Privacy notice for applicants, employees and volunteers

St Wilfrid's Hospice is committed to being fair, open, honest and transparent in relation to the collection, processing and sharing of your personal data – in full accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

St Wilfrid’s Hospice is a local charity in Eastbourne that provides specialist palliative care and hospice care across a number of services. Further information about us can be found on our website, stwhospice.org.

What information do we ask for, and why?

We do not collect more information than we need to fulfil our stated purposes and will not retain it for longer than is necessary.

During the recruitment and selection process you will be asked to share your basic contact details and some additional information relevant to the role you are applying for, including your employment and education history if you are applying for an employed position. Owing to the vulnerability of people receiving healthcare, you may also be asked to disclose details of any criminal convictions. The processing of criminal offence data for this purpose meets the conditions of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Should you be successful in securing employment or a volunteering position with St Wilfrid’s Hospice you will be required to ensure that any changes to your basic personal details are shared. This could include name, address, telephone number, bank details (employees only), emergency contact, professional memberships etc. Employees will also be asked to share information relating to sickness absence and on occasion, where necessary, your medical history. The processing of health information is necessary for the purpose of assessing the working capability of the employee or volunteer. This allows St Wilfrid’s Hospice to make reasonable adjustments where necessary and ensure our clinical employees are safe to work in a clinical environment i.e vaccinations.

The information we ask for is used to assess your suitability for employment or volunteering, and subsequently manage the employment or volunteer relationship. You don’t have to provide what we ask for, but it might affect your application or the way in which we can support you if you don’t, and without this information, we would not be able to fulfil our function as a responsible employer or volunteer involving organisation.

Application stage

We ask you for your personal details including name and contact details. We will also ask you for information relevant to the role you have applied for such as your previous experience, education, referees and other information that qualifies you for the position. Our Recruitment Team will have access to all of this information.

You will also be asked to provide equal opportunities information. This is not mandatory information – if you don’t provide it, it will not affect your application. This information will not be made available to any staff outside of our Recruitment Team, including hiring managers, in any way which can identify you. Any information you do provide will be used only to produce and monitor equal opportunities statistics.

Shortlisting stage

The hiring managers will shortlist applications for interview with the support of the HR Team. They will not be provided with your name, contact information or any information considered sensitive. They will not be provided with your equal opportunities information if you have provided it. This is called ‘blind shortlisting'.

Volunteer applicants will usually be invited to discuss their volunteering with the Voluntary Services Team or with the hiring manager depending on the role.

Assessment events

We might ask you to participate in assessments; complete tests; and/or to attend an interview – or a combination of these. Information will be generated by you and by us. For example, you might complete a written test or we might take interview notes. This information is held by St Wilfrid’s Hospice.

If you are unsuccessful following assessment for the position you have applied for, we will retain your details for a period of 12 months.

The offer of employment or a volunteering role

If we make an offer of employment or a volunteering role, we will ask you for information so that we can carry out pre-employment/volunteering checks. You must successfully complete pre-employment/volunteering checks as the offer is conditional upon them being satisfactory. We are required to confirm the identity of our employees and volunteers, their right to work in the United Kingdom and seek assurance as to their trustworthiness, integrity and reliability.

You will therefore be required to provide:

  • Proof of your identity, including your right to work in the UK – you will be asked to attend our premises with original documents, which we will photocopy for our records.
  • Proof of your qualifications if they are a requirement of the role you have applied for.
  • You will be asked to complete a criminal records declaration to declare any unspent convictions as part of the application process.
  • Where applicable, you will be asked to complete a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) application for a Criminal Record check via the Disclosure and Barring Service, which will verify your declaration of unspent convictions. There are several different levels of DBS check, and you will be asked to complete the level applicable to your role.
  • In order to obtain references, we will contact your referees directly using the details you provide.
  • For employees, we will also ask you to complete a questionnaire about your health. This is to establish your fitness to work in the role for which you have applied. The information gathered allows us to put into place any reasonable adjustments, should they be needed. This is done through an NHS Occupational Health Service. Volunteers are able to raise any health-related concerns or additional support requirements so that suitable roles can be adapted where possible to suit individuals.

To complete your personal file and process your employment or volunteering activities efficiently and effectively, we will also ask you for the following as applicable:

  • Bank details – to process salary and/or expenses payments.
  • Emergency contact details – so we know who to contact in case you have an emergency.
  • (Employees only) Membership of a NHS Pension scheme – as a directional employer you may be eligible to re-join your previous scheme.

During employment or volunteering

Throughout your employment or volunteering at St Wilfrid’s Hospice you will be required to ensure that any changes to your basic personal details are shared, this could include name, address, bank details, emergency contact etc. You will be asked to update this with the HR or Voluntary Services Team.

Professional memberships and insurances

If your employment or volunteering position is conditional upon a valid membership or insurance, evidence of renewal will be requested.

Management of short- and long-term sickness absence (employees only)

It will be necessary for you to share basic information relating to reasons for sickness absence from work. Where we have cases of prolonged or persistent sickness you may be asked to disclose more detailed information relating to your medical history or medical condition. We sometimes use occupational health services to advise and guide us appropriately on individual cases of prolonged or persistent sickness. You will be reminded of your rights at the time an occupational health referral is requested.

Vaccination data (employees only)

To carry out our duties as an employer, meet regulatory and reporting obligations and ensure the effective management of the hospice we will collect your vaccination status (i.e dates of Covid-19/flu vaccination). You will be asked to provide dates of vaccination if you have chosen to be vaccinated.

Maternity / paternity / adoption / parental leave (employees only)

You will be asked to provide documentation and information that confirms your eligibility to take leave.

Volunteer leave or breaks from volunteering (volunteers only)

Where a volunteer’s circumstances change and there is an impact on how they are able to carry out their role, we will review the role and tasks with the volunteer and implement appropriate support or changes as necessary and where possible. This will be kept on the volunteers’ record.

Access to your personal information

St Wilfrid’s tries to be as open as it can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. Individuals can find out what we hold in terms of personal information by making a ‘Subject access request’ under the GDPR. If we do hold information about you we will:

  • Give you a description of it
  • Tell you why we are holding it
  • Tell you who it could be disclosed to
  • Tell you the envisaged retention period
  • Remind you of your right to correct, erase or restrict the processing of the data
  • Tell you how we collected the information
  • Give you details of any regulated automated decision making
  • Let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form

To make a request to St Wilfrid’s for any personal information we may hold you need to put the request in writing addressing it to the Registered Manager, St Wilfrid’s Hospice, 1 Broadwater Way, Eastbourne, East Sussex BN22 9PZ.

In all cases we will respond to your request within one month unless there are numerous and complex requests, in which case it may be extended to two months.

There is no charge for SAR requests.

Data sharing within St Wilfrid’s Hospice

For St Wilfrid’s to be capable of delivering a comprehensive service, it will be necessary at times to share data between departments within the hospice.

The information you provide will be held securely by us and/or our data processors whether the information is in electronic or physical format.

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

All of the information you provide during the recruitment and selection process will only be used for the legitimate interest of progressing your application, or to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements as necessary. We will not share any of the information you provide during the recruitment process with any third parties for marketing purposes.

We will use the contact details you provide to us to contact you to progress your application. We will use the other information you provide to assess your suitability for the role you have applied for.

Other information that you provide during the course of your employment or volunteering will be used to manage the employment or volunteering relationship legitimately and appropriately. This could be information relating (but not limited) to the updating of personal contact details, renewal of professional memberships, provision of benefits or disclosing medical conditions.

Where appropriate, information will be shared with managers through the recruitment and selection process.

Data sharing and transfer

Use of data processors

Data processors are third parties who provide elements of our people service for us. We have contracts in place with our data processors. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us. They will hold it securely and retain it for the period we instruct.

CIPHR (employees)

CIPHR is an internally used Human Resource Information System (HRIS). Your personal details will be held on CIPHR from the point at which you have received an offer of employment with us until six years post-termination of employment. All information relating to your employment role and pay details are added to CIPHR and will continue for the duration of your time with St Wilfrid’s Hospice.

iRecruit (applicants)

iRecruit is an applicant tracking system, which forms part of CIPHR company, used to manage the end-to-end recruitment process at the hospice. You will be asked to set up an account at the point you apply for a role with us. If you are successful, your personal details will be transferred to our HRIS. If you are unsuccessful, your personal details will be kept for a period of 12 months before being removed.

Through iRecruit, you can sign up for job alerts. This means we will email you when a new job is posted in the categories you have requested. Your account will be kept active for one year, after this it will be deleted unless you confirm you would like to keep it active for a further year.

Automated decision-making

In the event that we use your personal data for the purposes of automated decision making and our automated decisions have a legal (or similarly significant) effect on you, you have the right to challenge those decisions and to request human intervention, express your own point of view and obtain an explanation of the decision from us.

Civica (employees)

Civica is an internally used payroll system. Your personal details which directly relate to payment will be kept on Civica from the point you start working for the hospice until six years post-termination of employment.

A GDPR contract exists between St Wilfrid’s Hospice and CIPHR/Civica in relation to any processing of data for circumstances where the hospice needs CIPHR or Civica to resolve any application issues.

Better Impact (volunteers) 

From 1st April 2022, volunteer data is administered via our volunteer database Better Impact. Better Impact Software Limited, is a software company which provides solutions to charities and non-profits to help them manage volunteers, donations and members. At St Wilfrid’s, we only use the Volunteer Impact software to manage our volunteer services. Better Impact Software Limited, is a limited company based in England and hosted in Canada. The company number is 07709427 and the principal place of operation is: WeWork, 199 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 3TY. You can view the Better Impact privacy statement here (Please note, the privacy notice covers all Better Impact products, not just Volunteer Impact).

RaisersEdge (volunteers)

Previous to 1st April, volunteer data was administered via our RaisersEdge/NXT database, hosted in the EU (Amsterdam) by Blackbaud, the world’s largest cloud software company supporting non-profit organisations. Blackbaud, Inc. is the parent company of Blackbaud Europe Ltd and is a certified member of Privacy Shield, with headquarters in the United States of America. The terms and policy referring specifically to the relationship between Blackbaud and St Wilfrid’s Hospice, where Blackbaud is the data processor, can be found under the Business Solutions Agreement, with further specific detail under the Hosting Services agreement: blackbaud.com/terms

Volunteers have the option to engage with the hospice as a supporter as well as a volunteer. As such, the Fundraising Team will respect the wishes of volunteers and capture their communication preferences in relation to the receipt of newsletters, appeals, events etc. Volunteers not wishing to receive such communications will have their records flagged accordingly.

Email communication to staff

St Wilfrid’s Hospice will securely process and hold staff member’s personal email addresses in order to send electronic payslips on a monthly basis. Once emailed to staff, they will be required to input their National Insurance Number in order to access the payslip information.

P60s and P11Ds will be issued in the same way. In addition, important updates and messages from the Leadership Team and/or HR Team may be communicated via personal email from time to time to ensure consistent communications to those at home or away from hospice premises.

Email communication to volunteers

From 1st May 2022, Voluntary Services have been using Better Impact for email communication to volunteers. Volunteer email is used to send information linked to volunteering at the hospice to volunteer’s personal email addresses, for example our monthly newsletter Hospice Voice and information about new volunteer roles and volunteering events. Previous to 1st May, 2022, emails were sent to volunteers using Online Express.

Online Express

Online Express is an email marketing tool which is used for communicating information to large groups by email. Online Express is part of the Blackbaud suite of applications used elsewhere in the hospice by our Fundraising Team.

Pension providers (employees)

Your details will be provided to NHS Pensions who are the administrators of the NHS Pension Scheme of which St Wilfrid’s are members, or People’s Pension, who are the administrators of the St Wilfrid’s Hospice Auto Enrolment Pension Scheme. You will be enrolled into the pension scheme and details shared with the provider will be your name, address, date of birth, National Insurance Number, pension reference number and salary. Your bank details will not be passed to the provider at this time.

Here is a link to NHS Privacy Notice

Here is a link to People’s Pension Privacy Notice

Life assurance

Any employee not belonging to an NHS pension scheme, and therefore having life assurance as part of that scheme, will be eligible to life assurance as provided by the hospice. In order to maintain this benefit, the hospice will supply some personal and, occasionally and where necessary, medical information, to our providers AIG.

Here is a link to AIG privacy policy.

Occupational Health Services (employees only)

Occupational Health Services (a division of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust) provide our Occupational Health service. If you are in a clinical role and we make you an offer, we will ask that you complete a questionnaire which will help to determine if you are fit to undertake the work that you have been offered or advise us if any adjustments are needed to the work environment or systems so that you may work effectively.

Your offer pack will include an electronic version of the questionnaire which, once complete, we ask you to email direct to Occupational Health Services. The information you provide will be held by Occupational Health Services who will provide us with a Fit to Work certificate or a report with recommendations. You are able to request to see the report before it is sent to us. If you decline for us to see it, then this could affect your employment offer. If an occupational health assessment is required, this is likely to be carried out by Occupational Health Services.

Here is a link to Occupational Health Services Privacy Notice

DBS checking

Many people who apply to work in a hospice, whether as a paid employee or a volunteer, will be required to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check to ensure they are suitable to work with those they care for. Both Standard and Enhanced DBS checks will detail both spent and unspent convictions, as well as any cautions, warnings or reprimands an applicant has on their record (as long as they’re not protected).

In order to obtain a DBS check we use M G Care Executive Limited trading as uCheck located at Chiltern House, Sigford Road, Marsh Barton, Exeter EX2 8NL. Further information is available from the following links:  Website          Privacy Statement             Information security statement             uCheck.

How long is the information retained for?

If you are successful in securing an employment or volunteering role, the information you provide during the application process will be retained by us as part of your employee/volunteer file for the duration of your employment/volunteering plus six years following the end of your employment/volunteering.

This includes your criminal records declaration, fitness to work (employees only), records of any security checks and references. For volunteers, we don’t keep data for longer than it is necessary for the purposes for which it is used. This might include information about your interests and skills in order to match you to a suitable volunteer role.

If you are unsuccessful at any stage of the recruitment and selection process or you do not become a volunteer, the information you have provided until that point will be retained for 12 months from the closure of the campaign.

Equal opportunities information is retained for 12 months following the closure of the campaign. For more information, please contact the Head of HR at HR.Team@stwhospice.org

For equal opportunities we may also ask for the following information about you: 

  • Any recognised disability, learning difficulty or special educational learning difficulty
  • Racial and ethnic origin
  • Religious or similar beliefs
  • Relationship status
  • Sexual orientation
  • Gender identity

Why do you need to keep information about me?

If you are applying for a role at the hospice then we need to keep information in the first instance so that we can contact you following your application. We will ask what your preferred method of communication is.

For volunteers we keep a record of your personal information so that we can:

  • Manage our own internal administrative purposes and to keep a record of your relationship with us
  • Manage your communication preferences
  • To analyse internal volunteering trends and processes
  • To send you information regarding your volunteering and to contact you regarding your volunteering
  • To comply with applicable laws and regulations

Data subject rights

Under the GDPR you have rights as an individual which you can exercise in relation to the information we hold about you. The specific rights are:

  • The right of access to allow individuals to be aware of and verify the lawfulness of the processing in relation to personal data.
  • The right to rectify personal data if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • The right to be forgotten enabling an individual to request the deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing.
  • The right to withdraw consent, at any time, to the holding and processing of personal data. This is only applicable where consent is relied upon as the grounds for data processing. You will not be penalised for wishing to withdraw consent.
  • The right not to be subject to automated decision taking, including profiling.
  • The right to transparency
  • The right to data portability
  • The right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

What should I do if I have concerns?

St Wilfrid’s Hospice will endeavour to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading, or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.

If you would like to make a complaint about the way we have processed your personal employment or volunteering information, you should contact the Head of Human Resources at HR.Team@stwhospice.org or Voluntary Services on VSTeam@stwhospice.org

While St Wilfrid’s Hospice is not currently required to appoint a legally defined role of Data Protection Officer, we continue to demonstrate our strong commitment to data protection, security and confidentiality with the following key IG roles in place:

Dr David Barclay – Caldicott Guardian

Colin Twomey – Senior Information Risk Officer (SIRO)

Steve Clarke – IG Lead

As a data controller, St Wilfrid’s Hospice main address is:

St Wilfrid’s Hospice

1 Broadwater Way

Eastbourne

East Sussex

BN22 9PZ.

Changes to this information notice

Our privacy notices are reviewed a minimum of every two years and updated when there is a known change to our systems or processes. This information notice was last updated in August 2022.

This privacy notice does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of St Wilfrid’s collection and use of personal information. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to HR.Team@stwhospice.org

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