Letting you know what we do with your data and keeping things private and confidential is very important to us at Centre of Change. When you register with us, whether signing up to our newsletter, engaging with one of our support services or if you are applying for a role as a volunteer or paid member of staff, some data you provide you will be held by us.
The aim of this policy is to let you know what happens to your data as well as how long we keep it, how we process your data and what your rights are.
Your Privacy:
Nothing that you share with our services will be passed to anyone outside of Centre of Change without your permission, except in the following exceptional circumstances:
If your counsellor or mentor thinks that you or someone else is at risk of serious harm
In an emergency or when ordered by a court of law then information about you may have to be shared with someone else even without your permission. Even then, Centre of Change will work to involve you in decisions about sharing information wherever possible and will keep you up-to-date with any actions we have taken.
Your Data:
Centre of Change collects, keeps and uses information about you and your use of our services for the purposes below:
Your name, address, email and telephone numbers are used to contact you about your counselling, mentoring, or employment/volunteering with us.
Evaluative questionnaires and counsellor or mentor notes that are used to record how you are feeling and to help make sure that the support you are getting is working for you.
Quotes and other feedback about how you experience the services with Centre of Change which is used anonymously for publicity and funding reports.
Details about your age, ethnicity, gender, and types of issues faced are used to provide reports to Centre of Change’s funders and to check that our services are reaching a wide range of vulnerable people across the community (names are never used in these reports)
If you were referred to Centre of Change through the National Health Service, (whether via your GP surgery, South London and Maudsley or any other NHS route), the Local Authority (LA) of Croydon Council or any other LA, or through your education facility or provider, then selected information may be shared with them as the original referrer as appropriate. This includes sending them brief correspondence to advise whether you are engaging with the services or not, as well as informing them when your time using the services finishes.
If you would like information to be shared with someone else such as a doctor, teacher or social worker, then you would need to discuss this with either your counsellor or mentor so you can agree on exactly what information is to be shared.
All the information we keep about you is held in a secure database and locked filing cabinets and is only seen by Centre of Change staff directly involved in supporting you, writing reports, supervising or line managing the professional supporting you, or necessary administrative duties. Identifiable information is securely destroyed and deleted 7 years after your final contact with Centre of Change or 7 years. You can ask for your information to be deleted at any time by writing to the Agency Director at our registered address: 111 Chertsey Crescent, New Addington, Croydon, CR0 0DH
Your Rights:
You have a right to see any information kept about you by Centre of Change and to have that information corrected or deleted. Please contact the Agency Director at our registered address: 111 Chertsey Crescent, New Addington, Croydon, CR0 0DH
You have the right to refuse permission for Centre of Change to keep or share your information and to change your mind about it at any time by informing the Agency Director at the registered address.
If you are unhappy with the service or the way you and your information have been treated, then you can complain through Centre of Change’s complaints procedure by writing to the Chairperson of the Management Committee at the registered address, who oversee the running of the organisation.
Recruitment and Volunteering:
When you apply for a role with Centre of Change either as a volunteer or a paid member of staff you might send us your CV or a completed application form or both. We use the application form to determine your suitability for the role for which you are applying and to shortlist applicants for an interview. We do not share this information with anybody outside of Centre of Change including employment agencies.
If you completed an equal opportunities monitoring form, we will use this information to ensure we are fulfilling our equal opportunities policy. These forms are not used in any way as part of the selection process.
If you are a successful applicant, we will then keep your CV/application form on file for the duration of your time with Centre of Change plus 6 years after your employment or volunteer position ended. If you are unsuccessful with your application, we will only keep your CV/application form on our systems for 6 months.
Cookies:
A cookie is a little bit of code that can do things like track the time you spend on a website or make sure your username and password match up when you sign in. Most browsers allow you to choose whether or not to accept cookies, which is great. But please remember, if you don’t allow cookies on the Centre of Change site, some functions might not work properly.
