Why do we need to collect demographic information when you contact us to access our services?
When you contact us to access our support services, we ask you to provide demographic information such as your gender, sexual orientation, age, and ethnicity.
You might wonder why we collect this information, and what we use it for.
The questions our Client Care team ask you are based on the nine Protected Characteristics in the Equality Act 2010
Age
This refers to a person belonging to a particular age (for example 32 year olds) or range of ages (for example 18 to 30 year olds).
Disability
A person has a disability if she or he has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on that person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
Gender reassignment
The process of transitioning from one gender to another.
Marriage and civil partnership
Marriage is no longer restricted to a union between a man and a woman but now includes a marriage between a same-sex couple.
Same-sex couples can also have their relationships legally recognised as ‘civil partnerships’. Civil partners must not be treated less favourably than married couples (except where permitted by the Equality Act).
Pregnancy and maternity
Pregnancy is the condition of being pregnant or expecting a baby. Maternity refers to the period after the birth, and is linked to maternity leave in the employment context. In the non-work context, protection against maternity discrimination is for 26 weeks after giving birth, and this includes treating a woman unfavourably because she is breastfeeding.
Race
Refers to the protected characteristic of Race. It refers to a group of people defined by their race, colour, and nationality (including citizenship) ethnic or national origins.
Religion and belief
Religion has the meaning usually given to it but belief includes religious and philosophical beliefs including lack of belief (such as Atheism).
Sex
A man or a woman.
Sexual orientation
Whether a person’s sexual attraction is towards their own sex, the opposite sex or to both sexes.
Source: The Equality and Human Rights Commission
https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/equality-act/protected-characteristics
We ask these questions for several reasons. It is against the law to discriminate against a person or group based on any of the above. When you share this information with us, it helps us learn more about you and how best we can support you and meet your needs. It can help us identify any support needs or issues that are specific to a group of people. We want to make sure that our services work well for everyone who needs them.
Many of our funders who provide the financial support for our services and project ask us to prepare reports which include anonymised demographic data. For example, at a particular group we may say we supported 15 people – 10 of these people were aged 18-30 and 5 were aged 30-45. Or we may say that 8 of these people do not have a religious belief, 3 people are Muslim, 2 are Christian and 3 are Atheist.
Most importantly collecting this data helps us to identify who we are not reaching with our services and this gives us the opportunity to think about what other local groups we can work with and how we can adapt our services to reduce the barriers that some women and birthing people face and make our services welcoming for all. The best way we can measure whether or not we are doing this effectively is to collect demographic data.
If you have further questions about how we use your information, you can read our Client Privacy Notice Below:
As a result of a revision of the Data Protection Act 1988, the new General Data Protection Regulation (effective from 25th May 2018) requires that we ensure that you are aware of what personal data we hold, how we collect that data and with whom it is shared with and your rights concerning your personal data.
Please note that there is a separate Mothers for Mothers Job Applicant Privacy Notice for data relating to job applications and for further information on how data is used in the course of employment please see the Mothers for Mothers HR Privacy Notice.
The Data Controller: Maria Viner / Dr Caroline Scrase
Personal information held for each Client consists of your name, date of birth, address, contact telephone numbers, an email address, personal details and if relevant information on any medical conditions or medications that may relate to you.
This information is collected from you and recorded on our electronic data base
• Your personal information is used for the following purposes which form the legitimate legal basis or processing your data:- Protecting your vital interests – your data is collected to ensure we are able to support you appropriately whilst you access our service.
• The legitimate interests of the charity – i.e., your personal details are required in order to keep in contact with you whilst you access our services, without retaining your contact details we would not be able to contact you.
• Data regarding age, ethnicity and the like is also used to monitor and evaluate our services to help us report to our funders and to help us obtain further funding to ensure we can continue to run our support services.
• You can withdraw your consent at any time by emailing support@mothersformothers.co.uk this will limit our ability to contact and support you.
Your contact details are shared only with your permission with medical professionals or other third sector (charity) organisations who may be able to offer you additional support.
Where your information is passed to a third party we confirm that this information will be passed securely and only where it is necessary. The third party will not pass your personal data on to anyone else without your consent and they will only hold your personal data for the amount of time that there is a legitimate reason to process and hold your data.
Personal data is held and kept for two years after you leave our services and securely disposed of after this time.
As a data subject you have the right to request access to and rectification or erasure of your Personal Data, to object to or request restriction of processing concerning the data, or to the right to data portability. You also have the right to object to automated decision making – if this happens you may request that an individual reviews your personal data before making a decision.
In each case a request must be put in writing by email to me at maria.viner@mothersformothers.co.uk
As the Data Subject you have the right to make a complaint directly to a supervisory authority. Mothers for Mothers Data Protection compliance is supervised by the:
Information Commissioner’s Office
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Water Lane
Wilmslow Cheshire
England
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