Privacy and GDPR

Your personal privacy is very important to us.

We know the risks facing survivors of domestic abuse and stalking and understand the importance of keeping your personal information safe.

Changing Pathways is committed to keeping your personal information safe and secure and will only share your information with other agencies with your express permission.

However, if we have serious concerns about you and or your child’s safety then we will have to share this information with other agencies such as social services. We will always endeavour to tell you about this before sharing this information.

What information will we collect?

We will ask you to share your personal information with us to help us support you with your needs and to help keep you safe. This will include identifiable information such as name, address and date of birth. We will also ask you to provide information that is considered as ‘special category’ including your ethnicity, sexual orientation and if you have any health conditions.

We will only process your data with your consent and you will be asked to complete a form to confirm that we are able to do this.

We will ask you to provide information in a variety of ways which could include face to face, by telephone or via secure email. We may also receive personal information from other agencies who may be making a referral to our service on your behalf.

How we use your information

We will collect your personal information to help us to understand what your support needs are and the level of risk you are facing due to the domestic abuse and/or stalking that you are experiencing.

Your personal information will help us to advocate on your behalf in a number of support areas including housing, health, children, finances, welfare benefits, education and training.

We may use your personal information to contact you once your support has ended. You can let your Support Practitioner or the Data Protection Officer know if you would not like us to contact you once you have left our service.

How we protect your information?

We have secure electronic and paper systems in place and clear policies and procedures for keeping your personal information safe to avoid access, alterations, disclosure or destruction of your personal information.

Changes to this privacy policy

Changing Pathways has the right to update this privacy policy at any time.

Access to your data

You have the right to access the information that we hold about you and we will provide this information to you within 30 days.

You can email the Data Protection Officer or contact 01268 729 707 to make this request.

How long will we store your personal data for?

We will keep your data stored securely for six years after you stop receiving a service from us. You can request access to your data at any time during this period. There may be exceptions to this time period and we will endeavour to make you aware of these changes.

Further information

You can find out more information about how we use your personal details or to make a complaint about how we have handled your data by contacting our Data Protection Officer; welcome@changingpathways.org or by calling 01268 729 707.

Changing Pathways is registered as a ‘Data Controller’ with the Information Commissioner Office (ICO) and our registration number is ZA296730. You can find out more information about the ICO by visiting https://ico.org.uk/