Privacy Statement

We are committed to serving and respecting all people regardless of their gender, marital status, race, ethnic origin, religion, age, sexual orientation or physical and mental capability. We recognise that people hold different values and beliefs to our own and we acknowledge the freedom of people to hold and to express these respectfully and freely within the limits of the UK law. We allow spaces to explore Christian beliefs and values in a respectful environment. We form partnerships with other churches, voluntary groups, statutory agencies and local government where appropriate to provide the best service for our community.

Your privacy is important to us. In line with our Christian beliefs, our aim is to be as clear as possible about how and why we use the personal data you give us. If your questions are not fully answered by the information below, please contact our data protection officer who will be happy to help.

Broadly, personal data is any information that can be used to identify you. Keeping your personal data secure is very important to us. Any information you provide to Arun Church, its companies and services (including The Wickbourne Centre, Playcentres, Arun Youth Projects and Refresh Trading Ltd) will be held on a lawful basis in accordance with current data protection regulations.

When you attend an activity, volunteer, make a donation or become a church member, you provide us some information about yourself. We hold this information for the following purposes:

- To enable us to provide a service for the benefit of the public in a particular geographical area as specified in our constitution;
- To administer membership records;
- To fundraise and promote the interests of the charity;
- To manage our employees and volunteers;
- To maintain our own accounts and records (including the processing of gift aid applications);
- To inform you of news, events, activities and services;
- To operate our website and promote our activities and services;
- To conduct surveys and research, helping us to evaluate our activities and services;

Any personal data we hold will be for a specific reason and have a valid lawful basis. We do not hold data on you gathered from other sources and we do not use data to build a profile of you. Here are the most common examples of which lawful basis we use for the types of data we hold:
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• Consent– this is when you choose to give us your data for a specific purpose such as receiving promotional emails, taking images or accepting cookies on our website. This commonly includes your name and email address or other contact details. It may also include device information and IP addresses.
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• Contract– this is when you enter into an agreement with us where we provide you with a service. This includes when you sign up for an event, register with our childcare services (Playcentres) and also employment contracts with our staff. Data we hold will be relevant to the contract and might include contact details, date of birth, age, gender, family and next of kin, National Insurance number, DBS check and references, for the purpose of fulfilling the contract. For childcare settings this will also include photographs and observations on children.

• Legal Obligation– this is when we hold your data to comply with the law and statutory requirements such as retaining childcare records, financial transactions, employment, accident and safeguarding records, among others.

• Legitimate Interests– this is when we hold your data to carry out the general purposes of the church. Common examples include communicating with church members, providing services and advice, coordinating volunteers or statistical analysis and reporting. Data might include contact details, date of birth, age, gender, DBS check, attendance information, financial donations and sometimes school. We may also hold certain Special Category Data on individuals such as their religion under the legitimate activities condition (d) in Article 9 of the GDPR.

In some cases, more than one lawful basis may apply to why we hold your data. For example, we might hold your personal details for the legitimate interests of the church because you volunteered for us, but also ask for your consent to email you about upcoming activities.If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Statement, then we will provide you with a notice explaining this new use and setting out the relevant purposes and conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent.

The information we collect will be used exclusively within the Arun Church companies (including The Wickbourne Centre, Playcentres, Arun Youth Projects and Refresh Trading Ltd) for the purposes it was obtained for. Only specific individuals authorised by the church can access your information. We do not pass any of your personal information to other organisations and/or individuals without your express consent (church members using the My ChurchSuite software can choose what information to make visible to other members through the system).
We sometimes use 3rd party services and tools to help us process your data effectively. These 3rd parties must be fully compliant with data protection law and have confidentiality agreements in place that restrict the use of your information to the purpose for which it is provided, ensure it is stored securely and kept no longer than necessary.

To help minimise the risk of unauthorised disclosure of your information, we may use some of your information to verify who you are when you contact us.
We do not receive or hold any credit card details for donations or payments. All credit card payments are handled by 3rd party providers and use industry standard security to encrypt the information.

Generally, we will only keep information that is necessary for us to provide a particular service, or for the legitimate interests of the organisation. Inactive contacts (i.e. those with no engagement with the church) will usually be reviewed and deleted after a year of inactivity unless statutory requirements apply.
Examples of data we keep for longer periods include:


• Financial transactions and Gift Aid declarations, held for six years
• Childcare records, held until the child reaches the age of 21.
• Accident records, held for three years after last recorded date
• Employment records, held up to six years after employment ceases

Where possible, we aim to allow people to view and manage their own personal data through software services such as My Churchsuite (for church members) and TAPESTRY (Playcentre). If you have access to these services, please use them to view and update your information including your communication preferences.

You can also change your details and preferences by contacting us by mail, phone or email using the contact details below, or you can unsubscribe from our regular emails at any time by using the ‘unsubscribe’ or ‘change preferences’ links on the email you have received.

You may request the full details of any information we hold about you by submitting a Subject Access Request (SAR). You can use our SAR form here, or contact the data protection officer on the details below.

You have a right to request that your personal data is erased. This applies in certain circumstances usually where the lawful basis of the data we hold is by your consent, or it is no longer necessary for us to hold it (for example, you came to an event but no longer want to hear from us).

There are some situations where we cannot erase certain personal data due to our legal obligations. Examples of this might include accident records, safeguarding information or financial transactions which all have their own retention periods (see above).

To request that we erase your information, please write to us on the details below.

A cookie is a small text file generated by a server and placed on a user’s device when they visit a website. The cookie contains information set by the server and works like an identification card, telling the website when a user has returned. If you do not wish to receive cookies, you should opt out ensure that your web browser is set to not accept cookies. Please note that if you disable cookies, some services or website functionality may not be available. We may use the following types of cookies on our website:

• Essential – Essential cookies are absolutely necessary for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
• Marketing – Marketing cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing. These cookies may track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customised ads.
• Personalisation – Functional cookies help to perform certain actions like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
• Analytics – Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website which help deliver a better user experience. These cookies provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

You can review your cookie settings at any time by clicking here: Cookie settings.

We also use 3rd party services such as YouTube, Facebook and Google Analytics on our website and you may receive cookies from them when visiting our website if you give consent. Some of these 3rd party services may be based outside of the UK and the EU they may not fall under the jurisdiction of UK courts. We are not responsible for these services, so please look at their cookie and privacy policies for more information:

Facebook Ad Preferences
Google Analytics and ads
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For further information regarding our Privacy Statement please contact us on hello@arunchurch.com or call 01903 782744. If you have a specific concern over your data privacy, you can view our complaints policy and make a complaint here.

You can also make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or online at the ICO website.