Privacy Policy

This page explains what The Royal National College for The Blind (RNC) does with the personal information you provide us.

General

From time to time you will be asked to tell us personal information about yourself (e.g. name, address and email address etc.) in order to become a student, customer, member of staff or a volunteer, to use RNC systems and services and so on. At the point of collecting the information we aim to clearly explain what it is going to be used for and who we may share it with. Unless required or permitted by law, we will always ask you before we use it for any other reason.

Any sensitive personal information will never be supplied to anyone outside RNC without first obtaining your consent, unless required or permitted by law. We comply with current Data Protection Act 2018, including removing your personal information from our systems when it is no longer required and ensuring that all personal information supplied is held securely.

Whenever you provide such personal information, we will treat that information in accordance with this privacy statement, current legislation and our Data Protection Registration (Registration Number: Z7570441). We also aim to meet current best practice.

Individuals whose personal information RNC holds have certain rights under the law. More information can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website.

Application and Enrolment

How RNC uses your information

This section explains how RNC uses the personal information that you give us on the application and/or enrolment form. Primarily, the information will be used for purposes relating to education, training, advice and guidance.

RNC may share non-sensitive personal information about you with other organisations, for example the Local Authority when necessary.

We do not share information with third parties for purposes that are incompatible, such as product marketing.

Sensitive personal information you provide (e.g. disability or ethnicity) may be used by RNC for the purposes of equality of opportunity, support for your studies and to minimise risk. It may also be used anonymously for statistical purposes. RNC will ask your permission before sharing sensitive information with other organisations, unless the sharing is permitted by law and necessary.

We may pass information to government agencies to meet funding arrangements, this may include but is not limited to:

• Education and Skills Funding Agency
• Local Authorities
• Welsh Government
• Department of Work and Pensions

You may be contacted after you have completed your programme of learning to establish whether you have entered employment or gone onto further training or education.

The legal basis for collecting the information

Most of the information is collected because it is necessary for your enrolment to RNC or is required by law. You must provide it in order to enrol at RNC.

Parents, carers, guardians and next of kin

For all students and SES customers it is important that we have details of a contact in case of emergency as such you will be asked to provide details of a parent, carer, guardian or next of kin.

Under the proposed legislation GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), young people aged 16 and over can decide for themselves and give consent for the processing of their personal information. Parental consent is not required although there may be some exceptions.

RNC has found that it is very beneficial to the young person’s progress if we are able to engage with the parents (or guardian/carer). Therefore it is very important that we have the parents’ details recorded on our systems.

When a student is in Further Education, parents/carers/guardians (or any other third party) are not automatically entitled to the student’s information. We can only release information about our students if we have their consent for this recorded on the RNC Management Information System (MIS). Students are asked for their consent for sharing information with parents/others on MIS, the enrolment form or when enrolling face-to-face. Students can also inform RNC later on of who RNC may discuss with about their college matters. Students may withdraw their consent the same way which they gave it.

In general, we can only share information if we have the person’s consent, or there is a particular piece of legislation or agreement allowing us to share it without consent.

Recruitment

How RNC uses your information

This section explains how RNC uses the personal information that you give us on the application form. Primarily, the information will be used for purposes relating to the processing of your application and your employment record, should you be appointed.

Sensitive personal information you provide (e.g. disability or ethnicity) may be used by RNC for the purposes of equality of opportunity and inclusion. It may also be used anonymously for statistical purposes. RNC will ask your permission before sharing sensitive information with other organisations, unless the sharing is permitted by law and necessary.

Fundraising

How RNC uses your information

This section explains how RNC uses the personal information that you give us and how we use it.

Primarily, when you choose to donate to RNC and you decide to include your contact details (e.g. name and address), we enter your details on our database so that we can send you a thank you letter and a Gift Aid declaration form if necessary. If you agree, we would also like to keep you informed about good news stories and events that we think may be of interest to you about RNC. We will not share your details with anyone outside of RNC unless you have chosen for us to claim gift aid on your donation in this case we will share your name and address with HM Revenue and Customs.

Customers who use our products and services

How RNCE uses your information

RNCE is a subsidiary company of RNC. This section explains how RNCE collects information about you when you join as a member of thePoint 4, register with us or place an order for products or services.

Primarily, the information will be used for purposes relating to the processing of your order, managing your account or membership and, if you agree, contacting you about other products and services we think may be of interest to you.

Websites and Cookies

This section applies to anyone accessing RNC websites.

A cookie is a small file, typically of letters and numbers, downloaded on to your device (e.g. your computer) when you access the RNC website. Cookies allow the website to recognise your device and so distinguish between the different users that access the site. For further information please see the RNC Cookie Policy.

During the course of your study you may be asked to use third party websites or services or access linked content (e.g. YouTube, Moodle and Office365) which may collect personal data about you. That site’s own privacy notice will explain to you how they use your data.

To find out more about cookies and what cookies might be stored on your device, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org

Responsibilities

RNC as a corporate body is the data controller under Data Protection Act 2018 and the Board of Governors is therefore ultimately responsible for implementation.

The designated data controller who is appointed to ensure compliance with the legislation is the Director of Finance and Resources.

Further information

If you have any questions about Data Protection at RNC, please contact:

data.protection@rnc.ac.uk

Director of Finance and Resources

The Royal National College for the Blind

Venns Lane, Hereford HR1 1DT

If you have a data protection concern that cannot or have not been resolved by RNC, you have the right to raise it with the Information Commissioner’s Office.