Accessible Privacy Notice

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About our privacy policy

MEA helps people with training and work experience. Where you have applied to work with MEA, we need certain information about you so we know your name, how we can contact you and any other things that will make your time with us enjoyable, worthwhile and safe.

You are always allowed to know why someone wants information about you, and this explanation, called a Privacy Notice, tells you why MEA needs some of your information, and how we will use it. It’s important that information about you is kept private and secure, so not just anyone can see it. You should always be careful who has your information and what they do with it.

If you have any questions about this, you can always ask us, or another adult such as a parent, guardian or carer, and you or they can also see a more detailed explanation about all of this in our Privacy Policy on our website. You can also visit this webpage: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/

About MEA

MEA is a registered charity (no. 1181597).

If you have a question or a request about your information, you can send an email to our Data Protection Officer at info@missionemployable.co.uk or send a letter to The Café on the Common (MEA), The Common, Rickmansworth Road, Chorleywood, Rickmansworth WD3 5SG. You can do this yourself or ask someone who supports you to do this for you.

What information about you might we collect?

We only collect and keep information about you if we are allowed to by law and if you are happy that we do so. If there is any information you don’t want to tell us, or that you don’t want us to keep, just let us know. We might not be able to help you in all of the ways we would like to if we can’t have all of the information we need, but we will normally do as you ask, unless the law tells us me must keep the information for some other reason. We may collect and keep:

  • Basic details about you, like your name, address, phone number, date of birth and emergency contact details;
  • Details of what we are doing to help you with training and work experience;
  • Things about your education and health, and about what you like or dislike, to help us make your time with us enjoyable and to keep you safe and well;
  • Photographs or video of you, but we won’t use these if you don’t want us to;
  • Details about things you or someone else tells us, to make sure that you are treated with respect and don’t come to any harm.

Sometimes other people may share information about you with us. This may be the school or college you attended, a parent, guardian or carer or a doctor. We will treat this information in the same careful way as we do with things that you tell us about yourself.

Why do we collect this information?

MEA is allowed by law to collect, keep and use information about you, because we are providing a service to you, or because you have given us this information, or because it is necessary to keep you safe. Even so, we can’t keep this information forever, and we only keep it for as long as is necessary.

This information helps us during your time with us to make sure you get the most out of your training and work experience, and to make sure that you are safe and well looked after. It helps us know how to contact you, or the people you live with or who help to look after you. It helps us understand what you are comfortable doing and about any foods or other things that you don’t like or aren’t good for you.

Even if we can’t immediately offer you a place on our Intern programme, we may keep some information about you for a limited time, in case you want us to help you in future. And once you have finished your time with us, we will keep some information about you so we know how you get on with finding a job or doing further training.

What do we do with your information?

We keep your information safe and secure, so that no one who doesn’t need to see will be able to.

Some information will be needed by people working for MEA, such as trainers or Café staff and volunteers. We may also share some information with the people you work with in other places, as part of your training and work experience, or with people responsible for keeping you safe. When we share that information with other people, they generally aren’t allowed to do anything else with it or to keep it for longer than we say they can.

Your rights

The information we keep about you is yours. This means that you can tell us what we can and can’t do with it, although sometimes the law will require us to keep it or use in in a certain way. Normally this is to do with keeping you safe.

We can’t keep your information forever, and we will only keep it for as long as we need to and as the law allows us to. We keep your information safe and only allow people to see it if there is a good reason for them to.

Also:

  • You can ask to see a copy of the information we have about you. You can do this by completing our request form.
  • If you think the information we have about you is wrong, or has parts missing, you can ask us to correct it.
  • If you think we have information about you that is no longer needed or that you don’t want us to keep, you can ask us to delete it (but we won't be able to delete it if the law says it is still needed). This may mean that we can’t work with you in all of the ways we would like to.
  • You can ask that we stop some of the ways that we use your information, even if you don't want it to be deleted. This may also mean that we can’t work with you in all of the ways we would like to.

If there is anything that is not clear or that you would like to ask us about, please talk to your trainer or someone else you are comfortable with, and either they will help you or they will find someone who can.