scout Association’s privacy policy for how membership data (once your child has joined) is handled in Scout systems like Online Scout Manager.
Luton & Flitwick District Scouts is part of Bedfordshire Scouts and The Scout Association (registered charity number 1218616). This website is run by district volunteers. When we say “we” or “us” below, we mean the district — specifically, whoever is currently responsible for the enquiries mailbox set up in this site’s Contact form settings.
What information we collect
We only collect information you choose to give us. That happens in two places on this site:
- The Contact page’s enquiry form — your name, email address and message, plus whichever reason you select. If you select “Joining as a young person”, we also ask for the child’s name, age and postcode, so we can point you to the right group.
- Applying for a volunteer role — this uses the same Contact form, with the role and group/location you’re applying for included in your message automatically.
The postcode finder (on the homepage and Join Us) sends only the postcode you type to postcodes.io to look up its location — see “Third-party services” below. We don’t collect or store anything from that search ourselves.
How we use your information
Everything you submit through the Contact form is emailed directly to whoever the district has set as the enquiries contact — the same volunteers who’ll actually reply to you. We use it only to:
- Respond to your enquiry, question, or volunteer application.
- Point you towards the right group, section or role, and pass your details on to that group’s leaders if that’s the next step.
We don’t use your information for marketing, we don’t sell or share it with anyone outside the district and Scout Association for any other purpose, and we don’t use it to build a profile of you. Our lawful basis for processing it is your consent (you chose to submit the form) and our legitimate interest in being able to respond to people who contact us.
Children’s information
The “Joining as a young person” enquiry is designed to be filled in by a parent or carer on their child’s behalf. The child’s name, age and postcode you provide are used solely to help us find and connect you with an appropriate group — nothing more. If your child goes on to join a group, any further information collected as part of their actual membership (for badge records, permission slips, medical details, etc.) is handled separately, under the Scout Association’s own systems and privacy policy, not this website.
Third-party services this website uses
- postcodes.io — a free, open UK postcode lookup service. When you use a “Find your local group” search, the postcode you type is sent to postcodes.io to convert it into a location, so nearby groups can be ranked by distance in your browser. No other information is sent, and postcodes.io doesn’t receive your name or any other detail.
- OpenStreetMap — the maps on the Our Groups and Contact pages load their map imagery from OpenStreetMap’s tile servers. Loading these images works like loading any image from another website, so OpenStreetMap’s servers can see that a request came from your device (e.g. your IP address), the same as any website you visit.
- Our email/hosting provider — submitting the Contact form sends an email via our website host’s standard mail delivery, the same as sending any other email.
- GoatCounter — a privacy-friendly analytics service we use to see how many people visit the site and which pages are popular. It works without cookies or fingerprinting and can’t identify you personally; see our Cookie Policy for more detail.
We don’t use any advertising or social media tracking services on this website.
Cookies
This website does not set any tracking, advertising or marketing cookies, and our analytics (GoatCounter, above) doesn’t use cookies either. See our Cookie Policy for full detail.
How long we keep your information
We keep enquiry emails for as long as needed to respond to you and for a reasonable period afterwards in case of follow-up questions, then delete them.
Your rights
Under UK GDPR, you have the right to ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you, to have it corrected if it’s wrong, to have it deleted, or to object to or restrict how we use it. To do any of these, contact us using the details below. If you’re not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time, for example if we start using a new service on the website. We’ll update the date at the top when we do.
Contact us about privacy
For any question about this policy or your information, contact enquiries@lutonflitwickscouts.org.uk.