Privacy Policy for Wigan Borough Community First


The event organiser, Wigan Borough Community First, 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.

This Privacy Statement sets out the data processing practices carried out by Wigan Borough Community First (WBCF)

We retain and use personal data (information that relates to and identifies living people) to help us carry out our role as the local independent champion for people who use health and social care services. We will always make sure that your information is protected and treated securely. Any information that you give will be held in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018, the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), and the UK Data Use and Access Act 2025 (DUAA) and all other relevant legislation.


Our contact details

  • Wigan Borough Community First (WBCF)
  • Ashland House
  • Dobson Park Way
  • Ince-in-Makerfield
  • Wigan
  • WN2 2DX
  • Telephone: 01942 834666 
  • Email: info@wbcf.co.uk
  • ICO Registration: ZA832549

Automated Decision-Making & Profiling

In line with the UK Data Use and Access Act 2025 (DUAA), Wigan Borough Community First is committed to ensuring transparency in the use of any automated decision-making or profiling systems. Where such systems are used, you have the right to request human intervention, express your point of view, and contest the decision. At present, Wigan Borough Community First (WBCF) does not rely on automated tools for decision-making about individuals. Should this change, we will update this policy and notify affected individuals.


Data Minimisation & Secondary Use

Wigan Borough Community First (WBCF) complies with DUAA 2025 by ensuring that all personal data collected is limited to what is necessary for the stated purposes. We will not use your personal information for secondary purposes without your explicit consent unless otherwise required by law. We also ensure access to personal data is strictly controlled and based on role-specific necessity.


Enhanced Individual Rights under DUAA 2025

In addition to the rights provided under the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR, DUAA 2025 grants you further rights, including:

  • The right to explanation regarding automated decision-making and profiling.
  • The right to object to the secondary use of your data.
  • The right to data portability in interoperable, machine-readable formats.

These rights ensure you maintain greater control over your personal data.


Information we collect

We collect and process the following information:

  • Personal details, contact details and preferences, family details, date of birth.
  • Images captured at our events.
  • Details of any support received.
  • Records of discussions with members of staff.
  • Location Data, Email Address, Cookies arising from use of our website.
  • Character Traits, Educational/Biographical Information, Welfare, NI Number, Tax
  • Information, Disclosure and Barring Service checks, declarations of interests and
  • Photographs (for staff including trustees).
  • Files, messages, documents that our staff produce.
  • Records of staff use of our IT systems.

Wigan Borough Community First (WBCF) also process the following special categories of data:

  • Racial/Ethnicity, Sexual Orientation, Health, Criminal records (if disclosed to us).
  • Staff Sickness.

You can find out more about our use of Cookies from the Healthwatch England website.

How we get your personal information and why we have it 

Most of the personal information that we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:

  • You have visited our website or our signposting and advice service.
  • You have used an online form, NHS complaints service or emailed us.
  • You have shared your experiences with us by other means (telephone, face to face).
  • You have attended one of our events.
  • You are a member of our staff or applied to work for us

We also receive personal information indirectly from the following sources:

  • A Family Member.
  • Healthwatch England.
  • Health and social care practitioners.
  • Our IT and HR providers.


Sharing your information

We may share your information within our team, with Healthwatch England or other Health and Social Care practitioners, our IT and HR providers and our consultants. We work with Healthwatch England, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), local commissioners, NHS England Improvement and our local authority and can also engage external suppliers to process personal information on our behalf. Wherever possible, we ensure that any information that we share or disclose is anonymised, so as to ensure that you cannot be identified from it. We are strongly committed to data security and we take reasonable and appropriate steps to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or corruption. We have appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures in place to safeguard and secure the information you provide to us. Only authorised employees and contractors under strict controls will have access to your personal information on our IT systems and to physical copies of personal data that we hold. Where appropriate we ensure that a Data Processing Agreement is in place


Publishing information

In most circumstances we anonymise our data to ensure that a person cannot be identified, unless this has been otherwise agreed and consent has been given.


Sharing your data with Healthwatch England

We are required to share information with Healthwatch England to ensure that your views aremconsidered at a national level. The information we share contains no personally identifiable data. This enables them to analyse service provision across the country and supply the Department of Health and national commissioners with the information you provide. Any information that is used for national publications is anonymised and will only be used with the consent of a local Healthwatch. You can use this link to find out more about Healthwatch England’s purpose and what they do.


Our lawful basis

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation, (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

  • We have your consent. You are able to withdraw your consent at any time by emailing info@wbcf.co.uk or calling 01942 834666.
  • We have a contractual obligation.
  • We have a legal obligation.
  • We have a vital interest.
  • We have a legitimate interest.
  • We have a public duty.

Personal information may be collected with your consent through:

  • Our signposting and advice service.
  • When we receive feedback by phone, outreach work or through surveys.
  • Enter and View activity.


How we store your information

Wigan Borough Community First (WBCF) provides a secure digital system on which we manage our data. We store data in electronic form.

We use several online systems for facilities such as mailouts and survey hosting. We undertake to ensure the security of their systems meet GDPR requirements and that the information we allow them to hold is relevant and not in excess of that needed for the function involved. We keep personal data that you give us while we are dealing with your case. We publish a retention and disposal schedule which explains how long we keep different types of records and documents for, including records and documents containing personal data. Personal data is deleted or securely destroyed at the end of its retention period. You can obtain a copy of our retention and disposal schedule by emailing info@wbcf.co.uk


Your rights

Under data protection law, you have the following rights:

  • Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
  • Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
  • Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
  • Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
  • Your right to object to processing - You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
  • Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.


Contact us

If you wish to make a request please contact us at:

  • Wigan Borough Community First
  • Sunshine House
  • Wellington St
  • Wigan
  • WN1 3SA
  • Telephone: 01942 834666 Email: info@wbcf.co.uk
  • How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us please contact Karen Parker.

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

  • Information Commissioner’s Office
  • Wycliffe House
  • Water Lane
  • Wilmslow
  • Cheshire
  • SK9 5AF
  • Helpline number: 0303 123 1113 ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk