The men who come to us trust us with some of the most personal parts of their lives. This policy explains, in plain language, what information we hold about you, why we hold it, who we share it with and the choices you have.
This website and our services are run by Jonathan’s House CIC, a not-for-profit Community Interest Company. We are responsible for the personal information described in this policy, which makes us the “data controller” under UK data protection law.
We follow the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.
We only collect what we genuinely need to support you, run our services safely and meet our legal duties.
Your first name or the name you choose to give, how to contact you safely, and what you tell us about your situation. You do not have to give your full name to talk to us.
Your name, date of birth, contact details and the safest way to reach you, and if you choose to tell us, your gender identity, pronouns, ethnicity and faith. We also record what support you are looking for, any accessibility needs, and information about risk to you or others. If a professional refers you, we record their name, role and contact details.
Notes of your counselling sessions, support group attendance, the support and advice we give you, and any risk assessment or safety plan we agree with you. This can include information about your health, your relationships, your children and your experience of abuse.
Your name, contact details, attendance, course progress, assessments and certificates. For the Circle of Security Parenting course, we may also prepare a court report at your request. If you use our online learning area, we hold your account details and progress.
Your name, contact details, the amount and date of your gift and, for businesses, your organisation’s details and any sponsorship agreement. Card and bank payments are handled securely by our payment providers. We never see or store your full card number.
Your name, contact details and your message, and for events, your booking details.
Basic technical information such as your device, browser and IP address, which our website and security tools need to work. See Cookies and our website.
Information needed for safer recruitment, DBS checks, training, supervision and pay. We explain this in more detail when you apply.
Data protection law requires us to have a lawful reason for each use of your information. For especially sensitive information, such as your health, ethnicity, faith or sexuality, we need an additional legal condition.
| What we do | Our lawful reason | For sensitive information |
|---|---|---|
| Helpline, live chat, referrals and support | Legitimate interests in supporting men affected by abuse, or your consent | Your explicit consent, or where needed for confidential counselling, advice and support, or to safeguard you or others |
| Counselling and therapeutic support | Our agreement with you to provide the service | Health and social care provided under a duty of confidentiality, or your explicit consent |
| Safeguarding and protecting life | Legal obligation, vital interests or legitimate interests | Safeguarding of children and individuals at risk, or protecting someone’s vital interests |
| Courses, training and court reports | Our agreement with you to provide the course or report | Your explicit consent, or establishing or defending legal claims |
| Donations and sponsorship | Our agreement with you, and our legal obligation to keep financial records | Not usually needed |
| Newsletters and updates | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time | Not needed |
| Running and securing our website | Legitimate interests in keeping our website working and secure | Not needed |
| Staff and volunteer recruitment | Legal obligation and our agreement with you | Employment and safeguarding obligations |
Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time by contacting us. This will not affect anything we did before you withdrew it.
What you tell us stays confidential within our team and the practitioners working with us. We will not share it without your agreement, except in rare situations where the law or safety requires it, for example where:
Wherever it is safe and possible, we will talk to you first and explain what we are sharing, with whom and why. We record every decision to share information without consent, and the reasons for it.
Some of our providers, such as Microsoft, Tawk.to, PayPal, Square, Eventbrite and Google, may store or access information outside the UK. Where this happens, we make sure the transfer is protected by UK data protection law, for example because the country has been approved by the UK government or because the provider has signed approved data transfer agreements.
We keep information only for as long as we need it, and then delete or destroy it securely.
| Type of information | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Client case files, counselling notes and support records | 6 years after your last contact with us |
| Safeguarding records and records of risk | 10 years after the last entry, or longer if a case is ongoing or someone is still at risk |
| Helpline and live chat records where no ongoing support followed | 2 years |
| Referrals that did not lead to support | 12 months |
| Course records, certificates and court reports | 6 years after the course or report |
| Donation, sponsorship and financial records | 6 years, as required by HMRC |
| General enquiries and emails | 2 years |
| Social media messages | 12 months |
| Website backups | 12 months |
| Unsuccessful job and volunteer applications | 12 months |
You have the right to:
To use any of these rights, contact our Data Protection Lead at office@jonathanshouse.org.uk or on 01633 837800. It is free, and we will usually respond within one month. We may need to confirm your identity first, to protect your information. Sometimes we cannot agree to a request, for example where we must keep safeguarding records or where sharing would put someone else at risk. If so, we will explain why.
Cookies are small files saved by your browser. We use cookies that are needed for the website to work and stay secure, to run our live chat, translation and donation forms, and to remember your choices. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings at any time.
Our website links to other organisations’ websites, such as our partners. They have their own privacy policies, and we are not responsible for how they handle your information.
If you are worried that someone may check your phone or computer:
Our services are for adults aged 18 and over. We may hold information about your children where you share it with us, for example on our parenting course or when we are thinking about safety. We treat it with the same care, and share it only where it is needed to keep a child safe.
If you have a question or concern about how we use your information, please contact our Data Protection Lead first at office@jonathanshouse.org.uk, on 01633 837800, or by post at our registered office. We will do our best to put things right.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK regulator for data protection: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or 0303 123 1113.
We review this policy at least once a year and whenever our services or the law change. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.