PRIVACY POLICY

At Crossroads Care Kent we are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected and respected. Please read the following statement which sets out the basis on which any personal information collected about you or your family, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us.

Who are we?

Crossroads Care Kent is a registered Charity and a company limited by guarantee. Our services support family Carers of all ages and the people they care for. We serve a population of over 151,000 Carers in Kent and our services are delivered through our team of over 200 staff and 100 volunteers. This Privacy Notice is a statement to Carers, people with care needs, service users, the public, staff and volunteers and explains how we collect, use, retain and disclose personal information which we hold.

We Promise:

To always store your personal details securely.
We will never exchange or sell your information to another organisation.
To only hold your information for as long as necessary.
To make sure you are always in control of how we use your information, and that you will always have the right to ask us to stop using it, which we will do promptly.

We will only contact you in the ways that you wish, making use of what you've told us and publicly available information (which we may obtain from suppliers) to tailor our communications, so that they are more appropriate and relevant to your interests.

What information do we collect about you?

We collection information about you and family members when you register with us for any of our services and also when you start to receive our services. We collect information when you voluntarily complete service user surveys, provide feedback and participate in social events. The information we collect will include personal data and sensitive data.

These records may include the following information relevant to both the Carer and the person with care needs:

Basic details, such as name, address, phone number, date of birth, next of kin, GP details Details and records of treatment and medications including notes and reports about your health and treatment plan Contact we have had and home visits Information from people who care for you and know you well such as health professionals and relatives. Young Carers information will include schools attended.

It may also include personal sensitive information such as sexuality, race, your religion or beliefs and whether you have a disability, allergies or health conditions. It is important for us to have a complete picture as this information assists staff involved in your care to deliver and provide appropriate care and develop care plans to meet your needs. Information is collected in a number of ways; referral details from healthcare professionals and GPs; via your social care professional; statutory services; voluntary sector organisations; schools and youth workers or directly given by you. Cookies are small text files placed on your device by websites you visit. See the Cookies section below for what we use them for.

How will we use the information about you?

We collect information about you to assess need, prioritise and allocate services, and develop care plans.

How we use information:

To help inform decisions that we make about your care
To ensure your services are safe and effective
To develop care plans and assess risk
To work effectively with other organisations who may be involved in your care
To review care provided to ensure it is of the highest standard possible
To prepare statistics on organisational performance.

Who will the information be shared with?

We may share your information with a range of Health and Social Care organisations and regulatory bodies. You may be contacted by any one of these organisations for a specific reason; they will have a duty to tell you why they have contacted you. Information sharing is governed by specific rules and law.

As part of our contract we may also need to share information from your records with other organisations such as Kent County Council or other funding bodies.

However, we will not disclose any health information to third parties without your explicit consent, unless there are exceptional circumstances, such as when the health or safety of others is at risk or where the law requires the disclosure of information.

We may also be asked to share basic information about you, such as your name and parts of your address, which does not include sensitive information from your health records. Generally, we would only do this to assist them to carry out their statutory duties. In these circumstances, where it is not practical to obtain your explicit consent, we are informing you through this notice, which is referred to as a Privacy Notice, under the Data Protection Act.

How information is retained and kept safe?

Information is retained in secure electronic and paper records and access is restricted to only those who need to know. There are a number of ways in which your privacy is shielded – adhering to strict contractual conditions and ensuring strict sharing or processing agreements are in place. Technology allows us to protect information in a number of ways, in the main by restricting access. Our guiding principle is that we are holding your information in strict confidence. Information provided in confidence will only be used for the purposes to which you consent to, unless there are other circumstances covered by the law.

Marketing

We would like to keep in touch with you about the vital work we do for Carers, our fundraising appeals and opportunities to support us. We will never sell your data and we promise to keep your details safe and secure.

Cookies

We don't use cookies for analytics or advertising. The cookies and similar technologies on our website come from the tools we use to run it:

Language translation — if you use the "Translate this page" option, Google Translate sets a cookie (googtrans) to remember your chosen language. You can reset this at any time using the "View in English" link, which clears the cookie.
Website fonts — our website text is displayed using Google Fonts, loaded directly from Google's servers. This means your device's IP address is sent to Google as part of loading the page, in line with Google's own privacy policy.
Accessibility tools — our accessibility widget may store your display preferences (such as font size or contrast) in your browser so they're remembered on your next visit.
Donations — if you make a donation, you're taken to Stripe's own secure payment page to enter your card details. Stripe sets its own cookies there as part of fraud prevention, governed by Stripe's privacy policy.

Donations and Gift Aid

When you make a donation to us through our website, your payment is processed securely by Stripe, our payment provider. We do not see or store your card details — these are handled entirely by Stripe in line with industry payment security standards (PCI DSS).

If you choose to add Gift Aid to your donation, we ask Stripe's secure checkout page to collect your full name and home address (including postcode), along with your confirmation that you are a UK taxpayer. This allows us to reclaim tax on your donation from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), increasing its value to us at no extra cost to you.

This information is used only to prepare and support Gift Aid claims, and may be shared with a Gift Aid processing partner and/or submitted directly to HMRC as part of that claim. We retain Gift Aid declarations for as long as you remain an active donor, and for a minimum of six years after the tax year in which your most recent qualifying donation was made, in line with HMRC's record-keeping requirements.

If you donate by cheque, bank transfer or another offline method and wish to add Gift Aid, we will ask you to complete a Gift Aid declaration directly, which we hold and use for the same purpose.

You can cancel a Gift Aid declaration at any time, or ask us to stop using your information for this purpose, by contacting our Data Protection Officer using the details below.

Access to your information and correction:

Under the Data Protection Act 2018 a person may request access to information (with some exemptions) that is held about them by an organisation. You have the right to refuse/withdraw consent to information sharing at any time.

For more information on how to access the information we hold about you or to withdraw consent to share information that we hold about you, please contact:

Data Protection Officer Crossroads Care Kent The Oast 170 Tonbridge Road Wateringbury Kent, ME18 5NS Email: enquiries@crossroadskent.org Telephone: 0345 095 6701