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Data held by charities is often sensitive and confidential, some of it relating to vulnerable people whose protection is their duty, so we thought it was a good time to remind you about UK data protection laws.
Charities are not exempt from the law
All organisations and companies, whether third sector or not, are obliged by law to collect, use, share and store data in a compliant way. They can face serious consequences if data is misused, stolen or disclosed incorrectly.
Here are some recent examples of fines implemented on UK charities by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):
The fundamentals of data protection
Both staff and volunteers have obligations for keeping personal data private and secure, and charities need to ensure they implement clear policies for everyone to follow.
The UK’s data protection laws changed after Brexit and now consist of two frameworks. Both are important to reference when implementing your charity’s data protection compliance to ensure everyone is acting in a legal and responsible manner:
Where do threats come from?
The most common threats are from human action or human inaction:
How much importance does your charity place on data protection?
Our research has found that smaller charities don’t always train their staff and volunteers on data protection and staff are often unaware of how personal data can be compromised by, for example, giving information about a patient or service user to someone without properly verifying who they are.
Data protection is one of the topics covered in CharityGo’s online library of expert-written, ready-made courses. Powered by TrainingToolz, subscriptions start at just £49 plus VAT per month for up to 500 training sessions and new clients can benefit from added extras if they sign up before 31 March 2023.
For more information email info@charitygo.co.uk or call us on 0113 526 5980.
CharityGo provides an online dashboard to distribute, monitor and evidence statutory training, policy compliance and vital communications.
The built-in library provides a range of ready-to-use expertly-written compliance training, covering topics such as safeguarding and cyber security for both your staff and volunteers.
All of the assignments provided in the library are fully editable for your specific needs. In addition you can create and distribute your own custom training and policy assignments.
For further details and a free trial, visit https://www.charitygo.co.uk