This Privacy Notice applies to clients of Stroud Beresford Limited. We collect and process personal information in order to provide Women’s Refuge and Domestic Abuse related support services
Who we are
Stroud Beresford Limited is the Data Controller whose head office is located at:
Windsor House, Bayshill Road, GL50 3AT.
We can be contacted at office@beresfordgroup.org.
We are a registered charitable company.
How we collect your information
We collect information from you and from other sources when you apply for space in the refuge or for a place on one of our courses or workshops in the community. We may collect information when you use our social media sites or websites. We may record key aspects of face-to-face conversations or telephone calls. We may take photographs at our events and in our refuges to use for general marketing and publicity (please note – photographs will be anonymous/unidentifiable unless explicit consent is given in writing).
We also receive information about you from other organisations as part of our service provision for example housing, police and health care professionals, this helps us to ensure the service we provide to you meets your individual needs.
The information we collect about you can include your name, address, next of kin, children’s details and some financial information.
Sensitive data or ‘special category data’
The nature of our service means that some of the information that we collect and process is ‘special category data’. Special category data is considered to be more sensitive in law and therefore requires more protection. For example, some of the information mentioned above may include ethnic origin, health and sex life (e.g. we may be supporting you around issues relating to sexual violence; we may provide information to the police or a court if you have asked us to or we are required to by law).
We therefore ask you to give us consent to process this personal data. If you do not provide information we need or consent to share with some parties, we may be unable to provide some or all of our services.
What processing we do with information collected
The information we ask you to provide is used to help us to provide services to you (accommodation, support, workshops, and courses). As we are a domestic abuse service, some specific information about domestic abuse and related risks will be collected and shared cautiously and responsibly with other agencies to help safeguard you if you or your children are at risk of further abuse or harm. You will always be informed about when we are considering sharing information unless we believe that someone will be harmed by us sharing information.
Please read your Licence Agreement (if resident in the refuge) and your Support Agreement or other contract between you and Stroud Beresford Limited for specific details as ‘performance of a contract’ is usually the legal basis for processing the information and carrying out activities. The processing activities we conduct can be summarised as:
Managing information to help us to provide support services to you (and your children if you have them). Support services is a term we use to describe a range of activities that include one-to-one support, group support, family activities, specific support around issues that affect you or your child relating to domestic abuse or sexual violence including risk assessment and management as well as other issues such as finance, welfare, benefits, health, mental health and wellbeing, cultural needs, supporting you to overcome barriers that you experience) etc. Support also includes any workshops, courses and training that may be provided.
We also use the information to generate data regarding our services and our performance. We will use some data within our organisation to help us understand what services have been provided, what outcomes we achieved and what feedback we received to help us to understand what we do well and what we need to improve.
Anonymous statistical data (that will not identify any individuals) may be analysed and provided to our trustees or funders to assess our services. Data that will identify you will only ever be shared with others because you have given your permission or to prevent harm.
Personal and sensitive information is stored and managed to achieve a high level of confidentiality, integrity and availability. We hold information within our secure IT systems which may be copied for testing, backup, archiving and disaster recovery processes. All data is held in the UK. The only people who have access to this data will be our IT technicians and staff members.
Who we share data with and how long we keep information
We share information with benefits agencies, housing organisations, domestic abuse organisations in order to manage risk and provide the services that you have asked us to provide. If through the course of our work we need to speak to wider agencies, we will ask your permission to do this.
We will delete unnecessary information and will ensure that all data, with the exception of anonymised data or data that we have been asked specifically to keep is deleted after 3 years.
If you would like your data to be removed from our system before this time, please contact us on office@beresfordgroup.org.
What we will not do
We will not send you unsolicited marketing material
We will not sell your data onto third parties
We will not pass on your personal data to unrelated third parties unless we are allowed to or required to do so by law or you have asked us to by asking us to perform a task (e.g. contact a housing provider on your behalf).
We will not transfer or store your personal data outside of Europe.
Your rights, the right to complain and the ICO
You have the right to request a copy of the data we hold about you. Please contact your support workers if you wish to request access to any of your personal data and we will always try to give you the information that you need as quickly as possible. We can often provide information swiftly with an informal request (e.g. information from your last meeting).
If you need more detailed information, it will help if you can be as specific as possible about the personal data you want to see, what it relates to and within what timeframe as that will help us to provide you with the information you request.
You have the right to correct information that we hold. Please advise us of any corrections by contacting your support worker initially or our team leader on 01453 764385.
You may withdraw your consent to use information that was previously provided. Please advise us if you wish to withdraw any consent previously given.
You also have other rights which can be seen by visiting the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website and reading about Data Protection Law : https://ico.org.uk/
You have the right to complain about any matter relating to our service, including how we use your personal data. In the first instance, please contact your support worker or call our team on 01453 764385.
If you are still not happy, please contact office@beresfordgroup.org and a manager can call you back.
If you wish to complain about our use of your personal data, you may complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. ICO Helpline – 0303 123 1113.
