Discretion policy.

For a household, everything that could identify it or describe how it lives. That includes the identity of the principal and the family, addresses, the homes and their layout, travel and routines, security arrangements, the names and pay of existing staff, and the fact that the household is looking to hire or train at all.

For a candidate, the fact that they are looking, their current and former employers, their pay, their references, and anything they tell us about their own circumstances.

We treat this information as confidential whether or not a written agreement is in place, and we continue to do so after a search has ended, a placement has finished or a candidate has left our books.

An enquiry reaches us through one of the forms on this site or by email to office@kensingtonpersonnel.com.

• It is read by our consultants and answered personally by a senior consultant, within one working day.
• It is not added to a mailing list. It is not shared with anyone outside Kensington Personnel, other than the providers who host and maintain our website and our email on our behalf.
• We do not confirm to anyone that a household or a candidate has been in touch with us, except in the circumstances set out under “When confidence has limits”.
• An enquiry places you under no obligation. If it goes no further, it is deleted twelve months after our last contact with you.

You are welcome to make a first enquiry through a representative, such as a private office or a PA, and to give the principal’s name only when you are ready.

We do not publish a household’s name or address. A position that appears on this site is described by city and by a reference code.

We speak about a position in stages. A candidate first hears a description of the role and the kind of household, without a name. The identity of the household and its address are given only when the household has seen the candidate’s profile and wishes to meet.

A shortlist is a small number of profiles, prepared for one household and one role.

• A candidate is asked first. We do not send a candidate’s profile to a household without the candidate’s agreement to that introduction.
• A current employer is never approached without consent. We will not contact, or disclose anything to, a candidate’s present employer unless the candidate has agreed, and we never make our help conditional on that agreement. UK law requires this of us, under regulation 28 of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, referred to below as the Conduct Regulations 2003.
• A shortlist is for the household alone. It is sent to the principal or to the person the principal has named. We ask that it is not forwarded or copied, and that it is not used to approach a candidate other than through us.
• Sensitive information stays with us. A profile sets out career, our assessment and a summary of references. It does not contain identity documents, medical information or criminal record information.
• When the search closes, we ask the household to delete the profiles of candidates it has not engaged.

We are ready to sign a household’s confidentiality agreement before a brief is shared. If you do not have one, we can provide a mutual agreement of our own.

Everyone who works with Kensington Personnel is bound by a duty of confidentiality that continues after they leave us.

A household may ask a candidate to sign a confidentiality agreement before interview, or as part of an offer of employment. We tell candidates to expect this, and we make sure they have time to read what they are asked to sign and to take advice on it if they wish.

There are limits that no agreement can remove, and we will not be party to one that claims to. Under the law of England and Wales these include the following:

• a confidentiality agreement cannot prevent a worker from making a protected disclosure, which is the legal term for whistleblowing; and
• it cannot prevent a person who is, or reasonably believes they are, the victim of a crime from reporting it to the police, from co-operating with a professional regulator, or from speaking about it to a lawyer, a regulated professional, a victim support service, or their child, parent or partner, in order to obtain advice or support. This protection does not extend to a disclosure made mainly to make the information public.

We also expect any agreement to leave a person free to take legal advice on it, and to co-operate with a court or a regulator where the law requires.

Other countries set their own limits, and an agreement for a placement abroad should be reviewed under the law of that country.

Taking references. We take references by speaking directly to former principals and managers. We do so with the candidate’s knowledge, from the referees the candidate has named. What a referee tells us in confidence is treated as confidential. We pass its substance to the household in our own summary.

Where a position involves the care of children or of adults in need of care, UK law requires us to take two references from people who are not related to the candidate, and to offer the household copies. We ask each referee to agree to that when we speak to them.

Giving references. We do not act as referee for the households we serve or for the candidates we place.

• If a prospective employer or another agency asks us about a candidate we have represented, we answer only with that candidate’s written consent, and only to confirm what we ourselves know: that we represented them and the dates of any placement we made.
• If anyone asks us about a household, including a former member of its staff, we neither confirm nor deny that the household is known to us. A request for a reference from a household is passed to the household, and the decision to respond is theirs.

We do not name our clients. We do not confirm or deny that any person or family is, or has been, a client, whether the question comes from a journalist, a researcher, another agency or a member of the public.

• We publish no client names, no testimonials and no case studies.
• No one at Kensington Personnel speaks to the media about a client, a candidate or a placement. A press enquiry should be sent to office@kensingtonpersonnel.com, marked “Media”, and will be answered by a partner.
• The photography on this website is illustrative. It does not show our clients, their homes or the people we have placed.
• When we write about our work, in Insights or elsewhere, we describe it in general terms and in a way that does not identify anyone.

Discretion is not secrecy at any cost. There are circumstances in which we are obliged to disclose information, and it is right that you know them.

• Information about suitability. If, within three months of an introduction, we learn something which suggests that a candidate is or may be unsuitable for the position, regulation 20 of the Conduct Regulations 2003 requires us to tell the household without delay.
• The safety of a child or of an adult at risk. Where we have reason to believe that someone is at risk of harm, we will tell the people who can protect them.
• Regulators, courts and the police. We disclose what the law requires when it is properly required of us. In the UK that includes the inspection of our records as an employment agency.
• Legal claims. We may use what we hold to establish or defend a legal claim.

In each case we disclose no more than the purpose requires, and where the law allows we tell the person concerned.

If you believe that a confidence has been broken, by us or by someone to whom we introduced you, please tell us at once at office@kensingtonpersonnel.com. A partner will look into it and reply to you personally. Where personal data is involved, the steps we take and your right to complain to the ICO are set out in our Privacy policy.

Questions about this policy may be sent to office@kensingtonpersonnel.com.