Central London Samaritans privacy statement

We are committed to protecting your privacy and the personal information that we hold. We will do our best to use your personal information in accordance with data protection law, and not do anything with your information that you wouldn’t reasonably expect.

The purpose of this statement is to be clear and transparent about how Central London Samaritans (CLS) uses your personal information. This privacy policy applies to people who use our service, our supporters, our customers, our volunteers as well as the general public and visitors to our premises. It also applies to our staff, contractors, third parties and partners.

Central London Samaritans is an independent charity, separate from Samaritans Central Charity but with a specific agreement to work together to provide the service. As such, there are cases where CLS comes into contact with, shares and processes personal data with/for Samaritans Central Charity. This privacy policy will cover how CLS uses personal information. We recommend that for a complete understanding of how your data is processed when you interact with Samaritans, you also read the Samaritans Central Charity Privacy Statement.

Changes to this Privacy Statement

As the service we provide changes, we may need to alter this Privacy Statement. Please check this page occasionally to see if we have included any updates or changes, and that you are happy with them.

If you have any queries about this statement please contact the Branch Director: [email protected].

How we use personal information

When you use a Samaritans service

Samaritans offers emotional support to people in distress through its listening service. Our service is available by telephone, email, letter, web chat, and face to face whether in branch or as part of our outreach work.

These services are provided by volunteers in Branches. The helplines are designed so that

Samaritans volunteers can’t see your contact details and we try to keep as little information about you as possible in branch. Volunteers may take notes when they talk to you to assist in the conversation. These notes are shredded at the end of the call and placed in a confidential waste bin. We don’t record your phone calls to the helpline but volunteers and staff may from time to time listen in to calls for training, quality, support, or research purposes (see section 1.4 for further details).

At the end of each contact volunteers in branch record information on a central system controlled by

Samaritans Central Charity, this information includes how distressed the caller was at the time of contact, their gender and age (if given), and the caller concerns. For information on how this data is used by Samaritans Central Charity, please see the Samaritans Central Charity Privacy Statement.

Where we provide emotional support in locations outside of the branches, our volunteers will take steps to ensure that any notes taken are kept secure and securely disposed of once the data has been entered into the central database.

1.1 Safeguarding

When we are worried about your safety or that you are being hurt either by your own actions or by someone else, we want to help you find the best way to keep yourself safe.

We’ll do this by listening and by talking to you about what you want to do. Most of the time whatever you tell us will stay between you and Samaritans. However, if we feel that you are unable to make decisions for yourself sometimes we might need to tell someone else what you’ve told us to be able to help you.

This will apply to all children (those under the age of 18). Under some circumstances it may also apply to adults, if for example, if you are an adult at risk (you have additional health or care needs which prevent you from protecting yourself).

If you share information with us which identified a child or adult at risk who is suffering abuse or harm, after discussion with you, we may contact other relevant services.

We can only do this if we have information which identifies you.

We take your confidentiality very seriously and will only consider speaking to someone else if we are really worried about what you have told us and we feel that you are unable to make decisions.

Please see our Safeguarding Policy for further information.

1.2 Additional support

In some circumstances, we may offer to call you back or for you to call us at an agreed time. In these cases, we will record information you’ve given us to complete the follow-up call. We may need to share this information internally, because we work as a team to provide you with the best possible support and we want to ensure that whoever you speak to is up to date with your situation.

We may contact you to offer our support if you are referred to us by another organisation or individual. Once we have contacted you, we will destroy your contact details, unless you agree to further contact – in which case we will, with your consent, keep your contact details.

1.3 Sharing your information

Central London Samaritans will never share information outside of Samaritans, except in the following situations:

• We receive a call about acts of terrorism or bomb warnings
• We receive a court order requiring us to share information
• We are working in partnership with another organisation and you have given consent for your information to be shared
• You directly ask us to pass on information about you to someone else
• We are concerned that you are not able to make a decision for yourself (please read more about our safeguarding policy
• You threaten the safety of our volunteers
• You misuse or compromise the delivery of our service, for example by making it difficult for other people to get through

1.4 Training and monitoring (‘listening in’)

While we never record your phone calls to our helpline, there are occasions when a second volunteer may be required to ‘listen-in’ to a live call being taken by another volunteer. We do this to:

• Train new Samaritans: in order to properly prepare our new volunteers to take calls, they will undertake a period of ‘listening in’ to an experienced volunteer. After a period of time, when the new Samaritan starts to take calls, the experienced volunteer will also listen in to their calls in order to provide guidance and support. This is purely for the purpose of training new Samaritans and there is no change in the information collected in the course of a usual call.
• To monitor the quality of our service: In 2021 we established the Quality hub. Volunteers at the quality hub monitor and assess telephone contacts and flag poor or exceptional service by ‘listening in’ to random contacts. This is for the purpose of monitoring the quality of calls taken by our volunteers, information may be recorded on the performance of the volunteer, but no additional information relating to the content of the contact is taken.
• To ensure volunteer and caller safety: All face to face visits to a branch are observed in real time by an additional volunteer. The additional volunteer can either be in the room during the conversation, or in a different room observing remotely. This is to ensure the contact is safe for both callers and volunteers. There is no change in the information collected in the course of a usual call, and audio and video is never recorded or stored.

In each of these circumstances those ‘listening-in’ are trained and subject to the same policies as the primary listener.

2. When you apply to volunteer with us

When you contact CLS directly about volunteering with the Samaritans, you may be asked to give us your personal details so that we can contact you in relation to your enquiry.

If you have contacted Samaritans Central Charity about volunteering opportunities, please see the Samaritans Central Charity Privacy Statement for more information about how they will use your personal information.

2.1 Your application

You can apply to be a Samaritans volunteer through the Samaritans Central Charity website. When you do so, your details will be added to their central database, which they will then shared with the relevant branch. Samaritans Central Charity will be responsible for processing certain parts of your application, such as information from your referees and your criminal records disclosure. For more information please see the Samaritans Central Charity Privacy Statement.

Once your information has been passed to us at CLS we will use this to process your application, assess your suitability and contact you about interviews, training and other opportunities to engage with the branch.

Any diversity information you share with us at application stage will be transferred onto your Samaritans Three Rings profile when you start shifts, along with your emergency contact details. You will be able to edit this information at any time.

To help remove barriers disabled applicants may face in the recruitment process wherever possible we will offer reasonable adjustments. Agreement forms will be stored securely by our staff team. Further information on our reasonable adjustments policy and procedure can be found on Three Rings here.

Samaritans will keep the personal information you provide to us during the application process confidential, unless we are required to disclose it in connection with a police investigation and/or we have reason to believe that you may present a risk of harm to others.

2.2 When you become a volunteer

As a member of Central London Samaritans, we hold information about you that we use to communicate with you regarding the administration of the branch and to record and manage your involvement with the branch.

The following statements describes how we use your data for the purposes of running the branch:

• We will use your data to record your involvement with the branch and to manage your rota through Three Rings. You can read Three Rings’ privacy notice here.
• We will keep your contact details on a central database to allow other Samaritans from the branch to contact you and for you to contact them in order to manage shift swaps.
• We will share your data with the Samaritans Central Charity to record your involvement with the branch and to manage your role as a volunteer within the Samaritans organisation.
• We will send you communications regarding your role and the administration of the branch via post and email.
• We will use your diversity data, if you have chosen to provide it, to produce anonymised reports to better understand the diversity of volunteers, to monitor the effectiveness of our approach to recruitment, selection, training, leadership and onsite support and to better we can understand any barriers different groups may be facing. The data you provide can be accessed by a select group of the staff and leadership team for the purposes set out above. It is optional to provide, and you can edit it anytime. Further guidance and FAQs can be found on Three Rings here.
• To help remove barriers disabled staff and volunteers may have, we will offer reasonable adjustments. Agreement forms will be stored securely. Further information on our reasonable adjustments policy and procedure can be found on Three Rings here.

The Branch also holds personal data of volunteers in the following categories:

• e-mails, SMS, and letters to/from volunteers
• copies of parking etc claims together with bank details
• sign-in books, login details
• lists of volunteers generated for specific purposes (special duties etc)
• police clearance, clearance for prisons visits and supporting documentation
• correspondence related to complaints about volunteers
• mentoring reports
• miscellaneous correspondence
• training records
• diversity data including, age, caring responsibilities, disability, gender reassignment, nationality, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation and preferred pronouns

The use of your personal data in these ways is necessary to achieve the legitimate interests of the branch and the wider Samaritans organisation to ensure their efficient operation.

Samaritans will never sell your data to any third party to use for its own purposes.

3. When you choose to support us

If you have donated direct to Samaritans Central Charity, please see the Privacy Statement for information about how they use your data.

3.1 Making a donation

When you donate direct to Central London Samaritans we need to collect and use certain information about you in order to process your donation. This could include your name, email address, postal address, telephone or mobile number, bank details, taxpayer status (to understand if we can claim Gift Aid), date of birth and history of previous donations. Your data is stored on a secure server and processed by our payment service providers.

3.2 Fundraising and social media platforms

If you have donated to Central London Samaritans via an online fundraising platform (such as Virgin Money Giving, Just Giving Or Enthuse) or have registered for a Samaritans event or challenge through a third party event organiser (e.g. Charity Challenge or Action Challenge), they will pass your information onto us to allow us to record and process your donation and/or administer your registration. We will contact you to confirm that we have received your donation/register and to see whether you would like to keep in touch in the future. Make sure you read the fundraising platform’s/event organiser’s own privacy policy, as that will tell you how they use your information for their own purposes.

3.3 To claim Gift Aid

We rely on your consent to claim Gift Aid, and on our legitimate interest in raising funds for processing payments.

If you have made a Gift Aid declaration, we will need to disclose the information you have provided as part of our declaration to HMRC for the purpose of reclaiming Gift Aid.

Other Samaritan activities

1. Samaritans’ education services

4.1 When we visit schools and colleges

When we provide talks and workshops and any other type of visit to an educational establishment or youth setting, our branch will record the visit on our secure database. This record will include:

• the name and address of the organisation
• the type of visit that we have carried out
• the number of young people we have talked to

This is used only within Samaritans and never shared externally. For information on how this is used by Samaritans Central Charity, please see the Samaritans Central Charity Privacy Statement.

4.2 CCTV

We operate CCTV systems on our premises, so you may be recorded when you visit them. CCTV is installed for security, to protect both you and the volunteers. CCTV footage will only be viewed when necessary (for example to detect or prevent a crime) and is only stored on a temporary basis, other than where it has been flagged for review.

5. How we keep your information safe

Samaritans uses various technical and organisational measures to keep your data safe. Electronic data and databases are stored on secure computer systems and we control who has access to information, using both physical and electronic means. Our volunteers receive training and are provided with guidance that they are required to follow when handling personal information.

Although we do our best to keep your information safe, the transmission of information over the internet is never completely secure, so please bear this in mind when you share information with us via our website.

5.1 Sharing your information

Samaritans will not share your information with other organisations, except in the following situations:

• We receive a call about acts of terrorism or bomb warnings
• We receive a court order requiring us to share information
• We are working in partnership with another organisation and you have given consent for your information to be shared
• You directly ask us to pass on information about you to someone else
• We are concerned that you are not able to make a decision for yourself (please read more about our policy on confidentiality here
• You threaten the safety of our volunteers
• You misuse or compromise the delivery of our service, for example by making it difficult for other people to get through

When you make a donation to Samaritans we may disclose your personal information if we are requested to do so by a regulator or law enforcement bodies, or where we are otherwise required to do so by law. We may also need to share your information with external organisations in the case of suspected fraud or for the prevention or detection of other crimes.

5.2 How long we keep information for

We only keep your personal information for as long as required, depending on what it was collected for, and in accordance with legal requirements and tax and accounting rules.

If you have told us that you don’t want to be contacted by Samaritans, we will keep your details on a ‘suppression’ list to help ensure that we do not continue to contact you.

5.3 Keeping your information up to date

If your personal details have changed, let us know by contacting the branch at:

Office Manager, 46 Marshall Street, London W1F 9BF

1. Your rights

The data protection laws give you certain rights over your personal information and how we use it. These include:

• the right of access to a copy of the information that we hold about you;
• the right to ask us to correct inaccurate information that we hold about you;
• the right, in certain circumstances, to object to specific uses of your data; and
• the right, in certain circumstances, to request the information that we hold about you to be deleted.
• The right, in certain circumstances not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please:

• Put your request in writing and email it to [email protected] or send it for the attention of the Branch Director at Central London Samaritans, 46 Marshall Street, London W1F 9BF.

If your request relates to information held by Samaritans Central Charity, please:

• Put your request in writing and email it to [email protected] or send it for the attention of the Legal & Governance team at Samaritans, The Upper Mill, Kingston Road, Ewell, Surrey, KT17 2AF. If you are only in contact with a single branch, you can put your request in writing to that branch.

6.1 Making a complaint

If you require further information about the way your personal data will be used, or if you are unhappy with the way we have handled your personal data and wish to contact us please submit your concerns to the Branch Director by emailing [email protected] or Samaritans Central Charity by emailing [email protected]

You also have the right to lodge a complaint to the relevant regulator about how we use your personal data, further details below:

The Information Commissioners Office – United Kingdom

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Website: https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/raising-concerns/

The Information Commissioner’s Office – Northern Ireland

Telephone: 0303 123 1114

Email: [email protected]

3rd Floor, 14 Cromac Place, Belfast, BT7 2JB

Jersey Office of the Information Commissioner:

Telephone: +44 (0) 1534 716530

Email: [email protected]

2nd Floor, 5 Castle Street, St. Helier, Jersey, JE2 3BT