Privacy Notice

Introduction

Maternity Voices Greater Manchester & Eastern Cheshire is network of partnerships across the Greater Manchester, and Eastern Cheshire regions. We work to ensure that your voices are heard by NHS Trusts, commissioners and others and represent your views.

We understand that when you share your details with us, we must look after this information (your personal data) and comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (together we refer to these as ‘data protection laws’).

We need to tell you what we are collecting, why and what we are using your information for. We also need to tell you who is the ‘Controller’ of the information collected so, on behalf of the network, the controller is Voice for Choices CIC (a Community Interest Company register in England and Wales 11541753).  You can contact us at 16 St. Georges Road, Bury, England, BL9 8JG or by email hello@maternityvoicesgmec.org.uk.

Voices for Choices CIC is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office – ZB072738. We also complete the Data Security & Protection Toolkit (DSPT) for health and care data and our ODS code is G3L6U.

What do we collect about you and why?

We collect information about our Maternity Voices Partnership members and chairs, supporters, stakeholders, volunteers, as well as service-users. This information is: 

  • a name
  • contact details
  • role and relationship with us

And if you are a service-user we will also collect

  • date of birth
  • gender
  • ethnicity
  • where you live 
  • reasons for coming to us and personal stories

When you visit our website and fill in the contact us form, or subscribe to our newsletter, we will collect your details and your email address.

The information collected helps us gain a better understanding of current local maternity services so that improvements can be made in the future.

From time to time, we also run surveys which collect information to help us. You will have the opportunity to see what information we are asking for when you click on the link, but all our surveys are voluntary so if you are not happy you can leave the survey site.

In using our website, like many websites, some details may be collected about your IP Address (we know, it is a technical term for your device’s electronic address) or a cookie (a small file) may be dropped onto your computer to collect some information about your use of the website. The cookies are those that are essential to the site working and for limited analytics to ensure our website is performing. We do use scripts or native social media buttons to link you to our social media and these may build profiles of your use. We would recommend you read the privacy and cookie notices on each social media platform for more information.

What allows us to collect this (or the lawful basis)

Typing your name and email address on the website contact form, subscribing to newsletters, or providing contact details if you call us, is with your consent. Unless we are providing you with support and a service, you can tell us that you no longer wish us to contact you, or you wish to ‘unsubscribe’ at any time by emailing us at hello@maternityvoicesgmec.org.uk.

If you are receiving a service from us, we will collect any necessary information with your consent. Where this information may be more sensitive personal data such as medical information, we will only collect this with your explicit consent.

To run the Maternity Voices Network and Partnerships, we need to collect certain information. We have a legitimate interest in collecting this as we cannot operate the partnership or our services without it. For example, we need to collect payment details if we are paying invoices. We have a legitimate interest to ensure our services meet the needs of the services users, and that our partners and volunteers are working to our policies and procedures, so we collect information to help us audit our work.

We also have a legal obligation to keep certain financial information for HMRC, and to comply with funding requirements which may form part of a contract.

Storing and keeping your information  

Keeping your personal information and contact information safe and secure is important to us. We understand how frustrating it can be when others do not keep personal information safe and secure.

All our Partners, Chairs and volunteers use devices that have security features enabled and work to policies and procedures for data protection and confidentiality.

Where possible we will store your information in the UK, however, service providers, such as Microsoft may use storage facilities elsewhere. Where we use any computer applications, such as accounting software, we will ensure that contracts and licences are in place with the suppliers.

In general, we will keep your information for the length of time required by law, for example financial records must be kept for 6 years, otherwise it will be kept for 12 months after we stop providing you a service.

If you have consented to allow us to use your information for contacting you, it will be kept until you inform us that you no longer wish to receive these.

When we no longer need to keep your information, we will dispose of it securely.

Will we share your information?

We do need to share any accounts information with our appointed accountant, and they will have restricted, secure access to this information.

If you provide us with a personal story or information that is concerned with issues of malpractice, safeguarding or a crime, we will share information with others where you have asked us to do this on your behalf.  

Otherwise, we will not share your information with anyone unless we are required to do this by law, or we are ordered to do so by a Court.

Your rights

You have a number of rights for your personal information. You can ask to see the personal information that we hold about you (known as a Subject Access Request), or even ask us to correct it or delete it. You are not required to pay a fee for exercising your rights. If you ask us for a copy of your information, we have one month to respond to you. To do this you can contact us at hello@maternityvoicesgmec.org.uk

More information on your rights can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.ico.org.uk.

How to complain

We have to tell you how to make a complaint, but we are positive you will not need to do this. To raise a complaint on how we have handled your information, you can contact us at hello@maternityvoicesgmec.org.uk and we will look into this.

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are using your information in a way that is not in accordance with the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, Telephone 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or by completing their online form at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/your-personal-information-concerns/.

Privacy Notice Review

Please come back to this privacy notice every once in a while, as we may review the notice if there are any changes to the data protection laws, our services or the personal information we collect.

Last Review Date: Jan 2024