Privacy and cookies policy

The Pear Tree Fund is committed to protecting the privacy of everyone who uses our services as service users or as employees and volunteers, and that of anyone who supports our work throughout fundraising, retail activities or participating in our 50/50 club lottery.

What is personal data?

By personal data we mean any information that might allow you to be identified, such as your name, address, date of birth and IP address. It may also be anything that identifies you, for example your NHS number or biometric data. For our service users, some of this data will be sensitive and relate to their health and wellbeing, ethnicity and religious views.

How do we collect personal data from you?

Information is given to us directly when, for example, you become a service user, register for a fundraising event, volunteer to support the charity or become an employee. We will ask you to provide personal information. You may provide this on a form, during a discussion, over a web form or by other means.

The details we ask you for will be directly related to the purpose for which they are required, for example:

• A charitable donation may be given anonymously, but we would prefer to have your contact details so that we can confirm receipt and keep you informed. You will be able to choose whether or not you supply this information. Depending on your payment method, we may need to record your payment details.
• As a donor, we will often ask you for more information than the bare minimum to process your donation. This may be so that we can identify you as an event entrant or as part of building a long-term relationship with you. Our fundraiser will be genuinely interested in how you have raised funds and why you have chosen to support The Pear Tree Fund and may record this information so they have a record when they next contact you.
• If you are a member of staff or a volunteer, more information will be required, depending on the work you do. We may need to ask you for sufficient information to carry out some background checks and there is certain information that we are required to have on record.
• If you are a service user then your records may include sensitive personal data, including medical information.

Our current lawful basis for collecting personal information is contained within the General Data Protection regulation (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018.

When we collect personal data, the types of data we collect and the purposes for which personal data is collected are recorded. Your information will only be collected, stored or processed where a specific purpose has been identified. This will fall into the following categories:

• If you are a service user we will need to collect information such as your name, age, address, contact details, date of birth, gender, ethnicity, next of kin, religious beliefs and other protected characteristics. In order to provide complete support, we may also collect some information about family members and carers. We also receive data about our patients and their families and carers from other healthcare providers.
• If you fundraise for us, visit Dee’s Den or play our 50/50 club lottery, the personal information we collect about you might include your name, address, email, phone number, date of birth, IP address and bank details.
• If you volunteer with us we will collect your name and contact details and sufficient information to carry out background checks.
• If you apply for or take a job with us, we will store your contact information, sufficient information to carry out background checks and bank details, as well as keeping records of your employment history.
• If you use our website we will store data about your internet browser, IP address, the timings of your visits and a record of which pages you looked at.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website so that we can tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

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

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

How we use your information

We may use your information for any of the following depending on our relationship with you. For our fundraising, retail and lottery we may collect data to provide you with products and services (sometimes as part of a contract), process a donation you have made, send you newsletters and other communications about our work or allow you to take part in events.

We collect personal data about job applicants and employees for administrative purposes and in order to comply with employment and safeguarding legislation, such as referrals to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

We collect personal data from our volunteers for administrative purposes and to comply with safeguarding legislation, such as referrals to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

When we collect data from service users and their families and carers, we do so to provide support to them and assist their wellbeing. We also collect and store it for the purposes of audit, quality control and incident reporting.

We process information for certain legitimate business purposes which include some or all of the following:

• Where the processing enables us to embrace, modify, personalise or otherwise improve our services/communications for the benefit of our customers
• To identify and prevent fraud
• To enhance the security of our network and information systems
• To better understand how people interact with our website
• To determine the effectiveness of campaigns and events

Whenever we process data for these purposes we will ensure that we always keep your personal data rights in high regard and take account of these rights. You have the right to object to processing and also access to your information if you wish by emailing info@peartreefund.org

Who has access to your information?

We will never sell or swap your details with third parties. We may share data you provide with trusted third parties, subcontractors, our regulators and with law enforcement authorities if necessary. We may share service user data with other healthcare providers and partner organisations with the patient’s consent.

We currently do not share identifiable personal information with external organisations for the purposes of research or service planning. If we ever sought to do so, you would be given the opportunity to opt-out of sharing your data, in keeping with the NHS Digital national data opt-out scheme.

Your consent is important

For direct marketing communications we collect data only with your explicit consent, which you may withdraw at any time. We will enable you to record your preferences using tick boxes at various points when we communicate with you.

On correspondence requesting consent from you we will ask what types of communication you would like. Please see below further detail on what you would expect to receive for each type of communication:

• Emails regarding the charity’s work and future events
• Newsletter mailings
• Updates on new and existing fundraising initiatives
• Volunteering opportunities
• Information about Dee’s Den

Accessing and updating your information

We care about the accuracy of the information we hold about you. If you believe any information about you is incorrect or out of date, please email us at info@peartreefund.org or call us on 01986 899655.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. To prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

Your rights, including right of access

You have a right to have your privacy respected and your data protected. The law gives you access to the personal information we hold about you, if you wish to check or change it. It is designed to give you confidence that this information is accurate, up to date and well managed.

You can choose who can contact you and how. You can change your mind at any time. You can control if and how we contact you, for example by email or phone. We must give you the opportunity to change your mind about the choices you have made. This helps to give you options and keep you in control.

You can request to have a copy of the data that we hold for you. Such requests should be emailed to info@peartreefund.org.

If you are 16 or under

In some circumstances we may need to know if you are aged 16 or under and may refuse certain services, products or events unless we have your parent/guardian’s permission.

Your right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority

If you believe that we breached your privacy in any way, we urge you in the first instance to contact the responsible person for data protection.

If you remain unsatisfied, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate)
01625 545 745 (national rate)
http://ico.org.uk/

Changes to this policy

We may amend our privacy policy from time to time, so please check back every so often for updates.

Updated 24 April 2025