Data Protection Policy
This policy applies to all staff, trustees and volunteers of Alternatives Watford
Introduction
The purpose of this policy is to enable Alternatives Watford to:
Comply with the law in respect of the data it holds about individuals;
Follow good practice;
Protect staff, trustees, volunteers, customers, clients and other individuals
Protect Alternatives Watford from the consequences of a breach of its responsibilities.
The Data Protection Act 1998
The Data Protection Act gives individuals the right to know what information is held about them. It provides a framework to ensure that personal information is handled properly.
The Act works in two ways. Firstly, it states that anyone who processes personal information must comply with eight principles, which make sure that personal information is:
Fairly and lawfully processed
Processed for limited purposes
Adequate, relevant and not excessive
Accurate and up to date
Not kept for longer than is necessary
Processed in line with the rights of Data Subjects
Secure
Not transferred to other countries without adequate protection
The second area covered by the Act provides individuals with important rights, including the right to find out what personal information is held on computer and most paper records.
Policy Statement
Alternatives Watford will:
Comply with both the law and good practice
Respect individuals’ rights
Be open and honest with individuals whose data is held
Provide guidance and support for employees and volunteers who handle personal data, so that they can act confidently and consistently
Alternatives Watford recognises that its first priority under the Data Protection Act is to avoid causing harm to individuals. Information about employees, volunteers and clients will be used fairly, securely and not disclosed to any person unlawfully.
Secondly, the Act aims to ensure that the legitimate concerns of individuals about the ways in which their data may be used are taken into account. In addition to being open and transparent, Alternatives Watford will seek to give individuals as much choice as is possible and reasonable oversight of data is held and how it is used.
Alternatives Watford is the Data Controller and if required, is registered under the Data Protection Act 1998. All processing of personal data will be undertaken in accordance with the data protection principles.
Definitions
The Data Subject is the individual whose personal data is being processed. Examples include:
Employees – current and past
Volunteers
Job applicants
Donors
Service users
Suppliers.
Processing means the use made of personal data including:
Obtaining and retrieving
Holding and storing
Making available within or outside the organisation
Printing, sorting, matching, comparing, destroying.
The Data Controller is the legal ‘person’, or organisation, that decides why and how personal data is to be processed. The data controller is responsible for complying with the Data Protection Act.
The Data Protection Officer is the name given to the person in organisations who is the central point of contact for all data compliance issues.
Responsibilities
The Board of Trustees recognises its overall responsibility for ensuring that Alternatives Watford complies with its legal obligations.
The Data Protection Officer is currently Angela Such, who has the following responsibilities:
Briefing the board/committee on Data Protection responsibilities
Reviewing Data Protection and related policies
Advising other employees/volunteers on Data Protection issues
Ensuring that Data Protection induction and training takes place
Handling subject access requests
Approving unusual or controversial disclosures of personal data
Electronic security
Approving data protection-related statements on publicity materials and letters
Each employee and volunteer at Alternatives Watford who handles personal data will comply with the organisation’s operational procedures for handling personal data (including induction and training) to ensure that good Data Protection practice is established and followed.
All employees and volunteers are required to read, understand and accept any policies and procedures that relate to the personal data they may handle in the course of their work.
Significant breaches of this policy will be handled under Alternatives Watford disciplinary procedures.
Security
This section of the policy only addresses security issues relating to personal data. It does not cover security of the building, business continuity or any other aspect of security.
Any recorded information on clients, volunteers and employees will be:
Kept in locked cabinets
Protected by the use of passwords if kept on computer
Destroyed confidentially if it is no longer needed
Access to information on the main organisation database is controlled by a password and only those needing access are given the password. Employees and volunteers should be careful about information that is displayed on their computer screen and make efforts to ensure that no unauthorised person can view the data when it is on display.
Notes regarding personal data of clients should be shredded or destroyed
Data Recording and Storage
Alternatives Watford has databases and spreadsheets holding basic information about clients, employees and volunteers. This is back-up by external hard drive and on the cloud.
Alternatives Watford will regularly review its procedures for ensuring that its records remain accurate and consistent and, in particular:
The database system is reviewed and re-designed, where necessary, to encourage and facilitate the entry of accurate data.
Data on any individual will be held in as few places as necessary, and all employees and volunteers will be discouraged from establishing unnecessary additional data sets.
Effective procedures are in place so that all relevant systems are updated when information about any individual changes.
Employees and volunteers who keep more detailed information about individuals will be given additional guidance on accuracy in record keeping.
Data will be corrected if shown to be inaccurate
Alternatives Watford stores archived paper/electronic records of clients, employees and volunteers securely in locked filing cabinets
Access to Data
All clients have the right to request access to all information stored about them. Any subject access requests will be handled by the Data Protection Officer within the required time limit (within 30 working days of receiving request).
Subject access requests must be in writing. All employees and volunteers are required to pass on anything which might be a subject access request to the Data Protection Officer without delay.
Where the individual making a subject access request is not personally known to the Data Protection Officer their identity will be verified before handing over any information.
The required information will be provided in easy to use formats e.g. PDF, XLS & CSV.
Alternatives Watford will provide details of information to clients who request it unless the information may cause harm to another person.
Employees have the right to access their file to ensure that information is being used fairly. If information held is inaccurate, the individual must notify the Manager so that this can be recorded on file.
Transparency
Alternatives Watford is committed to ensuring that in principle Data Subjects are aware that their data is being processed and
For what purpose it is being processed;
What types of disclosure are likely; and
How to exercise their rights in relation to the data.
Legitimate Interests
Legitimate Interests is the lawful way that we have chosen to operate. Personal data that is collected will only be used for the purposes of sharing information, events & news, it will be used for legitimate purposes such as payroll and charity commission and it will be used for record keeping, making appointments and monitoring stats. Personal data will not be passed on to any third party unless in a medical emergency, in a safeguarding situation or for any lawful reason.
Consent
Consent will normally not be sought for most processing of information about employees, volunteers and trustees although employees details will only be disclosed for purposes unrelated to their work with Alternatives Watford (e.g. financial references) with their consent.
Information about clients will only be made public with their consent or in case of Safeguarding or a medical emergency. (This includes photographs.)
‘Sensitive’ data about clients will be held only with their knowledge and consent.
Alternatives Watford acknowledges that, once given, consent can be withdrawn, but not retrospectively. There may be occasions where Alternatives Watford has no choice but to retain data for a certain length of time, even though consent for using it has been withdrawn.
Direct Marketing
Alternatives Watford will treat the following unsolicited direct communication with individuals as marketing:
Seeking donations and other financial support;
Promoting any Alternatives Watford services;
Promoting Alternatives Watford events;
Promoting the service to client;
Promoting sponsored events and other fundraising exercises;
Whenever data is first collected which might be used for any marketing purpose, this purpose will be made clear, and the Data Subject will be given a clear opt out. If it is not possible to give a range of options, any opt-out which is exercised will apply to all Alternatives Watford marketing. Alternatives Watford does not have a policy of sharing lists, obtaining external lists or carrying out joint or reciprocal mailings.
Whenever e-mail addresses are collected, any future use for marketing will be identified, and the provision of the address made optional.
Employee/volunteer training and acceptance of responsibilities
All employees/volunteers who have access to any kind of personal data will be given copies of all relevant policies and procedures during their induction process and the operational procedures for handling personal data. All employees will be expected to adhere to all these policies and procedures.
Data Protection will be included in the induction training for all.
Client Data Protection
All personal data shall be obtained, maintained, stored, used and shared only in strict accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.
Information relating to individuals supported by through the work of the organisation will be dealt with in the following manner:
attendance and attainment records will be de-personalised within 12 months
all other information, will be kept for no longer than 3 years.
Information that is of vital importance to the future protection of an individual / (or young people) will be securely archived and stored as long as express agreement is obtained from the data subject (or as felt appropriate).
All personal data must be protected by appropriate security measures to safeguard against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data: - (e.g. locked filing cabinet). All employees/volunteers and representatives of Alternatives Watford must:
only access and use data that is relevant to and necessary to the performance of their job function.
Make yourself familiar with Alternatives Watford data protection policy and procedures.