PRIVACY POLICY

Who we are

Oasis is a registered charitable incorporated organisation (CIO, charity number 1158195). We support refugees and asylum seekers to adapt to their new lives in the UK. This support covers several areas:

  • Advice & Guidance: we have a number of caseworkers who can provide guidance across many areas including asylum support, housing, employment and education. 

  • Activities & Excursions: we provide a range of activities which can include arts & crafts, health workshops, womens-only activities, mental health groups and computer classes. 

  • English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL): we offer a range of drop-in English classes.

  • Social Space: our centre is open for refugees and asylum seekers to socialise, and a client cafe and a daily hot lunch is available to all.

Our commitment to your privacy
In order to work with you we have to process and store some of your personal data. Your privacy is important to us and we have a responsibility to keep your data safe. Together we protect your personal data and follow all the laws that are made to protect it. We always try to work within the law, especially the UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA).

We want you to let us know if you have any comments or complaints about the way we use your personal data.

What does ‘personal data’ mean?
Personal data includes basic details about you, including your name and address. It can also include a range of other data that is relevant to providing you with the support you need.

Client data

What personal data do we use? 

We use your personal data to make sure that you receive a safe and effective service. Some data may already be available to us from your referral. However, we may need to ask 

you for further information. The kinds of data we will use include:-

 

  • Your basic personal details like your name(s), date of birth, title and gender.

  • Your contact details including important addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers (if you have these).

  • Your contact details including important addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers (if you have these).

  • Contact details for individuals who are important to you.

  • Information about how you engage with Oasis and its staff so that we have a record of your activity in the service.

  • Information about referrals we have made to organisations on your behalf, or when we have helped you to contact them.


    For some types of advice and guidance Oasis may be required to ask you for more detailed information, such as your immigration status, in order to support you effectively. 

    Where will your data be stored?

    The main electronic information system used by Oasis staff is called CharityLog. 

    Some information about projects will also be stored on a Microsoft Teams and Google Drive account which is only accessible by the casework team.

    Who will see your data and how will we protect it?

    Most data used by Oasis is held in electronic systems which are strongly protected against unauthorised access. Oasis manage their staff group to ensure they are fully trained, keep systems secure and do not access data they should not see.

    While most data is electronic, on occasion some paper documents are in use. When not in use, paper information is always kept secure in locked cabinets that are placed within areas where there is no public access.

    Under normal circumstances, it will only be Oasis project staff working with you who will have access to your personal data. In some instances, trained volunteers (for example, reception or triage volunteers) will have access to some of your data.

    Anyone in Oasis who has access to your personal data will do so only if they need to know about it to do their job, or to organise or make decisions about support / services for you. When Oasis staff use your data, they must obey relevant laws and rules. These protect personal data from being seen by anyone who does not have the right to see it.


    Does the law allow us to do this?

    To allow Oasis to use your personal data under UK GDPR, we have to explain the legal basis of our data processing.


    For Oasis, the legal basis for processing information is our legitimate interests as a charitable organisation delivering services to specific communities. This is provided for by Article 6(1)(f) of UK GDPR.


    Oasis will use the consent model for certain aspects of our work, such as access to WhatsApp groups and attendance on excursions. This is optional. 


    To allow sharing of more sensitive data, such as your health-related data, Article 9(2)(h) of the UK GDPR tells us we can share personal data to provide health care or social care to     an individual or for the management of health or social care systems and services. This legal basis is used by Oasis.

     

    How else might your data be used?

    You should be aware that we will always have to share data if it is needed to protect life or to ensure that people are safeguarded against exploitation, abuse or neglect.

     

    Oasis may use your personal data for administrative tasks which are allowed by GDPR / DPA. These will always be the kinds of tasks that will be personal to you, for example to arrange appointments and make referrals for you.

     

    Sometimes, we may get in touch with you after we have finished working with you. This is to ask you about your experience of the service in order to help us to tackle any issues or make improvements. You do not need to respond to this request for feedback – it is completely optional.

     

    Oasis may also use your data to develop reports about the effectiveness of services to help us to keep on improving. Data used in this way would not contain any personal data and we will always take precautions to ensure such data is anonymised.

     

    Any use of your personal data outside the terms of this agreement will be considered very closely and advice will be sought from data specialists.

     

    What are your rights over the personal data we hold about you?

     The GDPR gives a series of rights to citizens in regard to their personal data. These are described in the following table.

    GDPR Citizen Right

    Applies?

    Notes

    The right to access data

    Yes

    People have a right to see personal data but we can only provide data to an individual entitled to see it. We will seek to maximise the amount of material we can share with you within the relevant law.

    The right to erasure

    Yes

    You may request data held by Oasis to be erased on an exceptional basis and this can be considered if you provide written explanations of your reasons.

    The right to correct

    inaccuracies

    Yes

    Each request will be considered individually. The law allows us to refuse if it would be against the law or would harm you, the service or other people.


    Only factual mistakes can be corrected. Changes to professional opinions are only considered if the opinions are based on inaccurate facts.

    The right to restrict

    processing

    Yes

    Each request will be considered individually. 


    The law allows us to refuse if it would be against the law or would harm you, the service or other people. You will need to explain why you wish to do this.

    The right to object to

    processing

    Yes

    We do not use any automated decision-making processes.


    Each request will be considered individually. The law allows us to refuse if it would be against the law or would harm you, the service or other people. You will need to explain why you wish to do this.

    The right to data

    portability

    Sometimes

    Where exercising rights to access data, we can provide data to you in an electronic format.


    Additional rights include:

    • The right to be informed about the regulator to whom complaints can be made (see below);

    • The right to be informed about any transfers of data overseas: no data gathered from you will leave the United Kingdom;

    • The right to be informed of how long data will be kept: your data will be kept in line with Oasis’ policies. Further information is shown below.


    How long do you keep my information?
    Data held by Oasis will be reviewed after 7 years and any data no longer deemed necessary will be deleted.


    How do you ask a question about your rights over your data or complain about how your rights have been handled?
    Please contact us if you wish to apply any of the rights set out above or if you wish to discuss any issues relating to personal data used to support our work.

     

    You may contact us using the following details:

    Tomos Owen

    69B Splott Road,

    Cardiff,

    CF24 2BW

     

    [email protected] / [email protected] 

     

    029 2046 0424


    We will respond to your request within a month to explain what we intend to do.

    How do you contact the regulator?
    If you remain unhappy with the way we have processed your personal data, you may also wish to contact the national regulator.


    You can also find out more about your personal data rights by going to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website at     https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/. 

    For further independent advice about data protection, and your personal data rights, you can contact:-

    Information Commissioner’s Office – Wales

    2nd Floor, Churchill House

    Churchill Way

    Cardiff

    CF10 2HH

    Tel: 02920 678400 Fax: 02920 678399

    E-mail: [email protected] 

    Web: https://ico.org.uk/ 

    In addition, if you remain unhappy, you may request a Court to assert your rights.

    External stakeholders

    As well as collecting data about our clients, Oasis processes data about other stakeholders including partners, donors and funders. 

     

    When you contact Oasis to be kept-up-to date, sign up to information at events, make a donation, book a room or catering, or engage with online content such as signing up to mailing lists, or you telephone, email or write to Oasis, or engage with Oasis via social media channels, we may receive and retain personal information about you. This can consist of information such as your name, organisation, email address, language preferences and postal address. This allows us to contact you with information about events, activities and projects that you tell us you are interested in.


    We store some additional information about some of our stakeholders to allow us to fulfil our roles. 

    Oasis may also use publicly available information to identify people who may be interested in partnering with Oasis. This information may include newspaper or other media coverage, open postings on social media sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn, and data from Companies’ House and the Charity Commission.

    Oasis may use your personal information for a number of purposes including the following:

    • in relation to correspondence you have with us (whether by letter, email, text, social media, message board or any other means)

    • to process a donation

    • to process a room hire or catering booking

    • for internal record keeping

    • to fulfil sales contracts you may have entered into 

    • to contact you about any content you provide

    • to invite you to participate in surveys or research our work

    • to provide you with information about our activities, events and news


    We use a number of external platforms to process payments made to Oasis (for example, iZettle, Stripe, Go Cordless, Local Giving, PayPal and Stewardship). These platforms are external to Oasis but are reputable within the industry, however we recommend you check their privacy statements for further information.


    It is your choice as to whether you want to receive information about Oasis and the ways you can get involved. If you do not want us to use your personal information in these ways, please let us know.

    We will not use your personal information for marketing or other communication purposes if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted by us for such purposes. However, we may retain your details on a list to help ensure that we do not continue to contact you again.

    We may need to share your information with “data processors” such as service providers, associated organisations or agents who may help us to prepare and send communications to you relating to our activities. These “data processors” will only act under our instruction and we will not allow these organisations to use your data for their own purposes and will take care to ensure that they keep your data secure.

    We will also comply with legal requests where disclosure is required or permitted by law (for example to law enforcement agencies for the prevention and detection of crime, subject to such bodies providing us with a relevant request in writing).

    Oasis will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, for example, we will keep a record of any payments for a period of 7 years. For non-financial transactions, we will keep your data for up to 5 years if we are no longer in contact with you. If you request that we stop communicating with you, we may keep a record of your contact details and appropriate information to enable us to comply with your request not to be contacted by us.

     

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