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The voice of specialist further education

Natspec Privacy Policy

Contents

Introduction

This policy gives you information about the way in which we use, share and store information. It includes details of what we collect, what we do with the information, who we may share it with and why, and your rights in regard to the personal information you have given us.

We may need to make changes to our Privacy Policy; so please check our website for updates from time to time. If there are important changes such as changes to where your personal data will be processed; we will contact you to let you know.

Who we are

Natspec is the membership body for organisations which offer specialist further education and training provision for students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.

Natspec is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, registered in England and our company number is 5908897. Our registered office is Robin’s Wood House, Robin’s Wood Road, Aspley, Nottingham NG8 3NH.

Information we collect and use

We collect the names, job titles and email/ telephone contact details of individuals who work at our member organisations, or who work at other organisations within the further education sector, or who work for one of the organisations we work with in the education, health, social care or charitable sectors. We also collect information on health, dietary and access requirements where it is needed to provide appropriate services at any of our events.

We collect information from a variety of sources, including from our website, from individual contact you might have with us, from delegate information for events, and from emails and letters sent to us. The sections below detail what we do with the information from each of these sources.

We also collect information from places such as business directories and other publicly available sources, for example to check or improve the information we hold, such as email or postal addresses.

We take your privacy seriously and we will only ever collect and use information which is personal to you where it is necessary, fair and lawful to do so. We will collect and use your information only where:

You have given your permission/ consent for us to send you information

It is necessary to provide the service you have requested (e.g. if you wish to attend one of our courses, or you request information in the post)

It is necessary for us to fulfil a contractual obligation with you

It is necessary for us to meet our legal obligations

It is in our legitimate interest and where there is minimal privacy impact (e.g. relating to contacting our members as a membership body, or people who have used our services, or to improve service user experience or develop new products and services).

Visitors to our website/blogs and use of cookies

Our website uses WordPress and is self-hosted on a server in Manchester. Our website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookies are small files that store small pieces of information. For example – they will remember you’ve visited our website or performed a certain action, or a cookie might store information, so you don’t have to keep entering it.

We use cookies to help us improve your experience when you visit our website, and they help our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. We also use Google Analytics to help us to understand how you make use of our content and work out how we can make things better. Cookies follow your progress through our website, collecting anonymous data on where you have come from, which pages you visit, and how long you spend on the site. This data is then stored by Google in order to create reports. These cookies do not store your personal data.

The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website, including your IP address, may be transmitted to and stored by Google. Google may use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for us and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. By using our website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above. You can view their privacy policy here: https://policies.google.com/privacy/update

Forms on our website

We collect data using forms on our website, including sign up forms for events and prospectus requests on our college pages. We hold the details of people who have used these forms in order to provide the service requested and for other closely related purposes. For example, we might use information about people who have signed up for events to carry out a survey afterwards to ask if they are happy with the event. When people subscribe to our services and/or Natspec News, they can cancel their subscription at any time either by using the “unsubscribe” link on the mailings they receive or by calling the Natspec office on 0115 8541322.

People who contact us using social media

We collect the information shared with us by users on social media who want us to carry out specific requests related to Natspec’s services. Their information is held securely on our servers and is deleted after 24 months of non-use.

Picture usage

Natspec uses images obtained with permission from member colleges and related partners to use in marketing collateral, newsletters, directories, social media and our website to promote our members and events.

We store these images securely on our servers and cloud storage and manage these on an on-going basis. We do not store images we don’t use and delete unused images after 24 months.

We use a graphic design software called Canva to create and edit images for social media, email and website usage; Canva stores these images securely and the account is only accessible to Natspec employees.

You reserve the right to access any images of you that we hold, share it with you and request we delete them.

People and organisations who use our services

We collect the names, email addresses, work postal addresses and job titles of people who use our services, for example people that book onto conferences, events and training courses. We use this information to provide the service that you have requested, and to make you aware of other similar services that are available in the coming year. We keep this information for 12 months, when you will have a chance to remove your data or update your details.

Billing information – if you make a payment to Natspec, we collect your billing information including a name, email address and financial information corresponding to your selected method of payment. (e.g. a credit or debit card number and expiration date).

We also collect names, user names and passwords from individuals who work for organisations that join as Natspec members, via the member only section of our website.

E-newsletter

We use a third party provider, MailChimp, to deliver our e-newsletter and member briefings. We gather statistics on the number of opens and clicks through to other links using industry standard technology. For more information, please see MailChimp’s privacy policy: https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/?_ga=2.224735001.2004009908.1526291442-1513120584.1516636242

We use e-newsletters to send information about upcoming courses, events and services. You can opt-out of these mailings at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” button on them.

Surveys

We use Survey Monkey to collect data from people who attend our events, and from member organisations regarding current issues and details regarding their provision. None of our surveys asks for personal details regarding students, their carers or their families. When we analyse survey responses and produce reports, these are anonymous and do not include personal data. For more details, please see Survey Monkey’s privacy policy: https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/legal/privacy-policy/?ut_source=gdpr_consent_banner

Job applicants, current and former Natspec employees

Natspec is the data controller for information you provide during the process of applying to work with us. All of the information you provide during the process will only be used for the purpose of progressing your application, or to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements if necessary.

We will not share any of the information you provide during the recruitment process with any third parties for marketing purposes or store any of your information outside of the European Economic Area. The information you provide will be held securely by us whether the information is in electronic or physical format. We will use the contact details you provide to us to contact you to progress your application. We will use the other information you provide to assess your suitability for the role you have applied for.

If you are unsuccessful following assessment for the position you have applied for, we may ask if you would like your details to be retained in our talent pool for a period of twelve months. If you say yes, we would proactively contact you should any further suitable vacancies arise. If you say no, we destroy your data after three months.

If you are successful, we are required to confirm the identity of our staff, their right to work in the United Kingdom and seek assurance as to their trustworthiness, integrity and reliability.

You will therefore be required to provide proof of your identity, proof of your qualifications and we will contact your referees, using the details you provide in your application. We will also ask you for bank details to process salary payments and emergency contact details so we know who to contact in case you have an emergency at work.

Data processors are third parties who provide elements of our HR and salary processing service for us. We have contracts in place with our data processors. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us. They will hold it securely and retain it for the period we instruct.

Access to personal information

You have the right to be informed about what personal information we have, why we have it and who we share it with. You also have the right of access to this information and the right to request that we make any changes if your personal information is inaccurate or incomplete. You can also ask for your information to be deleted or removed from one of our systems. You can ask that we block or suppress the processing of your personal information for certain reasons. This means that we are still permitted to keep your information – but that we agree not to use it in the future for those reasons you have restricted.

Individuals can find out if we hold any personal information by making a request in writing to our postal address or by emailing info@natspec.org.uk

You can also download any data about you which is stored on our website, by using the personal data report available to all those who have an account on the website.

If you agree, we will try to deal with your request informally, for example by providing you with the specific information you need over the telephone.

If we do hold information about you, you can ask us to correct any mistakes.

Changes to this privacy notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This edition was last updated on 20 July 2020

Complaints or queries

Natspec strives to meet high standards when collecting and using personal information and we take any complaints seriously. Please contact us if you think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate.

We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures. You can contact us with questions, comments, complaints or suggestions regarding our process or how we handle your information by emailing info@natspec.org.uk or by telephone 0115 8541322.

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