Introduction

 

In order to carry out its duties as a charity, IPOP needs to collect and process information about the people with whom it works, including present, past and prospective employees, children and young people, their parents and carers, our volunteers and others.
Any information howsoever recorded or stored, which can be used to identify a living individual is known as Personal Information and can be as little as a name and address. It can be factual information about an individual and could include information which is deemed ‘sensitive’ and needs to be processed with additional care and attention.

IPOP is required by law to ensure any personal information collected is properly managed. IPOP will act in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

 

Aims

 

IPOP aims to ensure that all personal data collected about individuals is recorded, stored and processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) as set out in the Data Protection Bill. This policy applies to all personal data, regardless of whether it is in paper or electronic format.

 

Legislation and guidance

 

This policy meets the requirements of the GDPR and the expected provisions of the DPA 2018. It is based on guidance published by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on the GDPR and the ICO’s code of practice for subject access requests.

 

Definitions of Terms

Personal Data:

 

– any information relating to an identified, or identifiable, individual. and may include the individual’s:

• Name (including initials)
• Identification number
• Location data

 

Online identifier, such as a username

It may also include factors specific to the individual’s physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity.
Special categories of personal data, which are more sensitive, need more protection, including information about an individual’s:

• Racial or ethnic origin
• Religious beliefs
• Genetics
• Health
• Disability

 

Processing:

 

• Anything done to personal data, such as collecting, recording, organising, structuring, storing, adapting, altering, retrieving, using, disseminating, erasing or destroying. Processing can be automated or manual.

 

Data subject:

 

• The identified or identifiable individual whose personal data is held or processed.

 

Data process:

 

• A person or other body, other than an employee of the data controller, who processes personal data on behalf of the data controller.

 

Personal data breach:

 

• A breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to personal data.

 

Data controller:

 

• a person or organisation that determines the purposes and the means of processing of personal data
• as IPOP holds personal data relating to parents, carers, children, young persons, staff, volunteers and others, the organisation is a data controller.
• IPOP is registered as a data controller with the ICO and will renew this registration annually or as otherwise legally required.

 

Roles and responsibilities.

 

This policy applies to all staff employed at IPOP and to external organisations or individuals working on our behalf. Staff who do not comply with this policy may face disciplinary action.

 

• The trustees have overall responsibility for ensuring that our Charity complies with all relevant data protection obligations.
• Data protection officer (DPO) is responsible for overseeing the implementation of this policy, monitoring our compliance with data protection law, and developing related policies and guidelines where applicable. They will provide an annual report of their activities directly to the trustees and, where relevant, report to the trustees, their advice and recommendations on IPOP’s data protection issues.

 

The DPO is also the first point of contact for individuals whose data IPOP processes, and for the ICO. Full details of the DPO’s responsibilities are set out in their job description. Our DPO Jenny Daybell is contactable at IPOP and is the representative of the data controller on a day-to-day basis.

 

Staff are responsible for:

 

• Collecting, storing and processing any personal data in accordance with this policy
• Informing IPOP of any changes to their personal data, such as a change of address
• Contacting the DPO with any questions about the operation of this policy, data protection law, retaining personal data or keeping personal data secure:
• if they have any concerns that this policy is not being followed.
• if they are unsure whether or not they have a lawful basis to use personal data in a particular way.
• if they need to rely on or capture consent, draft a privacy notice, deal with data protection rights invoked by an individual, or transfer personal data outside the European Economic Area
• if there has been a data breach
• whenever they are engaging in a new activity that may affect the privacy rights of individuals
• if they need help with any contracts or sharing personal data with third parties

 

Data protection principles

 

The GDPR is based on data protection principles that IPOP must comply with. The principles say that personal data must be:

 

• Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner
• Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes
• Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it is processed
• Accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
• Kept for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which it is processed
• Processed in a way that ensures it is appropriately secure. This policy sets out how IPOP comply with these principles.

 

Collecting personal data

 

In accordance with lawfulness, fairness and transparency
We will only process personal data where we have one of 6‘lawful bases’ (legal reasons) to do enact sounder data protection law:

 

• The data needs to be processed so that IPOP can fulfil a contract with the individual, or the individual has asked IPOP to take specific steps before entering into a contract
• The data needs to be processed so IPOP can comply with a legal obligation
• The data needs to be processed to ensure the vital interests of the individual e.g. to protect someone’s life
• The data needs to be processed so that IPOP, can perform a task in the public interest, and can carry out its official functions
• The data needs to be processed for the legitimate interests of IPOP or a third party (provided the individual’s rights and freedoms are not overridden)
• The individual (or their parent/carer when appropriate in the case of children and young person) has freely given clear consent for special categories of personal data,

We will also meet one of the special category conditions for processing which are set out in the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018.

Whenever we first collect personal data directly from individuals, we will provide them with the relevant information required by data protection law.

 

Ensuring Limitation, minimisation and accuracy

 

• We will only collect personal data for specified, explicit and legitimate reasons.
• We will explain these reasons to the individuals when we first collect their data. If we want to use personal data for reasons other than those given when we first obtained it, we will inform the individuals concerned before we do so and seek consent where necessary.
• Staff must only process personal data where it is necessary in order to do their jobs. When staff no longer need the personal data they hold, they must ensure it is deleted or anonymised. This will be done in accordance with IPOP’s management policy.

 

Sharing personal data

 

We will not normally share personal data with anyone else, but may do so where:

 

• There is an issue with a child /young person or parent/carer that puts the safety of our staff at risk
• We need to liaise with other agencies –we will seek consent as necessary before doing this
• Our suppliers or contractors need data to enable us to provide services to our staff, children/young persons and parents or carers for example, IT companies.

 

When doing this, we will:

 

1. only appoint suppliers or contractors which can provide sufficient guarantees that they comply with data protection law
2. only share data that the supplier or contractor needs to carry out their service, and information necessary to keep them safe while working with us.
3. only share personal data with law enforcement and government bodies where we are legally required to do so, to ensure

• The prevention or detection of crime and/or fraud
• The apprehension or prosecution of offenders
• The assessment or collection of tax owed to HMRC
• In connection with legal proceedings
• Where the disclosure is required to satisfy our safeguarding obligations
• Research and statistical purposes, as long as personal data is sufficiently anonymised, or consent has been provided.

 

We may also share personal data with emergency services and local authorities to help them to respond to an emergency situation that affects any of our children, young people or staff. Where we transfer personal data to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area, we will do so in accordance with data protection law.

 

Subject access requests and other rights of individuals

 

Individuals have a right to make a ‘subject access request’ to gain access to personal information that IPOP holds about them.
This includes:

 

• Confirmation that their personal data is being processed
• Access to a copy of the data
• The purposes of the data processing
• The categories of personal data concerned
• Who the data has or will be shared with
• How long the data will be stored for, or if this isn’t possible, the criteria used to determine this period
• The source of the data, if not the individual
• Whether any automated decision-making is being applied to their data, and what the significance and consequences of this might before the individual

 

Subject access requests must be submitted in writing, either by letter or email to the DPO.

They should include:

 

• Name of individual
• Correspondence address
• Contact number and email address
• Details of the information requested

If staff receive a subject access request, they must immediately forward it to the DPO.

 

Children and subject access requests

 

Personal data about a child belongs to that child, and not the child’s parents or carers. For a parent or carer to make a subject access request with respect to their child, the child must either be unable to understand their rights and the implications of a subject access request or have given their consent. Children below the age of 12 are generally not regarded to be mature enough to understand their rights and the implications of a subject access request. Therefore, most subject access requests from parents or carers of children and young persons at IPOP may be granted without the express permission of the children and young person. This is not a rule and a child’s or young person’s ability to understand their rights will always be judged on a case-by-case basis.

 

Responding to subject access requests

 

When responding to requests, we:

 

• May ask the individual to provide 2 forms of identification
• May contact the individual via phone to confirm the request was made
• Will respond without delay and within 1 month of receipt of the request
• Will provide the information free of charge
• May tell the individual we will comply within 3 months of receipt of the request, where are quest is complex or numerous. We will inform the individual of this within 1 month, and explain why the extension is necessary

 

We will not disclose information if it:

 

• Might cause serious harm to the physical or mental health of the child or young person or another individual
• Would reveal that the child is at risk of abuse, where the disclosure of that information would not be in the child’s best interests
• Is contained in adoption or parental order records
• Is given to a court in proceedings concerning the child

 

If the request is unfounded or excessive, we may refuse to act on it, or charge a reasonable fee which takes into account administrative costs. A request will be deemed to be unfounded or excessive if it is repetitive or asks for further copies of the same information. When we refuse a request, we will tell the individual why, and tell them they have the right to complain to the ICO.

 

Other data protection rights of the individual:

 

In addition to the right to make a subject access request (see above), and to receive information when we are collecting their data about how we use and process it (see section 7), individuals also have the right to:

• Withdraw their consent to processing at any time
• Ask us to rectify, erase or restrict processing of their personal data, or object to the processing of it (in certain circumstances)
• Prevent use of their personal data for direct marketing
• Challenge processing which has been justified on the basis of public interest
• Request a copy of agreements under which their personal data is transferred outside of the European Economic Area
• Object to decisions based solely on automated decision making or profiling (decisions taken with no human involvement, that might negatively affect them)
• Prevent processing that is likely to cause damage or distress
• Be notified of a data breach in certain circumstances
• Make a complaint to the ICO
• Ask for their personal data to be transferred to a third party in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format (in certain circumstances)

 

Individuals should submit any request to exercise these rights to the DPO. If staff receive such a request, they must immediately forward it to the DPO.

 

Photographs and videos

 

As part of our activities, we may take photographs and record images of individuals within IPOP. We will obtain written consent from parents/carers for photographs and videos to be taken of their child. We will clearly explain how the photograph and/or video will be used to the parent/carer.

 

See our safeguarding policy or more information on our use of photographs and videos.

 

Data protection

 

We will put measures in place to show that we have integrated data protection into all of our data processing activities, including:

 

• Appointing a suitably qualified DPO, and ensuring they have the necessary resources to fulfil their duties and maintain their expert knowledge
• Only processing personal data that is necessary for each specific purpose of processing, and always in line with the data protection principles set out in relevant data protection law (see section 6)
• Completing privacy impact assessments where IPOP’s processing of personal data presents a high risk to rights and freedoms of individuals, and when introducing new technologies (the DPO will advise on this process)
• Integrating data protection into internal documents including this policy, any related policies and privacy notices
• Regularly training members of staff on data protection law, this policy, any related policies and any other data protection matters; we will also keep a record of attendance
• Regularly conducting reviews and audits to test our privacy measures and make sure we are compliant

 

Maintaining records of our processing activities, including:
For the benefit of data subjects

 

• making available the name and contact and DPO and all information we are required to share about how we use and process their personal data

 

For all personal data that we hold

 

• maintaining an internal record of the type of data, data subject, how and why we are using the data, any third-party recipients, how and why we are storing the data, retention periods and how we are keeping the data secure.

 

Data security and storage of records

 

• We will protect personal data and keep it safe from unauthorised or unlawful access, alteration, processing or disclosure, and against accidental or unlawful loss, destruction or damage.

 

In particular:

 

• Paper-based records and portable electronic devices, such as laptops and hard drives that contain personal data are kept under lock and key when not in use
• Papers containing confidential personal data must not be left anywhere there is general access
• Where personal information needs to be taken off site, staff must sign it in and out from the IPOP office
• Encryption software is used to protect all portable devices and removable media, such as laptops and USB devices
• Where we need to share personal data with a third party, we carry out due diligence and take reasonable steps to ensure it is stored securely and adequately protected

 

Disposal of personal records

 

Data that is no longer needed will be disposed of securely. Personal data that has become inaccurate or out of date will also be disposed of securely, where we cannot or do not need to rectify or update it.
For example, we will shred or incinerate paper-based records, and overwrite or delete electronic files. We may also use a third party to safely dispose of records on IPOP’s behalf. If we do so, we will require the third party to provide sufficient guarantees that it complies with data protection law.

 

Personal data breaches

 

IPOP will make all reasonable endeavours to ensure that there are no personal data breaches. In the unlikely event of a suspected data breach. When appropriate, we will report the data breach to the ICO within 72 hours.

Such breaches in IPOP’s context may include, but are not limited to:

 

• Safeguarding information being made available to an unauthorised person
• The theft of a laptop containing non-encrypted personal data about children, young persons and parents.

 

Training

 

All staff and trustees are provided with data protection training as part of their induction process. Data protection will also form part of continuing professional development, where changes to legislation, guidance or IPOP’s processes make it necessary.

 

Monitoring arrangements

 

The DPO is responsible for monitoring and reviewing this policy. This policy will be reviewed and updated if necessary. Otherwise, or from then on, this policy will be reviewed every 2 years and shared with the full Trustees’ Body.

 

Links with other policies

 

This data protection policy is linked to our: Safeguarding Policy