Volunteer Applicant Privacy Notice

Who are we?
Scope
How to contact SSAFA about your personal data
Purpose for processing your data
What information does SSAFA collect?
What will we do with the information you provide to us?
Our lawful basis for processing your personal data
Sharing your personal data
International data transfers
How does SSAFA protect data?
For how long does the organisation keep data?
Your rights to your personal data
What if you do not provide personal data?
Automated decision-making
Your right to withdraw consent

1. Who are we?

We are SSAFA, the Armed Forces Charity and are the Data Controller of your personal data. Our legal and working tittles are:

• Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen and Families Association – Forces Help: Registered charity in England and Wales (210760), Scotland (SC038056) and the Republic of Ireland (20202001).

• SSAFA Forces Help

• SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity

SSAFA is a company registered as:

• Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen and Families Association - Forces Help: company number: RC000571

• SSAFA Forces Help Enterprise Limited, registration number: 02493614

• SSAFA Family Health Services, registration number: 03137764

We refer to these companies as ‘SSAFA’ collectively throughout this Notice. They are each a controller of your personal data – but have a single point of contact for you as set out in this Notice.

Our registered address is:

SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, Queen Elizabeth House, 4 St Dunstan’s Hill, London, EC3R 8AD.

2. Scope

This Privacy Notice explains how SSAFA collects and uses the personal information of individuals who apply for volunteer roles.

3. How to contact SSAFA about your personal data

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or the way we use your personal data, you should contact the Data Governance Team as follows:

Data Governance Manager
SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity
Queen Elizabeth House
4 St Dunstan’s Hill
London
EC3R 8AD

Email: data.governance@ssafa.org.uk

You can also contact our Data Protection Officer, Raphaelle Conyard by email at raphaelle.conyard@ssafa.org.uk.

4. Purpose for processing your data

As part of any application process, SSAFA collects and processes personal data from applicants for volunteer roles. SSAFA is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data whilst meeting its data protection obligations.

Please note that all data collected will be used and held in accordance with the requirements of the UK GDPR as amended by the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). We do not collect more information than we need to fulfil our stated purposes and will not retain it for longer than is necessary.

5. What information does SSAFA collect?

We collect a range of information about you. This includes:

Your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number
Details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history
Whether or not you have a disability for which the organisation needs to make reasonable adjustments during the application process
Equal opportunities monitoring information, including about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health, and religion or belief.

We collect this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms, CVs or resumes, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment.

SSAFA also collects personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers. SSAFA may also, where appropriate, collect information from employment background check providers and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) providers.

6. What will we do with the information you provide to us?

All of the information you provide during the volunteer application process will only be used for the purpose of progressing your volunteering application, or to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements if necessary. We will not share any of the information you provide during the application process with any third parties for marketing purposes.

The information you provide will be held securely by us and/or our data processors whether the information is in electronic or physical format. We will use your contact details to inform you of the progress of your application and your additional information to assess your suitability for the role you have applied for.

7. Our lawful basis for processing your personal data

SSAFA needs to process data prior to engaging you as a volunteer.

SSAFA has a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the application process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from applicants allows SSAFA to manage the application process, assess and confirm an individual's suitability as a volunteer. Where SSAFA relies on legitimate interests as a reason for processing data, it has considered whether or not those interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of volunteers and has concluded that they are not.

SSAFA processes health information if it needs to make reasonable adjustments to the application process for volunteers who have a disability. For some roles, SSAFA is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences, so that we can carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to volunteering for the charity.

8. Sharing your personal data

Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the application process. This includes interviewers involved in the application process, volunteer and employee management in the business involved in the application process.

SSAFA will not share your data with third parties unless your application is successful. SSAFA will then share your data to obtain references for you and, where appropriate, background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and the Disclosure and Barring Service to obtain any necessary criminal records checks, dependent upon the role applied for.

9. International data transfers

We do not transfer your personal data outside of the UK for the purposes of assessing and processing your application without your permission.

10. How does SSAFA protect data?

SSAFA uses appropriate technical and organisational safeguards to ensure we keep your personal data secure. We have security measures in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, and alteration of the data under our control. Our cyber security arrangements and framework of data protection policies, procedures and training are kept under regular review to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by our employees in the proper performance of their duties.

11. How long does the organisation keep data?

If your application is unsuccessful, SSAFA will hold your data on file for six months after the end of the relevant application process. At the end of that period, your data is deleted or destroyed. If your application is successful, personal data gathered during the application process will be transferred to your personnel file and retained during your engagement as a volunteer. The periods for which your data will be held will be provided to you in a new privacy notice.

12. Your rights to your personal data

You have rights under data protection law over your personal data. You are entitled to request:

• access to (i.e. ask for a copy of) your personal data

• correction of your personal data if it is incorrect

• erasure of your personal data

• that we stop using your personal data if you believe that the information, we hold is wrong, or that we don’t have a valid reason for using it

• that we stop using your personal data where you object to us using it

• that we transfer the information you gave us from one organisation to another or give it to you.

These rights are subject to eligibility and to legal exemptions, and we may need to verify your identity before we are able to respond to your request.

Please note your personal data is stored on our recruitment system. Following a successful application you would be provided with access rights so that you can ensure your personal data is being kept up to date.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights or have question on how we are processing your data please contact the Data Governance Manager by email data.governance@ssafa.org.uk or write to us at Data Governance Manager, SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, Queen Elizabeth House, 4 St Dunstan’s Hill, London, EC3R 8AD.

If you believe that SSAFA has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to our Data Protection Officer who will consider the matter for you. You can contact them by email at raphaelle.conyard@ssafa.org.uk.

If you are still not satisfied, you can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office here – or by telephone on: 0303 123 1113 - or in writing: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

13. What if you do not provide personal data?

You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to SSAFA during the application process. However, if you do not provide the information, SSAFA may not be able to process your application properly or at all.

14. Automated decision-making

Our recruitment processes are not based on automated decision-making except for our due diligence on-line screening questions.

15. Your right to withdraw consent

Where you have given us your consent, please note you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. If you wish to exercise any of your individual rights including your right to withdraw consent, you can do so by contacting us at data.governance@ssafa.org.uk, or writing to: