Privacy Policy for Who Cares? Scotland


The event organiser, Who Cares? Scotland, has the legal responsibility to tell ticket buyers and event attendees how their personal information will be collected and used. You can find their Privacy Policy below or contact them to request it.


Information for people attending groups and enjoying one-off events and activities

Who Cares? Scotland creates safe, valued, and regular spaces for people with care experience and their friends to enjoy fun and friendship with people who have similar or shared experiences, and helps everyone feel understood, respected, and included as part of Scottish communities.

Sometimes these spaces are all about having a good time; on other occasions you might have more serious conversations about topics that affect you with a view to making change happen – we call this participation.

All individuals who attend a group, activity or event organised by Who Cares? Scotland will have this Privacy Notice explained to them at the time they start to engage with us. This explanation will cover the following information:

The information we hold about you

Who Cares? Scotland holds personal and sensitive information about you such as your name, address, date of birth, gender, ethnicity, whether you have a disability, and information on people close to you (‘key contacts’), so that we can make sure our groups, activities and events meet your needs.

We may also hold other information about your health, home situation, risk assessment, any involvement with the justice system, and details of your care experience that helps us to provide you with the best possible experience.

We may also hold your photograph.

If you get involved with participation activities, your record may also contain photos and copies of work that you have done to express your views.

Why we keep and how we use information about you

We want to provide you with the best possible experience – whether you have signed up for a national event, activities as part of a summer programme, or as a member of a group.

The personal details you share with us when you register for our groups, events or activities will be used in the following ways:

  • to keep you up to date with the event, activity, or group you have signed up for
  • to support you at our events, activities, and groups, and to keep you safe
  • to get your feedback on the event, activity, or group you were a part of, so that we can make our activities even more exciting for you

Personal information will also be anonymised and collated in a way that cannot be linked to you, so we can:

  • understand the types of activities and events people enjoy attending and develop those that don’t work so well; this information is shared with our funders
  • understand issues and concerns that are important to people participating in our groups, activities, and events; this information is shared with our funders and will help inform our wider influencing work
  • understand if our participation activities are available to all; this information is shared with our funders and will help us to ensure we are as inclusive as possible.

How we collect your information

The information we collect about you will come directly from you, when you register for our groups, activities, or events. If you are under 16 (in certain circumstance under 18) or if you find it difficult to tell us the information we need to know, we may need to ask for data from a parent, guardian, or responsible adult.

We will only collect information about you that is relevant / needed for us ensure you are safe and have a great time at our groups, activities, and events. It is important therefore, that this information is correct and up to date.

If you are invited to a participation activity where your views are captured, you will be told before the start what information will be gathered and who will see it. You will then have the choice as to whether you want to be involved or not.

Who might we share your information with?

If you are involved in a participation activity, your information, views, opinions, artwork, photos / other contributions may be shared with people outside the organisation, but this will only be with your prior knowledge and consent. In most cases, any contribution you make would be anonymous – this means that nobody would know that it came from you.

There are some other routine circumstances where we might share your personal information with someone outside the organisation. The most common example would be:

  • If we believe you or someone else might be at risk. We then have a duty to report a safeguarding concern under Child Protection or Adult Support and Protection legislation.

We may also pass on personal data in other urgent or exceptional circumstances. Examples include:

  • To comply with a court order or request from statutory regulator (e.g., the Scottish Social Service Council – SSSC)
  • When necessary to protect the health, safety and welfare of staff members or volunteers, for example if a member of staff / volunteer does not check in as expected when lone working
  • To protect public health, for example to comply with contact tracing during the coronavirus pandemic
  • To prevent serious physical harm to a person
  • To protect someone’s vital interests – this refers to life or death situations

Wherever it is possible and reasonable to do so, Who Cares? Scotland commits to consulting an individual about the need to share their information in advance. However, the urgent or exceptional nature of the above circumstances means this may not always be possible.

Storing your information safely and securely

Your information is private. We have a duty to keep it safe. We store your information on a secure computer system. We may also hold some information about you on paper, but we ensure there are appropriate measures in place to guarantee this data remains secure.

Who Cares? Scotland has internal policies and controls in place to try to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused, or disclosed, and is not accessed except by its employees and volunteers in the performance of their duties.

Where Who Cares? Scotland engages third parties to process personal data on its behalf, they do so based on written instructions, are under a duty of confidentiality and are obliged to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of data.

How long will we retain your information?

If you sign up for a single event or activity, we will hold on to the details you give us in the event registration form until one month after the end of the event. We will then delete / securely destroy all identifiable personal and sensitive information.

If you are a member of a group we will hold on to your information until you tell us you want to leave the group, or you stop attending for a period of six-months. We will then delete all identifiable personal and sensitive information.

If you are involved in a participation activity, your information, views, opinions, artwork, photos / other contributions may be shared with people outside the organisation, but this will only be with your prior knowledge and consent. In most cases, any contribution you make would be anonymous – this means that nobody would know that it came from you. Once shared externally, the information that is provided will be difficult to remove. Therefore, we will talk this through with you and make sure you are aware of any risks before any of the information is shared. Who Cares? Scotland will store your participation contributions for a minimum of one year from the date you created it.

Archiving

We will also retain information relating to our groups, activities and events for archiving purposes in the public interest and/or historical research purposes. Such information may include personal data relating to you (which will mean that your personal data may be held by us for longer periods). Any archiving of information by us will be undertaken in accordance with the National Archives Guide to Archiving Personal Data 2018.

What the law says

The law says that we must:

  • Collect and use your personal information fairly and lawfully
  • Keep your information secure
  • Respect the rights given to you through information laws which include rights that allow you to question, complain, correct, remove, and restrict the information held about you (please discuss with your worker if you have any questions about your rights)
  • Make sure the information that we hold is adequate, relevant, accurate and up to date

The data protection laws also say we must have a valid lawful basis in order to process your personal information. Who Cares? Scotland will process your information on the lawful bases of legitimate interest and consent.

The legitimate interest is enabling you to attend the groups, activities, and events that we offer. You would not be able to attend these groups, activities, or events without us processing your personal information. We plan to use your information only in ways that you would expect us to do this, and we expect that our use of your information will have minimum impact on your privacy.

We will get your explicit consent if we want to use your contributions in any participation activity and this consent process will include:

  • asking you to positively opt-in to the work you will be doing alongside us and regularly renewing this opt-in
  • giving you the information you need to make a choice about your involvement
  • explaining the different ways we will use your information and who may be able to access that information
  • if and where necessary, seeking consent from a responsible adult

In this way, we will:

  • build a trusting relationship with you based on up-to-date information
  • help you understand any risks involved, and give you a choice over what you want to do alongside us
  • make it easy for you to withdraw consent, and tell you how
  • let you know how we will support you throughout your work with us

Your right to see the information we hold about you

You have the right to see any information that we hold about you except:

  • Information that could harm you or someone else
  • Information about some legal matters such as if a serious crime has been committed
  • Information that is private to someone else

If you want to see your records, you can speak to a member of staff you know, and they will help you to put your request in writing if needed, or you can contact mydata@whocaresscotland.org directly.