Data processing policy

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force in May 2018. The legislation exists to promote best practice when it comes to the governance of information. It gives data subjects more control over their personal data, and support the free flow of data within the EU. These regulations apply to the Group because we collect and process personal data on our young people and adult volunteers. This could be anything from names, addresses, telephone numbers right through to more sensitive data such as religion, ethnicity and disabilities.

We use the Scout Association’s recommended GDPR toolkit and best practice guide.

Personally Identifiable Data We Collect – and Why

As part of local Scouting, Sensitive Personal Data (also known as special category data) is gathered, processed and transferred frequently. For example:

• New joiner details, be that an Adult Volunteer or a Young Person.
• Processing of this data for the purposes of events, awards, moving on to the next Section.
• Annual reviews of this data through census or further data gathering to update medical records.
• Management of safeguarding incidents where data needs to be transferred to 3rd parties for assistance.

Potential new members and/or their parents or guardians communicate with us via paper forms or email to enquire about membership. This information is transferred to a secure centrally managed online system (Online Scout Manager) and the local copies destroyed. This information is needed to allow us to process membership applications.

• Details of the young person information collected.
• Details of the adult member information collected.

During membership, young people, parents/guardians and volunteer’s data will be stored in a secure centrally managed online system (Online Scout Manager). This ensures that all Group members can enjoy safe, appropriate experiences regardless of their health conditions, religious beliefs, etc. Storing contact details allows the Group to keep young people, parents/guardians and other adult volunteers updated regarding forthcoming events. Online registration of those attending each meeting is considered good practice from a safety perspective.

Aggregated young person and adult volunteer information is presented to The Scout Association periodically to allow for statistical analysis. This may include religion, ethnicity and certain medical conditions, but members are not identified by name in the annual census data.

Scouting events involve young people and adult volunteers. These can be sectional activities in a regular meeting place or events/nights away at another location. These may require further data gathering, such as activity or nights away information and health forms completed by parents/guardians and adult volunteers. If the event is held at a location operated by a third party, we may be required to create temporary paper copies to travel with adult leaders during the event or share some information about the members attending with the third party. This will be kept to the minimum necessary and the need to share data should be made clear to members and their parents/guardians before the event. Any such records will be destroyed by the Group (in the case of temporary paper records) or the third party afterwards.

Third Party Service Providers

While we take all the necessary steps to process data fairly and lawfully, we also rely on our third-party service providers to make sure they comply with their obligations under the relevant legislation. The primary third party providers used by the 12th Gateshead Scout Group are described below in the context of the role of the person in the Group:

Youth Members

Personal data about Beavers, Cubs, Scouts is initially gathered using paper forms issued by the Scout Association for this purpose
(see their privacy policy) and then entered onto  Online Scout Manager (OSM) operated by Online Youth Manager Ltd (see their security policy).  The paper forms are then destroyed. Details of potential youth members on the waiting lists are stored on Online Scout Manager.  Details of youth members’ attendance at events and progress through the Scout Award system are stored on Online Scout Manager. Access to these data is limited to named adults within the 12th Gateshead Scout Group. Parents are also able to check and amend data about their children directly via Online Scout Manager through their personal log in.

Online payments (through Online Scout Manager) are facilitated by Go Cardless who are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We do not receive your banking details, see their privacy policy. Currently, we do not accept payment through OSM in any form, so this is purely informational and not relevant in current time.

Data about youth members is held by the Group during the period of a person’s membership and up to two months after they leave a Section (in case they later want to rejoin it, or the next Section).

Adult Members

Personal data about Adult Leaders, Members of the Group Executive and registered Occasional Helpers (all members of the Scout Group) is initially gathered using paper forms issued by the Scout Association for this purpose
(see their privacy policy) and then entered onto  Online Scout Manager (OSM) operated by Online Youth Manager Ltd  (see their security policy).  The paper forms are then destroyed. Details of adults’ training, qualifications and attendance at events is also stored on Online Scout Manager.  Access to these data is limited to named adults within the 12th Gateshead scout group.

Personal data about Adult Leaders, Members of the Group Executive and registered Occasional Helpers (all members of the Scout Group),  their training and qualifications is stored online using Compass. Members are able to check and amend data directly via Compass through their personal log in. Compass is a Membership Management tool controlled by The Scout Association. The Scout Association is a Data Controller when it comes to Adult Volunteer data and this is managed in Compass (see their privacy policy) .

Data about adult members is held by the Group during the period of a person’s membership and up to two months after the Adult Volunteer leaves the Movement. Some data may be retained indefinitely with The Scout Association for the purposes of safeguarding.

Cookie policy

This site uses cookies – small text files that are placed on your machine to help the site provide a better user experience.

In general, cookies are used to retain user preferences, store information for things like shopping carts, and provide anonymised tracking data to third party applications – like Google Analytics and Pingdom – both of which which are used on this site to provide information about visitor numbers and system performance.

We embed videos from YouTube using YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode. This mode may set cookies on your computer once you click on the YouTube video player, but YouTube will not store personally-identifiable cookie information for playbacks of embedded videos using the privacy-enhanced mode. To find out more please visit YouTube’s embedding videos information page.

As a rule, cookies will make your browsing experience better. However, you may prefer to disable cookies on this site and on others. The most effective way to do this is to disable cookies in your browser. We suggest consulting the Help section of your browser or taking a look at the About Cookies website which offers guidance for all modern browsers. To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

We are informing you that this site uses cookies to comply with the Information Commissioner’s Office ruling.

If you have any questions about this policy, please Contact Us.