FAQ’s
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USING OUR SITE
Privacy statement ( Policy) web 5.26
Appendix 1 Secure retention schedule for safeguarding materials
Appendix 2 Secure storage for safeguarding materials
Privacy Statement
The Third Order of the Society of Saint Francis “TSSF” General Data Protection Regulation “GDPR”
DATA PRIVACY NOTICE
- Your personal data – what is it?
Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”).
- Who are we?
The Trustees of The Third Order of the Society of Saint Francis is the data controller (contact details below). This means it decides how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.
- Record Keeping
It is important that any religious community can reassure itself, as well as others, that all appropriate checks and processes have been undertaken and are kept up to date for individuals who occupy key Strategic Officer Roles, which involve oversight and safeguarding, withing the organisation.
Records are set up at the start of an appointment. Some records may be stored at Area level, some at Chapter level – either way, TSSF ensures clear process for what is stored where and associated responsibilities as well as who has necessary access.
- Rehabilitation of Offenders Act
TSSF is conscious of the need to conform to the requirements of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974\1975 and subsequent updates in all its work. This Act to rehabilitate offenders who have not been reconvicted of any serious offence for periods of years, to penalise the unauthorised disclosure of their previous convictions, to amend the law of defamation, and for purposes connected therewith. We aim to work within the parameters of this Act and its subsequent updates.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-guidance-on-the-rehabilitation-of-offenders-act-1974
- How do we process your personal data?
The Third Order of the Society of Saint Francis complies with its obligations under the “GDPR” by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.
We use your personal data for the following purposes: –
- To conform to the Church of England and Acknowledged Religious Communities Safeguarding Policies
- To enable us to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public in a particular geographical area as specified in the Statutes of the European Province;
- To administer membership records;
- To promote the interests of the charity;
- To manage the volunteers;
- To operate the website and deliver the services that individuals have requested;
- To maintain our own accounts and records (including the processing of gift aid applications);
- To inform you of news, events, activities;
- To ensure Safe Recruitment takes place for all persons holding an office;
- To ensure we conform to necessary safeguarding training schedules;
- To share your contact details with the Chapter officers so they can keep you informed about news in the Order and events, activities and services that will be occurring in the Order and in which you may be.
- What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?
- Explicit consent of the data subject so that we can keep you informed about news, events, activities and services and process your gift aid donations and keep you informed about Order
- Processing is necessary for carrying out obligations under social protection law;
- Processing is necessary to carry out our obligations under commitment to the Church of England and Acknowledged Religious Communities Safeguarding policies;
- Processing is carried out by a not-for-profit body with a religious and safeguarding aims provided: –
- the processing relates only to members or former members (or those who have regular contact with it in connection with those purposes); and
- will only be disclosed to a Third party where the law requires us to do so.
- Sharing your personal data
Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential and will only be shared with other members of The Order in order to carry out a service to or for other Franciscan Orders or for purposes connected with it. We will only share your data with third parties outside of the Order if required by law with your knowledge.
Personal data held by the Order for safer recruitment and safeguarding purposes will only be disclosed to a third party where that is required by law and for regulating safeguarding structures.
- How long do we keep your personal data?
Specifically, we retain personal data while it is still current; gift aid declarations and associated paperwork for up to 6 years after the calendar year to which they relate; If there is a need to keep your records after this period we will request your consent before doing so.
All data relating to Safer Recruitment and Safeguarding Cases will be kept and erased in accordance with document ‘appendix 1’ (Secure Retention Schedule) attached. Where necessary for Area working this will be kept securely by the appropriate Area and only accessible to key officers. Long term storage will be maintained through Chapter.
- Access storage to secure information
Please see Appendix 2
- Your rights and your personal data
Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data: –
- The right to request a copy of your personal data which is held about you;
- The right to request that the Order corrects any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date;
- The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for the Order to retain such data;
- The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time
- The right to request that the data controller provide the data subject with his/her personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), (where applicable) [Only applies where the processing is based on consent or is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject and in either case the data controller processes the data by automated means].
- The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing;
- The right to object to the processing of personal data, (where applicable) [Only applies where processing is based on legitimate interests (or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority); direct marketing and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics]
- The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners
- Further processing
If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Data Protection Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.
911 Contact Details
To exercise all relevant rights, queries of complaints please in the first instance contact the Data Protection Officer at prov-sec@tssf.org.uk.
You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 , via email here or at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF.
Annual Review : Next date of review June 2027
June 2026
Appendix 1
Secure retention schedule for safeguarding materials.
(As outlined in the Church of England records retention Schedule) April 2026
Records which have to be kept for ONE CALENDAR Year and then destroyed
- Records that relate to concerns that are determined not to be safeguarding issues must be kept for one calendar year then destroyed.
- Records relating to initial information that relates to individuals who are not officers must be retained for one calendar year then destroyed.
- Any notebooks or case notes taken during investigations for recording details of cases that they are working on must be kept for a minimum of one calendar year and then destroyed
Documents which have to be kept for TWO CALENDAR YEARS and then destroyed
- Records relating to the safe safeguarding matters that have been deemed as requiring no further action must be retained for two years, reviewed after two years and if appropriate destroyed.
Documents which have to be kept for SIX CALENDAR YEARS and then destroyed
- Any initial information that relates to concerns about individuals, includes reports and referrals to a safeguarding team application forms and communications with individuals must be kept for six calendar years and then destroyed.
- Records relating to the management of complaints regarding safeguarding activities must be retained for six calendar years and then destroyed.
- Recorder relating to a review process including policies and procedures the initial establishment of a process, terms of reference for a review, appointment of reviewers in accordance with the requirements of the safeguarding policy must be kept for six years and then destroyed.
- Records relating to ad hoc engagements and consultations must be retained for six years and then destroyed.
Documents which have to be kept for TWELVE CALENDAR YEARS and then destroyed
- Records relating to support schemes set up for people must be retained for 12 years reviewed and then destroyed.
Documents which have to be kept for SEVENTY-FIVE CALENDAR YEARS and then destroyed
- Data from records recording a safeguarding matter that was deemed to require no further action must be kept for 75 calendar years and then destroyed.
- Records of safeguarding case investigations including notes, correspondence with victims, correspondence with alleged perpetrators, safeguarding casework reports, minutes of core group meetings, and risk assessments must be kept for 75 calendar years and then destroyed.
- Records of evidence collected or created relating to the investigation of cases where a review has been undertaken must be retained for 75 years and then destroyed.
Documents which have to be kept PERMANENTLY
- Reports relating to the outcome of any review must be maintained permanently in a secure archive.
- Records relating to past cases in past case implementation of review including action plans implementation documents and reports must be retained permanently in the secure archive.
- Records relating to supervision process is which includes supervision forms and any casework included in supervision must be retained for 75 years and then destroyed.
June 2026
Review Date: June 2027
Appendix 2
Secure storage for safeguarding materials
by both Chapter and Local Areas.
As part of the development of our safeguarding profile as a Province, it is important that all information related to safeguarding and individuals, needs to be kept in a secure file which is only accessible to certain key Officers.
For Chapter this information should only be accessible by the Minister Provincial (MP), the Provincial Formation Guardian(PFG), the Provincial Novice Guardian(PNG), the Designated Safeguarding Person(DSP); the Provincial Secretary and the Chapter Safeguarding Lead (CSL)
For Areas, it is important that this information is only available to the Area Minister, the Area Formation Guardian, the Area Novice Guardian, and the Area Safeguarding Advocate.
No safeguarding material should ever be stored on individual’s computers. Once it is placed in secure storage it must be erased from any individual’s computer.
So that we have appropriate secure storage it is essential that each Area opens a DropBox account which is in the name of an area e-mail address, not a personal one. This enables the information to be passed on to appropriate officers as those officers change overtime. On the occasion of a change of officer the accessing password will also need to be changed for all people that need access.
To comply with our privacy policy and GDPR requirements it is important that all members whose information is securely stored are aware that is the case, where it is stored as well as when and how it will be erased. To this end there is Secure Retention Schedule, (Appendix 1) which states for what period of time any information needs to be securely stored and for what reason. This appendix has been raised from information on the Church of England safeguarding website.
The free storage with Dropbox Is limited to 2GB, this should be sufficient for the majority of Areas to use for the types of materials that they are going to have to store. Overtime these drop boxes may well need to be upgraded on an annual payment basis this needs to be monitored.
Material which has to be stored is:
- All material relating to safer recruitment of officers both in Chapter and in Areas.
- All material relating to DBS or equivalent certification.
- All material relating to people’s training for safeguarding.
- All material relating to safeguarding cases current and historic where appropriate see Appendix 1.
Some of this material will be historic material I may well need to be kept for a substantial. In that case this material will be transferred from Areas to the Chapter for long term secure storage.
June 2026
Review June 2027
This is for members of the TSSF Order only.
First Logon instructions
- Enter your email address in the Username box – this must match the email address we hold for you on the database
- Enter your new password in the Password box
- Click Logon
- Click on the House logo to be found on the righthandside in the banner (lefthandside of NEWS)
- This will take you to the Tertiary Home Page
Logon instructions for Tertiaries who have already got a correct email and setup password
- Enter your username into the box under Tertiary Members Centre and enter your password. then Click on logo Home in the banner (lefthandside of NEWS) to access the Tertiary section of the website.
- If you are experiencing difficulties then please contact the webmaster by email: webmaster@tssf.org.uk
- WARNING – If you continually click the ‘reset password ‘ option you will be locked out of the system and will not receive a reset link email.
- Go to My Profile
- Click Tab Reset Password
- Enter your current password
- Enter your Change of password
- Re-enter new password
- Save and exit
- Next time Login with the new password
Many People have accounts on many different websites, and remembering the passwords for each can be difficult. Setting your browser to remember your passwords can save you time when navigating the Web.
All modern browsers are capable of saving your passwords automatically, making it easy to log in even across devices, if you have your browsers synced between two computers. While having your browser set to save your username and password data saves time, it decreases security. If you’re using an office computer with multiple users, consider turning off the feature that saves passwords.
Saving Passwords on the iPhone
If you like to use your iPhone to manage every aspect of your online identity, you probably log in to many different accounts, such as Facebook, Gmail, MSN, Twitter and Yahoo. To avoid typing the passwords and usernames each time you log in, configure your iPhone to save the passwords and automatically fill the password fields. Because saving passwords is a security risk, the iPhone password saving feature is turned off by default.
Go to a website where you want to save your username and password data. Fill it in and log in. Firefox will show a prompt offering to remember the password. Click “Remember Password.”
Saving Passwords on Your Computer
Select instructions for your browser:
1.Click the “Wrench” icon, select “Settings” and click the “Show Advanced Settings” link.2.Choose “Offer to Save Passwords” to get a prompt each time you enter login data on a website.
3.Go to the website for which you want to save your data. Fill in your login information and log in to the website. While the page is loading, Chrome will provide a prompt to save your password data. Click “Save Password.”
1.Click the “Settings” icon, which resembles a gear, and select “Internet Options.”
2.Click the “Content” tab and select “Settings” under the AutoComplete section.
3.Select the “User Names and Passwords on Forms” check box. If you want Internet Explorer to prompt you before saving your password information, select “Ask Me Before Saving passwords.”
4.Click “OK” in all windows to close Internet Options. When you log in to a website, a prompt along the bottom of the browser window will ask if you want to save your password.
Safari (Apple)
1.Click the “Safari” menu and select “Preferences.”
2.Click “Autofill” and select “User names and passwords.”
3.Save your preferences. When you fill in any login data on a website, Safari will prompt you to save your password information.
‘One Off’ donations should be either transferred by BACS or paid by cheque to the Provincial Treasurer.
In the case of BACS payments firstly put your name and initials on the Bank Reference then please notify the Treasurer of your payment preferably by email. (treasurer@tssf.org.uk)
Provincial Officer details can be found on the back of both TON and Little Portion or on the website under To Whom To send things.
Go to the website for which you want to save your data. Fill in your login information and log in to the website. While the page is loading, Chrome will provide a prompt to save your password data. Click “Save Password.”
Click on Icon that will now be on Desktop and follow instructions as they appear.