Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy was last updated in February 2023

What is the purpose of this Privacy Policy?

New Community Church is a “data controller” which means we have to tell you certain information when processing your personal information. We may input personal information into ChurchSuite or may ask you to do so yourself. We may collect information from you in person or we may ask you to fill in paper forms or input information into other online systems that the church uses. We have also included information about other forms of processing that we may carry out.

What is ChurchSuite?

ChurchSuite is a cloud hosted, web-based church management system which is designed to help us administer our church and provide all elements of pastoral care to our members and the community. Our members may be provided with access to a user account, which they can use to provide us with information (including personal information), update preferences and access options to allow the booking of events and recording attendance. ChurchSuite should bring benefits to everyone as we can stay in touch with you much more easily and you can provide us with information in a quick and efficient way.

The type of personal information we collect

We currently may collect, store and process the following information:

your name and contact information, such postal address, email address and telephone number/s
your marital status, age and gender
information about your family
your role(s) within the church and/ or any teams or groups you are involved with (if appropriate)
dates and times that you are on a rota or any unavailability
attendance at meetings, events and training
information required to carry out a DBS check (if required) and the results of the DBS check
information about your use of ChurchSuite (e.g. when you have logged in, what pages you visited)
payment details when booking events
donations to the church
employee information such as contracts, education and employment, references and salary information
information we collect and record as part of pastoral care (this may include anything you tell us, unless you tell us not to record it)
any other information you provide to us.

In limited circumstances, we may also collect, store and process “special categories” of sensitive personal information (if you give us this information), such as:

Information about your health, including any mental or physical conditions that you notify us about – for the purposes of support and pastoral care requested by you.
Your religious beliefs – for the purpose of administrating your membership of the church.
Your racial origin – for the purposes of support and pastoral care requested by you.
Your sexual orientation – for the purposes of support and pastoral care requested by you.
Any criminal record – to determine your suitability for roles in the church.

How we get the personal information and why we have it

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:

You have completed a Connect Form or have spoken to us directly on a sunday
You want to get involved with mid-week church activities
You are receiving pastoral care and/or prayer support
You have set up a user account on ChurchSuite
You wish to become a member of the church
You are employed by the church
You volunteer at the church

Less commonly, we may process information where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests), if you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.

We also receive personal information automatically, from the following sources in the following scenarios:

ChurchSuite – such as IP address, time and date of visits, location data, webpages visited.
Cookies – such as on our website, relating to website visits, tracked usage, “seenChat” to determine usage (To find out how to delete cookies or adjust their settings please visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/ - please note that amending cookie settings may affect website functionality)
Google Analytics – cookies to help us analyse how users use the website. The information generated by these cookies (including your truncated IP address) is transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your, and other users’, use of our website, compiling reports for us on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and Internet usage. Please note that Google only receives your truncated IP address. This is sufficient for Google to identify (approximately) the country from which you are visiting our site, but is not sufficient to identify you, or your computer or mobile device, individually. Google cookies are "_ga" and "_gat". You can find more information here, including a link to Google’s privacy policy.

We use the information that you have given us in order to help us administer the church and provide all elements of midweek and Sunday activities, and pastoral care to our members and the community, for example:

to set up your ChurchSuite account
to administer attendance and membership records
to fundraise and promote the interests of New Community Church
to provide you with pastoral care and other support that you have requested and we believe would be helpful to you
to manage our employees and volunteers and put together rotas and WhatsApp groups related to various ministry areas
to enable us to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public
to maintain our financial accounts and records (including the processing of gift aid)
to inform you of events, news and meetings at New Community Church

We may share information with:

ChurchSuite
HMRC (for claiming of Gift Aid)
Stripe (for processing of Card payments)
TextLocal (sending of text messages)
Paypal (for the processing of online donations or coffee bar sales or other sales)
Planning Center (for the communication of worship team and rotas)
GoogleDrive
Dropbox
Other church members for integration or pastoral care/support purposes.
Other churches – if you request us to pass on your information either to them or from them (if you move).
Support services and benefits providers (e.g. local authorities, your doctor).
Our suppliers for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you.
Our software providers in order to keep our website functioning.
Analytics and search engine providers who analyse information about your use of our website and help us to tailor the product and offers that we offer to you and other users.
Law enforcement agencies, if required, for example in order to enforce or apply our terms of use.

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

a) Your consent, for example:

to send you information including church news or events and other marketing materials from New Community Church.
to send you information including church news or events and other marketing materials from New Community Church.
to send you information including church news or events and other marketing materials from New Community Church.
to use your images on our website or social media.
to facilitate pastoral care and support you have requested or agreed to.

In all cases where we require consent, we will seek your written consent or record your consent in writing to allow us to process certain sensitive data. If we do so, we will provide you with full details of the information that we would like and the reason we need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent. You should be aware that it is not a condition of your contract with us that you agree to any request for consent from us. You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting [email protected]

b) We have a contractual obligation, for example:

with those employed by the church.
to buy tickets for events.
to administer ChurchSuite (such as troubleshooting, data analysis, research).
to tell you about changes to our website, software or services that will affect your use of ChurchSuite.
to help us (or the software developers) improve ChurchSuite through feedback.

c) We have a legal obligation, for example:

to keep records for gift aid purposes.
to prevent and detect fraud.
to protect children and vulnerable adults.
ensuring DBS checks are done where appropriate.

d) We have a vital interest, for example:

Recording allergy or medical information for children or young people in our care.

e) We have a legitimate interest to administer all elements of the church, including church attendance, membership, staff, volunteers, midweek groups, Sunday meetings and pastoral care to our church members, attendees and the community.

How we store your personal information

Your information is securely stored.

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard personal information and encryption technology where appropriate to enhance privacy and help prevent information security breaches.

If you choose to send us information via email, we cannot guarantee the security of this information until it is delivered to us.

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers or on secure servers operated by a third party. Information on our third-party providers can be found above.

We only hold your personal information for as long as necessary for the purposes for which we collected your information.

We have set these timescales in accordance with any applicable legislation and where none exists then we will keep your information for the duration of any contract that you have entered into with us and then for a period of 7 years after which time it will be deleted.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.

Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to object to processing - You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

Please contact us at [email protected] if you wish to make a request.

Our contact details

Name: New Community Church
Data Protection Lead: Melinda Lyons
Address: 24 Station Road, Sidcup, Kent, DA15 7DU
Phone Number: 020 8300 0333
E-mail: [email protected]

How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us:

Data Protection Lead: Melinda Lyons
Address: 24 Station Road, Sidcup, Kent, DA15 7DU
Phone Number: 020 8300 0333
E-mail: [email protected]

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk