Our Privacy Statement 

At Caritas Care we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy, both as a core way we work with people, and in response to legislation. 

This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information about people who visit us, receive a service from us, or use our website. It sets out how we use your information, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure. It also explains your rights, and how to find out more. 

1. We may change this policy from time to time, and will then update this document to reflect those changes. 

Any questions regarding this policy and our privacy practices should be sent by e-mail to daletomlinson@caritascare.org.uk or by writing to Dale Tomlinson at 218 Tulketh Road, Ashton On Ribble, Preston, PR2 1ES or by telephone on 01772 732313. 

Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) is Dale Tomlinson Tel: 01772 732313. If you have a question or a concern about data protection it should be directed to the DPO in the first instance. 

Our Data Controller is: Susan Swarbrick, Chief Executive Officer, Tel: 01772 732313. 

Who are we? 

Caritas Care is a charity which has its HQ in Preston, and which has provided a variety of services in the North of England since 1934. Our main activities include: 

•  Fostering and Adoption Services and Adoption Support 
• Concurrent Planning
• Day Services to people with physical disabilities or learning difficulties and disabilities
• Supported Living Social Care Services
• REACT Disability Advocacy Service
• ACE resettlement project for ex-offenders
• A Community Centre within the Plungington District of Preston
• Vincent House Homeless Hostel in Blackpool

How do we collect information from you? 

We obtain information about you when you use our services or access our website, for example, when you contact us about our services, make a donation, or visit our Community Centre. The type, amount and sensitivity of the information we gather will vary widely depending on the reason we are gathering it, but will always be the minimum we need to provide the service or activity you require. We will ask for your consent to collect and process your information, and we will restrict the use of your information solely for the purpose you have consented to. 

What type of information is collected from you? 

Information we will collect from you will vary depending on what service you receive but is likely to include some or all of the following: 

• Contact details
• Personal information
• Medical history
• Health and support needs
• Drivers licence
• National Insurance number
• Passport details
• Addresses for up to the past 10 years
• Convictions
• Employment history and references

How is your information used? 

These are examples of the main uses of information; you will be given information about the specific elements that apply to you at each stage of your contact with us. You will also be asked to consent to the gathering and processing of your information as this becomes relevant. The list is not necessarily comprehensive. 

We will use your information to: 

• Provide you or a member of your family with a service or activity 
• Carry out our obligations arising from any contracts or requests for services entered into by you and us;
• Process a donation that you have made;
• 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 campaigns, appeals, or other fundraising;
• Activities or promotions of our services; where you have opted to receive these
• Process a job or volunteering application.

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 statute, policy or any relevant contract you hold with us. 

Who has access to your information?

The staff and authorised personnel of Caritas Care may all need to receive, use and process your information to provide you with services or deal with your requests. We sometimes need to share your details with third parties; so for example we may share details with a Local Authority in order to secure you accommodation, or to further your application to become a foster carer. We will normally inform you about this, and seek your permission for such sharing to happen. We also share anonymised information to assist with monitoring and research, such as the quarterly adoption and foster care Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board (ASGLB) data and other data associated with it, which is shared with Ofsted. 

It may rarely be necessary for us to share your information without your consent, for example to safeguard a child’s wellbeing, or because we suspect a crime may have occurred. We will also need to verify any criminal or barring measures against you, as part of our employment and safeguarding responsibilities. This is only ever done when strictly necessary or required by law. 

We will not 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 
• 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 by post unless you give permission for this
• If you have no contractual relationship with us, you can request that your data is deleted, and that you are ‘forgotten’ by us, and we will do so where we are legally able.

How you can access and update your information 

The accuracy of your information is important to us. You can, on request receive a copy of everything we hold on you, normally in an electronic form, within one month, free of charge. Where you feel we have made errors, we will seek to correct them, and show you what we have changed. Where there is any disagreement about what we hold we will seek to resolve this, and will note your concerns on our records. 

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

When you give us personal information, we take stringent steps to ensure that it is handled and processed securely. 

• We only gather the data we need to provide you with a service 
•  We encrypt or anonymise data wherever possible to make it more secure.
•  We back up all data both locally and remotely to preserve it from loss
• We employ secure servers that store all data within EU jurisdiction
• We destroy information securely once our retention periods elapse, and we can verify that this has been done
• We have secure use policies and use encryption on our mobile devices.

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. 

Transferring your information outside of Europe 

Under certain rare circumstances, the information which you provide to us may have to be transferred to countries outside the European Union (“EU”). By submitting your personal data, you are agreeing to this transfer, storing or processing. If we transfer your information outside of the EU in this way, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate security measures are taken with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this Policy. 

Review of this Policy 

We keep this Policy under regular review. This Policy was last updated in June 2021.