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Keeping your information safe – Privacy Notice

ASSIST NI provides individual and co-ordinated support and information to victims who are experiencing domestic and sexual violence and abuse.

During your period of support with ASSIST NI, we will ask you to provide us with personal data. Personal data is information that relates to a living individual who can be identified from the information.

The personal data we collect includes:

All of this information is provided by you (and/or whoever referred you to the service) when you are initially referred and when your support starts. You have the right to withhold or restrict any information relating to you or your children, and this will be respected, although there may be occasions when this may restrict the support we can provide. You also can amend your information if it changes and you have the right to request to have all the information we keep relating to support for you (and your children), deleted from our records (although in some circumstances we will not be able to do this).

When we ask you for personal data, we promise to:

Why do we keep information about you?

  • To keep in touch with you.
  • To ensure you are given the best support possible, suited your individual needs and situation
  • To gather statistics relating to our work.
  • To provide information to funders who support us financially to do our work. This means they can verify that we are providing the support we say we provide.
  • To share with other agencies that may be involved in your support.

How do we store your information?

Your information is stored securely on a computer database. ASSIST NI has a Data Protection Policy which outlines how we will store and process your information within the organisation to keep it safe.

Who do we share your information with?

When you are using our services we are at times required to share your information with others. This might be with the agency that referred you or perhaps your Social Worker if you have one. When you leave ASSIST NI again we may be asked to share some of your information with relevant agencies as part of your move on support. If you do not want us to do that please make that clear to your Advocate before you leave our services.

Other agencies that we may share information with as part of your support may include:

  • Social Services (Gateway Team and Family Support) if you have a Social Worker or if we need to make a referral on your behalf
  • The Rowan Sexual Assault Referral Centre
  • Health Trust Health Visitors
  • MARAC Co-ordinators and members if you are referred to a MARAC
  • Department of Justice
  • GPs
  • Community Psychiatric Nurses
  • PSNI
  • Probation Board for NI
  • Women’s Aid groups
  • Men’s Advisory Project
  • Victim Support
  • Health and Social Care Trusts

All these agencies are obliged to keep your details securely and to dispose of them when no longer needed.

In certain other circumstances ASSIST NI has a statutory or legal requirement to pass on information, for example in legal or child protection cases.

Am I entitled to see the information that is held about me?

You are entitled to see your information at any time during your support and to have a copy of your information when you move on from the service. We are required to keep your information for a minimum or three years and a maximum of 7 years (the duration of the service) to meet funder’s requirements or should there be a legal requirement. After you have left the service you are entitled to make a Data Subject Access Request to obtain a copy of your information. To do this you should write to the Data Protection Officer, 30 Adelaide Park, Belfast, BT9 6FY.

The collection, processing and recording of your information will be in line with the General Data Protection Act 2018.

If you have any concerns or questions about how we collect, handle or share your information or you wish to make a complaint in this respect you can contact the Data Protection Officer or talk to your Advocate.

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