Privacy Policy | Mary Seacole House

Mary Seacole House takes great care to safeguard personal data provided by our supporters and to process this data fairly and lawfully in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which came into force at the end of May 2018.

This policy explains, on a service by service basis, when and why we collect personal information about you, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others, how we keep it safe and secure and your rights and choices in relation to your information.

Any questions regarding this policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to info@maryseacolehouse.com

The Mary Seacole House Privacy Policy may change so please remember to check back from time to time.

Who are we?

In this policy ‘Mary Seacole House’, ‘MSH’, ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’ means:
Mary Seacole House, Registered Charity No. 1062895. Company No. 3204 514, 2, Princes Rd, Liverpool L8 1TJ.

MSH is a multicultural mental health resource service set up to offer support and advice in emotional and practical matters, primarily for racialised communities. We provide a range of services (as listed below) to address the needs of culturally diverse communities within Merseyside.

MSH Services

Multicultural Mental Health & Wellbeing Service: This offers a recovery program to a diverse range of communities aged 18+ experiencing mental health issues. We offer guidance and support on practical matters inc. benefits, debts, housing. Group and one-to-one emotional support, social Inclusion and community networking. We deliver activities which promote health & wellbeing, education, employment and volunteering, being active in the community, life skills and much more. For more information please see Multicultural Mental Health & Wellbeing Service | Mary Seacole House

Advocacy Service: The Advocacy Service endeavours to address the needs of our culturally diverse communities within the Liverpool area, along with providing community based services which supports and encourages people from racialised communities to challenge inappropriate practices and treatment within the mental health system. For more information please see Advocacy Service | Mary Seacole House

When will I need to provide my details?

Multicultural Mental Health & Wellbeing Service and Advocacy Service
We may collect personal information (for example your name, your postal address, your email address, your date of birth, or your telephone number) from you when you:

Engage/are assessed for one of our services
Register to become a volunteer
Support MSH through sponsorship
Get involved with us in any other way

Why do you need my details and how do you use them?

Multicultural Mental Health & Wellbeing Service and Advocacy Service
The main reason we need your personal details is so that we are able to communicate with you, act on your behalf where required and ensure you have full access to the benefits our services.

We will only contact you as described above if you tell us that you are happy for us to do so (this is ‘opting-in’), usually when you fill in one of our forms with a member of the MSH team or referring agencies.

When you interact with us directly: This could be via a self-referral to one of our services, 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, 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 email or in person.

When you interact with us through referral partners or suppliers working on our behalf: This could be if you access a service such as the Advocacy Training programme which is delivered by us in conjunction with a former Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP)/ Best Interest Assessor (BIA) working on our behalf and always under our instruction.

What if I don’t want you to use my details anymore?

If you ever change your mind about whether you want to hear from us, or that you would like us to update or delete the personal information we hold about you then contact us at: info@maryseacolehouse.com.

You can find more information about your personal rights as protected by the General Data Protection Regulation here – but in a nutshell:

The Right to be Informed – you have the right to be told about the collection and/or use of your personal data.

The Right to Access – commonly referred to as a Subject Access Request (SAR), you have the right of access to the personal information being collected and/or processed about you. A SAR can be verbally or in writing. For more information on our SAR request please see ‘MSH SAR procedure’.

The Right to Rectification – if someone is collecting and/or processing inaccurate information about you then you have the right for that information to be rectified.

The Right to Erasure – also known as the ‘right to be forgotten’, if you no longer wish for your information to be collected and/or processed about you then you can make a request for your personal data to be erased/forgotten – however this only applies in certain circumstances – for more information see – ICO Guide to GDPR.

The Right to restrict processing – you have the right to restrict how your personal data is being collected and/or processed, however as above this only applies in certain circumstances – for more information see – ICO Guide to GDPR.

The Right to Data Portability – you have the right to obtain and reuse your personal data for your own use. It allows you to move, copy or transfer personal data easily from one IT environment to another in a safe and secure way, without affecting its usability.

The Right to Object– you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example the use of your data for direct marketing.

Rights in relation to Automated Decision Making – you must give your explicit consent for your personal data to be used in automated decision making and/or profiling and it must be necessary for entry into or performance of a contract and authorised by the Data Protection Act 2018.

Why do you ask for information about my mental health and ethnic origin?

Multicultural Mental Health & Wellbeing Service and Advocacy Service
The services provided by MSH are specifically designed to support the mental health needs (support and advice in emotional and practical matters) for black and racial minorities across Merseyside. In order to engage with our services and to ensure that we are able to give you the support you require, or refer you to a more appropriate service provider, it may be necessary to ask you about your mental health and/or links to mental health, along with details of your ethnic origin. We ask for this information to understand your requirements and to ensure that we align our services to your needs as best we can, or refer you to an appropriate third party service provider.

The information you provide will only be processed for the purpose it has been collected, for example, assessing your suitability to access our services and ensuring that our services deliver effective ongoing support. We will ensure that it is clearly communicated at the outset what the purpose of the data processing is and your consent will be sought before any processing commences. We will treat all personal data we process with strict confidence, however if you do not want us to have this information you do not need to supply it but, that may mean that you are unable to access the full benefits of our services.

How long do you keep my data and how do you keep it secure?

Multicultural Mental Health & Wellbeing Service and Advocacy Service
We will take precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or unauthorised alteration of personal information you give us. For example, our website does not store your personal information when you enter it into ‘contact us’ form on the website.

All data collected on hard copy documentation including service user assessment forms (including referral forms from third parties), letters of authority, service case files and volunteer application forms are securely stored in locked cabinets and access is monitored and restricted to MSH staff only. This data will only be kept as long as required to ensure effective service delivery (please see our retention schedule for further information) and where appropriate hard copy records will be replaced by electronic records securely saved on the MSH server which is hosted in within the European Economic Area (EEA).

Do you pass my details on to any other organisations or individuals?

Multicultural Mental Health & Wellbeing Service and Advocacy Service
Any information you provide to us is held in strictest confidence. We will never sell your data to another organisation. However if we are unable to support you with our services (as listed above), we may share your data with a third party service providers and/or authorities including Liverpool City Council. As a registered charity and receiver of various funding, Liverpool City Council we are required to submit statistical performance data periodically which may contain your personal data, for the duration of the funding period, which is necessary for the performance of our contractual obligation with the funder, however where reasonably possible we will endeavour to further protect your personal data by employing pseudonymisation, de-identification and anonymisation techniques. Where we do share your personal or sensitive data with a third party service provider we will explicitly ask for your consent before doing so and endeavour to obtain a Data Processing Agreement to ensure that they are bound to take care of your data in the same way that we do. There may be instances where your personal data is shared with third party service providers without obtaining your prior consent such as legal obligation (for more information on the lawful bases for processing information please see https://gdpr-info.eu/art-6-gdpr/).

What are my Access rights?

Multicultural Mental Health & Wellbeing Service and Advocacy Service
You have the right to request copies of the personal data we hold on you and details of how we use that information. MSH will always endeavour to keep accurate and up to date information on you but if you think any of the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, you may also request it is corrected.In relation to all of these rights, please email or write to us at: info@maryseacolehouse.com.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information or to exercise any of your other rights. This helps us to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. No fee is required to make a request unless your request is clearly unfounded or excessive and we will respond to your requests within all applicable timeframes (in accordance with the Information Commissioner’s Office guidelines). However, in some circumstances we may be unable to comply with your request if it is manifestly unfounded or excessive. In such instance we may request a “reasonable fee” to deal with the request; or refuse to deal with the request.

How do you use cookies on this website?

We sometimes place small data files on your computer. These are known as cookies and their use is standard across most websites. There are several types of cookie and they have different functions or uses. For example, some cookies help us improve the experience of our website or help us tailor our services to you. The cookies on our website are used to improve visitors’ experience and are not used to identify you personally. We have a visible banner to remind users that by using our website they consent to our use of cookies. Internet browsers normally accept cookies by default. However, it is possible to set an internet browser to reject cookies. For more information about cookies and the website management tools we use please read our cookies policy.

Retention Schedule

See Retention Schedule.