03000 810 005

Involve Kent Privacy Notice

This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information, it details how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure. It applies to information we collect about:

Visitors to our website

Complainants and other individuals in relation to a data protection or freedom of information complaint or enquiry

People who subscribe to or use;

  • Our Website
  • Our Digest
  • Our social media pages, including , Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
  • Our Community Services Including but not limited to; Actively Involved, Carers Support, POstural Stability, Social Prescribing and Navigation and advice.
  • Donors and Supporters
  • Volunteers

Visitors to our websites

When someone visits www.involvekent.org.uk we use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

Link to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

In addition, if you linked to our website from a third-party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site.

E-newsletter for digest members

We use a third-party provider, Mail Chimp, to deliver our weekly e-newsletter. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies including clear gifs to help us monitor and improve our e-newsletter. For more information on Mail Chimps Privacy Policy please click here: https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/

Security precautions in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information

When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that it’s treated securely. When you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear on the bottom of web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Non-sensitive details (your email address etc.) are transmitted normally over the Internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

WordPress

We use a third party service, WordPress.com, to publish our Website. This site is hosted at WordPress.com,. We use a standard WordPress service to collect anonymous information about users’ activity on the site, for example the number of users viewing pages on the site, to monitor and report on the effectiveness of the site and help us improve it.

People who contact us via social media

We use the following social media programmes;

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube

If you send us a private or direct message via social media the message will be stored. It will not be shared with any other organisations.

People who email us

Any email sent to us, including any attachments, may be monitored and used by us for reasons of security and for monitoring compliance with office policy. Email monitoring or blocking software may also be used. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send to us is within the bounds of the law.

People who make a complaint to us

When we receive a complaint from a person we make up a file containing the details of the complaint. This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint.

We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide. We do compile and publish statistics showing information like the number of complaints we receive, but not in a form which identifies anyone.

We usually have to disclose the complainant’s identity to whoever the complaint is about. This is inevitable where, for example, the accuracy of a person’s record is in dispute. If a complainant doesn’t want information identifying him or her to be disclosed, we will try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to handle a complaint on an anonymous basis.

We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained for two years from closure. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle.

Similarly, where enquiries are submitted to us we will only use the information supplied to us to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues and to check on the level of service we provide.

When we take enforcement action against someone, we may publish the identity of the defendant in our Annual Report or elsewhere. Usually we do not, identify any complainants unless the details have already been made public.

People who use Involve Kent’s services

The information we collect from you will include;

  • Name and address
  • DOB
  • Telephone numbers
  • Equalities data (such as, ethnicity, gender, age, disabilities, sexual orientation, religious beliefs)
  • Housing status
  • Information on why you want to access our services
  • Next of kin details
  • GP details
  • Employment status

We have to hold the details of the people who have requested the service in order to provide it. However, we only use these details to provide the service the person has requested and for other closely related purposes. For example, we might use information about people who have requested a service to carry out a survey to find out if they are happy with the level of service they received. When people do subscribe to our services, they can cancel their subscription at any time and are given an easy way of doing this.

How is your information used?

We may use your information to:

  • Process a donation that you have made; Process bookings for day trips, transport, and falls prevention, and other activities that you have signed up to.
  • To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered by you and us; such as the cleaning service.
  • To carry out our obligation from a contract run on behalf of local authorities such as KCC and Maidstone Borough Council.
  • Seek your views or comments on the services we provide;
  • Notify you of changes to our services;
  • Send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you; These may include information about other Involve services, fundraising or activities.
  • Process a grant or job application.
  • Deliver you the service you have requested

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory obligations (for example the collection of Gift Aid). We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

Job applicants, current and former Involve Kent employees

When individuals apply to work at Involve Kent, we will only use the information they supply to us to process their application and to monitor recruitment statistics. Where we want to disclose information to a third party, for example where we want to take up a reference or obtain a ‘disclosure’ from the Criminal Records Bureau we will not do so without informing them beforehand unless the disclosure is required by law.

Personal information about unsuccessful candidates will be held for 12 months after the recruitment exercise has been completed, it will then be destroyed or deleted. We retain de-personalised statistical information about applicants to help inform our recruitment activities, but no individuals are identifiable from that data.

Once a person has taken up employment with the Involve Kent, we will compile a file relating to their employment. The information contained in this will be kept secure and will only be used for purposes directly relevant to that person’s employment. Once their employment with Involve Kent has ended, we will retain the file in accordance with the requirements of our retention schedule and then delete it.

Access to personal information

Involve Kent tries to be as open as it can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. Individuals can find out if we hold any personal information by making a ‘subject access request’ under the General Data Protection Act 2017. If we do hold information about you we will:

give you a description of it;

tell you why we are holding it;

tell you who it could be disclosed to; and

let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.

To make a request to Involve Kent for any personal information we may hold you need to put the request in writing addressing it to Involve Kent’s Deputy CEO and emailing to office@involvekent.org.uk, or writing to the address provided below;

Involve Kent
30 Turkey Court, Turkey Mill
Maidstone
Kent
ME14 5PP

If you agree, we will try to deal with your request informally, for example by providing you with the specific information you need over the telephone.

If we do hold information about you, you can ask us to correct any mistakes by, once again, contacting any of Involve Kent’s staff by calling 03000 810005

Or by writing to the address above.

Who has access to your information?

By reading and having information about how we use your personal data read to you over the phone, you agree to the terms of this notice, and for us to share your data, in the following circumstances;

Our instructions to staff on how to collect, use and delete personal data; and

How we check that the information we hold is accurate and up to date.

Third Party Service providers working on our behalf: We may pass your information to our third-party service providers, agents subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing service to you on our behalf (for example to process donations and send you mailings). However, when use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes. Please be reassured that we will not release your information to third parties beyond Involve Kent for them to use for their own direct marketing purposes, unless you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example by a court order for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

Third Party Providers we work in association with: We work closely with various third providers who we hold contracts with to deliver the services we provide to you. Therefore your data may be shared with them. Third Party providers we work with include KCC and Maidstone Borough Council. The Third Party provider will only receive data that has anonymised data, which means that all identifiable data will be removed such as name and date of birth. In some cases, they will be acting as a data controller of your information. These third-party providers will share your information with us which we will use in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

When you are using our secure donation pages, your donation is processed by a third party payment processor who specialises in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions. If you have any questions regarding secure transactions, please contact us.

We may transfer your personal information to a third party as part of a sale of some or all of our business and assets to any third party or as part of any business restructuring or reorganisation, or if we’re under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to enforce or apply our terms of use or to protect the rights, property or safety of our supporters and customers. However, we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.

Please note that we do not;

  • Sell or rent your information to third parties.
  • Share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Your choices

You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. If you do not want to receive direct marketing communications from us about the vital work we do for clients and our exciting products and services, then you can select your choices by ticking the relevant boxes situated on the form on which we collect your information.

We will not contact you for marketing purposes by email, phone or text message unless you have given your prior consent. We will not contact you for marketing purposes by post if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted. You can change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us by email: office@involvekent.org.uk or telephone on 03000 810005

Profiling

We may analyse your personal information to create a profile of your interests and preferences so that we can contact you with information relevant to you. We may make use of additional information about you when it is available from external sources to help us do this effectively. We may also use your personal information to detect and reduce fraud and credit risk.

Use of site cookies

Like many other websites, the Involve Kent website uses cookies. ‘Cookies’ are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. They collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual. For example, we use cookies to store your country preference. This helps us to improve our website and deliver a better more personalised service.

It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences. Turning cookies of may result in a loss of functionality when using our website.

16 or under

We are concerned to protect the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian’s permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.

By using our website, and services you’re agreeing to be bound by this Policy.

Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to office@involvekent.org.uk or by writing to Involve Kent, 30 Turkey Court, Turkey Mill, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 5PP.