What information does Battersea collect?
Battersea collects and processes a range of information about you. This may include:
- your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number, date of birth and gender;
- the terms and conditions of your volunteering role;
- details of your qualifications, skills and experience;
- details of your bank account to enable expenses reimbursement;
- information about your next of kin, dependants and emergency contacts;
- details of your days of work and working hours and attendance at work;
- details of any capability, disciplinary or grievance procedures in which you have been involved, including any warnings issued to you and related correspondence;
- assessments of your performance, including probationary reviews, performance reviews and ratings, performance improvement plans and related correspondence;
- records of learning and development activities you have participated in;
- information about medical or health conditions, including whether or not you have a disability for which Battersea needs to make reasonable adjustments;
- equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion or belief;
- a photograph for the purposes of identification
- information relevant to a Disclosure and Barring Service check, including identification documents and the result of any check.
Battersea collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, data is collected through application forms; obtained from your passport or other identity documents such as your driving licence; from forms completed by you at the start of your volunteering with Battersea; from correspondence with you; or through interviews, meetings or other assessments.
In some cases, Battersea collects personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied and information from criminal records checks permitted by law where relevant to your role.
Data is stored in a range of different places, including in your volunteering record in Battersea’s volunteer management system and in other Battersea's IT systems (including email providers).
Why does Battersea process personal data?
Battersea needs to process data to enter into a volunteering relationship with you and to meet our obligations and your expectations under this relationship.
In some cases, Battersea needs to process data to ensure that we are complying with our legal obligations. For example, we are required to comply with health and safety laws. For certain roles, it is necessary to carry out a criminal records check to ensure that individuals are permitted to undertake the role in question.
In other cases, Battersea has a legitimate interest in processing personal data before, during and after the end of your volunteering relationship. Processing volunteer data allows Battersea to:
- manage volunteer recruitment procedures
- maintain accurate and up-to-date volunteer records and contact details (including details of who to contact in the event of an emergency);
- operate and keep a record of capability, disciplinary and grievance processes, to ensure acceptable conduct and performance;
- operate and keep a record of attendance, to allow effective volunteer management;
- obtain occupational health advice, to ensure that Battersea complies with duties in relation to individuals with disabilities and meets its obligations under health and safety law;
- ensure effective general volunteering administration;
- communicate with volunteers about their role and the wider activities of Battersea, including how they can further support our work
- provide references on request for current or former volunteers, with their consent;
- respond to and defend against legal claims; and
- maintain and promote equality.
Where Battersea relies on legitimate interests as a reason for processing data, we have considered whether or not those interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of volunteers and we have concluded that they are not.
Some special categories of personal data, such as information about health or medical conditions, is processed to carry out legal obligations (such as those in relation to employees with disabilities and for health and safety purposes).
Where Battersea processes or may process in future other special categories of personal data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is done for the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring. Data that Battersea uses for these purposes is anonymised and is collected with the express consent of volunteers, which can be withdrawn at any time. Volunteers are entirely free to decide whether or not to provide such data and there are no consequences of failing to do so.
Who has access to data?
Your information will be shared internally, including, where applicable, with members of the Volunteering & Fostering department the member of staff responsible for your volunteering, relevant managers in the department in which you volunteer, and other internal departments where necessary (e.g. sharing your name and role with the IT team to set up your email account and access to other IT systems, and your name, role and photograph with the Facilities team to set up your security pass).
Battersea may share your data with third parties in order to obtain pre-volunteering references and obtain necessary criminal records checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service (when this is relevant to your role).
Battersea may also share your data with third parties that process data on its behalf, in connection with the provision of occupational health services.
Battersea will not transfer your data to countries outside the European Economic Area.
How does Battersea protect data?
Battersea takes the security of your data seriously. Battersea has internal policies and controls in place to try to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by its employees or volunteers in the performance of their duties.
Where Battersea engages third parties to process personal data on its behalf, they do so on the basis of written instructions, are under a duty of confidentiality and are obliged to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of data.
For how long does Battersea keep data?
Battersea will hold your personal data for the duration of your volunteering. The periods for which your data is held after the end of employment are set out in the Data Retention Policy.
Your rights
As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:
- access and obtain a copy of your data on request;
- require Battersea to change incorrect or incomplete data;
- require Battersea to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing;
- object to the processing of your data where Battersea is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing; and
- ask Battersea to stop processing data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override the organisation's legitimate grounds for processing data.
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact DataProtection@battersea.org.uk
If you believe that Battersea has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner.
What if you do not provide personal data?
Certain information, such as contact details have to be provided to enable Battersea to enter into a volunteering relationship with you. If you do not provide other information, this will hinder Battersea’s ability to administer the rights and obligations arising as a result of the volunteer relationship efficiently.