Developed: 24th May 2018

1.0 Privacy Notice Statement

Dementia Carers Count (DCC) formerly known as Royal Surgical Aid Society promises to respect and protect the personal information (or data) you or your family have provided us with or that we get from other organisations and to keep it safe.  We will manage this data effectively and securely so that we can deliver better services to and for you, including our fundraising activities.

We are committed to using your personal information in accordance with our responsibilities. We are required to provide you with the information in this Privacy Policy under applicable law which includes:

  • the Data Protection Act 1998, which will be read in conjunction with the General Data Protection Regulation effective from 25 May 2018; and
  • the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003

We ensure that we use your information in accordance with all applicable laws concerning the protection of personal information. This policy will outline what kinds of data we collect, why we collect it, how we will use, share, and store it, what your rights are, and how you can contact us to manage, edit or delete this information.  You can request a printed (or large print) copy of this privacy policy by contacting us at the email address, telephone or postal address mentioned in point number 8 of this policy.

When you register with us we ask for your permission to hold your personal data. We hold your information so that we can keep you informed and signpost you to events, activities and information that may help to support you in your caring role.

We do not store credit card details nor do we share financial details with any 3rd parties.

2.0 How and when we collect information about you
2.1 When you directly give us information

We may collect and store information about you when you interact with us. For example, this could be when you:

  • join as a member
  • participate in our training/pilot programs
  • support our work through a donation or any of our campaigns
  • fundraise on our behalf
  • register for or attend an event
  • tell us your story
  • campaign with us
  • phone or email for help and advice
  • direct message us on our social media channels
  • sign up to receive our newsletter, annual review and/or any other communications
  • buy or subscribe to receive information related to our courses, products and services
  • register to our online platforms
  • submit an enquiry online through our website, by email, by phone or by post
  • give us feedback
  • make a complaint
  • use our app
  • apply for a job
  • apply to volunteer
  • enter into a contract with us
2.2 When you indirectly give us information

When you interact with us on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn we may also obtain some personal information about you. The information we receive will depend on the privacy preferences you have set on each platform and the privacy policies of each platform. To change your settings on these platforms, please refer to their privacy policies.

We may obtain information about your visit to our site, for example the pages you visit and how you navigate the site, by using cookies. Please visit our cookies policy for information on this.

2.3 What information we might collect

When you engage with us by phone, mail, in person or online, we may collect information about you (referred to in this Privacy Policy as ‘personal information’). This may include your name, address, email address, telephone number, date of birth, social media handle, job title and details of your education and career, why you are interested in DCC, and other information relating to you personally which you may choose to provide to us.

Data protection law recognises that certain types of personal information are more sensitive. This is known as ‘sensitive’ or ‘special category’ personal information and covers information revealing racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs and political opinions, trade union membership, genetic or biometric data, information concerning health or data concerning a person’s sex life or sexual orientation.

Sensitive information will only be collected where necessary. Clear notices will be provided at the time we collect this information, stating what information is needed, and why.

With your explicit consent, we may also collect sensitive personal information if you choose to tell us about your experiences relating to your caring experience for use in a case study.

If you’re aged 16 or under, you must get your parent/guardian’s permission before you provide any personal information to us.

3.0 The basis for processing data and how we use it
3.1 Legitimate interests

We may process your personal data because it is necessary for our or a third party’s legitimate interests. This will always be weighed against your rights, interests and expectations. Our legitimate interests include the operation of DCC in accordance with our charitable objects.

Examples of where we process personal data in accordance with our legitimate interests include:

  • To correspond with you about our charitable services, including sharing details of courses/events and of our welfare services, that you have requested from us;
  • To process donations and payments, and to ask for further support by post, email or telephone if you have done so in the past;
  • To provide tailored information/results to you (unless we are required to obtain your explicit consent, for example in respect of medical information);
  • To inform you of media opportunities, potentially, and of opportunities to write or feature in newsletter and other DCC content, and to send you these newsletters and other similar updates from time to time;
  • Processing technical information about your use of our website to ensure that content on our website is presented in the most effective manner;
  • Processing enquiries and complaints;
  • Carry out research and analysis, either in house or via a third party, of the services we provide so that we can improve these in future
3.2 Building profiles of our supporters and targeting communications

We may use profiling and analytical techniques to ensure communications are relevant and timely, and to provide an improved experience for our service users and supporters.  Analysis also allows us to target our resources effectively, which attendees to our programs and donors consistently tell us is a key priority for them. We do this because it allows us to understand who, how and why people support us and helps us to make appropriate requests to our supporters.

When building a profile, we may analyse giving history, geographic, demographic & other information relating to you in order to better understand your interests & preferences, and in order to contact you with the most relevant communications. In doing this, we may use additional information from third party sources when it is available. Such information is compiled using publicly available data about you, for example addresses, listed directorships or typical earnings in a given area. Please let us know if you are a supporter and would prefer us not to undertake such profiling.

We may also process your personal data for ensuring compliance with our legal obligations. In this respect, we may use your personal data to comply with subject access requests of others, tax legislation (including processing Gift Aid claims, if and as applicable), safeguarding requirements (for example those required by the Charity Commission), for the prevention and detection of crime, and in order to assist the police and other competent authorities with investigations (including criminal investigations).

We will normally seek consent when processing your medical information in other contexts, such as dietary requirements for events. At times, the processing of personal data concerning your health may be necessary to protect your vital interests (such as your immediate safety) and it may not be appropriate to seek your consent in such circumstances.

If you have given your consent and you wish to withdraw it, please contact us using the contact details mentioned in point number 8 of this policy.

In some circumstances DCC may seek your specific consent to process your personal data: for example:

  • If we wish to use your name, likeness or an attributed quote in our newsletter, on our website or in marketing materials or as a case study to demonstrate the impact of our work;
  • Sending marketing communications in relation to our courses, services, events, appeals and resources by, electronic mail, through our database management systems, by post, by SMS, in respect of which we operate an ‘opt-in’ communications policy;
  • When working with charity, public sector or corporate partners where we have a relationship that we believe could help your financial or personal circumstances
3.5 When your personal data may be shared with others

We will only use your information for the purposes for which it was obtained. We will not, under any circumstances, sell or share your personal information with any third party for their own purposes, and you will not receive marketing from any other companies, charities or other organisations as a result of giving your details to us.

For the purposes referred to in this Privacy Notice, and relying on the bases for processing as set out in this policy, we will share your personal data with certain third parties, including:

  • Our volunteers (including visitors), agents and contractors where there is a legitimate reason for their receiving the information;
  • Our bank, to whom payment details are provided in order to process donations and payments;
  • Our website operator, who may store details such as name and email address (for example in respect of our e-newsletter mailing list);
  • Internal and external auditors;
  • Our professional advisers and/or insurers where it is necessary for us to obtain their advice or assistance;
  • Professionals who assist us in putting together, printing and delivering our newsletter (and other materials) and website content, and our IT support and data storage provider(s);
  • When carrying out research and analysis in order to improve our services.
  • Third party suppliers: We may need to share your information with data hosting providers or service providers who help us to deliver our services, projects, or fundraising activities and appeals. These providers will only act under our instruction and are subject to pre-contract scrutiny and contractual obligations containing strict data protection clauses.
  • Where legally required: We will comply with requests where disclosure is required by law, for example, we may disclose your personal information to the government for tax investigation purposes, or to law enforcement agencies for the prevention and detection of crime. We may also share your information with the emergency services if we reasonably think there is a risk of serious harm or abuse to you or someone else.
4.0 Google Analytics

This is a service we use from Google that collects information about how people use our website. We use this to make sure we are providing the best service we can to our web visitors.

Using cookies Google Analytics stores information about:

  • Which pages you visit
  • How long you stay on the page
  • How you came to the site
  • Which things you click on

Although we collect this data we do not collect any personal information. For example we do not know your name or where you live and the information we collect cannot be used to identify you.   We use this information for analytical purposes.

View our Cookie Policy

5.0 Retention of your data

We may retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary to deliver our charitable services; and to protect our legal interests (for example, where required by relevant authorities or for a reasonable legal limitation period after we have ceased providing services); or as otherwise stated to you when your data is collected; or for such period as we reasonably consider appropriate in connection with our relationship with you and/or the organisation you represent/ed; or for record-keeping and archival purposes.

6.0 International transfers

As a matter of course, we do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA). We may, however, transfer your personal data around the world on an ad hoc basis, for example where this is necessary for interaction with you and you are located outside of the EEA. In such circumstances, we will consider whether any additional measures are required in order to give adequate protection for the information when it is transferred outside of the EEA.

7.0 Your rights

You have the following rights:

  • To be informed what personal data we hold about you and/or to obtain access to it (i.e. by receiving a copy of it in a relevant form);
  • To require us not to send you direct marketing communications;
  • To require us to correct the personal data we hold about you if it is inaccurate;
  • To require us (in certain circumstances) to erase your personal data;
  • To request that we restrict our data processing activities (and, where our processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent, without affecting the lawfulness of our processing based on consent before its withdrawal);
  • To receive from us the personal data we hold about you which you have provided to us, in a reasonable format specified by you; and
  • To object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to any of our particular processing activities where you feel this has a disproportionate impact on your rights.

Please note that the above rights are not absolute and we may be entitled to refuse requests where exceptions apply: for example, if we have reason to believe the personal data we hold is accurate or we can show our processing is necessary for a lawful purpose set out in this Privacy Notice.

You can find out more about your rights under data protection legislation at the Information Commissioner’ Office website.

8.0 Questions and concerns

If you have queries or requests, such as unsubscribing or changing your details, or have any questions/concerns about how we process your personal data or you wish to exercise any of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rights set our above, please contact

If you are registering through a partner organisation your name and membership number may be shared with them.