Privacy Policy
Parenting Special Children (PSC) is committed to protecting your privacy and security. This policy explains how and why we use your personal data, to ensure you remain informed and in control of your information.
PSC asks supporters to “opt-in” for communications regarding services and fundraising activities as per GDPR May 2018. You will provide us with your consent about how we can contact you, this means you’ll have the choice as to whether you want to receive these messages which will be sent via email.
You can decide not to receive communications or change how we contact you at any time. If you wish to do so please contact PSC by emailing admin@parentingspecialchildren.co.uk or writing to PSC, 11 Glebe Road, Reading, RG2 7AG or telephoning 0118 986 3532 (Lines open 9.30am – 4pm Mon – Fri).
We will never sell your personal data, and will only ever share it with organisations we work with following prior consent from you or in the event of a safeguarding concern and if its privacy and security are guaranteed.
Any questions you have in relation to this policy or how we use your personal data should be sent to admin@parentingspecialchildren.co.uk and addressed to The Data Protection Officer.
1. About Us
Your personal data (i.e. any information which identifies you, or which can be identified as relating to you personally) will be collected and used by PSC (charity no. 1141172) For the purposes of data protection law. PSC will be the data controller.
2. What information we collect
Personal data you provide
We collect data you provide to us. This includes information you give to us when registering or booking events with PSC. This is likely to include personal details (name, date of birth, email, address, telephone etc.).
Your involvement with PSC will result in personal data being created. This will include services that you have accessed with PSC.
No personal financial information, e.g. credit card details are stored by PSC.
Information we generate
We conduct analysis on the information we hold, which can in turn generate personal data. For example, by analysing feedback provided by you accessing PSC services we are able to inform funders of the difference the services have made to families. No individual information will be passed to funders apart from Berkshire West Autism & ADHD Support Service and Gems4Health without your consent, see below.
Anonymised data
We may aggregate and anonymise personal data so that it can no longer be linked to any particular person. This information is used for reporting to funders and helps us to show the difference in the services we offer to service users.
Information from third parties
We may collect information from social media where you have given us permission to do so, or if you post on one of our social media pages.
Sensitive personal data
We do collect and store sensitive personal data (such as information relating to health) about service users. We do take extra care to ensure your privacy rights are protected. This information is held on a secure database.
Berkshire West Autism & ADHD Support Service and Gems4Health
The above services are provided by:
Autism Berkshire on behalf of the Berkshire West NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
Gems4Health on behalf of the Berkshire East NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
Parenting Special Children will seek your consent if we recommend a referral to Autism Berkshire or Gems4Health, and will gain your consent before any information is shared.
In order that the Berkshire West Autism & ADHD Support Service and Gems4Health contributes to the NHS’s national access standards, the CCG requires that the charity collects information about attendances and outcome measures. PSC submits this to the NHS Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) on behalf of the Berkshire West Autism & ADHD Service, and to Gems4Health so they can submit data to the MHSDS. The data submitted includes date of birth of the child or young person, gender, ethnicity, postcode, code number of GP practice, and date of attendance.
MHSDS statistics offer a comprehensive national picture of the use of specialist mental health, learning disabilities and Autism services in England. It can be used by policymakers, commissioners, mental health service users, and members of the public.
Volunteers
If you are a volunteer (whether specifically for PSC, or if you are helping us for other reasons – for example you work for another organisation which is running an event with us) then we may collect extra information about you (e.g. references, criminal records checks, details of emergency contacts, medical conditions etc.) This information will be retained for legal reasons, to protect us (including in the event of an insurance or legal claim) and for safeguarding purposes.
3. How we use information
We only ever use your personal data with your consent, or where it is necessary in order to:
- enter into, or perform, a contract with you;
- comply with a legal duty;
- protect your vital interests;
- for our own (or a third party’s) lawful interests, provided your rights don’t override these.
In any event, we’ll only use your information for the purpose or purposes it was collected for (or else for closely related purposes).
Marketing
We use personal data to communicate with people, to promote PSC and to help with fundraising. This includes keeping you up to date with our news, updates, campaigns and fundraising information.
Administration
We use personal data for administrative purposes (i.e. to carry out our services). This includes:
- receiving donations (e.g. direct debits or gift-aid instructions);
- maintaining databases of our volunteers, service users;
- Information passed through to PSC volunteers or practitioners in the delivery of services;
- fulfilling orders for services (whether placed online, over the phone or in person);
- helping us respect your choices and preferences
4. Disclosing and sharing data
We will never share your data with any third party without your permission.
5. Marketing
PSC will ask its supporters to “opt-in” for most communications. This includes all our marketing communications as per GDPR 2018.
This means you’ll have the choice as to whether you want to receive these messages and will receive them by email.
You can decide not to receive communications or change how we contact you at any time. If you wish to do so please contact Parenting Special Children by emailing admin@parentingspecialchildren.co.uk or writing to Parenting Special Children, 11 Glebe Road, Reading, RG2 7AG or telephoning 0118 986 3532 (Lines open 9.30am – 4pm Mon – Fri).
What does ‘marketing’ mean?
Marketing does not just mean offering things for sale, but also includes news and information about:
- our charity
- volunteering opportunities
- appeals and fundraising, including commissioning
- our events
- services
Newsletters
Regular newsletters are emailed to service users who have opted-in providing information regarding services. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Fundraising
As a charity, we rely on donations and support from others to continue to offer free and low cost services. From time to time we will contact members and supporters with fundraising material and communications. This might be about an appeal or to suggest ways you can raise funds (e.g. a sponsored event or activity).
As with other marketing communications, we’ll only contact you specifically about fundraising if you’ve opted into receiving marketing from us (and you can, of course, unsubscribe at any time).
Photographs, pictures, on our website or social media
Permission will always be obtained for photographs and pictures.
Due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, the charity has moved to deliver services online through the use of Zoom for events. To ensure the security of data of participants, we will only ever send a link to these virtual events to those that have contacted us to indicate their wish to participate. Attendees should be aware that, by joining such an event, their name will be visible to other participants, as will their audio and video feed unless they choose to switch this off. The charity will not record or store these virtual events for later playback unless consent has been obtained.
Information for parents and carers
We take great care to protect and respect the rights of individuals in relation to their personal data, especially in the case of children. If your child is under 18 or a vulnerable adult, we will only use his or her personal data with your consent.
6. How we protect data
We employ a variety of physical and technical measures to keep your data safe and to prevent unauthorised access to, or use or disclosure of your personal information.
Electronic data and databases are stored on secure computer systems and we control who has access to information (using both physical and electronic means). Our staff receive data protection training and we have a set of detailed data security procedures which personnel are required to follow when handling personal data.
All the data we store on Charity Log (our CRM system) is stored within the United Kingdom. Eventbrite is US based. Eventbrite reports that they continually monitor our internal data privacy guidelines to make sure they’re in line with the GDPR and EU Commission guidance, and make sure that employees are trained on them appropriately.
Data in transit
Sending information over the internet is generally not completely secure and we can’t guarantee the security of your data while it’s in transit. Any data you send is at your own risk. We have procedures and security features in place to keep your data secure once we receive it.
7. Storage
Where we store information
Your information is stored on our CRM database, hosted by CharityLog. CharityLog is accredited to ISO9001 for quality management and to IS027001 for system security. Paper records, where necessary, will be kept in a locked, fireproof storage system at the PSC offices to which only authorised staff have access including professional advisers, service providers including solicitors, auditors and accounts. All advisors are subject to GDPR requirements.
We may also disclose personal information if required under any legal obligation and may use external data for the purposes of fraud prevention, credit risk reduction, or where doing so would not infringe your rights, but is necessary and in the public interest.
We will only use and store information for so long as it is required for the purposes it was collected for. We review what information we hold and delete what is no longer required.
8. Keeping you in control
We want to ensure you remain in control of your personal data. Part of this is making sure you understand your legal rights, which are as follows:
- the right to confirmation as to whether or not we have your personal data and, if we do, to obtain a copy of the personal information we hold (this is known as subject access request)
- the right to have your data erased (though this will not apply where it is necessary for us to continue to use the data for a lawful reason)
- the right to have inaccurate data rectified
Please keep in mind that there are exceptions to the rights above and, though we will always try to respond to your satisfaction, there may be situations where we are unable to do so. All of these rights are subject to certain limits or exemptions, further details of which can be found in our Data Protection Policy.
9. Complaints
You can complain to PSC directly by contacting our data protection officer using the details set out above. If you wish to make a complaint (including a complaint about fundraising activity) which does not directly relate to your data protection and privacy rights, you can do so in accordance with our Complaints and Feedback Policy and Procedure, available on our website.
If you are not happy with our response, or you believe that your data protection or privacy rights have been infringed, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office which regulates and enforces data protection law in the UK. Details of how to do this can be found at www.ico.org.uk
10. Links to other sites
Our website may contain hyperlinks to other websites. We are not responsible for the content or functionality of any of those external websites. We suggest you read the privacy policy of any website before providing any personal information. PSC website uses cookies.
11. Changes to this Privacy Notice
We’ll amend this Privacy Notice from time to time to ensure it remains up-to-date and accurately reflects how and why we use your personal data. The current version of our Privacy Notice will always be posted on our website.
