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Privacy Policy and Safeguarding Statement

Your information

The Society wants everyone who comes to us for whatever reason to feel confident and comfortable with how any personal information shared with us will be looked after and used.

In conformity with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), this Privacy Statement sets out how and why your personal information is collected, stored, for how long, and how it is disposed of as well as information as to when and how your personal information may be shared with others.

If you have any queries or concerns, please do get in touch.

If you applied for a welfare grant or a grant to access physiotherapy

We will normally have been sent your information by one of our partner organisations, either acting as case workers when applying for a welfare grant, or as providers of local physiotherapy services when applying for approval for free physiotherapy treatment.  They will have completed an application form with you and ensured you have given explicit permission to share your information with us.  We will never process an application unless we have your permission to access your details.

We recognise that the information you provided might be highly personal and sensitive and we assure you that this is always held in a secure way.  We will use this information only for the purpose of dealing with your application for a grant or access to physiotherapy, that is, in making a decision about whether you meet the Society’s criteria for support.  We may also use the information to assist in the training of new staff or in the monitoring and evaluation of the services we provide.

The Society takes looking after your information very seriously and we will never share your personal details with anyone else without your express permission.  Information in printed form is held in locked cabinets and in electronic form in a secure manner on a Microsoft 365 platform. All our staff are fully trained in cyber security and data protection principles and our computers are accessed only by using secure passwords. Access to your information is restricted to those staff that need to use the data as part of their jobs.

We hold your information because you provided it to us when applying for support and, in order to fulfil statutory requirements, we are obliged to retain financially related information for seven years.  After this time the information can be securely destroyed – paper documents are shredded or destroyed through a company certified to dispose of confidential information, and digital records are deleted securely.

You have the right to know what personal information the Society holds about you, and you can enquire about this by contacting the Society’s Data Protection Officer as set out below.

If you have made a donation

We hold your information because you provided us with your details when you made a donation, asked for information from us, or attended an event.  If you made a Gift Aid declaration with your donation, then your name and address are retained in case there is a need to inform the HMRC as part of our Gift Aid claim.  Apart from personal acknowledgements to you, we will only use this information to contact you if we have a query relating directly to your gift or donation. We do not store bank details unless you make a regular gift by standing order or direct debit.  We never buy or sell personal information.

The Society takes looking after your information very seriously.  Information in printed form is held in locked cabinets and in electronic form in a secure manner on a Microsoft 365 platform.  All our staff are fully trained in cyber security and data protection principles and our computers are accessed only by using secure passwords.  Access to your information is restricted to those staff that need to use the data as part of their jobs.

In order to fulfil statutory requirements, we are obliged to retain financially related information, which includes gifts and donations, for 7 years.  After this time the information can be securely destroyed – paper documents are shredded or destroyed through a company certified to dispose of confidential information, and digital records are deleted securely.

You have the right to know what personal information the Society holds about you, and you can enquire about this by contacting the Society’s Data Protection Officer as set out below.

The Society’s Data Protection Officer

If you have any queries concerning the information the Society holds about you, contact the Data Protection Officer, Sandra Welch, on 020 8858 3696, or by email to [email protected], or write to her at Seafarers Hospital Society, 29 King William Walk, Greenwich SE10 9HX.

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information the Society holds about you, and information on how we use it, why we use it, who we share it with, and how long we keep it.


Safeguarding statement

This safeguarding statement outlines the Seafarers Hospital Society’s commitment to protecting our beneficiaries, staff, volunteers and contractors from potential neglect, physical, sexual and emotional harm.

We are committed to:

  • Putting our beneficiaries, staff and volunteers’ welfare as a priority 
  • Respecting their views, feelings and rights
  • Taking all reasonable steps to ensure the safeguarding and welfare of all those that come into contact with the Seafarers Hospital Society
  • Ensuring all staff receive information and training to outline their responsibilities to safeguarding, which starts at recruitment
  • Following Safer Recruitment guidelines to ensure we have the right people working and volunteering for us.

Anyone working with or for SHS will receive and have access to details of our Safeguarding policy. They will be responsible for adhering to the policy at all times.

The Society’s Safeguarding Lead

If you have any concerns about safeguarding please contact the Safeguarding Lead Trustee, Charlotte Mendes da Costa, by email at [email protected], or write to her at Seafarers Hospital Society, 29 King William Walk, Greenwich SE10 9HX.

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