Privacy policy

SWAN Women's Centre Services 

Privacy Notice 

Who are SWAN Women's Centre and what do we do? 

SWAN Women's Centre is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee with a mission 

"To support and empower women and teenage girls to improve their mental health and wellbeing".

Our aims are,   

1.    To support women who experience anxiety, stress and isolation and those with mental health issues. 

2.    To develop support networks for women with anxiety, depression and mental health issues. 

3.    To raise awareness of women’s mental ill health and the impact of this on society.   

Here at SWAN Women's Centre, we aim to provide you with the highest quality of service. To do this we keep relevant records about you and the service we have provided or plan to provide for you. 

These records will be specific to the type of service you are accessing and may include: · 

• Contact details such as address, date of birth, telephone number, email, GP, Emergency contact, Next of Kin  
• Record of contact s we have had with you such as meetings , visits, telephone calls, emails etc. 
• Notes and reports about your circumstances (eg: your health, past use of service,  history, etc)  
• Details and records about your interaction with the service (ie: case notes)  
• Relevant information from other people who hold information about you, such as relevant professionals i.e. your GP, and the service who has made the referral (if that was the case).   

It is good practice for SWAN Women's Centre employees to:  

• Agree with you what they are going to record about you 
• Agree with you what information they will collect from other (specified) people 
• Show you what they have recorded about you, if you ask.   

Normally information is collected directly from you (the data subject); however in some cases we receive personal information about you as part of a referral from a partner agency or from other services that are or have previously been providing you with services. Whatever the source, we are committed to holding your information confidentially.    

Confidential information   

All personal information held by SWAN Women's Centre is kept electronically. Everyone looking at your record, whether on paper or computer, is obliged to keep the information confidential. We will aim to share only as much information as people need to know to play their part in providing you with the services you have requested. 

Note* Your information is confidential to the organisation rather than an individual member of staff. 

We will never share your personal data with third-parties for marketing purposes. Other information, that does not include your personal details, may be used for planning, training and research.   

How your information is used  

The team at SWAN Women's Centre involved in providing your service will use your records to: 

• Provide a basis for good decision making by them in regard to the service they are providing. 
• Allow you to work with those providing your service.
• Make sure your service is delivered safely and effectively 
• Work effectively with others providing you with services   

Others may need to use records about you to: 

• Protect you or others from harm 
• Check the quality of service provided 
• Help investigate any concerns or complaints you have about the service you receive 
• Manage the organisation 
• Help with planning and research   

Some information may be held centrally to help with the planning of SWAN Women's Centre services. In these instances we take strict measures to ensure that individual clients cannot be identified. We use anonymous information, wherever possible, but may use personally identifiable information for essential purposes. This information will only be used with your consent, unless we have to do so by law.   

How we share your information   

When we provide you with a service/s, we will share your record with the people providing you with a service or checking the quality of your service (unless you have asked that we limit how we share your record).   

We will not share information that identifies you for any reason other than providing your services, unless: 

• You ask us to do so
• We ask and you give us specific permission
• We have to do this by law
• We have special permission because the public good is thought to be of greater importance than your confidentiality

We may on occasion share your information with partner agencies who deliver additional services that are likely to be beneficial to you; we will usually seek your specific permission to do this. If we share information without your permission, we will make sure that we keep to GDPR 2018, the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA), Common Law Duty of Confidentiality and national guidelines on best practice.   

When we destroy your information   

Your records are archived two years after you last used our services. Your information is completely erased from our database, two year after your records have been archived.

Your rights   

You have the right to confidentiality under the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA), the Human Rights Act 1998, the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and The Equalities Act 2010 may also apply.   

You also have the right to ask for a copy of all records we hold about you. Your request must be made in writing and you will need to give adequate information (for example full name, address, date of birth, etc). We will generally provide this information free of charge and are required to respond to you within one month. You will be required to provide identification before any information is released to you.   

You have the right to rectify your information; if you think anything in your record is inaccurate, please approach the person in charge of your service.   You have the right to restrict how we process your information and you can also request that we remove your information altogether.   

Who should you contact if you have a query?   

SWAN Women's Centre is the Data Controller for your personal information; queries should be directed to:  

 Karen Christie Information Governance Lead, SWAN Women's Centre, Former Litherland Library, Linacre Road, Litherland Liverpool L21 6NR Tel: 0151 933 3292 Email: [email protected]   

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) if you are unhappy with the way SWAN Women's Centre has treated your information. 

The Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF Tel: 01625 545745 www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk SWAN Women's Centre has notified the Information Commissioner of the purposes for which they process personal information as required by the Data Protection Act 2018; these details are publicly available from: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/

Privacy Notice for Website Users

We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors; this policy sets out how we will treat your personal information.

1. What information do we collect?

We may collect, store and use the following kinds of personal information:

• information about your computer and about your visits to and use of this website;
• information that you provide to us for the purpose of registering with us;
• information that you provide to us for the purpose of subscribing to our website services, email notifications and/or newsletters.

2. Cookies

A cookie consists of information sent by a web server to a web browser, and stored by the browser. The information is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. This enables the web server to identify and track the web browser.

We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of this website.  Google Analytics generates statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies, which are stored on users' computers. The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of the website. Google will store this information. Google's privacy policy is available at: http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html.

Most browsers allow you to reject all cookies, whilst some browsers allow you to reject just third party cookies.  For example, in Internet Explorer you can refuse all cookies by clicking “Tools”, “Internet Options”, “Privacy”, and selecting “Block all cookies” using the sliding selector.  Blocking all cookies will, however, have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites.

3. Using your personal information

Personal information submitted to us via this website will be used for the purposes specified in this privacy policy or in relevant parts of the website.

We may use your personal information to:

• enable your use of the services available on the website;
• send you email notifications which you have specifically requested;
• send to you marketing communications relating to our business which we think may be of interest to you by post or, where you have specifically agreed to this, by email or similar technology (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require marketing communications);
• deal with enquiries and complaints made by or about you relating to the website.

We will not without your express consent provide your personal information to any third parties for the purpose of direct marketing.

4. Disclosures

We may disclose information about you to any of our employees, officers, agents, suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes as set out in this privacy policy.

In addition, we may disclose your personal information:

• to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
• in connection with any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings;
• in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk).

Except as provided in this privacy policy, we will not provide your information to third parties.

5. Security of your personal information

We will take reasonable technical and organisational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information.

Of course, data transmission over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.

You are responsible for keeping your password and user details confidential. We will not ask you for your password (except when you log in to the website).

6. Policy amendments

We may update this privacy policy from time-to-time by posting a new version on our website.  You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes. 

7. Your rights

You may instruct us to provide you with any personal information we hold about you.  Provision of such information will be subject to the supply of appropriate evidence of your identity.

You may instruct us not to process your personal information for marketing purposes by email at any time.  In practice, you will usually either expressly agree in advance to our use of your personal information for marketing purposes, or we will provide you with an opportunity to opt-out of the use of your personal information for marketing purposes.

8. Third party websites

The website contains links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of third party websites.