We will look after any personal information that you share with us.
This is central to our values as an organisation. We want everyone who supports us, or who comes to us for support, to feel confident about how any personal information they share will be looked after or used.
You can be confident that:
· We only use personal information in the ways we need to and that is expected of us.
· We will keep you up to date with our work, including information about our services, raising awareness, promoting understanding as well as our fundraising activities.
· But we only use your personal information to do this if you have previously told us that’s OK.
· We will make it easy for you to tell us how you want us to communicate with you, including how to opt out from future communications - and we promise your request will respected straight away.
· We will never release your information to organisations outside West Sussex Mind for their marketing purposes.
· We will be especially careful and sensitive when engaging with vulnerable people or those we have reason to believe might be vulnerable
· We take all reasonable care to safeguard your personal information through security policies and secure business processes.
· We will always provide easy ways for you to contact us and if you have any queries about data protection we will be happy to discuss this with you. Email us at info@westsussexmind.org.
West Sussex Mind privacy policy
We know that your privacy is very important to you. We promise that it is even more important to us.
1. Who we are
Here at West Sussex Mind, we are committed to protecting your personal information and ensuring that it is processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently.
West Sussex Mind is a Data Controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation 2021 (UK GDPR). This means that we are responsible for and control the processing of your personal information when it is collected directly from you. Additionally, we act as a Data Processor when information is provided to us by third parties, such as when you are referred by another data controller, as an example your GP. In some cases, we may also act as Joint Data Controller where both parties carry some liability.
We also comply with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), which set out specific requirements for electronic communications, including marketing and the use of cookies on our website.
For further information about our privacy practices or to receive a copy of our Data Protection Policy, please contact our Data Protection Officer by:
· Writing: West Sussex Mind; 8 – 10 Durrington Lane; Worthing, West Sussex BN13 2QG
· Email: info@westsussexmind.org
· Tel: 0300 303 5652
2. How we collect personal information about you
Everything we do, we do to ensure that we can help people experiencing a mental health problem get both support and respect. We want to make sure you receive the communications that are most relevant to you, be it through visiting our website or receiving emails, post or phone calls. We want to make sure you receive the best attention when you book on an event, become a member or make a donation.
We collect information from you in the following ways:
· When you interact with us directly: This could be if you ask us about our activities, register with us for training or an event, make a donation to us, ask a question about mental health, purchase something, complete a survey providing feedback on our services, apply for a job or volunteering opportunity or otherwise provide us with your personal information. This includes when you phone us, visit our website, or get in touch through the post, or in person.
· When you interact with us through third parties: This could be if you provide a donation through a third party such as Just Giving or one of the other third parties that we work with.
· When you visit our website: We gather general information which might include which pages you visit most often and which services, events or information is of most interest to you. We may also track which pages you visit when you click on links in emails from us. We also use "cookies" to help our site run effectively. There are more details below – see '8. Cookies'. We use this information to personalise the way our website is presented when you visit to make improvements and to ensure we provide the best service and experience for you. Wherever possible we use anonymous information which does not identify individual visitors to our website.
3. What personal information do we collect?
Personal information we may collect includes details such as your name, date of birth, email address, postal address, telephone number, health information and credit/debit card details (if you are making a purchase or donation), as well as information you provide in any communications between us. You will have given us this information whilst using one of our services, donating, registering for an event, placing an order on our website or any of the other ways you interact with us and should only be giving this information at an appropriate time. We may also receive personal information about you if we have received a referral on your behalf from a health professional.
We may use this information to:
· Provide you with the important advice and support you’ve asked us for, whether this be over the phone, via email or other important services.
· Provide or administer activities relating to all our services: updating you with important administrative messages, to help us identify you when you contact us, and help us to properly maintain our records.
· Improve your experience with us. We may use your information to enhance the service that our staff provide, to support you to fundraise for us and gift aid declarations, to improve our information and communications.
· Where you volunteer with us, to administer the volunteering arrangement.
· Enable us to properly investigate if you or your family have a concern or complaint about the support you are receiving.
· Provide you with information about our plans. This may be letting you know about new or enhanced services that we hope will be useful and interesting to you and may include fundraising updates. Of course, we will
only do this either with your consent, where we need to fulfil a contract or service with you, or where we believe you will expect to be updated and contacted by us. You can of course ask us at any time to change how we contact you, simply contact info@westsussexmind.org.
· Update you with important administrative messages about your donation, an event or services or goods you have requested.
· Process your donations or other payments, to claim Gift Aid on your donations and verify any financial transactions.
· Comply with the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016 and follow the recommendations of the official regulator of charities, the Charity Commission, which require us to identify and verify the identity of supporters who make major gifts so we can assess any risks associated with accepting their donations.
· We may need to disclose your information if required to do so by law (for example, to comply with applicable laws, regulations and codes of practice or in response to a valid request from a competent authority).
If you do not provide this information, we may not be able to process your donation or sign you up for a particular event.
A special note about the sensitive information we hold:
Data protection law recognises that some types of personal information are more sensitive and so it is referred to as Special Category Data. This type of personal data can include information about a person’s health, race, ethnic origin, political opinions, sex life, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, trade union membership, genetics, or biometrics.
If you share any Special Category Data with us, by telephone, email or by other means, we will treat that information with care and confidentiality and always in accordance with data protection law.
We will only use this information:
· For the purposes of providing you with support, dealing with your enquiry, safeguarding, and quality monitoring or evaluating the services we provide.
· We will not pass on your details to anyone else without your express consent except in exceptional circumstances. Examples of this might include anyone reporting serious self-harm or posing a threat to themselves or others or children contacting us and sharing serious. If you are aged under 18 and getting support with us, we will talk to you about what we need to share with your parent or carer to ensure that you are safe.
· Where you have given us your explicit consent or otherwise clearly indicated to us (for example, by submitting your story through our 'Your Stories' website page) that you are happy for us to share your story, then we may publish it on our blog or in other media.
4. Who sees your personal information?
The personal information we collect about you will be used by our employees and volunteers in West Sussex Mind so that they can support you; also, by a few selected organisations that work with us or on our behalf to deliver our services; and possibly to legal and regulatory authorities if required to by law.
We will never sell or share your personal information with organisations so that they can contact you for any marketing activities.
5. Your information security
We take the security of your personal information extremely seriously.
We've implemented appropriate physical, technical and organisational measures to protect the personal information we have under our control, both on and off-line, from improper access, use, alteration, destruction and loss.
Here are some of the ways we protect your personal information:
· Offline, your personal information is kept securely in our databases and offices, or, where relevant, by our partner companies.
· Our website may contain links to other sites. While we try to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the content, or the privacy practices employed by other sites. Please be aware that advertisers or web sites that have links on our site may collect personally identifiable information about you. This privacy statement does not cover the information practices of those websites or advertisers.
· Any debit or credit card details which we receive our payment processing partner, according to the Payment Card Industry Security Standards
6. How long do we keep your information and what are your choices?
Your personal information and details of the enquiries received are stored for no longer than is necessary for the purposes of its use. If you a supporter of West Sussex Mind this could include fulfilling statutory obligations such as the collection of Gift Aid.
We carry out periodic deletion of data whose retention period has expired and/or when the need to continue holding such data is no longer necessary.
Please be reassured that respect lies at the heart of everything our committed employees and volunteers do: we respect any information that you share with us and you can change your mind and remove or add your consent at any time, by simply contacting us on info@westsussexmind.org
In certain circumstances, you may choose to remain anonymous. For instance, if you share your personal details with staff members or consent to us sharing your story with the media or other parties as part of our efforts to highlight personal experiences with mental health (e.g., on our blog).
7. Marketing
We will only contact you about our work and how you can support West Sussex Mind via phone, or electronic communications if you have provided your explicit consent for us to do so, in compliance with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and GDPR.
If you have provided us with your postal address, we may send you information about our work and how you can support West Sussex Mind by mail unless you have indicated that you prefer not to receive such communications.
8. Cookies
When you first visit our website, we will ask for consent to set any cookies (and to process any personal data collected by these cookies) which are not strictly necessary to make our pages work: you will be able to set your preferences at this stage. Where cookies are strictly necessary, we consider that we have a legitimate interest in processing the personal data they collect.
You can always withdraw your consent by clearing cookies from the cache in your computer and rejecting them next time you visit our site.
We may also use similar technologies to identify when our emails are opened. This allows us to identify whether our marketing campaigns are effective, and we consider that we have a legitimate interest in doing so.
For more information about our use of cookies and tags, different types of cookies, the information they collect and further information about how you can control the types of cookies that are placed on your browser, please refer to our Cookies Policy.
9. Your communication with our teams at West Sussex Mind
Your communications with our teams (including by telephone or email) may be monitored and/or recorded for training, quality control and compliance purposes to ensure that we continuously improve our customer service standards.
10. Updating your preferences
You can update your communication preferences or opt out of receiving communications from us at any time by contacting us at info@westsussexmind.org.uk or by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the relevant communication.
11. How to update or access your personal information
You may ask us at any time to update your details. You also have a right to know what personal information West Sussex Mind holds about you and to request that we correct or remove information that you think is inaccurate. To request any of these, you can contact us by:
· Writing: West Sussex Mind; 8 – 10 Durrington Lane, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 2QG
· Email: info@westsussexmind.org
· Tel: 0300 303 5652
You will be asked to confirm your identity before we can provide you with your personal information.
For more information on how you can access your records, correct any inaccuracies or object to any information we keep under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation 2021 (UK GDPR), please contact us on 0300 303 5652 or go to the Information Commissioner’s Office website (www.ico.org.uk).
12. Changes to our Privacy Policy
Our Privacy Policy is reviewed regularly to ensure that it reflects how we use your information. Any changes will be notified to you by updating this policy so please check this policy to see if any changes have been made that are important to you. Where appropriate, changes will be notified to you by email.
This Privacy Policy (version 2.1) was last updated May 2025.