Privacy Notice
In summary
Social Circles CIC takes the protection of your privacy and information very seriously and this policy explains how we collect, use, and dispose of your information, the conditions under which we disclose it and how we keep it secure.
Who is Social Circles CIC?
Social Circles CIC is a non-profit Community Interest Company registered at Companies House and with the Office of the Regulator for Community Interest Companies, Registration number 13601483.
Our Purpose is to reclaim gardens for elderly, less able and vulnerable people who have been unable to maintain their gardens due to age, ability or circumstances and are struggling financially so they may enjoy the now widely accepted health & wellbeing benefits of being outdoors and engaged with nature.
We may from time to time, subject to funding and eligibility, provide additional gardening services to help improve the health and wellbeing of our service users such as amendment to gardens to aid access, supported gardening, help to create edible gardens, and share gardening information via newsletters, social media groups and at offline group events.
We have close links to statutory organisations such as Social Services and NHS teams, with housing associations and other social housing providers, and with other charitable and community organisations who may refer people to us.
As a gateway service, with the written consent of service users, we may also refer our service users for additional support where it is agreed there is a benefit to their health and wellbeing and to reduce the impact of poverty. This additional support may in some instances also include referral to self-employed gardeners from the Somerset Micro-enterprise project to provide ongoing garden maintenance services.
The sharing of information requires the written consent of a Director of Social Circles CIC and no manager or staff member may share information without this written consent.
How do we collect information about you?
We have the following ways to collect information about you:
Online contact form at https://www.socialcircles.org.uk/contact
E-newsletter sign-up form
Collected in person by Social Circles CIC employees
Passed to us by referring organisations
Event, training, or workshop registration forms
Telephone enquiry
Email enquiry
Message enquiry via online systems such as Messages, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger
Job applications and sub-contractor enquires (Somerset Micro-providers)
Anonymous cookie information online
By filling out our contact form, or e-newsletter sign up, we will collect the following data:
Your name
Your contact information; email addresses
Organisation name if applicable
We may collect additional information with written consent if you feel you may be eligible to benefit from our services or funded provision. This additional information can include sensitive data:
Address
Telephone number(s)
Equal opportunities information
Health information
Benefits, housing and financial status
Action plans
This information is securely stored and only shared with operational managers to the extent they need to meet the agreed scope of the service provided, and with other support organisations with written consent and only to the extent they need to assess eligibility for their support programmes, services or to release funding for the delivery of services.
Social Impact Reporting
We will also use the following anonymised information to compile social impact reports for funders and referring organisations:
Postcode (first 3 digits only)
Equal opportunities information
Health information
Benefits, housing and financial status
Referrals for additional support
Scope of Works and Outcomes
With written consent, social impact reports may include anonymised case studies including photographs of work undertaken. Photographs of work undertaken may also be used on social media to promote our services but only with written consent of the service user.
Legal basis for processing
Social Circles CIC collects your data and relies on legitimate interest and consent as some clients are required to complete a referral form depending on how we are supporting, working and delivering our work.
Safeguarding
All our directors and employed staff are trained in Safeguarding and are DBS checked in order to protect the elders and vulnerable people we support and work with. Volunteers will always be supervised by a member of staff when undertaking work for Social Circles CIC.
When we are worried about your safety or that you are being hurt either by your own actions or by someone else, we want to help you to find the best way to keep yourself safe. We'll do this by listening and talking to you about what you want to do. Most of the time whatever you tell us will stay between you and Social Circles.
However, if we feel that you are unable to make decisions for yourself sometimes we might need to tell someone else what you’ve told us to be able to help you, for example, if you are not able to make a decision about your own safety because you don’t understand the risks or if you cannot remember the situation you are in.
If you share information with us which identifies a child or adult at risk who is suffering abuse or harm, after discussion with you, we may contact other relevant services.
It is important to know that you can decide what information you choose to share with us. Even if you have told us this information, it does not mean we will automatically tell someone else. We would always want to help you to explore your feelings about your situation and to help you make the decisions that are right for you. We will ask you questions when talking to you to help you do this, and to make sure we understand what you are telling us.
If we determine that we do need tell someone else these are of some of the things that might happen:
Your details may be passed to people who'll be able to get help to you, like the ambulance service
If you're in immediate danger of being hurt by someone else, we may ask the police to come and check, or do something to make sure that you're safe
If you’ve told us that a child is in danger, we may need to get them help. Sometimes the only way of doing that will be to contact you and ask you for more details. It may be the police that help us with this
We might ask social services to arrange to speak to you and see how they might be able to help you.
We take your confidentiality very seriously and will only consider speaking to someone else if we are really worried about what you have told us and we feel that you are unable to make decisions
If you have any concerns relating to the behaviour of a staff member of Social Circles or a volunteer, you may call or message the Lead Safeguarding Director on 07717 211422, or email to communities@socialcircles.org.uk
How we collect your data physically or verbally
We collect and record the following information in advance of an initial visit to determine eligibility to receive services and scope of works:
Address
Contact telephone number
During this initial visit we will collect the additional information required to confirm eligibility, determine the scope of works and assess whether a referral to additional services would be of benefit to the potential service user:
Equal opportunities information
Health information
Benefits, housing and financial status
At this visit we will also gain written consent as to what information may be shared and to whom, for preferred method of contact to enable service delivery (ie telephone, email or online message system), sign-up to our newsletter and use of photographs. This information will be used to determine an Action Plan and may be varied by the service user at future visits or by written communication by email or post.
It may be that to access particular funding or support that it is necessary that the service user agree to full disclosure with partner organisations, ie statutory organisations and housing associations to meet their obligations, and written consent to do so will be obtained at this first visit.
Third party service providers
We will not sell or share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.
We may pass your information to our third-party service providers, subcontractors, and other associated parties for the purposes of completing tasks on our behalf.
When we use third-party providers, we disclose only the information that is necessary to deliver the service and ensure we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes.
We employ the services of other trusted parties for dealing with certain processes necessary for our operations ie for online payments.
Your rights
At any time, you have the right to request and view your personal data held by Social Circles CIC. Your rights also include:
The right to be informed
The right of access
The right to rectification
The right to removal of information
The right to restrict processing
The right to data portability
The right to object
You may instruct us to provide you with any personal information we hold about you; provision of such information will be subject to the supply of appropriate evidence of your identity.
You may instruct us at any time not to process your personal information for marketing purposes.
Please contact us at communities@socialcircles.org.uk if you would like to exercise any of the above rights. We will provide a response with 30 days.
You also have the choice to unsubscribe from any direct marketing that we send you. This feature is included in all e-marketing campaigns. If you are having problems unsubscribing, please contact us. We will promptly take action to ensure you are “opted-out” from receiving further mailings. Although we will remove your name from our e-newsletter mail list as quickly as possible, please recognise that there may be a period of time after you unsubscribe during which you may still receive e-mails from us.
If you have a concern about how we have handled your information you can report this to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).
How long are records held?
Records required to provide the service to your household will be kept as long as necessary to continue providing services for your household. If you have reason to contact us to comment on our services or to raise a specific issue we will usually keep a record of that contact for two years, after which it will be deleted.
For queries regarding data protection and Social Circles CIC, please contact communities@socialcircles.org.uk
Website Our website https://www.socialcircles.org.uk/ uses the following cookies:
Google Analytics
Collects information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited.
Google Analytics Privacy Policy
You can choose to opt out of Google Analytics
Demographics and Interest Reporting
We use Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting to help understand the demographics of people using our website. We use this information to improve the site and make sure we match the information and services available with the needs of the people using it. These cookies contain no personally identifiable information.
We do not use any information reported by Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting to identify any individual user of our site.
If you don’t want your information collected in this way, you can:
– use Google’s Ad Settings to opt out of Display Advertising; or
– use Google’s Browser add-on to opt out of Google Analytics
Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
Updating information and contact details
Please let us know if the personal information that we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated by contacting communities@socialcircles.org.uk or by letter to our Registered Address.