Privacy Policy

ADHD Aware keeps information about its members, service users, employees, volunteers and supporters so that we can operate effectively and efficiently for the benefit of those we provide services to.

We take your privacy very seriously and we are committed to ensuring we keep your information safe. This Privacy policy describes how we will do this, so please read it.

If you need support to understand it, or if you need it in a different format, please email admin@adhdaware.org.uk or write to us at:

ADHD Aware, c/o Together Collective, Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton BN1 1YD.

Who is ADHD Aware?

We are ADHD Aware, a local voluntary organisation working to support adults living with ADHD. You can find more information about the services we provide here. 

What does this privacy policy cover?

This privacy policy sets out what information we collect from you and why, how we process it and how we store it securely. We’ll keep this policy updated so that you can be confident when sharing your information with us that it will only be used for what we say here. 

We aim to protect all the information we hold, in line with legal requirements and to maintain high standards of confidentiality, integrity and availability at all times.

We may obtain information by phone, text, email, online, and other methods like membership and attendance sheets. When collecting data, we will ensure that individuals:

  • Understand why the information is needed and what it will be used for.
  • Give consent, wherever possible in writing, for their data to be used.

Principles of data processing and lawful basis

When we collect and process your personal information we will also do this according to at least one of the legal grounds permitted under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The typical methods we will be relying on are:

  • Where you have given your consent, e.g. if sensitive personal data is collected to provide a service, or when you signed up to volunteer with us.
  • Where we are fulfilling a contract, e.g. to send you information about something you’ve asked for or as part of delivering a service you have requested.
  • Where we have a legal obligation, e.g. if you have generously agreed to gift aid a donation to us or in cases where we are worried about someone’s safety or if we receive information about a crime.

In certain instances, we may collect and use personal information where this is necessary in our legitimate interest as a voluntary organisation, this includes being able to:

  • Contacting supporters/volunteers and members by telephone, email or SMS text to arrange training, publicise events or fundraise
  • Maintain and administer our database and systems. This means we may hold a minimised amount of information on a suppression file to ensure there is a record of an individual’s objection to direct marketing.

In all cases, we balance our legitimate interests against your rights as an individual. We would always conduct an assessment to ensure we were balancing our legitimate interest to send you something with your right to privacy (get in touch if you’d like to know more about this).

We make sure we only use personal information in a way, or for a purpose, that you would reasonably expect in accordance with this policy. We will not intrude on your privacy or previously expressed marketing preferences.

What information do we collect about you?

ADHD Aware delivers a number of different services, usually involving volunteers, to a range of adult service users and their family, friends and partners, in Brighton & Hove and beyond. The type of data collected and its use may vary from service to service.

It is likely to include some, or all, of the following information; collected on paper in person or by post, digital sources such as our website or social media sites, telephone or text:

  • Identifiable – containing details that identify individuals
  • Pseudonymised – about individuals but with identifying details (such as name) replaced with a unique code
  • Anonymised – about individuals but with identifying details removed
  • Aggregated – anonymised information grouped together so that it doesn’t identify individuals (e.g. to report back to our funders about our work).

For example, we will collect:

Information you send us, or a referral agency has had your permission to send us:

  • Name
  • Address
  • DOB
  • Contact details (email and/or phone)
  • Medical conditions/ disabilities/ mental health
  • Your availability (if applying for a volunteer role)

Info you have given us permission to get and hold in relation to:

  • Your diagnosis/comorbidities
  • Your health and/or social care needs

Data includes images of individuals that might be used by ADHD Aware for communication purposes, such as on our website or social media, in our annual report or in a newsletter.  We will get the permission of all identifiable individuals who appear in a photo or video before storing or using any footage. Getting permission involves making it clear what the individual’s image will be used for and why, and who, might look at the pictures.

We may receive your information indirectly from independent fundraising sites such as Just Giving and Golden Giving, as well as social media applications including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Hootsuite and other applications like Eventbrite, Google Analytics, MailChimp, SurveyMonkey and Wufoo. These companies will only provide details if you have given them permission to do so. Please check their privacy policy to see how they process your information.

What do we do with your information?

Any personal data will be kept securely and will only be accessed when there is a clear business need to do so. Personal data obtained by ADHD Aware from management committee, volunteers, supporters or service users will be used to help ADHD Aware in the efficient running of services. This data is stored and may, depending on the service concerned, be processed for purposes that include:

  • Recruiting and selecting volunteers and committee members
  • Coordinating criminal record checks when appropriate
  • Training and managing volunteers
  • Assessing and supporting service users
  • Communicating about what we do, fundraising and other areas we think may be of interest to you
  • Providing reports to funders and commissioners.

For our website, we want to provide a positive experience for you, as well as use our resources effectively. Therefore we may:

  • Analyse how visitors use our website to improve the user experience of website visitors. We use Google Analytics to do this.
  • Contact you if you complete but don’t submit an online form to see if we can assist with any problems you may be having with our website.

Who do we share your information with?

Your information may be shared with specific volunteers or partner organisations where necessary to deliver the service requested.  At the point of referral you will be informed of the details relating to any data sharing agreements with relevant partners. This will either be on your consent form, or in discussion with staff about specific onward referrals.

We may need to disclose your details if required to the police, regulatory bodies or legal advisors. Further details on breaching confidentiality can be found in our Privacy Policy. You can request a copy of this by emailing admin@adhdaware.org.uk

How long do we keep your information for?

We hold your information only as long as necessary for each purpose we use it.  Personal data held on paper is destroyed securely when it is no longer needed. Data held electronically is regularly reviewed and data that is no longer needed deleted.

Personal data will be stored for as long as:

  • A volunteer is being considered for, or fulfils a role.
  • An individual is classified as an ADHD Aware employee, unless longer or shorter retention is required by law or by a funder.
  • For marketing and fundraising purposes we would balance the organisation’s legitimate interest to contact you about our work – based on your recency of support and level of engagement with the charity – with your rights as an individual to be forgotten.
  • If you request that we stop sending you marketing materials/cancel you from our database we may, if you agree, keep a record of your contact details and appropriate information to enable us to comply with your request not to be contacted by us.

We will remove personal data from ADHD Aware databases and destroy personal data held on paper or in electronic form if asked to do so by a former volunteer or service user, or if an organisation that has provided personal data ceases to exist.

In the instance where a volunteer, who has been working with service users (who are potentially vulnerable), wishes to withdraw their consent for us to store data relating to them, we have a legitimate interest to maintain a record of their volunteering in line with our data retention policy in case of allegation or investigation. We will store the minimum information required for the purpose and will inform volunteers if this happens. This data will not be processed for any purpose (such as marketing or promotion) other than that intended (in case of allegation or investigation relating to a vulnerable service user).

How do we keep your information safe?

We are committed to keeping your personal data safe and secure and we take all necessary steps to make sure your details are held securely. We will never sell or share your information with other charities or organisations unless stated for the purposes of providing a service.

Personal data such as attendance sheets will be held on paper and be stored in a locked wallet and only accessed when needed. We will ensure that all personal information held electronically – including that held on our database Mailchimp, in e-mails and letters – is accessed and secured by minimum strength passwords or encryption and appropriate anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall software.

We use industry standard efforts to safeguard the confidentiality of your personally identifiable information on our website.

When we use external organisations and companies to collect or process personal data on our behalf, we check they have security and privacy policies in place before we work with them. For service delivery, we also put a contract/service agreement in place that sets out our expectations and requirements.

Confidentiality

There may occasionally be circumstances in which it would be appropriate to pass personal data to someone outside the organisation, without the explicit consent of the individual concerned. For example, breaching confidentiality may be necessary:

  • To protect a person who is in a dangerous or life threatening situation;
  • If our volunteers or paid staff would otherwise be breaking the law or allowing someone else to break the law; or
  • If there is a court order for disclosure.

If an ADHD Aware paid staff member or volunteer has concerns about the safety or well-being of member, s/he should make those concerns known as soon as possible to the relevant mentor/committee member (or another ADHD Aware volunteer if the mentor is unavailable). The mentor/committee member should consider what information should be shared and with whom, in order to reduce the risk of harm, and what the impact of disclosure on the individual or on third parties might be.

The person whose details are to be disclosed should be told at the earliest opportunity what information will be disclosed, who will be told and why they are to be told. Wherever possible, the individual should be asked to give consent before disclosure happens and given the opportunity to discuss alternatives and to plan for likely outcomes. Every effort should be made to give the individual as much control as possible over the process of breaching confidentiality and to keep him/her informed at each stage of any action Impetus takes.

Only relevant information should be shared with those who need to see it. It should be adequate for its purpose, accurate, up to date and should distinguish clearly between fact and opinion. If the information is historical, then this should be explained.

Information should be shared in a timely way to reduce the risk of harm. In emergency situations it may not be appropriate to seek consent for information sharing if doing so would cause delays. Wherever possible, information should be shared in an appropriate, secure way.

Decisions about sharing information (and so potentially breaching confidentiality) should be noted in writing in the service’s regular record-keeping system. Records should include a note of discussions held and the reasons for the decision.

How is your data from our website used?

Information you supply using any electronic form(s) on this website will only be used for the purpose(s) stated on the form.

Information you provide in emails to us, from our website and directly, will only be used for the purpose (which we reasonably believe) that you give it to us for.

Information you provide us with may be used for statistical research but will not be used in any way (beyond its original purpose) which enables you to be identified.

Cookie Policy

When visiting the ADHD Aware website, cookies are used to store certain information to make the site function and improve your overall experience of our site.

Further information can be found in our Cookies Policy which you can find here.

External links

External links are provided on this website to provide users with additional information. ADHD Aware cannot guarantee that such links will always work and are not responsible for their content. 

We cannot be held responsible for the privacy policies of third party websites and we advise users to read the privacy policies of other websites before registering any personal data.

Marketing and fundraising

Please note that the term ‘Marketing’ includes news and information about:

  • The work we do at ADHD Aware.
  • Volunteering opportunities with ADHD Aware and the services we provide.
  • Our events, activities and groups.
  • Appeals and fundraising (including donations and also competitions, raffles etc).

When you receive a communication, we may collect information about how you respond to or interact with that communication, and this may affect how we communicate with you in future.

Fundraising

As a charity, we rely on donations and support from others to help us fund the work we do. From time to time, we will contact supporters and volunteers with fundraising material and communications. This might be about sponsorship, and appeal, a competition we’re running, or to suggest ways you can help us to raise funds (e.g. a sponsored event or activity).

We will only contact you about getting involved in this way if you have either given your consent or if there is a balanced legitimate interest to do so. See ‘Legal basis and legitimate interest’ for more information.

You are in control and you can change your contact preferences at any time, but we hope that you will find our communications useful and informative. You can decide not to receive communications or change how we contact you at any time. If you wish to do so please email us at admin@adhdaware.org.uk or write to us:

ADHD Aware, c/o Together Collective, Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton BN1 1YD.

What if any of my information needs correcting? 

The accuracy of your information is really important to us so if you spot any mistakes, please let us know and we will correct them. We want to ensure that we are able to communicate with you in ways that you are happy with, and to provide you with information that is of interest. If you wish to change how we communicate with you, or update the information we hold, then please contact us:

  • Email us at: admin@adhdaware.org.uk
  • Write to us at: FAO Data Protection Officer, Chair of ADHD Aware, c/o Together Collective, Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton BN1 1YD. 

You may also choose to stop receiving further emails from the charity at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the foot of marketing emails from the charity, but please be aware we will still email you with updates about any service-related information you require.

Can I access my information?

You have a right to ask to see a copy of the information we hold about you.  If you want a copy of your personal information, send a description of the information you want to see and proof of your identity by post or email.

Email us at: admin@adhdaware.org

Write to us at: FAO Data Protection Officer, Chair of ADHD Aware, c/o Together Collective, Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton BN1 1YD. 

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise Your Rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances. Please refer to the following guidance: Information Commissioner’s guidance