Please follow these links for our other privacy policies:

Medical – Privacy Policy
Volunteers – Privacy Policy
HR – Privacy Policy

At Severn Hospice we are committed to respecting and protecting your privacy. This policy is concerned with how we collect information, what we do with it and what controls you have.

We may change this document from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure you’re happy with any changes.

1. Who we are?

We’re Severn Hospice, a charity providing care and support to people in Shropshire, Telford and Mid Wales who are living with an incurable illness.

In this policy references to ‘Severn Hospice’ or to ‘we’, ‘our’ or ‘us’ are to Severn Hospice a registered (charity no. 512394) and a company limited by guarantee (company no. 1608025). Severn Hospice’s registered office is Bicton Heath, Shrewsbury, SY3 8HS. These references also include our charitable trading companies  Severn Promotions Company Limited (registered company number 2973920) and Hospice Projects Limited (registered company number 2229635) –wholly owned subsidiaries of Severn Hospice which trade only to raise funds for their parent company, Severn Hospice.

2. How we collect information

We collect your information in a number of ways.

Information you give us

• You may give us information electronically, e.g. via our website or on a tablet/computer when; purchasing an item in our online shop, registering for one of our hospice events, completing an online donation form, signing up for our lottery, purchasing tickets for one of our enhanced raffles, or filling out a feedback form.
• You may give us information when completing a paper-based form to; sign up to Gift Aid, order an item (e.g. Christmas cards, forget-me-not keepsakes, wedding favours, lottery gift vouchers etc), apply to become a volunteer, register for one of our hospice events, sponsor an individual, become a regular giver, give a donation, sign up to our lottery, purchase raffle tickets, or self-exclude from our lottery.
• You may give us information in person or over the phone when; registering for Gift Aid, signing up for one of our hospice events, making a donation, expressing an interest in fundraising for us, sharing an experience of our work for publicity purposes, signing up to our lottery, or purchasing raffle tickets.

Information we receive from other sources

• We may receive information from fundraising websites such as Justgiving or Virgin Money if you are using these portals to fundraise for us or have sponsored someone who is fundraising for us.
• We work closely with suppliers and partners (including, for example, sub-contractors in technical, print, payment and delivery services and professional fundraising agencies who may send out letters of appeal or who may make fundraising asks on our behalf) and may receive information about you from them.
• We sometimes use publicly available sources (e.g. the Post Office’s National Change of Address database) to keep your information up to date. 

3. What information we collect

Severn Hospice is what’s known as the ‘controller’ of the personal information you provide to us. We will usually collect basic personal data about you such as:

• Name
• Postal address
• Telephone number
• Email address
• Bank details (if you are supporting us financially)

Sometimes we will collect other information about you such as:

• Date of birth/Age
• Gender
• Medical conditions
• Emergency contact details of a friend/relative

We will only collect this ‘sensitive personal data’ if there is a clear reason for doing so, such as participation in a strenuous event, where we need this information to ensure we provide appropriate facilities and can give support in case of emergency.

4. How we use the information we collect

We collect your personal information in connection with specific activities, such as product purchases, donations, registration requests etc. The information is either needed to fulfil your request or to enable us to provide you with a more personalised service.

We may use information held about you in the following ways:

• For administration purposes (for example, we may contact you to provide a receipt for a donation you have made, to send out materials for an event you have registered for, to process an order you have placed, to chase sponsorship payment, to provide relevant information if you have signed up to volunteer with us, or notify you of details relating to your lottery subscription including sending out prizes).
• To take a payment from you (for example, if you have purchased an item from us online, if you have booked a place on one of our events, if you have made a donation using your debit/credit card, if you have signed up to our lottery)
• To claim Gift Aid from the government if you have signed up to the scheme with us. If you have registered for our Retail Gift Aid scheme, we are also legally required to email or write to you if we make a claim.
• For holding records that we are legally required to keep, for example regarding Gift Aid or your lottery subscription for the Gambling Commission.
• To contact your next of kin in case of emergency if you are an events participant or a volunteer with us. If you are taking part in an event, we may also hold details of any pre-existing medical conditions you provide us with for health and safety reasons.
• To code and record transactions against your supporter record on our databases so that we can keep a record of the financial support you have given us (e.g. dates and values of donations).
• To keep a note of your preferences on what and how you want to engage with us. This includes keeping a record of all those supporters who have notified us they do not want any contact from us.
• To raise funds (for example we may send you information about how you can support us, for example, by purchasing raffle tickets, donating to an appeal or volunteering with us)
• To keep you up to date with how your support is helping our patients and those closest to them.
• To provide you with information about our work and activities.
• To analyse the personal information we collect to create a profile of your interests and preferences so we can better understand our supporters and make appropriate requests to our supporters who may be able and willing to give more than they already do.
• To contact you about upgrading your support for Severn Hospice (for example, by changing payment method or donation amount).
• To keep your information up to date and accurate.

5. If you are a supporter will you be contacted for marketing purposes?

Keeping in touch with our supporters is really important to us because it means, together, we can help more local people with incurable illnesses. Very occasionally we like to keep our supporters posted with our news, appeals and ways they can support our work.

Sometimes, with your explicit consent, we will contact you using your email address to provide you with information about our work and/or ways you can support us.

Where you have provided your postal address we may send you information about our work and/or ways you can support us by post unless you have told us that you do not wish to receive such information in this way.

We will only contact you for marketing purposes by telephone if have not opted out from receiving such communications. We screen against the Telephone Preference Service (sometimes known as TPS) and if you are listed we will not contact you in this way.

We rely on the legitimate interest legal basis for some of our processing for marketing purposes. This applies to the following:

• Where you are an existing supporter and we are contacting you by post and/or telephone about our news, appeals and other ways you can support our work.
• We consider that we have a legitimate interest in continuing to contact you by post and/or telephone once you have provided your details and there is no overriding prejudice to you or your rights by our use of the data in this way and for these purposes subject always to our carrying out appropriate checks with the relevant preference services.

More information about our use of legitimate interest can be found here.

6. Sharing your information

We will treat your information with the utmost care and will never sell or rent your personal information to other organisations.

We may share your information with selected third parties such as suppliers including professional fundraisers, printers and mailing houses and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you. We require such suppliers and any third party that processes data on our behalf to sign a legally binding contract the requires them to hold in the strictest confidence any and all Severn Hospice information they deal with, and confirms their compliance with GDPR Regulations.

7. How we keep your data safe and who has access to it

All data collected is stored in encrypted and safe locations, with access restricted to only those who need it. All our security is regularly tested and audited to make sure that your data is safe and secure.

If you have questions about our security, please email security@severnhospice.org.uk or call 01952 221378.

8. How long do we keep your information for?

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary and in accordance with applicable legal requirements and tax and accounting rules. Where your information is no longer required we will ensure it is disposed of securely.

Please see the table below to see how long we will keep your personal information for:

9. How to contact us

If you would like to talk through anything in our privacy policy, find out more about your rights or obtain a copy of the information we hold about you, please contact us using the details below. If you want to complain about how we have handled your personal data, please get in touch with us by;

Email at complaints@severnhospice.org.uk

Or you can write to us, please address your envelope to: FAO Ben Graham, Data Protection Officer, Severn Hospice, Bicton Heath, Shrewsbury, SY3 8HS.

Please include your name, address, reference number given on any correspondence if possible and a contact telephone number in your email or letter so that we can get back in touch with you easily.

Or you can call us on 01743 236565 please ask to speak to Ben Graham in IT, our phone lines are open Monday to Thursday from 8.45am to 5pm, Friday 9am to 4pm. Outside of these hours you can leave a message and contact number and someone will return your call on the next working day.

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are not processing your personal data in accordance with the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Our contact details:

Post: Information Governance, Severn Hospice, Bicton Heath, SY3 8HS

Email: privacy@severnhospice.org.co.uk

Telephone: 01743 236565