Privacy notice: Domestic Abuse Service for Men & LGBTQ+ Survivors

Equation’s DA Support Service provide support, information and advocacy to men & LGBTQ+ people of any gender who are experiencing domestic violence and abuse.

During your period of support with Equation, we will ask you to provide us with personal data. Personal data is information that relates to an individual and is identifiable so needs to be managed appropriately to ensure privacy.

The personal data we collect includes:

Name, address and contact telephone number
emergency contact details
date of birth
national insurance number
details of your GP, Social Worker, CPN or other identified keyworker (if relevant)
employment Status/Income
details about your children
religion
racial or ethnic group
country of birth/Immigration Status
physical or mental health conditions
criminal convictions
relationship with the alleged perpetrator and their personal data such as name, date of birth, children.
details of your experience of domestic abuse
case notes detailing our contact with you, any other relevant agencies, support offered and actions taken.

All this information is provided by you (and/or whoever referred you to the organisation) when you are initially referred and throughout your support. You have the right to withhold or restrict any information relating to you or your children, and this will be respected. You also can amend your information if it changes, and you have the right to request to have all the information we keep relating to support deleted from our records (although in some circumstances we will not be able to do this such as when there are safeguarding concerns or risks to life).

When we ask you for personal data, we promise to:

Only ask for what we need and is relevant.
make sure you know and understand why we need it, and who we will share it with.
hold it securely and make sure only authorised individuals have access to it.
make sure we do not keep it longer than necessary.
not make your personal information available for any other use (other than stated on this notice) without your permission unless we are required by law or if you, your child or another individual is at risk.

Why do we keep information about you?

To keep in touch with you
to ensure you are given the best support possible, suited to your individual needs and situation
to assess risk
to help manage risk and safety by providing details if needed for MARAC (Multi-Agency Risk Assessment)
to gather statistics relating to our work
to provide information to funders who support us financially to do our work. This means they can verify that we are providing the support we say we provide.
to share with other agencies that may be involved in your support.

How do we store your information?

Your information is stored on a secure computer database. The organisation has a Data Protection Policy which outlines how we will store and process your information within the organisation to keep it safe.

Who do we share your information with?

When you use our services, we are at times required to share your information with others. This might be with the agency that referred you to Equation’s services such as the police. When you have contact with other agencies such as social care, again we may be required to share your information with them. We will tell you when we do that.

Agencies that we may share information with as part of your support may include:

Social Services if you have a Social Worker or if we need to make a referral on your behalf
MARAC coordinators and members if you are referred to a MARAC
Department of Justice
GPs
Community Psychiatric Nurses
Police
Probation
Women’s Aid groups
Housing Executive
Your children’s school
Your solicitor if you have one

All these organisations are obliged to keep your details secure and to dispose of them when no longer needed.

In certain other circumstances, the organisation has a statutory or legal requirement to pass on information, for example in legal or child protection cases.

Equation’s DA Support Service is dependent on financial funding from external bodies. Funders ask us to provide them with information relating to the work we do, and so we are required to pass on some specific information.

This is special category data such as:

Age
Gender
Ethnicity
Sexual orientation.

This information is anonymised and will not be linked to you.

Am I entitled to see the information that is held about me?

You are entitled to see your information at any time during or after your support. Your database record will be destroyed after 7 years. We keep information for that length of time to meet funder’s requirements or should there be a legal requirement. After you have left the services you are entitled to make a Data Subject Access Request to obtain a copy of your information. To do this you should write to the Head of Service: Survivors & Perpetrators, Equation, Castle Cavendish Works, Dorking Road, NG7 5PN or submit a request to helpline@equation.org.uk.

If you have any concerns or questions about how we collect, handle or share your information or you wish to make a complaint in this respect you can contact the Data Protection Lead on 01159623237, email privacy@equation.org.uk or talk to your supportworker.

Other policies related to your privacy that you may wish to read include:

Equation’s Data protection policy
Equation’s Complaints policy and procedure

These will be provided to you at your request.

Other relevant agencies that can provide advice and support on your right to privacy include:

If made aware of any accessibility needs (such as blindness, dyslexia or a language barrier) equation will support individuals to access and understand the content of this policy.