Volunteer privacy notice and confidentiality agreement

What information do we collect?

We collect and processes a range of information about you. This includes (as applicable):

• information provided by you such as your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number, date of birth and gender
• details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history, including start and end dates with previous employers and volunteering experience
• details of your bank account
• information about your emergency contacts
• information about your nationality and entitlement to work in the UK
• information from references
• information on DBS checks including the outcome of the checks;
• details of your volunteering pattern (i.e. the days and hours you generally volunteer)
• information about medical or health conditions or disabilities for which the organisation needs to make reasonable adjustments
• equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion or belief.
• other relevant information as applicable required by Leicester City Council in order to ensure we fulfil our obligations.

The organisation collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, data is collected through:

• application forms and CVs;
• obtained from your passport or other identity documents;
• forms completed by you at the start of your relationship with Leicester City Council;
• from correspondence with you; or
• through interviews, meetings or other assessments.

In some cases, we collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers and information from criminal records checks permitted by law.

Data is stored in a range of different places, including in your personal file, in the organisation's HR management systems and in other IT systems (including our network drives and email system).

Why do we process personal data?

We need  to process data to enter into a volunteering relationship with you and to meet its obligations to you. For example, it needs to process your data to pay expenses incurred for travel and lunch and to contact you in an emergency.

In some cases, we need to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. For example, it is required to check a volunteer’s entitlement to
work in the UK and to comply with health and safety laws.

For certain roles, it is necessary to carry out criminal records checks to ensure that individuals are permitted to undertake the role in question.

In other cases, we act in its official authority or public task role.

Processing volunteer data allows the organisation to:

• run volunteer recruitment processes
• maintain accurate and up-to-date records and contact details (including details of who to contact in the event of an emergency
• ensure effective administration
• conduct volunteer engagement surveys
• provide references on request for current or former volunteers
• respond to and defend against legal claims
• maintain and promote equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Some special categories of personal data (also known as ‘sensitive personal data’), such as information about health or medical conditions, are processed to make appropriate adjustments for people with disabilities and for health and safety purposes.

Where the organisation processes 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 the organisation uses for these purposes is made anonymous or 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 with members of the HR and recruitment team, your supervisor, managers in the business area in which you volunteer and senior managers and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for performance of their roles.

The organisation shares your data with third parties in order to obtain references and to obtain necessary criminal records checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service where applicable.

Your data (e.g. mobile number) may also be shared for the purposes of the organisation’s Business Continuity Plan.

How do we protect data?

The organisation takes the security of your data seriously. The organisation 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 in the performance of their duties. These include the Information Governance & Risk Policy and the IT Security Policy Statement.

How long do we keep your data?

How long we retain your data is governed by our Retention & Disposal Schedule. If you apply to be a volunteer and you are not successful, we will automatically anonymise your application form data after one month. If you apply to be a volunteer and you are successful we will automatically anonymise your application form after six months. After you leave the organisation, we will automatically anonymise your data after six years. Where you have worked directly with children data has to be held for longer.

Your rights

As a data subject, you have several rights. You can:

• access and obtain a copy of your data on request
• require the organisation to change incorrect or incomplete data
• require the organisation 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 the organisation is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal grounds for processing
• ask the organisation 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.
• Object to the Council sending you direct marketing information (such as emails or
  texts)
• Object to the Council profiling you (by building a picture of your activities and views
  based upon looking at your online activities).

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact the organisation’s Data Protection Officer by emailing data-protection-officer@leicester.gov.uk.

If you believe that the organisation has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

What if you do not provide personal data?

Certain information, such as contact details and your right to work in the UK have to be provided to enable the organisation to set up a volunteering arrangement with you.

Automated decision-making

No decisions taken by us connected with working with volunteers are based solely on automated decision-making.