Privacy Policy

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Privacy Policy

PRIVACY & CONFIDENTIALITY

 

As a result of working for you, we obtain personal data about you. As mediators we are under an obligation to keep your affairs confidential.

We are ‘processors’ of personal data for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR seeks to protect the rights of individuals which includes the safeguarding of personal data, protection against unlawful processing of personal data and the unrestricted movement of personal data. This does not include data that is already in the public domain.

 

Our name and contact details:         

Venture Mediation
The Roy Fletcher Centre
17 Cross Hill
Shrewsbury
SY1 1JE
Telephone: 07984 272767
Email: info@venturemediation.co.uk

 

Name and contact details of our representative:   

 

Julian Rendall
Telephone: 07984 272767
Email: Julian.rendall@venturemediation.co.uk

 

What data do we process?

 We obtain and process the following data: –

  • Individuals contact details including names, addresses, contact telephone numbers and email addresses provided to us in the initial referral form;
  • Information relating to children which can include their names, dates of birth, addresses, existing contact arrangements between children and parents and their living arrangements, details of schools and details of any relevant medical or health conditions;
  • Details of any relevant Divorce or Court Proceedings;
  • Details of solicitors, accountants, counsellors, therapists or other professionals involved with the individual;
  • Occupations of individuals;
  • Information about any individual’s relevant medical or health conditions;
  • Financial information (in cases involving disputes around finances or where Legal Aid is provided);
  • In some cases, we will collect data about you from third parties, such when a solicitor or another party makes a referral to mediation.

 

Purpose for which we process your data:

  • The law on data protection allows us to process your data for certain reasons only:
  • To work for you in mediation and – where we take payment from you via a card payment – to arrange for the payment of costs due to us
  • In order to perform a contract that we are party to
  • In order to carry out legally required duties
  • In order for us to carry out our legitimate interests
  • To protect your interests and
  • Where something is done in the public interest

 

All of the processing carried out by us falls into one of the permitted reasons.

The lawful basis for proceeding:

The legal basis which permits us to process an individual’s data is that the processing is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest and the task or function has a clear basis in law. More specifically, it is necessary for us to process data to enable us to provide a quality mediation service to individuals and to provide Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings in accordance with the Family and Children’s Act 2014.

In addition, the processing of personal data is necessary for us to undertake the following activities: –

  • To assess the suitability of mediation taking into consideration any potential risks to individuals who are considering participating in mediation;
  • To enable us to consider whether any conflict of interest exists before the mediation process is engaged;
  • For internal record keeping;
  • For auditing and supervision purposes.
  • If mediation takes place, individuals will be required to sign an Agreement to Mediate and our basis for processing and holding personal data will become contractual.

 

Right to restrict processing and right to object to processing:

  • You are free at any time to request that we cease processing your personal data or that we take different measures to those we already have for processing your data.
  • If you request that we cease processing your personal data, we will do so immediately and that will mean that we can no longer work with you.
  • Regarding any request that we adopt different measures as to how your data is processed, we will respond to any demand as soon as possible and in any event within 28 days.

 

The recipients of personal data: 

  • We do not share information for commercial purposes.
  • We may share your personal information with colleagues or contractors working for Venture Mediation where it is necessary for them to undertake their duties. This may, for instance, include sharing information with our trainers and mediators, or with our finance team when they are processing a payment.
  • We sometimes need to share the personal information we process with other organisations. When this is necessary, we will comply with all aspects of the relevant data protection laws.
  • We will only pass your information to third parties in the following circumstances:
    • We are using a third party purely for the purposes of processing data on our behalf and we have in place a data processing agreement with that third party that fulfils our legal obligations in relation to the use of third party data processors; or
    • We are required by law to share your data.
    • You have given your consent, for instance, because you are changing mediation provider
    • The organisations we may share your personal information with include:
      Public and Local Authorities. For instance the Legal Aid Agency or Children’s Services where safeguarding issues have been raised
    • IT Companies. For instance website hosting, cloud based software and IT Support.

Protecting your data

  • We physically store your file in a secure location
  • Where data is stored electronically this is held only on password protected devices.
  • Only authorised personnel are permitted to access this data.
  • Where data is stored in paper form this is stored in a locked filing cabinet in our office space.

 

How long do we store your data for:

 In line with data protection principles, we only keep your data for as long as it is necessary, which will be at least for the duration of us providing services to you. In some cases we will keep your data for a period after we have provided our services where there is a legal obligation for us to do so.

 

  • Mediation Services: 6 years after we close your file

 

The law on data protection gives you certain rights in relation to the data we hold on you. These are:

 

  • The right to be informed. i.e. we must tell you how we use your data, and this is the purpose of this privacy notice
  • The right of access. i.e. to the data that we hold on you. To do so, you should make a subject access request
  • The right for any inaccuracies to be corrected. You can ask us to correct any data which is incomplete or inaccurate
  • The right to have information deleted. You can ask us to delete data from our systems where you believe there is no reason for us to continue processing it
  • The right to restrict the processing of the data. e.g. if you believe the data we hold is incorrect, we will stop processing the data (whilst still holding it) until we have ensured that the data is correct
  • The right to portability. You may transfer the data that we hold on you for your own purposes
  • The right to object to the inclusion of any information. i.e. object to the way we use your data where we are using it for our legitimate interests
  • The right to regulate any automated decision-making and profiling of personal data. i.e. not to be subject to automated decision making in way that adversely affects your legal rights.

 

Where you have provided consent to our use of your data, you also have the unrestricted right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent means that we will stop processing the data that you had previously given us consent to use and may also mean that we are unable to continue providing our services to you. In some cases we may continue to use the data where we have a legitimate reason for doing so.

 

Right to complain to the Commissioner’s Office:

 You have the right to complain to the ICO if you have concerns about how we handle your data. The ICO contact details can be found online.

 

If you do not provide your data to us:

If you do not provide us with the personal data we need, we may not be able to provide you with some or all of our services. For instance we cannot offer legally aided mediation if you do not provide financial information such as payslips or bank statements to enable us to complete the application form.

 

Generally:

We hope that this information is clear and jargon free. Please let us know if you have any difficulty in understanding it so that we can consider revising it to make it clearer.