Volunteering Privacy Policy

At Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, we are committed to maintaining the privacy of individuals that volunteer with us.

Midlands Air Ambulance is a charity registered in England and Wales; Registered Company number 1143118 (Formerly 1001064)

Midlands Air Ambulance Trading Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales at Airbase Avenue, Neachley Lane, Shifnal, TF11 8UR; Reg. Co. number 08256466.

Under data protection law, individuals have a right to be informed about how Midlands Air Ambulance uses any personal data that we hold about them.  We comply with this right by providing ‘privacy notices’ (sometimes called ‘fair processing notices’) to individuals where we are processing their personal data.

 We, Midlands Air Ambulance Charity (MAAC) and Midlands Air Ambulance Trading Ltd (MAATL), are both organisations that are ‘controllers’ of personal data, for the purposes of data protection laws. This privacy notice explains how we will use your personal data when you volunteer with us, enquire about, or apply for, volunteer opportunities. It tells you what information we will collect about you and how and why we will use it.  It also explains what rights you have over your personal data.

The kind of personal information we hold about you

We will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

• If you enquire about volunteering opportunities we will collect, store and use your name and contact details, information about the type of opportunities you are looking for and any other information you may provide when corresponding with us about your enquiry.
• If you apply for a volunteer role with us, we will collect, store and use information that you provide in your application, during an interview or when corresponding with us about your application.  This will include your name and contact details and information about your skills and experience.  We may also collect information about your health and criminal convictions it relevant to the volunteering role.
• If you work as a volunteer for us, we will collect, store and use information in the course of administering and managing your role. This will include your name and contact details, volunteering roles you undertake and activities you participate in, information about your health, emergency contact details, and your bank account details if necessary for the payment of expenses.

How is your personal information collected?

The majority of the personal data we collect about you will be provided to us by you directly.   However, depending on the volunteering role you wish to undertake, we may also obtain further information about you from the following to confirm your suitability for the role: 

• Your named referees; 
• From publicly accessible sources such as LinkedIn and news articles;
• A background check provider, such as DBS checking (see below).

How we will use information about you

This section explains the purposes for which we will use your personal data, including special category personal data and criminal convictions data, and the lawful grounds we rely on to do so:

• It is in our legitimate interests to decide whether you are an appropriate person to undertake a voluntary role that we have determined would be beneficial to us to fill, to communicate with you regarding your work as a volunteer and to manage and administer your work as a volunteer. 
• We will collect and use health data where you explicitly consent to our doing so to ensure that appropriate adjustments are made to enable you to undertake your volunteer role.  We will also use your heath data where it is necessary to protect your vital interests and you are unable to give your consent (e.g. to arrange emergency medical care for you if you are taken ill whilst attending our premises or an event we have organised).
• Emergency contact details (next of kin) will only be used where it is in our legitimate interests to get in touch with your emergency contact because we have concerns about your whereabouts or welfare or because we consider it necessary to do so to protect your vital interests (e.g. in the event of a medical emergency).
• Criminal convictions data will only be used to conduct DBS checks where necessary given the nature of the role (see below).
• We will only collect and use your bank account details if we have agreed that we will reimburse you for any expenses that you incur in the course of performing your volunteer role from us and it is in our legitimate interest to make such payment and your legitimate interests to receive it.
• Conducting risk assessments so we carry out our obligations as an employer.

If you fail to provide personal information

If you fail to provide information when requested, we may not be able to consider you for certain volunteer roles or undertake administrative tasks associated with your volunteer role, such as reimbursing you for agreed expenses.  

Undertaking DBS checks

Most volunteering roles within Midlands Air Ambulance do not require a DBS check. 

If a role you are applying for requires a DBS check, this will be made clear to you at the earliest opportunity. 

We will only conduct criminal record checks where we are legally entitled to because of the nature of the volunteer role you wish to undertake.  We undertake these checks in order to satisfy ourselves that there is nothing in your criminal convictions history that makes you unsuitable for a particular volunteer role. In particular:

• If we are legally required to carry out criminal record checks for those carrying out a particular role; 
• If the role is one which is listed on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (SI 1975/1023) and is also specified in the Police Act 1997 (Criminal Records) Regulations (SI 2002/233) so is eligible for a standard or enhanced check from the Disclosure and Barring Service; or
• The role requires a high degree of trust and integrity and so we would like to ask you to seek a basic disclosure of your criminal records history.

We have in place an appropriate policy document and safeguards, which we are required by law to maintain when processing criminal convictions data.

Automated decision-making

You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making.

Will you share my personal information with third parties?

We may share your personal information with our third-party service providers for the purposes of managing your enquiries or application or managing and administering your volunteer role.  All our third-party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Where will you keep my personal information?

We will only store and process your personal data in the UK.

Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need-to-know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. 

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

How long will you keep my information for?

If you make an enquiry about volunteering with us that you do not pursue we will retain a record of your enquiry for 6 months.

If you apply for a particular volunteer role but are unsuccessful we will keep a record of your application for 6 months unless we have specifically agreed with you to keep your details on record so we can consider you for other volunteering opportunities that may arise in the future.

If you undertake voluntary work with us we will retain your records for a period appropriate to the role.  In most cases this will be 6 years after your volunteer role comes to an end, save for your bank details and emergency contact details which we will delete as soon as your volunteer role comes to an end.  However, for historical record purposes, we may retain the names and some personal details in perpetuity for Trustees and those undertaking significant roles such as Chairs of Boards or Committees.

Your rights in connection with personal information

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• Request access  to your personal information (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it;
• Request correction  of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected;
• Request erasure  of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below);
• Object to processing  of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes;
• Request the restriction of processing  of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it; and
• Request the transfer  of your personal information to another party.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact us in writing FAO Data Protection Officer, Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, Airbase Avenue, Neachley, Shifnal, TF11 8UR. .

Communications

We will only contact you regarding events that you may be interested in/internal communications required for the attention of all volunteers. This may mean some personal information, such as name and email address may be shared within these communications. 

If you have any objections to being contacted in his way, please see the contact details below. 

Contact us

If you have any questions, concerns or would like more information about anything mentioned in this privacy notice, please contact our Data Protection Officer:

Email:  emma.gray@midlandsairambulance.com

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact our Volunteer Manager:

Email:  alison.hill@midlandsaairambulance.com  

Please address any questions, comments and requests regarding our data processing practices to us in this way in the first instance.

Complaints

We take any complaints about our collection and use of personal information very seriously.

If you think that our collection or use of personal information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate, or have any other concern about our data processing, please raise this with us in the first instance.

To make a complaint, please contact our Data Protection Officer.

Alternatively, you can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office:

• Report a concern online at  https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
• Call 0303 123 1113
• Or write to: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF