Privacy Notice

Sheffield Women’s Aid (SWA) wants everyone who:  supports us, seeks our support, works or volunteers for us, supplies goods or services to us,  to feel safe, comfortable, and confident about any information they share with us.

SWA takes your rights to privacy seriously and this Privacy Notice explains what personal data we may collect, how we use it and how we keep it secure.   

SWA is the Data Controller for all the personal data which it collects for assorted reasons, and this is held electronically on the computer, in paper files, or both.   All personal data which we collect will be used and protected in accordance with our Data Protection and Information Governance Policy. We are responsible for complying with all data protection legislation including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA).

What is Personal Data:   Personal data is any information which relates to and identifies a living person; for example, name, address, bank details, CCTV images, computer IP address, email address.

Some types of personal information are classified as ‘sensitive’ or ‘special category’ personal data and this includes ethnicity; religious beliefs, physical/mental health; sexuality, information about criminal offences or proceedings. This type of data requires a higher level of protection.

Why we need to process personal data:   Keeping records and processing data is vital to ensure we can provide safe and effective services.   The data we process helps us to: 

• Offer and provide access to our support services

• Recruit and employ our staff, volunteers, and trustees

• Share information with you via email or other agreed email communications

• Deal with donations and payments you make to us

We must provide certain statistical data to the agencies that fund and commission our services, to demonstrate that those services are effective and accessible to all.   Data processed in this way is subject to the same privacy and SWA have a signed agreement which ensures they comply with GDPR and Data Protection Law.   

Some anonymised data will be used for monitoring and reporting purposes. No individuals will be identifiable from data used for this purpose.

How SWA collects information   We may do this in a variety of ways:  

• Directly from you – e.g. if you refer yourself to/accept support from our services; apply to work with SWA, donate to us, or support us in other ways

• Other organisations – you may give other organisations permission to share your information with us e.g. so they can refer you for support from our services

• Indirectly from you – e.g. if you donate to us via donation sites, your information may be shared with us with your consent. 

• Social media:  Your information will also be shared with us if you interact with us via social media.

• Publicly available information – we may use data freely available to the public, such as within the criminal courts system or published in articles

How we use data we collect:   We only use your personal data for a purpose that you would reasonably expect.  We will never sell your personal data on to anyone else.  We use various lawful bases under UK GDPR for the data we process and these are detailed below:

• Legitimate interest – Data relating to people who are referred to our services for support is collected to process the referral and to enable us to make safe contact with them.

• Consent – When an individual accepts support from SWA, we may ask for further information in order to provide the best possible support to them. This may include demographic information, details of their children, emergency contact details, health information, details of other organisations also working with the individual. This information may also be used for equalities monitoring; in this situation, all data will be anonymised.

• Processing donations:  We will also collect personal details from donors and supporters to LWA in order to administer the donation and comply with Gift Aid regulations

• Legal obligation – We are required to collect information on staff, trustees, and volunteers to fulfil our role as an employer and charity. We will also collect personal data from prospective employees or volunteers in order to process the application. We may also be required to process personal data to comply with other legal obligations, e.g. court order

• Contract – this includes personal data of staff employed by LWA and details for customers at our charity shop who make a card payment.

• Public Task – we are required to process some personal data to perform a ‘specific task in the public interest.’

• Special category data – SWA only processes special category data where there is a lawful basis to do so, and we have a condition for processing it. This includes to provide services to you; meet our obligations as an employer; for equalities monitoring or with your explicit consent.

Your rights under data protection regulations?  As an individual about whom we process data (a ‘data subject’), you have the following rights:

1. The right to be informed

2. The right of access

3. The right to rectification

4. The right to erasure

5. The right to restrict processing

6. The right to data portability

7. The right to object

8. Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

More information about your rights can be obtained from the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) either via:

• Website    https://ico.org.uk/  

• Helpline:  0303 123 1113 (calls are chargeable to this number)

If you wish to exercise any of these rights in relation to the data SWA holds about you, such as to request a copy of the information we hold about you, or request it is erased please contact the Head of Operations using the details at the bottom of this notice, or a member of our team will support you to pass on your request 

How we ensure we keep data secure:    Personal data may be stored on paper and electronically on computers or on mobile phones.    We make sure that all personal data is held in a secure way and only relevant an appropriate people will be able to access it. Detailed below are some examples of how we keep information secure:

Access to personal data on case management systems is restricted on a ‘need to know’ basis. Appropriate permission levels are applied so only relevant staff have access to data.

Data stored electronically will be password protected, and only appropriate staff have access.

All staff are fully trained in how to manage personal data safely and securely, including when and how it can be shared.

SWA systems are cloud based and have full IT security protection, including firewalls and encryption, that have met the standards of Cyber Essentials. 

All personal data held by SWA is stored on systems in the UK. No data is held or stored outside the UK.

Data Retention:   Personal data will be retained by SWA for a minimum period of time in accordance with applicable legislation.   Data which is no longer required will be securely deleted and destroyed.  

Third Parties:    SWA uses various other organisations to help deliver support and to assist with our legal obligations by processing data on our behalf.  Where we deliver services and contracts in partnership with others, these companies are also known as Data Controllers. They have agreements with us about the types of data we hold and share to be able to offer services.

We also collaborate with other companies who process data on our behalf, these companies are known as Data Processors. Your data may be shared with all or some of these organisations and it will only be shared if it is necessary to complete our obligations. For example, individuals who are referred for support will have their details added to our case management system or donor’s details will be recorded for the purposes of collecting Gift Aid.

When SWA shares personal information with another organisation will always have an agreement in place to ensure that they comply with all data protection law.

SWA works with third parties to support it and in doing so, these third parties have access to service user data. However, these third parties have no legitimate interests in processing service user data, and have signed agreements with SWA which oblige them to uphold service user confidentiality and data security.

Cookies and our website:   Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.

When you visit our website: We gather general information which might include which pages you visit most often and which services, events or information is of most interest to you. We may also track which pages you visit when you click on links in emails from us. We also use “cookies” to help our site run effectively. 

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies, and this is done through the internet browser settings.  

Our website may contain links to other websites or information about other services which may be of use to you. This privacy notice only applies to SWA and this  website so when you link to another website, you should also read their own privacy notices.

Information for service users:     SWA takes your rights to privacy seriously; it therefore ensures any personal data of yours that it holds is stored securely and processed lawfully.   This will be discussed fully with you at the start of your service with us.   If you have any questions or concerns at any time whilst you are using our services please speak with your key worker or lead practitioner, alternatively you can contact us as detailed below.  

How to contact us:  If you have any concerns or worries about how your personal data is being processed by us, please contact us via email to:

mail@sheffieldwomensaid.org.uk

or by writing to us at the following address:

Head of Operations

Sheffield Women’s Aid 

PO Box 4917

Sheffield  

LS14 9JX

Further information about privacy and personal data

If you would like to get independent advice about data protection, data sharing issues or privacy, or lodge a complaint about how we process your data, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113

ICO Website: ico.org.uk

Date approved:  August 2025

Review Date:    August 2027