ProFriends Coaching & Mentoring

Last updated: August 2026

ProFriends Coaching & Mentoring is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information responsibly, securely and transparently.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we may collect, why we use it, how we protect it, who we may share it with, how long we keep it and your rights.

We process personal information in accordance with applicable UK data protection legislation, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

ProFriends Coaching & Mentoring provides coaching and mentoring services to private individuals, young people aged 16–17 where appropriate arrangements are in place, and employees receiving coaching funded by their employer or another organisation.

Data Protection Contact:
Helena Gaughran
ProFriends Coaching & Mentoring
11 South Avenue
Kearsley
BL4 8LG

Telephone: 07828 167557
Email: hello@profriendscoachingandmentoring.co.uk

Depending on how you interact with ProFriends, we may collect:

• Your name and contact details, including email address and telephone number.
• Information you provide when making an enquiry.
• Booking and appointment information.
• Information provided through coaching intake forms and coaching agreements.
• Information relevant to your coaching goals and the coaching service you have requested.
• Brief coaching/session records.
• Correspondence between you and ProFriends.
• Documents you choose to provide, such as a CV.
• Invoice and payment records.
• Feedback or testimonials where you choose to provide them.
• Safeguarding, complaint or incident information where this becomes necessary.
• Limited technical information collected when you use our website, including information collected through cookies.

We aim to collect only information that is relevant and necessary.

During coaching, you may choose to share information that is considered particularly sensitive under data protection law. This may include information relating to your physical or mental health or other special-category information.

ProFriends does not ask clients to provide sensitive information unless it is relevant and necessary.

Where special-category information is processed, ProFriends will ensure that an appropriate lawful basis under Article 6 of the UK GDPR and an appropriate condition under Article 9 are identified and documented.

Additional care will be taken when recording, storing and sharing sensitive information.

We may use personal information to:

• Respond to enquiries.
• Arrange discovery calls and coaching appointments.
• Enter into and administer coaching agreements.
• Provide coaching and mentoring services.
• Communicate with you about your coaching.
• Maintain appropriate coaching and business records.
• Process payments and maintain financial records.
• Manage cancellations, complaints and feedback.
• Meet safeguarding and safety responsibilities.
• Meet legal, regulatory, insurance and professional obligations.
• Maintain and improve the operation of ProFriends.
• Send marketing communications where we have an appropriate lawful basis to do so.

The lawful basis we use depends on why we are processing your information.

These may include:

Contract – where processing is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a coaching agreement or to provide the coaching service you have agreed to purchase.

Legal obligation – where we need to process or retain information to comply with a legal requirement.

Legitimate interests – where processing is necessary for the legitimate operation, administration, protection or improvement of ProFriends and those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.

Consent – where we have specifically asked for your permission and consent is the appropriate lawful basis. Where processing relies on consent, you may withdraw that consent.

Vital interests – in exceptional circumstances where processing is necessary to protect someone's life.

Where special-category information is processed, an additional condition under Article 9 of the UK GDPR will also be identified where required.

Most personal information is provided directly by you when you contact ProFriends, complete an intake form, enter into a coaching agreement, attend coaching or otherwise communicate with us.

If your employer or another organisation is funding your coaching, we may receive limited information from that organisation, such as:

• Your name and contact information.
• The fact that coaching has been offered or commissioned.
• Practical information needed to arrange the service.
• Broad objectives or reasons for the coaching referral.

You will be told about the employer-funded coaching arrangement and the confidentiality boundaries.

Where an employer, GP practice or another organisation pays for your coaching, you remain the coaching client.

Payment for coaching does not automatically give the organisation access to your confidential coaching conversations, intake information or coaching notes.

Before coaching begins, ProFriends will make clear what limited information may be shared with the commissioning organisation.

This may include agreed administrative information, attendance information where this has been agreed, the number of sessions delivered and/or a high-level outcome report.

Detailed personal disclosures and coaching notes will not routinely be shared with the organisation.

Information may be shared without your permission where this is required by law or where there is another appropriate lawful basis, including where sharing is necessary in response to a serious safety or safeguarding concern.

Where ProFriends provides an appropriate coaching service to a young person aged 16–17, additional privacy and safeguarding arrangements apply.

Information will be explained in clear, age-appropriate language.

A parent or guardian may be involved in consent, payment and practical arrangements, but this does not mean that they automatically receive details of the young person's coaching conversations.

Safeguarding responsibilities may require information to be shared where necessary to protect the young person or another person from harm.

ProFriends may keep brief notes or records that are reasonably necessary to support the coaching relationship, maintain appropriate professional records and demonstrate the service provided.

We aim not to record unnecessary personal or sensitive information.

Handwritten records, where used, are stored securely. Electronic information is stored using password-protected systems and other reasonable security measures.

Resources, reflections or other information may occasionally be sent to you following a coaching session. This is different from providing you with ProFriends' confidential internal coaching records.

Coaching records will not routinely be sent using WhatsApp unless there is an appropriate reason and the method has been agreed.

We keep personal information only for as long as there is a legitimate business, contractual, legal, insurance, safeguarding or professional reason to retain it.

Different types of information may need to be kept for different periods.

ProFriends maintains a Records Retention Schedule and periodically reviews information so that records which are no longer required can be securely deleted, destroyed or anonymised.

Safeguarding, complaint, incident and financial records may need to be retained for different periods from ordinary coaching or enquiry information.

We do not sell your personal information.

Where necessary, information may be processed or shared with organisations that help us operate ProFriends, such as:

• Website and hosting providers.
• Email and cloud-storage providers.
• Video-conferencing providers.
• Customer relationship management and business administration systems.
• Accounting or payment services where applicable.
• Professional advisers where necessary.
• Safeguarding, healthcare or emergency services where appropriate.
• Regulators, courts or other authorities where legally required.

Where another organisation processes personal information on behalf of ProFriends, we will take reasonable steps to ensure appropriate data-protection arrangements are in place.

Some technology providers used by ProFriends may process or store information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, ProFriends will take reasonable steps to ensure that an appropriate legal mechanism or safeguard is in place as required by UK data protection law.

Our website is hosted using services provided by 123 Reg.

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies. Cookies are small files placed on your device that help websites function and may provide information about how a website is used.

Some cookies are strictly necessary for the website to operate.

Where cookies are not strictly necessary, they will only be used where the appropriate consent has been obtained.

You can find further information about the cookies used on our website and how to manage your preferences in our Cookie Policy.

Our website may contain links to websites operated by other organisations.

This Privacy Policy applies only to ProFriends Coaching & Mentoring. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other websites and encourage you to read their privacy information when visiting them.

We may contact you about ProFriends services where we have an appropriate lawful basis to do so.

Where consent is required for marketing, you can withdraw that consent at any time.

You can also ask us to stop sending direct marketing communications at any time by contacting ProFriends.

Depending on the circumstances and the lawful basis being used, you may have the right to:

• Ask for access to the personal information we hold about you.
• Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Ask us to erase personal information in certain circumstances.
• Ask us to restrict the way we process your information in certain circumstances.
• Object to certain types of processing.
• Request data portability where applicable.
• Withdraw consent where we rely on consent.

These rights are not absolute and some information may need to be retained where there is a lawful reason to do so.

Your right to object

Where ProFriends relies on legitimate interests as the lawful basis for processing your personal information, you have the right to object to that processing in certain circumstances.

You also have the right to object to the use of your personal information for direct marketing at any time.

To exercise your rights, please contact Helena using the contact details in this policy.

You are not generally under a statutory obligation to provide personal information to ProFriends.

However, some information is necessary for us to respond to an enquiry, enter into a coaching agreement, arrange appointments, provide the coaching service and meet relevant legal or professional responsibilities.

If you choose not to provide information that is necessary for these purposes, we may not be able to provide the requested service.

ProFriends takes reasonable organisational and technical measures to protect personal information against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration or disclosure.

These measures include appropriate password protection, secure storage, restricted access and secure disposal of information when it is no longer required.

No method of electronic communication or storage can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to reduce these risks.

If you have a concern about how ProFriends has collected, used or protected your personal information, please contact:

Helena Gaughran
ProFriends Coaching & Mentoring
Email: hello@profriendscoachingandmentoring.co.uk
Telephone: 07828 167557

We will aim to resolve your concern.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent data protection regulator.

We may update this Privacy Policy when our services, systems, legal requirements or data-processing activities change.

The latest version will be published on the ProFriends Coaching & Mentoring website.

Last reviewed: August 2026
Next review: August 2027