Who we are and introduction to our privacy policy
This Healthwatch website is a local independent consumer champion and is a part of Wandsworth Care Alliance (WCA).
This privacy policy explains how WCA use any personal information we collect about you when you use our website or contact us via any other means.
Within this Privacy Policy the terms ‘We’, ‘Us’ or ‘Our’ refer to WCA. As it relates to the General Data Protection Regulation we are both a data controller and data processor with respect to the personal information we collect and process about you as explained in this privacy policy. Wandsworth Care Alliance (WCA) is a registered Charity, Charity No. 1110178, and Company Limited by Guarantee, reg. number 5101120. Registered offices are at Trident Business Centre, 89 Bickersteth Road, London, SW17 9SH.
Our charitable mission is “Working to improve health and wellbeing through community involvement, collaboration, action and a stronger voluntary sector voice."
In the course of our work we operate under a number of project brands in addition to our organisational brand. These include: The Voluntary Sector Coordination Project (VSCP), Voicing Views, LGBT Mental Health Project, LD (Learning Disabilities) Project and Healthwatch Wandsworth.
To ensure good information and data practices we have created an information asset register about all of our proceedures including data security, storage,retention and distruction in detail. The below is an outline of the proceedures relating to this website.
This privacy statement covers this Healthwatch website. This statement does not cover links within this website to other websites.
Find out more about what we do.
Contact us if you have any requests or queries about your personal information and our practices.
What information do we collect and how is it collected
We collect data about individuals, usually within the context of our charitable mission. In most cases, we only collect basic personal data such as name, address, email, and phone number, excluding any special types/categories. However, in the Healthwatch context we may collect information about personal issues, personal experiences or stories that you have chosen to share with us.
Personal data may also be gathered from information that you provide by filling in forms on our website when you ask us to contact you.
We treat all data about individuals as ‘personal data’ and We act as the ‘Controller’ of the personal data you provide us with, which means that we control what happens to the data while it is in our possession. We need to store this basic information about you to respond to your queries and to deliver services to you. We will not collect any personal data from you unless we need it to for a lawful purpose. We may also collect information when you voluntarily complete customer surveys or provide feedback. Basic website usage information is collected using cookies.We do log your IP address (as it is automatically recognised by the web server) but this is so you can download this website onto your device rather than for any tracking purpose
How do we use the information collected about you?
We use information held about you in the following ways:
- To provide information or services that you have requested from us.
- To meet our obligations arising from any contracts, including Healthwatch duties:
- In our day-to-day work.
- To send you our newsletter where you have requested it.
- To respond to any queries you may have.
- To improve the quality and safety of care.
- We will never include your personal information in survey reports.
- To notify you about changes to our services.
- To improve your browsing experience on our website.
No third parties have access to your personal data unless it is specifically required to meet either contractual obligations or the legitimate interests of the company as defined under Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We may share information to fulfil our remit to pass on your experiences of care to help improve them on your behalf. We may disclose the personal information that we obtain through this website to Healthwatch England, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), local health and care commissioners and providers, NHS Improvement, our local authority and suppliers we engage to process personal information on our behalf. Wherever possible, we will ensure that any information that we share or disclose is anonymised, so as to ensure that you cannot be identified from it unless there is a safeguarding concern when we will follow such legislation on use of personal data.
We will not provide your personal information to any third parties for the purpose of direct marketing.
We may also send marketing emails or contact you with details of additional events or services we believe to be of interest to you. This may be considered in some cases as marketing. You will always be given the option to opt out.
Signing up to our newsletter
We use a third-party supplier, Mailchimp, to provide our newsletter service. By subscribing to this service you will be agreeing to them handling your data.
Mailchimp is an Intuit company with servers based in the US. Intuit's Privacy Policy and Data Processing Addendum outlines how personal data is used, stored and collected in line with GDPR Regulations. You can unsubscribe from our mailing list or update your details at any time by clicking the link in all emails you receive from us.
Completing our surveys
The information collected is only the information you decide to share when you complete the questions. The information is also uploaded to and stored on the Smart Survey system online (password protected). View their privacy policy at https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/privacy-policy. Data is downloaded and stored on our office server for the purpose of writing reports. Some of the data is uploaded to our database system and Healthwatch England will use the anonymised information for their national work.
Where is the information stored?
The personal data we hold is processed by us using internal or cloud-based services primarily hosted in the UK or EU. We may use other non-UK/EU hosted services located in the US in compliance with the EU-US Privacy Shield. Personal issues, experiences and stories are always separated from personal data, anonymised and stored separately, unless part of a live information and signposting query.
How we protect it?
We have an established Information Security & Data Protection system in place in order to oversee the effective and secure processing of your personal information, and we continually review the appropriateness of the measures we have in place to keep the data we hold secure.
Cookies
Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. This information is used to track visitor use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity. For further information visit: www.allaboutcookies.org.
You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the above websites tell you how to remove cookies from your browser. However, in a few cases some of our website features may not function as a result.
We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of our website. Google Analytics generates statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies, which are stored on users' computers. The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of the website. Google will store this information. Google's privacy policy is available at: https://policies.google.com/privacy
Other websites
Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to our website, so if you follow a link from our site to another site or service, this statement will no longer apply and we would therefore advise you to read the privacy policies appearing on those sites and relating to those services.
Your rights
If you believe the information we hold about you is incorrect you can request to see this information and have it corrected or deleted. If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact us at admin@wandcareall.org.uk we will investigate the matter. If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Access to your information and correction
You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please email or write to us. We may make a small charge for this service. We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. You may ask us to correct or remove information you think is inaccurate.
If you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you
Changes to this Privacy Policy
From time to time we may update this Privacy Policy. When we do so we will publish the changes on this website. If you do not agree to these changes, please do not continue to use the website. If material changes are made to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by email or by placing a prominent notice on the website.