Cookie Policy
Ethica Consulting Ltd
Last Updated: October 2026
1. Information About Our Use of Cookies
Our website (www.ethica-consulting.co.uk) uses cookies and similar storage technologies (such as scripts, pixels, and web beacons) to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a positive experience when you browse our website, enables us to optimise our advisory tools, and allows us to improve our site.
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your device if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your device's storage.
Ethica Consulting Ltd processes data collected via cookies in strict accordance with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Data (Use and Access) Act.
2. The Categories of Cookies We Use
Under UK data protection standards, we classify our website storage and access technologies into the following categories:
- Strictly Necessary Cookies: Required for the secure and continuous operation of our website. They include cookies that enable you to securely navigate the site, use contact forms, prevent malicious automated traffic, and record your consent choices. These cookies do not require prior consent under the PECR strictly necessary exemption.
- Analytical / Performance Cookies: Allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and track how visitors move around our website. This helps us improve website functionality, ensuring care leaders and service providers find critical guidance, templates, and service overviews efficiently. These cookies deploy only after you grant affirmative consent via our consent banner.
- Functionality Cookies: Used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to remember your preferences (such as regional settings) and support integrated interactive tools, including our live calendar booking widget for advisory sounding board sessions. These deploy only with your affirmative consent.
- Targeting & Marketing Cookies: Record your visit to our website, the specific service pages you have visited (e.g. CQC Mock Inspections or Interim Leadership), and the links you have followed. We use this information to make our website and any professional resources or insights displayed on external platforms (such as LinkedIn) more relevant to your operational interests. These deploy strictly upon prior opt-in consent.
3. Detailed Schedule of Cookies Deployed
The list below details the specific first-party and third-party cookies served through our website, their explicit purposes, and their retention periods:
Cookie Name: __cf_bm / crumb
- Provider / Host: Site Host / Cloudflare
- Category: Strictly Necessary
- Purpose: Manages website traffic volume, prevents automated bot abuse and cross-site request forgery, and maintains page security.
- Lifespan: Session (up to 24 hours)
Cookie Name: cookie_consent
- Provider / Host: Ethica Consulting
- Category: Strictly Necessary
- Purpose: Stores the visitor’s cookie consent choices and category preferences logged via our on-screen banner.
- Lifespan: 12 months
Cookie Name: _ga
- Provider / Host: Google Analytics
- Category: Performance & Analytics
- Purpose: Assigns a randomly generated client identifier to track aggregated user volume, sessions, and page engagement.
- Lifespan: 2 years from placement
Cookie Name: _ga_*
- Provider / Host: Google Analytics
- Category: Performance & Analytics
- Purpose: Used by Google Analytics 4 to persist and analyse specific page interaction events within a visit .
- Lifespan: 13 months from placement
Cookie Name: li_sugr / bcookie
- Provider / Host: LinkedIn
- Category: Marketing / Targeting
- Purpose: Measures conversion and user interactions arriving from professional LinkedIn posts, articles, and corporate updates.
- Lifespan: 3 months to 1 year
Cookie Name: cal_session
- Provider / Host: Cal.eu / Cal.com
- Category: Functionality
- Purpose: Powers our embedded calendar widget, allowing care providers to book confidential, various duration, introductory sounding board calls seamlessly.
- Lifespan: Session duration
4. Third-Party Cookies and External Links
Please note that third parties (including providers of external web traffic analysis services, social media platforms, and embedded appointment schedulers) may also use cookies over which we exercise no direct operational control once activated. These third parties may set analytical or targeting cookies when their tools are utilized on our domain:
- Google Analytics: Traffic analysis and aggregated reporting (Google LLC).
- LinkedIn Corporation: Professional network conversion tracking and marketing insights.
- Cal.com, Inc. / Cal.eu: Scheduling infrastructure for client consultations.
Where our website links to external sites - such as statutory guidance from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), Skills for Care, or local authority safeguarding boards - those third-party platforms maintain their own independent privacy and cookie policies. We encourage you to review their specific notices upon leaving our site.
5. How to Control, Withdraw, or Modify Your Cookie Consent
You have complete control over non-essential cookies on our site:
- Our Cookie Preference Centre: When you first visit our site, our consent banner allows you to "Accept All", "Reject Non-Essential", or customise choices category-by-category. We do not deploy non-essential cookies unless you provide affirmative opt-in consent.
- Withdrawing Consent at Any Time: You can reopen your preferences and modify or withdraw your consent at any point by clicking the "Cookie Settings" link located in the footer of every page on our website.
- Browser Settings: You can also configure your web browser to refuse all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including strictly necessary ones), you may find that certain interactive features, secure areas, or booking tools on our website do not function correctly.
6. Formal Data Protection Complaints Procedure
In accordance with our statutory duties under the Data (Use and Access) Act, Ethica Consulting Ltd maintains a formal data protection complaints handling procedure:
- If you have an inquiry, concern, or formal complaint regarding our use of cookies or the processing of your personal data, submit your concern in writing to our designated Data Protection Lead at dpo@ethica-consulting.co.uk.
- We will formally acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 30 days and investigate and respond without undue delay.
- If you remain dissatisfied with our response, you have the statutory right to lodge a formal complaint with the UK supervisory authority:
Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Helpline: 0303 123 1113 | Website: www.ico.org.uk
7. Contact Us
For any questions regarding this Cookie Policy or our broader governance and data protection practices, please contact us: