Privacy Notice

Terms and conditions

This Privacy Notice explains in detail the types of personal data we may collect about you when you interact with us. It also explains how we’ll store and handle that data, and keep it safe.

1. What is Oxford Winter Night Shelter (OWNS)?

We are a registered charity, No. 1175750, whose object is: ‘The relief of poverty amongst homeless people and rough sleepers in the Oxfordshire area by working with Christian Churches and other organisations to provide night shelters, and other relevant means to relieve their suffering.’

The remainder of this document uses the term OWNS to refer to The Trustees, staff, and volunteers of the Oxford Winter Night Shelter.

2. Explaining the legal bases we rely on

The law on data protection sets out a number of different reasons for which an organisation may collect and process your personal data, including:

  • Consent: In specific situations, we can collect and process your data with your consent (e.g. when you complete a Volunteer Application or when you complete a Guest Agreement to use our services).

  • Contractual obligations: In certain circumstances, we need your personal data to comply with our contractual obligations.

  • Legal compliance: If the law requires us to, we may need to collect and process your data. For example, we need to keep any Gift Aid documentation for HMRC purposes.

  • Legitimate interest: In specific situations, we require your data to pursue our legitimate interests in a way which might reasonably be expected as part of running OWNS and which does not materially impact your rights, freedom or interests.

We also combine details of your volunteering or stays at an OWNS venue to produce anonymous statistics for our supporters and donors.

3. When do we collect your personal data?

  • When you complete a Volunteer Application form;

  • When you are referred to us as a guest by the Outreach Team at St. Mungo's;

  • When you complete a Guest Agreement form;

  • When you agree to support us financially;

  • When you sign up to our mailing list;

  • When you contact us by any means with queries, complaints etc.;

  • When you ask us to email you information about our services;

  • When you choose to complete any surveys we send you;

  • When you comment on or review our services;

  • Any individual may access personal data related to them, including opinions. So if your comment or review includes information about the person who provided or used that service, it may be passed on to them if requested.

  • When you fill in any forms. For example, if an accident happens at an OWNS venue, a Team Leader may collect your personal data.

  • When you’ve given a third party permission to share with us the information they hold about you;

  • When you engage with us on social media.

4. What sort of personal data do we collect?

If you are a volunteer with us:

  • Your name, gender, date of birth, address, email and telephone number. We will also collect details of your availability and keep a copy of the references supplied to us when you signed up;

If you are a guest with us:

  • Your name, gender, date of birth, telephone number, and relevant medical information. We will also collect data required to keep you and our volunteers safe (e.g. any risks you might pose and any issues arising from your stay with us);

  • We collect notes from our conversations with you and details of any complaints or comments you make

5. How and why do we use your personal data?

  • To ensure we have a full team of trained, refereed volunteers at each of our venues;

  • To provide guests with a safe place to stay and to minimise any risks posed to other guests or to volunteers;

  • To respond to your queries and complaints. We may also keep a record of these to inform any future communication with us and to demonstrate how we communicated with you throughout. We do this on the basis of our legal obligations and our legitimate interests in providing you with the best service and understanding how we can improve our service based on your experience.

  • To inform you by email, web, text and/or telephone of volunteer rotas, bed availability and other information relevant to your engagement with OWNS;

  • To send you communications required by law or which are necessary to inform you about changes to the services we provide. For example, updates to this Privacy Notice. Such communications do not require prior consent when sent by email or text message. If we do not use your personal data for these purposes, we would be unable to comply with our legal obligations;

  • To comply with our legal obligations to share data with law enforcement and HMRC;

  • To send you survey and feedback requests to help improve our services.

Your details may need to be passed to a third party to supply or deliver the service that you requested. Remember, if you choose not to share your personal data with us, or refuse certain contact permissions, we might not be able to provide a service you’ve asked for.

OWNS need to keep details for a reasonable period in order to fulfill obligations such as safeguarding, insurance etc.

6. How we protect your personal data

We know how much data security matters. With this in mind we will treat your data with the utmost care and take all appropriate steps to protect it.

We secure access to our website using ‘https’ technology.

Paper records are kept securely. Information necessary to run a safe service is shared with volunteers electronically.

7. How long will we keep your personal data?

Whenever we collect or process your personal data, we’ll only keep it for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected.

At the end of that retention period, your data will either be deleted completely or anonymised, for example by aggregation with other data so that it can be used in a non-identifiable way for statistical analysis and business planning.

Some examples of data retention periods:

  • Volunteer Application Forms and References: OWNS will keep the personal data you give us for six years after you cease to be a volunteer.

  • Guest Application Forms and referral information: OWNS will keep this information until the end of the winter in which you used our service.

8. Who do we share your personal data with?

We sometimes share your personal data with trusted third parties. In the case of our guests this may be the Outreach Team at St. Mungo's.

Here’s the policy we apply to those organisations to keep your data safe and protect your privacy:

  • We provide only the information they need to perform their specific services.

  • They may only use your data for the exact purposes we specify in our agreement with them. We work with them to ensure that your privacy is respected and protected at all times.

  • If we stop using their services, any of your data supplied by OWNS and held by them will either be deleted or rendered anonymous

Sharing your data with third parties for their own purposes:

We will only share data with third parties for their own purposes in specific circumstances, for example:

  • Fraud management, we may share information about fraudulent or potentially fraudulent activity in our premises or systems. This may include sharing data about individuals with law enforcement bodies.

  • We may also be required to disclose your personal data to the police or other enforcement, regulatory or Government body, in your country of origin or elsewhere, upon a valid request to do so. These requests are assessed on a case-by-case basis and take the privacy of our staff, volunteers and service users into consideration.

  • If in the future the work of OWNS is taken over by another organisation your personal data will, where relevant, be transferred to the new or controlling party, under the terms of this Privacy Notice.

For further information please contact our Data Protection Officer.

9. What are your rights over your personal data?

You have the right to request a copy of any information about you that OWNS holds at any time, and also to have that information corrected if it is inaccurate. To ask for your information, please contact:

  • The Chair of Trustees, St. Michael at the North Gate, Cornmarket Street, Oxford, OX1 3EY.

To ask for your information to be amended, please send a request to info@ownsoxford.org.uk. If we choose not to act on your request we will explain to you the reasons for our refusal.

Your right to withdraw consent

  • Whenever you have given us your consent to use your personal data, you have the right to change your mind at any time and withdraw that consent.

Where we rely on our legitimate interest

  • In cases where we are processing your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interest, you can ask us to stop for reasons connected to your individual situation. We must then do so unless we believe we have a legitimate overriding reason to continue processing your personal data.

Checking your identity

  • To protect the confidentiality of your information, we will ask you to verify your identity before proceeding with any request you make under this Privacy Notice. If you have authorised a third party to submit a request on your behalf, we will ask them to prove they have your permission to act.

10. Contacting the Regulator

If you feel that your data has not been handled correctly, or you are unhappy with our response to any requests you have made to us regarding the use of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

  • You can contact them by calling 0303 123 1113 or go online to www.ico.org.uk/concerns (please note we can't be responsible for the content of external websites)

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