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Privacy policy

Privacy Pledge

At the Community Hospice we are committed to protecting your personal information and privacy. This is our pledge to you:

We will only collect data that is useful to help maintain and improve our service to you and the hospice.

We will be transparent about our data practices and will explain them in clear language.

We will never sell your data, and will only share personally identifiable data when you direct us to (or under the special circumstances outlined in our Privacy Policy below).

You may appear in still or moving images using CCTV that is used on some sites for security purposes.

We will always take the security of your data seriously.

To learn more about the data we collect, how that data is used, and the ways it can be shared, please read our Privacy Policy below.

If you have any questions about our privacy policy and how we use your information, you can contact us on 020 8320 5785.

Privacy Policy

What data do we collect?

If you are a service user

The type of data that we might collect or hold includes name, addresses, date of birth, contact details including Next of Kin information. For our service users, some of this information will be sensitive and relate to their health and wellbeing, ethnicity and religious views.

Service users may also be a supporter.

If you are a supporter

We may collect your data when you enquire about our activities, register for or attend an event or training course, make a donation, play our lottery, buy from or donate to our shops.

The information we collect from you and hold securely is likely to include:

Name, age, date of birth, gender, home address, phone number, email address, IP address, details of your correspondence with us. Sometimes we will also collect bank details and other financial information for payment of services, e.g. a donation or weekly lottery subscription.

Information about supporters is held securely to enable us to manage communications effectively. To make sure we only send information which is necessary or likely to be of interest, we also hold information that relates to donation amounts, event participation and other details about your interaction with the hospice.

We may also add people to our supporter database under our legitimate interest to communicate with family and next of kin members who have experienced our care.

If you are applying for a paid or voluntary position

The information that we collect is made clear on the application form and may include sensitive details around race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Information of a sensitive nature may also be disclosed to Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice following a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check or Occupational Health screening.

How we use your information

We will only use your information where we have a legal basis to do so and will always respect your rights.

Where we use your information, it may be because you have consented to us doing so or because we consider we have a legitimate interest to do so. Where we do rely on a legitimate interest to use your information, we will always ensure that this is done in a way so as not to be intrusive or cause distress, and that respects your rights. Other reasons may include using information because we have a legal obligation to do so or because we have to fulfil contractual obligations.

Some examples can be found below.

  • You have given us your consent to use the information for a specified purpose, such as sending you marketing emails.

  • We have a legal obligation to use your information, for example to claim Gift Aid.

  • We need to use your information to process your application for a job or volunteer role with us.

  • We are using your information in pursuit of a legitimate interest, for example:
    • To pursue our charitable purpose to deliver our mission and vision
    • To raise vital funds for our work
    • To ensure we meet our regulatory requirements as a charity
    • To manage our ongoing relationship with our supporters and anyone we work with
    • To manage our financial transactions and prevent fraud.We also use cookies to give us more understanding of how people use our website.When we collect data from patients and their families and carers, we do so in order to care for them and protect their wellbeing. If you, a relative, or a friend are cared for or supported by Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice, the personal and/or sensitive personal information you provide to us will be used only for the purposes of providing you with services or training or monitoring the quality of our services. We will not disclose your personal information to any third party without your consent, except in the following circumstances:
    • If you are a service user
    • When you use our website, we use tools like Google Analytics to collect information such as your IP address, the browser you use (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox etc.), domain names, the time of day you accessed the website and any referring Website addresses. This information helps improve our online service, ensures security and helps protect against fraud. It also assists with diagnosing online problems with our website.

  • To healthcare professionals and organisations involved in the provision of care e.g. a District Nurse or GP (unless you have specified that you do not want us to share this information) see additional leaflet on how we share your information.

  • To statutory regulators e.g. Care Quality Commission in order that they can exercise their statutory function.

  • When it is a legal requirement or in the public interest

  • To process your data to fulfil a legitimate interest; for example to send you our latest newsletter and information about our charitable objects and fundraising activities.

We will not use your information for other purposes without your permission. If you tell us about your own experience with terminal illness or the experience of someone else we will explain how we will use that information. It is helpful for us to be able to share the experiences of some of our service users to help us demonstrate the impact of our work and to encourage fundraising and donations. We will always obtain your consent to use your information for these purposes.

There is a legal framework by which we must operate when sharing information, namely the date protection act and the access to healthcare records act 1990. These legal acts clarify how we can share information on patient both who are alive and those who are deceased.

Supporter

We may use your information in order to provide you with products and services, process a donation you have made, to send you newsletters, fundraising appeals and other communications about our work or to allow you take part in our events.

We have a duty to make sure that we’re spending your donations wisely, and that means doing some research and analysis to inform our decisions. We want to send the most effective messages that we can in the most efficient way possible.

In order to work out who to contact, what to say and when to get in touch, we may undertake in-house research and engage third party organisations such as fundraising agencies to help us identify people who may be able to support us with a larger gift; using publicly available records.

We may also collect information on your interests, for example board memberships, hobbies, or articles about you in the media. We use this information to tailor our communication with you and invite potential supporters to meetings, groups and events which may be of interest to them.

Prospective Staff/ volunteer

Prospective employees and volunteers may also be a supporter and therefore there may be a cross over on information we hold.

We may also process your data under our legitimate interest to keep staff and volunteers updated about our work, news and developments and our fundraising activities.

What data may be shared with third parties?

We will never sell your data to a third party. Nor will we share your information with third parties for their own purposes, unless this is explained to you at the time we collect your information, you give us your permission to, or we are legally required to do so. For example, we are legally required to provide your data to HMRC if you have agreed to us claiming Gift Aid on your behalf.

Sometimes we may need to share your data with a small number of trusted suppliers known as ‘data processors’ to process data on our behalf, for example, to send out mailings. When enlisting the services of such suppliers we ensure that they are under a contractual obligation to only use your information in accordance with our instructions and for no other purposes.

How do we keep your data safe?

All of our staff and volunteers have a legal duty to keep information about you confidential and the Hospice also has a legal duty to store your personal information securely. This includes paper and electronic records.

We take appropriate technical and organisational security measures to safeguard personal information; we have a data protection policy and technical measures in place to help protect your information (for example, we require specialist suppliers who process secure payments to comply with PCI DSS standards).

Unfortunately, no data transmission over the internet or by post can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, the Community Hospice cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us via these routes, and you do so at your own risk. The hospice does not use fax communication, unless there is no other alternative.

Where we back data up on US based servers, we ensure that there is an appropriate EU/US Privacy Shield in place. We will carry out due diligence annually to ensure that certificates remain valid.

How long do we save your data?

As a general rule, we will hold your information for a period of time from the end of your relationship with the charity in accordance with our data protection policy. For example, information related to unsuccessful job applications is destroyed after 1 year. In some circumstances, this will be longer, for example, HMRC claims for supporters or clinical information about patients. If you would like to know how long we will hold any specific information, then please contact us and we can provide further details.

Keeping your information up to date

It is important that we keep your personal information up to date. Please let us know if your contact details change, it will help us to keep our records up to date and accurate. You can contact us at any time if your circumstances change.

It is your choice whether and how you receive information from us about your care, our work, fundraising and ways you can get involved. We may use your contact details and personal preferences which you have told us about, or which we have inferred from your participation in some of our activities.  You can update your contact preferences by calling us on 020 8312 2244 or contacting the fundraising team on fundraising@gbch.org.uk or the clinical team on gbch.referrals@nhs.net .We will ensure that your request is shared with other Hospice departments and may ask you to clarify what information you do or do not want to receive.

We will not use your details for marketing purposes if you tell us not to, however, we will retain your details on our suppression lists to help ensure that we do not contact you.

Registering with the free Telephone Preference Service gives you the opportunity to opt out of receiving unsolicited calls. The Mailing Preference Service will enable you to register to have your name taken off direct mailing lists.

Right of Access and Complaints

You have the right to ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you or ask us to change it if you think it is wrong. Please contact us for more information. If you are unhappy with our use of your personal data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office . We would encourage you to contact us in the first instance so we can attempt to resolve any concerns.

The Community Hospice

In this Privacy Policy, “The Community Hospice” means Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice Ltd  (registered charity in England & Wales (1017406) and company limited by guarantee (2450545) and/or Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice Lottery Limited (6483768) and/ or GBCH Trading Limited (05612068), whose registered offices are at 185 Bostall Hill, Abbey Wood, London, SE2 0GB.