Introduction
Brentwood Catholic Children’s Society respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website (regardless of where you visit it from). This policy will tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
This privacy notice is provided in a layered format so you can click through to the specific areas set out below. Please also use the Glossary to understand the meaning of some of the terms used in this privacy notice.
Our Commitment to You
BCCS provides counselling for children and young adults whose wellbeing and mental and emotional health could be at risk. Our professional social workers and counsellors are dedicated to the provision of therapeutic services within the family and school setting, as well as tailor made support in the form of training, supervision, direct child/family support and in- house consultation to school staff.
We recognise the trust placed in us by individuals whose information we use. It is important to us that we are open and honest about the way we use information and we are committed to ensuring that we do so in a manner that is both lawful and respects your privacy.
This privacy notice explains how we use the personal information we hold concerning individuals, including those who:
- support our organisation by providing donations, raising funds or otherwise assisting us to provide services
- we train and supervise in supporting children, young adults and their families
- apply to work with us including as employees or volunteers
- supply professional services to us
- access our website
We have a separate privacy notice which is provided to the children, young adults and their families who we assist to explain to them how we use their personal information. A copy of this can be provided upon request using the contact details below.
- Who we are and how to contact us
- Your personal information
- How we obtain your personal data
- Our website
- Cookies
- The reasons for using your personal information
- Lawful bases for using your personal information
- Who we share your personal data with
- How long we keep your personal information
- The security of your personal information
- International data transfers
- Marketing and communications
- Recruitment and applications
- Fundraising, Donations, and Legacies
- Our Special Friends
- On-line giving platforms
- Your information rights
- This privacy notice
1. Who we are and how to contact us
BCCS or The Brentwood Catholic Children’s Society is a Registered charity RCN: 1000661
BCCS is the ‘data controller’ in respect of your personal information and is responsible for your personal information.
If you have any queries or concerns about how we use your personal information, please contact our Director on:
- Email: headoffice@bccs.org.uk
- Call: 01277 712022
- Write to: BCCS, 133 High Street, Billericay, Essex. CM12 9AB
2. Your personal information
We may collect, use and hold the following personal information:
a. Identity and contact information such as your name, age/date of birth, gender, postal address, email address, telephone number
b. Financial information such as details for payments and receipts of donations
c. Our communications with you including professional communications, queries, complaints, compliments, responses to questionnaires or surveys, your contact preferences, and other feedback
d. Support information such as your attendance at fundraising events and campaigns which you have supported
e. Training information including your enrolment, attendance at training BCCS has provided and feedback you have provided
f. Supervision information including any information we obtain and record when supervising professionals within schools.
3.How is your personal data collected?
We may hold personal information relating to you from a number of sources and will collect information about you:
a. When you give it to us directly
For example, personal information that you submit by contacting us (including through our website) or any personal information that you share with us when you communicate with us in person, by email, phone or post.
b. When we obtain it indirectly
Your personal information may have been shared with us by third parties. To the extent that we have not done so already, we will notify you when we receive personal information about you from them and tell you how and why we intend to use that personal information.
c. When we obtain it from publicly available sources
We may carry out searches using social media networks and other online sources that are in the public domain to verify your details, such as your postal address.
4. Our website
When you visit our website, we automatically collect:
- Technical information, including the IP address you use to connect your device to the internet, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions and operating systems and platforms.
- Information about your visit to the websites, including the uniform resource locator (URL) clickstream to, through and from the website (including date and time), services you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, referral sources, page interaction information (such as scrolling and clicks) and methods used to browse away from the page.
- We also collect and use your personal information by using cookies on our website – please see our Cookie Notice.
5. Cookies
‘Cookies’ are small pieces of information sent by a web server to a web browser, which enable the server to collect information from the browser. Essentially it takes the form of a small text file deposited on your computer’s hard drive. BCCS uses cookies to ensure that you can interact with our web sites successfully, to identify you when you visit our web sites and to keep track of your browsing patterns. The use of cookies does not give us access to the rest of your computer or to personal information about you.
To see our Cookies Policy, please visit www.BCCS.org.uk/cookie-policy
6. The reasons for using your personal information
We use your personal information for the following reasons:
- Providing you with the information or services you have requested
- Communications in relation to our services
- Management and administration of our services
- Raising further awareness of the work we do
- Raising further funds to support our work
- Manage the contact preferences of those who we approach for support
- Keeping a record of support provided
- Managing and processing applications (whether for employment, volunteering opportunities, school services, therapeutic services, training provision) or any other enquiries
- Learning how to improve our services including evaluation of our work programmes, services, activities or information
- To comply with our professional, regulatory or legal obligations
7. Lawful bases for using your personal information
We can only process your personal information where there is one or more lawful basis for us to do so. We rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:
a. Legitimate interests
Where we may collect and use personal information for our or a third party’s legitimate interests, and the use of your personal information is fair, balanced and does not unduly impact your rights.
Where you contact us regarding a donation, we will rely on the legitimate interest ground to communicate with you in most instances.
b. Consent
Where we ask for your consent for our use of your personal information for a specific purpose. You always have the right to withdraw your consent.
c. Contract
Where it is necessary to use your personal information to fulfil a contract with you or to take steps at your request prior to entering into one.
d. Legal obligation
Where the processing of your personal information is necessary for us to comply with a legal obligation to which we are subject.
Special category data is collected for very limited reasons within categories of data processing covered by this privacy notice, specifically dietary and access requirements with respect to attendance at training, fundraising events or other such events. In these cases, we rely upon your explicit consent for us to process the limited special category data necessary to ensure that we can meet your dietary or access requirements.
8. Who we share your personal data with
We only share your personal data if there is a lawful basis for us to do so and it is necessary for one of the reasons outlined below. We may share your data:
- For the purposes of secure back up storage
- Sending printed material (newsletters, updates, magazines, appeals)
- Securely processing financial transactions through our bank
- Securely processing donations from on-line platforms such as Just Giving
- For the purposes of event registration for fundraising activities such as London Marathon
- Professional service advisors – IT providers, IT consultants, lawyers, accountants, auditors
We will never sell your data to third parties for their own marketing needs.
9. How long we keep your personal information
We retain your personal information in line with our retention policy. We hold your financial donation data for six years in compliance with legal requirements.
10. The security of your personal information
BCCS takes the care of your personal information seriously and protects your personal information in a range of ways.
In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect.
These measures include the use of secure servers, firewalls and SSL encryption.
11. International data transfers
As we sometimes use third parties to process personal information, it is possible that personal information we collect from you will be transferred to and stored in a location outside the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA).
Please note that certain countries outside of the UK or EEA have a lower standard of protection for personal information, including lower security protections. Where your personal information is transferred, stored, and/or otherwise processed outside the UK or EEA in a country which does not offer an equivalent standard of protection to the UK or EEA, we will take all reasonable steps necessary to ensure that the recipient implements appropriate safeguards designed to protect your personal information. For instance, we may use cloud providers to store personal information who have servers in the US and are signed up to the Privacy Shield. If you have any questions about the transfer of your personal information, please contact us using the details at section 1.
12. Marketing and communications
When you give us your personal details you may receive follow-up information from us directly, including thank you letters and information on how your support is helping. Some of these communications are administrative (for example to confirm Gift Aid details or to provide you with information to assist your role as a volunteer, fundraiser or Parish Advocate) but others are marketing or fundraising focused - we will only contact you via email or SMS with marketing materials if you have provided specific consent for us to do so. We will contact you with marketing material by post on the basis that it is in our legitimate interests to do so.
We provide easy ways to stop our marketing, and you can opt out at any time. It is important to us that we always act on your instructions, so you are in control of your relationship with us. Our aim is to communicate with you in a way that makes you want to continue supporting our work.
If at any time you wish to stop or change how we communicate with you, or update the information we hold, please do get in touch using one of the following options:
- Email: headoffice@bccs.org.uk
- Call: 01277 712022
- Write to: BCCS, 133 High Street, Billericay, Essex. CM12 9AB
13. Recruitment and applications
When you apply to work with BCCS, whether as a staff member or as a volunteer, we will record your details as provided in CV/Application Form and covering letter, which is likely to include your name, postal address, telephone number, email address, educational and work history, referees and contact preferences. These details will be retained for 12 months after the applicant progressing to interview stage. Should your application be successful, on appointment, all required right to work checks and, potentially, a check with the Disclosure and Barring Service will be carried out. Details of these checks (or the results from them) will be retained on your HR record.
If you apply to work with us as a volunteer, we will only ever use the information you provide, and references from your chosen referees, to assess and progress your application and contact you regarding volunteer opportunities.
14. Fundraising, Donations, and Legacies
BCCS is registered with the Fundraising Regulator and adheres to the standards of the Fundraising Code of Practice. Our Fundraising promise is available on our website.
When you support our work by fundraising; taking part in a BCCS event, raising funds for us via a third party event (such as the London Marathon), donating your own money or money raised by a group, or choosing to leave a gift in your Will, we will use the personal information you provide in order to:
- Keep a record of your support including donations you have provided, funds you have raised or events you have attended
- Set up standing orders (for those who make regular donations)
- Keep a record of your preferred method of contact (phone, email, post, SMS)
- Send you relevant information about our work, including newsletters, campaigns or fundraising events
- Ask for further support
- Keep records of our contact with you – updates or information we send, and any enquiries or complaints you make
- Keep information about donations and Gift Aid, to comply with HMRC requirements.
15. Our Special Friends
Our ‘Special Friends’ provide us with regular payments through standing orders. With their consent, we hold name, contact details, donation amount and banking details for the purposes of managing standing orders.
16. On-line giving platforms
When you make a donation on-line via our website, you will be directed to the website of Just Giving (https://www.justgiving.com/) to make the donation.
We will receive and may record your name, contact details and amount of your donation from these on-line giving platforms. Your bank account and payment details are not shared with us. We are not responsible for how these on-line giving platforms use your personal information. Please see their privacy notices for details.
17. Your information rights
You have the right to:
- Request access to your personal information. You can request a copy of your personal information that we hold and information about how we use your information.
- Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you.
- Request deletion of your personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to use it.
- Object to processing of personal information where you feel the impact upon your rights outweighs our interests in using this information.
- Request restriction of processing of your personal information. You can ask us to stop using your information for specific reasons.
These rights are limited and subject to various legal exceptions. If you make any of the requests above, we would explain to you in our response if we relied upon any of these exceptions.
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are concerned about the way in which we use your information. Full details can be found on the ICO’s website www.ico.org.uk. If you have any concerns, we would be grateful for a chance to deal with these before you approach the ICO.
18. This privacy notice
We have separate privacy notices with respect to the counselling services which we provide within schools, as well as our own staff and trustees.
We keep this privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated in July 2024.