Privacy Policy
Who we are
Tortworth Forest Centre (“we”, “us”) is a registered Community Interest Company (no. 09561405).
We are committed to protecting your privacy. At all times we aim to respect any personal information you share with us, or that we receive from others, and keep it safe. This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) sets out our data processing practices and your rights and options regarding the ways in which your personal information is used and collected (including through our website https://tortwortharboretum.org).
This Policy contains important information about your personal rights to privacy. Please read it carefully to understand how we use your personal information. The provision of your personal information to us is voluntary. However, without providing us with your personal information, your use of our services or your interaction with us may be impaired. For example, you may be unable to sign up as a volunteer or attend an event.
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
Registration forms
We ask you to fill out a form when you first attend our volunteer days or wellbeing projects – this includes information on risk management, liability and equal opportunities as well as asking for permission to use any photos taken for publicity and funding reports. We also ask for contact details, next of kin, doctor’s address and any details of any medication and/or medical conditions – we do this so we can best look after you whilst on site and we keep this information for reference should any emergency happen.
Referral forms and initial phone call
Through our referral process we ask for information about yourself including: name, date of birth, address, and contact information; if you are experiencing/recovering from mental ill health; if you have a learning disability; if you have a physical disability; if you have current/recent drug/alcohol use; if you have unspent convictions; and, If you are under probation supervision. This information is retained for our records, and helps us to best support you through our services.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion forms
When you attend one of our projects we will ask some questions about yourself, including age, sex, ethnicity and whether you have a disability; we may also ask about your employment status, and whether you are claiming benefits. These forms are anonymous. We update this information for each year of our projects.
Wellbeing questionnaires, feedback surveys and interviews
We ask our volunteers and project participants to provide information about their wellbeing, as well as feedback on our projects, via questionnaires. We may invite you to take part in an interview about your experience. This information is treated confidentially and kept securely, only accessible by our management team. Information may be shared with project delivery staff. Any information that is shared externally (e.g. with funders, or in publicity) is done so anonymously.
Contact forms
Information that you provide filling in forms on our website may be collected and retained for our records, but we do not use the information submitted through them for marketing purposes unless permission is specifically given.
Website comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
In addition other cookies are set for logged in user for the purposes of security and access restriction.
You may restrict your internet browser’s use of Cookies. By default, most internet browsers accept Cookies but this can be changed. For further details, please consult the help menu in your internet browser.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Google Analytics
When someone visits tortwortharboretum.org we use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website.
Mailing lists
As part of the registration process for our newsletters, we collect personal information. We use that information for a couple of reasons: to tell you about stuff you’ve asked us to tell you about; to contact you if we need to obtain or provide additional information; to check our records are right and to check every now and then that you’re happy and satisfied. We don’t rent or trade email lists with other organisations and businesses.
We use a third-party provider, MailChimp, to deliver our newsletter. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our e-newsletter. For more information, please see MailChimp’s privacy notice. You can unsubscribe to general mailings at any time of the day or night by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of our emails or by contacting us.
Events and hire
Information that you provide when registering for an event on our website may be collected and retained for our records. Ticket purchases are processed through PayPal and Stripe, we don’t store any payment data. PayPal’s privacy policy can be viewed here: PayPal privacy policy
Stripes privacy policy can be viewed here: Stripe privacy policy
When hiring our site we collect your name, address, and telephone number, and retain this information for our records. If you pay a refundable deposit we will ask for your bank details. This information is not retained by us, but entered into Xero. It is deleted once the deposit has been returned.
Xero’s privacy policy can be viewed here: Xero privacy policy
Photographs and videos
We take photographs and short videos of our activities and events to record what we do, report back to our funders, and share what we do with our online audiences. When you register as a volunteer or project participant you will be asked whether or not you consent to being in photographs and videos. If you consent to be in photographs those photos will be stored for the duration that Tortworth Forest Centre CIC is operating and may be used anonymously (with no name cited) on reports, our website, our blog and our social media channels. If at any point you wish for your photos to be removed from our records we will do so as far as possible, though it may not be possible to delete previously published photos. If you attend an event with us and do not wish to be photographed or appear in videos you can inform a member of staff.
Who we share your data with
Unless we are obliged or permitted by law to do so, and subject to any third-party disclosures specifically set out in this policy, your data will not be disclosed to third parties unless it is anonymised and done within the remits set out above.
We are committed to keeping your personal information safe and secure. Your personal information is only accessible by appropriately trained and DBS checked staff and stored on secure servers which have features to prevent unauthorised access.
How long we retain your data
Volunteer participation data (i.e. the on-site sign-up form) is kept securely and on record for future reference for the lifetime of the project. We will then dispose of your information securely.
Project referral data (from referral/self-referral forms, initial phone calls, and registration forms) is kept securely and on record for future reference for the lifetime of the project. We will then dispose of your information securely.
Wellbeing data (from wellbeing/feedback questionnaire and interviews) is kept securely and on record for future reference for the lifetime of the project. We will then dispose of your information securely.
If you leave a comment on our website, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
What rights you have over your data
Under data protection law you have rights, including:
You can request a copy of any data provided to us. If you have an account on this website, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us.
You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.
Please contact us at amyw@tortwortharboretum.org if you wish to make a request.
Where we send your data
Any data used for funding bids is always anonymised. We use quotes in publicity and our annual report, and always do so anonymously. Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. If you were referred to us from an organisation we sometimes report back to that organisation on your attendance, though no other personal information is shared without specific consent to do so, or unless there is a safeguarding concern.
Changes to our privacy policy
We reserve the right to change this statement at any time by posting revisions on the site. This privacy policy is not intended to, and does not, create any contractual or other legal rights.
Contact
For all privacy-specific enquiries please get in touch with either jacob@tortwortharboretum.org or amyw@tortwortharboretum.org. We welcome any feedback.
This policy was last reviewed in June 2024