Terms & Conditions

THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AFFECT YOUR PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY PLEASE READ THEM CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE SITE

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Parental responsibility for their children:

It is the responsibility of parents to provide accurate information relating to any allergies/special diets (backed up by medical evidence where applicable) that their child may have/require. Children who do have medical needs will usually be under the care of a clinician and should be able to provide information confirming this, such as a letter from the hospital to the family. Parents need to be made aware that they are responsible for providing the correct information on allergies which will need to be backed up with medical evidence, whether a simple letter from the pupil’s GP, letter from a consultant confirming the condition, etc.

Schools responsibilities:

It is the school’s responsibility to make parents aware that they are required to provide the information and evidence regarding their child’s needs. The school should then pass this information onto the caterer so that a meal can be provided taking into account the medical and other needs of the child. In addition, the school should ensure that the information remains accurate and up to date, through regular reminders to parents. It remains the school’s responsibility (not the caterer’s) to ensure that information is provided and to deal with any emergency situations (e.g. a child arrives at school with no completed forms with regards allergies/special diets). Schools/Academies/PRUs must ensure that all pupils have been placed on the applicable database and those details are provided to the caterers (whether the child has any form of allergy or not). If a pupil arrives for a meal and they are not on the database and require a special diet, the caterer will look to the school to make an urgent decision and contact the parents – that responsibility sits with the school and not the caterers with regard to a final decision over what that pupil is fed (depending on whether the school can contact the parent or not).

Responsibilities of caterers:

Caterers will place reliance on the information provided by the parent/school and ensure that the meals provided meet those requirements. It is therefore essential that information provided by schools and parents is accurate and it is not the responsibility of the caterer to chase this. The caterers will be required to have allergy/special diet policies and procedures in place to ensure the correct food is provided and labelled for those pupils with allergies including the handling and serving of said food. Schools must check what this says, but this does not absolve the parents or the school from the responsibility to ensure that the data provided to the caterers is correct. While caterers may provide online facilities to enable the collation of information on pupils with allergies directly from the parents, which schools can sign post parents to, it is important for the schools to understand that this is purely a simple way to collect the data from parents; the caterers do not thereby accept responsibility for failures by the school to i) inform them of known pupil allergies and ii) ensure that parents complete the required paperwork (whether online, in paper form or with an interpreter). Those responsibilities remain with the school.

What's in these terms?

These terms tell you the rules for using our website https://specialmenu.hcl.co.uk (our site).

Who we are and how to contact us

https://specialmenu.hcl.co.uk is a site operated by Hertfordshire Catering Limited ("We"). We are registered in England and Wales under company number 08409608 and have our registered office at Mundells, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, AL7 1FT. Our main trading address is at Mundells, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, AL7 1FT.

We are a limited company.

To contact us, please email [email protected] or telephone our customer service line on 01707 292500.

By using our site you accept these terms

By using our site, you confirm that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to comply with them.

If you do not agree to these terms, you must not use our site.

We recommend that you print a copy of these terms for future reference.

There are other terms that may apply to you

These terms of use refer to the following additional terms, which also apply to your use of our site:

• Our Privacy Policy https://specialmenu.hcl.co.uk/privacy-policy.
• Our Cookie Policy is contained within our Privacy Policy https://specialmenu.hcl.co.uk/privacy-policy, which sets out information about the cookies on our site.

Do not rely on information on this site

The content on our site is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.

Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our site, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our site is accurate, complete or up to date.

We may make changes to these terms

We amend these terms from time to time. Every time you wish to use our site, please check these terms to ensure you understand the terms that apply at that time. These terms were issued on 31 May 2018.

We may make changes to our site

We may update and change our site from time to time. We will try to give you reasonable notice of any major changes.

We may suspend or withdraw our site

Our site is made available free of charge.

We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. We may suspend or withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any part of our site for business and operational reasons. We will try to give you reasonable notice of any suspension or withdrawal.

You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your internet connection are aware of these terms of use and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them.

Our site is only for users in the UK

Our site is directed to people residing in the UK only. We do not represent that content available on or through our site is appropriate for use or available in other locations.

You must keep your account details safe

If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential. You must not disclose it to any third party.

We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms of use.

If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your user identification code or password, you must promptly notify us at [email protected].

How you may use material on our site

We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our site, and in the material published on it. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.

You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our site for your personal use and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to content posted on our site.

You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.

Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content on our site must always be acknowledged.

You must not use any part of the content on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.

If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

We are not responsible for websites we link to

Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. Such links should not be interpreted as approval by us of those linked websites or information you may obtain from them.

We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources.

Our responsibility for loss or damage suffered by you

• We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our employees, agents or subcontractors and for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.
• Subject to the provisions of the disclaimer above our total liability to you shall not exceed £100. Our total liability includes liability in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, arising under or in connection with our site.
• Please note that we only provide our site for domestic and private use. You agree not to use our site for any commercial or business purposes, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.

How we may use your personal information

We will only use your personal information and the personal information of your child that you have submitted to us as set out in our Privacy Policy, which can be found at the following link https://specialmenu.hcl.co.uk/privacy

We are not responsible for viruses and you must not introduce them

We do not guarantee that our site will be secure or free from bugs or viruses.

You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform to access our site. You should use your own virus protection software.

You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

Rules about linking to our site

You may link to our home page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it.

You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.

You must not establish a link to our site in any website that is not owned by you.

Our site must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of our site other than the home page.

We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.

If you wish to link to or make any use of content on our site other than that set out above, please contact [email protected].

Which country's laws apply to any disputes?

Please note that these terms of use, their subject matter and their formation, are governed by English law. You and we both agree that the courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction.

Our trademarks

“Hertfordshire Catering Limited”, “HCL Excellence in Education Catering”, and the “HCL fork and bowl logo” are trademarks of Hertfordshire Catering Limited. You are not permitted to use them without our approval, unless they are part of material you are using as permitted under the How you may use material on our site section above in these terms and conditions.