Privacy Notice for Volunteers and Garden Owners

This privacy notice sets out how Edinburgh Garden Partners collects and uses personal information about you before, during and after your involvement.

When do we collect your personal information?

We collect your personal information during the application process and during activities and meetings throughout the period you volunteer or share your garden with us. 

What type of personal information do we collect?

  • Personal contact details including your address, email and telephone number;

  • Details of your relevant skills and experience;

  • Details of an emergency contact including their relationship to you;

  • Details of training / activities you have participated in and related correspondence;

  • Information about your PVG status and/or criminal record. We will only collect this if it is appropriate given the nature of your role (e.g volunteering);

  • Photographic / video images, with your prior consent; 

  • Referee contact details and character references. 

  • Details of any internal complaints procedures in which you have been involved, including any warnings issued to you and related correspondence.

We also request special categories of more sensitive information at the application stage:

  • information about health or medical conditions, for example, in relation to volunteers or garden owners with disabilities for which EGP needs to make reasonable adjustments and for health and safety purposes. 

  • information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, and religion or belief. We do this for the purposes of meaningful equal opportunities monitoring or reporting. This information is given anonymously and held on a separate database. You are free to decide whether or not to provide such data, it is not compulsory. 

Why do we collect your personal information?

We need to collect personal information from you in order to:

  • uphold safer recruitment practices;

  • meet our obligations with regard to health and safety;

  • ensure appropriate decision-making in relation to garden sharing arrangements;

  • maintain accurate volunteer, garden owner and emergency contact details. 

  • keep records of training and development requirements;

  • ascertain your fitness to volunteer / share your garden;

  • ensure effective management of volunteers;

  • to provide internal and external marketing, communications and engagement;

  • provide references on request for current or former volunteers;

  • manage complaints;

  • facilitate equal opportunities monitoring.

If you do not provide certain information when requested, EGP may not be able to reach an agreement with you.

Who has access to your personal information and how do we store it? 

Your personal information will be accessed internally by EGP employees, and any appropriate Trustees. EGP shares your data with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary in order to administer the relationship with you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.  The following services are carried out by third party service providers: CRM system (Salesforce); admin (Google Drive); marketing and communications (Mailchimp). Your personal information is stored securely in our client relationship management system, and in other safe IT systems.

Newsletter Mailing list 

EGP maintains a mailing list on Mailchimp for the purpose of keeping volunteers, garden owners  and other stakeholders informed about our work. Personal information held on the mailing list is name and email. Individuals can sign up online or will be added to this list once they become a volunteer or garden owner. You can ‘unsubscribe’ from these communications at any time. EGP does not share any of the information on its mailing lists with any third party organisations.

Volunteer Whatsapp group

Volunteers are invited to an informal EGP Whatsapp group. Volunteers are only added to this group with their express consent and are free to leave the group at any time. 

Change of Purpose

EGP will  use your personal information for the purpose for which it was collected.

If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will advise you of this and explain the basis which allows us to do so. 

In the case of a safeguarding concern you should be aware that we may share your personal information with the relevant authorities without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.

How long do we keep your data for?

EGP will only hold your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including administrative or reporting requirements.  We will retain information in line with any obligatory legal requirements. 

Your duty to inform us of changes  

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current.  Please contact us on info@edinburghgardenpartners.org.uk to inform us of any changes.