Terms of service

Who runs Ready Together

The National Emergencies Trust runs Ready Together. In these terms, “we”, “us” and “our” mean the National Emergencies Trust.

We are a charitable incorporated organisation registered in England and Wales, charity number 1182809. We are also registered in Scotland, charity number SC050062.

Our contact address is:

National Emergencies Trust
London Scottish House
95 Horseferry Road
London
SW1P 2DX

For questions about these terms, contact Ready Together.

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Using the toolkit and your account

Ready Together and all its platform features are free to use. They will remain free. There are no subscription or account fees.

You can use the main toolkit and download standard resources without an account.

An optional account lets you save your community plan and progress, download your plan and add your organisation or community group logo to selected materials.

Ready Together is for people of all ages. We do not set a minimum age for using the toolkit or creating an account.

Please read the parts of these terms that apply to what you want to do. If anything is unclear, you can ask us for help. Young people can also ask a trusted adult to help them understand the terms.

We ask you to agree to these terms when you create an account. You can save or print a copy for reference.

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Preparing safely

Ready Together provides general information and practical tools for community preparedness.

It is not an emergency-response service. We do not monitor your saved plan for requests for help.

The toolkit cannot cover every risk or local situation. Completing an activity or plan does not certify that your community is safe or that a plan meets every legal requirement.

Use the toolkit alongside current advice from emergency services, your local authority and other relevant public bodies. Follow their instructions during an emergency.

Think about local conditions and the needs of the people taking part. Do not put yourself or other people at risk when carrying out an activity.

The toolkit does not replace professional advice where you need it, including advice about health, law, insurance or building safety.

We aim to keep information accurate and useful. Please tell us if you find an error.

This explanation of the toolkit's purpose does not remove our responsibility for our own failings, as explained below.

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Using and sharing our resources

NET or the relevant contributors hold the rights in Ready Together's website content, resources and branding.

You can download, print and share Ready Together resources free of charge for community preparedness. Keep the credits, copyright notices and branding that come with them.

You can fill in and customise templates that we identify as customisable, within the options provided.

Please get NET's written permission before you:

• change other Ready Together materials;
• sell Ready Together resources; or
• include the resources in a paid product or service.

Sharing a resource must not suggest that NET endorses your organisation, activities or advice.

If a particular resource clearly states a separate licence or permission, follow those conditions for that resource. Materials on other organisations' websites have their own terms.

These conditions do not restrict uses that copyright law allows without permission.

To ask about another use, contact Ready Together.

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Customising resources and using logos

You can add an organisation or community group logo to the selected templates that support this feature.

Only upload a logo if you own it or have permission to use it in this way.

Keep the Ready Together branding and any required credits on the finished material. Use the customisation options provided. Ask us before making wider changes.

Adding your logo does not mean NET or any Ready Together partner endorses your organisation or its activities.

This feature does not give you permission to use NET, Ready Together or partner logos separately on other materials.

Check the finished resource before sharing it, including any details you have added.

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Your plan, content and permissions

You keep any rights you hold in your original plan content and uploaded logo. We do not take ownership of them. Ready Together template content and branding remain subject to the resource rules above.

When you save content or upload a logo, you give us permission to store and process it to operate your account and provide the features you request. This includes displaying it to you and generating your downloads and customised materials.

Service providers working for us may process it for those purposes. This permission does not allow us to publish your private plan or use your content or logo in publicity. We would ask for separate permission for that.

The permission lasts only as needed to provide the service and complete deletion, backup expiry or any legally required retention described in our Privacy notice.

Your saved plan is private by default. NET staff do not routinely read it. The Privacy notice explains the limited circumstances in which authorised staff may need access.

Keep your plan about the community as a whole. Do not include:

• medical details or other sensitive information about individual people;
• detailed home addresses or building access codes;
• safeguarding information or lists of vulnerable people;
• personal emergency arrangements;
• security-sensitive infrastructure information; or
• other people's names, phone numbers or email addresses unless a feature clearly requires them.

Use roles or organisation details where possible, such as “community centre lead”.

You can edit or delete your plan without closing your account. Keep it up to date and download a copy if you need to use it offline.

If you share a downloaded copy, decide carefully who should receive it. We cannot control copies after you share them outside Ready Together.

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Keeping your account secure

Use an email address that you are entitled to use and can access.

We send a secure sign-in link to that address. Keep your email account secure and do not share sign-in links or access to your Ready Together account.

Sign out when using a shared device.

If you think someone else has gained access to your account, contact us. We may temporarily restrict access while we check a security concern.

We do not make you automatically responsible for everything someone else does through your account. We will consider what happened and each party's responsibilities.

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Acceptable use

Use Ready Together lawfully and respect other people's safety, privacy and rights.

Do not:

• try to access another person's account or private information;
• upload harmful files or interfere with the website's security or operation;
• deliberately overload the service or use its forms to send spam;
• impersonate someone or claim permission to represent an organisation when you do not have it;
• upload or send unlawful, threatening or abusive material; or
• use content or logos in a way that infringes someone else's rights.

If you find a security problem, report it through Contact Ready Together. Do not include passwords, sign-in links or other people's private information in your message.

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If there is a problem with your use

We will act reasonably and take account of how serious the problem is.

We will normally explain the issue and give you a reasonable chance to put it right. We may restrict an affected feature while we do this.

We may suspend access immediately where there is a serious security risk, unlawful activity or a legal requirement to act without delay.

We may close an account for a serious breach of these terms, repeated breaches after a warning, or where the law requires it.

We will explain our action unless doing so would be unlawful or create a security or safety risk. Where possible, we will help you obtain a copy of your lawful plan content before closure.

You can contact us to ask for a review. We will consider your explanation and correct a decision if it was wrong. This does not limit your right to seek independent advice or use the courts.

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Closing your account

You can delete your account from your account area. There is no charge.

Download any plan you want to keep before closing the account.

Access ends immediately, or as soon as technically practical. We delete account information from live systems within 30 days, subject to the limited exceptions explained in the Privacy notice.

If there is no account activity for 24 months, we may prepare the account for deletion. We will warn you at least 30 days beforehand. If you return during that period, your account stays active.

Closing an account does not stop you using the public toolkit or sharing resources within the permissions in these terms.

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Availability and changes to the service

We aim to keep Ready Together available and working properly. Access may sometimes be interrupted by maintenance, technical faults or security work.

Keep an offline copy of information you may need during an emergency. Do not rely on being able to sign in or access the website at that time.

We may update the service to fix problems, improve accessibility or security, meet legal requirements or improve how features work.

If we plan to close the service or significantly reduce its features, we will give account holders at least 30 days' notice by email. We will also publish a notice on the website and give users time to download their plans.

If urgent legal or security reasons prevent that notice, we will explain the change as soon as we reasonably can. We will provide a reasonable opportunity to retrieve lawful plan content when it is safe and lawful to do so.

Changes to the service will not introduce charges for platform features.

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Our responsibility if something goes wrong

We will use reasonable care and skill in providing Ready Together.

If we break these terms or fail to use reasonable care and skill, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer as a foreseeable result. A loss is foreseeable if it was an obvious consequence or if both you and we knew it could happen when you agreed to the relevant terms.

We are not responsible for loss that was not reasonably foreseeable, unless the law says otherwise.

Ready Together cannot prevent emergencies or promise that a plan will avoid every harm. An emergency or an unsuccessful plan does not, by itself, mean that we have failed to meet our responsibilities.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our responsibility for:

• death or personal injury caused by our negligence;
• fraud or fraudulent statements; or
• anything else the law does not allow us to exclude or limit.

Nothing in these terms takes away rights or remedies you have under laws that cannot be overridden by an agreement.

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Other websites

Ready Together links to information and services run by other organisations. They control their own websites and set their own terms and privacy policies.

A link does not mean we endorse everything on that website.

Please check that external information is current and suitable for your situation. Tell us if a link is broken or leads to something inappropriate.

Our responsibility for our own actions remains as described above.

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Privacy and optional research

Our Privacy notice explains how we use personal information. Our Cookie Policy explains cookies and similar technology.

You can change your optional analytics choice through Cookie Preferences in the footer.

Agreeing to these terms does not mean agreeing to optional analytics, marketing or research.

Taking part in research or evaluation is optional. You do not have to take part to use the toolkit or your account. We will provide separate information before you decide whether to participate.

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Changes to these terms

We may update these terms to reflect changes in the law or the service, address a security issue, or make the wording clearer.

We will update the date at the top and explain material changes.

If a change materially affects account holders' rights or responsibilities, we will normally email them at least 30 days before it takes effect. Urgent legal or security changes may need to take effect sooner. We will explain these as soon as reasonably possible.

Changes will apply going forward. They will not remove rights relating to something that has already happened. They will not introduce charges for platform features.

Where a change needs your agreement, we will ask for it. If you do not want to accept a change, you can stop using the affected account features and close your account. We will give you a reasonable opportunity to download your plan, subject to necessary legal or security restrictions.

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Questions, complaints and legal rights

Please contact Ready Together if you have a question or complaint. We would like the opportunity to understand the issue and put things right.

You do not have to complete our complaints process before using any legal right or remedy available to you.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.

If you use Ready Together as a consumer, you also keep any protection given by laws in the country where you live that cannot be overridden by these terms. A consumer is someone using the service wholly or mainly outside their trade, business or profession.

You can bring a claim in the courts of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring a claim in the courts there. These terms do not restrict any other court rights you have under applicable law. We will bring a claim against a consumer only in a court permitted by that law.

If a court finds part of these terms unlawful or unenforceable, that part will not apply. The remaining terms will continue where they can do so fairly and lawfully.

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