Privacy Policy

Norfolk Carers Support, operating name Norfolk Family Carers,  is committed to protecting privacy and personal information gathered about individuals who engage with our organisation.

GDPR – General Data Protection Regulations came into force on 25 May 2018 replacing previous data privacy laws. The new regulations give you more rights as an individual and place greater obligations on organisations who hold your personal data.

Individuals have the right to be informed so we will give you clear information about the way in which we use, store and share your personal information.

This Privacy notice has been issued to provide this clear information about your rights in relation to the information we hold about you and the legal basis on which we use that information.

Who we are

Norfolk Carers Support is a registered charity (number 1155684) and company limited by guarantee (number 08565078).

Norfolk Carers Support is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner for the United Kingdom.

How we collect personal information

This policy applies to information we collect about:

  • Visitors to websites and social media
  • People who use our services
  • Job applicants and our current staff and volunteers and former employees and volunteers
  • Complainants and other individuals in relation to a data protection or freedom of information request
  • Individuals/funders making donations
  • Anyone who applies for a grant

We collect information from you in the following ways:

  •  When you have direct contact with us – if you ask for information or support, subscribe to our newsletter, make a donation, apply for a job or as a volunteer, make a complaint or otherwise provide us with your information
  • When you visit our website
  • When you interact with us via a third party – as a result of a donation through a third party such as Just Giving or a third party organisation we work with where you have given them permission to share your information with us.

 Information we collect

The personal information we collect will be sufficient only for the purpose outlined and could include details such as your name, date of birth, postal address, email address, telephone number and credit/debit card details if you are buying a fee paying service or making a donation.

Information gathered

 Where we do request or hold any personal information about an individual we will:

  • Give you a description of the information to be held
  • The legal basis on which we hold it
  • Why we are holding it what we use it for
  • Who it could be disclosed to if relevant
  • Let you have a copy of information held if required
  • Ensure that the information is held securely and treated as confidential.

 Sensitive Personal Information

Some personal information is recognised by Data Protection Laws as being more sensitive. This could include details of a person’s health, race, ethnic origin, political opinions, sex life, sexual orientation of religious beliefs.  As part of your contact or support with us you may share personal experiences or the experiences of a friend or relative you may be supporting we may also collect and store this information. An example of this may be a health condition.

We will take every care to ensure that this information is treated with extra care and consideration and in line with our Privacy Policy.

 Legal Basis for using your information

In most cases we will only use your information where we have had your “consent” or to fulfil a “contract” with you where you have purchased a fee based service.

There are also occasions where using your information would be covered by another legal basis called “legitimate interest”. This means that the reason we are processing your information is one you may reasonably expect when you use our services or website. This may include using your information for analytical purposes or to help improve our services.

Our website

Norfolk Carers Support use a third party service to host our websites, WordPress.com.

When someone visits our website www.norfolkfamilycarers.org we use a third party service, Google Analytics. They collect information under the legal basis of legitimate interest about how people gain access to our website and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We use this data to understand the traffic to certain parts of our site and improve our service and website. This information is processed in such a way that no individual will be identified.

Google are not sanctioned to attempt to identify any individual that visits our site either on their own behalf or on behalf of Norfolk Carers Support or any other organisation.

Where we do need or wish to collect personal information from our website we will make this clear and explain what we intend to do with it.

We also use “cookies”. Cookies are a mechanism to help websites to provide the best experience for you and improve the efficiency of websites. Wherever possible anonymous information is uses so individual visitors to our site are not identified. See our separate Cookie policy for more information.

Newsletter

Where you consent to subscribe to our newsletter the request is managed by MailChimp, an automated email platform, designed to gather email information and create lists to be used to contact clients at their request.

The personal information used on this platform will not be used for any purposes other than those specifically indicated during the consent process.

MailChimp and/or their staff are not sanctioned to use the personal information gathered for any reason.

For further information please see https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/

Get in Touch

We have a Get in Touch area on our website which allows an individual to ask us to make direct contact with them. This area requires a name and email address only. By inputting this information you are consenting to us holding your information for the purpose of contacting you. The information input will generate an email direct to Norfolk Carers Support.

Emailing us

All emails and attachments sent to us are monitored for viruses or malicious software. You have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send is within the bounds of the law. By sending us an email you are consenting to us holding the personal information contained in the email.

Donations

We gather personal information about an individual when they use our website or social media to make an online donation.

The personal information we collect in relation to an online donation will include:

  •  Name
  • Address
  • Email address
  • Telephone number
  • Debit or credit card detail
  • Direct debit details
  • Eligibility for Gift Aid where this option has been selected

Without this information we would be unable to process the donation. When someone has given us a donation by post we will hold the information provided by the individual or organisation concerned.

We will use the personal information to:

  •  Solely process and record the donation made.
  • To send out information about our products and services only where consent is given.

When using our secure online donation facility you are routed through to our online donation service provider, Charities Aid Foundation. The information provided will only be used to allow the transaction to take place. If any questions regarding secure transactions please contact us.

For more information please see https://www.cafonline.org/navigation/footer/privacy

We will also use your name only to record your donation in QuickBooks, our accounting system. Where the individual has asked for the donation to anonymous your name will not be recorded.

Users of our services

In order to provide the service(s) requested by an individual it may be necessary to hold personal details. Norfolk Carers Support only use the personal details shared to provide that service and other closely related purposes. For instance we may use information provided to carry out a survey to get feedback about our service or to raise invoices or manage accounts. This personal information in held on the legal basis of “consent” or in the case of paid services “contract”

There may be occasions when to provide the support required it is necessary to provide information to a third party organisation. We will not disclose any information without the consent of the individual. However, there may be rare occasions where there appears to be a clear need to safeguard the welfare of the individual or his/her family and it may be necessary for us to contact the relevant authorities to address the situation.

 Online Customer Management System

We store information about users of our service on an online Customer Management system called Charitylog   www.charitylog.co.uk which is served by Dizions Limited. Charitylog is accredited to ISO27001:2005 Information Service Management Standard and is registered with the Information Commissioners Office. Charitylog and their employees are not allowed to disclose any personal information to third parties or use the information in any way other than that described in the contract with Norfolk Carers Support. Any confidential formation within the system remains the property of Norfolk Carers Support.

You can read https://www.charitylog.co.uk/privacy for further information.

Job Applicants, current and previous staff and volunteers

Any personal information requested and provided as part of a recruitment or volunteer application process will only be sufficient to assess your suitability for employment or as a volunteer during the application process or to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements. You do not have to provide the information we request but this may affect your application is you decide not to provide all information.

We also ask for equal opportunities information. Provision of this information is not mandatory and failure to provide it will not affect your application. The information provided will only be used to produce and monitor equal opportunities statistics.

Any information you do provide during an application process will only be accessed by those involved in the recruitment process.

Where we make a conditional offer of employment we will ask for information to enable us to carry our pre-employment checks with may be with a third party i.e. referee or Criminal Records Bureau. The individual will be informed of our intentions unless the disclosure is required by law. We are required to confirm the identity of staff and their right to work in the UK and to ask for references as to their trustworthiness, integrity and reliability. As our work is with potentially vulnerable individuals we have a duty to ensure the suitability of someone to work with vulnerable groups we will require a Data Barring Service check.

You will be asked for the following information:

  • Proof of identity – you will be asked to provide original documents which we will copy
  • Proof of qualifications
  • Asked to complete a criminal records declaration to declare any unspent convictions.
  • We will contact your referees as provided in your application

If you are successful we will also ask for:

  • Bank details for salary processing
  • Emergency contact details – to use in the event of an emergency

We will retain personal information about unsuccessful candidates for 6 months after the closing date of the vacancy. The information will then be destroyed and/or deleted.

Employees

If you are employed by Norfolk Carers Support your details will be provided to CBR, part of Voluntary Norfolk, who provide payroll services for Norfolk Carers Support and Royal London who administer our Group Pension Plan. The provision of this information is a legal requirement. CBR are also legally required to share information with HMRC.

Where an individual takes up employment with Norfolk Carers Support a file will be created in relation to their employment. This information is kept securely and only used in relation to that individual’s employment. Where their employment ceases the staff file will be retained for 6 years from the date of employment ceasing in accordance with our retention policy. At that date all information will be destroyed/deleted.

Volunteers

Where someone volunteers with Norfolk Carers Support a file will be created in relation to their role as a volunteer.  The information is kept securely and only used in relation to their volunteering role. The file will be retained for 6 years from the date of the volunteering role ceasing in accordance with our retention policy. At that date all information will be destroyed/deleted.

Complaints

If we receive a complaint from an individual we will create a file outlining the details of the complaint. This will normally contain personal information about the complainant and may include information about others where directly related to the complaint.

This information will only be used to process the complaint and review the service provided. Any statistics compiled or reported about complaints will be in a form that does not allow for identification of any individuals.

To properly investigate the complaint it may be necessary to disclose the identity to whoever the complaint is about. Where an individual does not wish information about them to be disclosed we will always try to respect this but it may not be possible to handle a complaint anonymously.

Any information contained in complaint files will be retained in line with our retention policy and stored securely with access limited to those who ‘need to know’.

 Links to other Websites

This privacy notice does not extend to cover any links within our website or social media to other websites or social media pages. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites/social media pages you may visit.

Storage and retention of data

Any information you provide will be stored securely and treated in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and our Data Retention Policy. We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory requirements (for example the collection of Gift Aid). We will hold you information securely on our systems only for as long as is necessary for the purposes agreed. At the end of our relationship/provision of support we will hold personal information only so long as the data is necessary in relation to the purpose for which it was originally collected.

We try to ensure we meet high standards where collecting and using personal information and we will take seriously any complaints about this matter. We would encourage you to bring to our attention if you consider any aspects of the collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate.

Sharing Information

The personal information we collect and hold about you will mainly be used by our staff and volunteers to support you.

We will never sell or share your information for any marketing or sales purpose.

We may disclose information if there is a legal requirement to do so/to comply with applicable laws and regulations or to enforce our conditions of sale or any other agreement.

 Unsubscribe

If you have given consent to use any of our services or to receive information from us you have the right to change your decision at any point. To cancel you request and/or ask us to remove all personal information contact us by email at info@norfolkfamilycarers.org or phoning  01603 219924.

Access to Information

You have a right to request access to a copy of the personal information held by Norfolk Carers Support. This is called a “subject access request” and is free.

To make a request to any personal information which may be held by Norfolk Carers Support you will need to put in written request to:

Norfolk Family Carers

First Floor

36 St Giles Street

Norwich

NR2 1LL

You will need to prove your identity.

Where we do hold information about you we will:

  • Give you a description of the information
  • Tell you why we are holding it
  • Tell you who it could be disclosed to
  • Let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.

We will respond to your request in line with the timescales outlined in the appropriate legislation.

Changes to Privacy Policy

Norfolk Carers Support may make changes to the Privacy Policy at any time. Where changes are made reference to and information about the change will be notified on our website.

This policy was last reviewed in September 2022.

 Contact us

If you have any queries about this policy please contact us at info@norfolkfamilycarers.org