Privacy Policy

When we refer to ‘Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT)’ in this Privacy Policy, we mean Royal College of Occupational Therapists Limited and British Association of Occupational Therapists (BAOT). RCOT is a wholly owned subsidiary of British Association of Occupational Therapists.

RCOT is responsible for processing the personal information you provide to us for RCOT and where it is a requirement under English Law, RCOT will maintain its registration with the Information Commissioners Office in the UK. RCOT is the controller for the personal information we process, unless otherwise stated.

If there’s anything you’re unsure about in this Privacy Policy, feel free to contact Trevor White – Data Protection Officer at Royal College of Occupational Therapists, 106-114 Borough High Street, Southwark, London SE1 1LB – gdpr@rcot.co.uk.

We will need to ask you for certain personal information to give you the best possible experience when you engage with us (via our websites or otherwise) and when you use our products and services.

We or our third parties will also collect other information about you and the devices you use to access our website. We do this by using technologies like cookies.

Cookies may be used by us to provide you with information from our website. A cookie means a small text file placed on your computer or device by Our Site when you visit certain parts of Our Site and/or when you use certain features of our Site.

We use cookies on this site for the following purposes:

• To hold information linking a user’s computer to the process that they are undertaking on the site. This cookie is necessary for the site to function correctly.
• To hold information about user site preferences. This enables a user to remain logged into the website until their browser is closed and allows for site preferences to be maintained between different browser sessions. This cookie is also necessary for the site to function correctly.
• To collect information about how you interact with the site. This information is used only to make the site more user friendly, convenient and productive to use.
• In none of the above cases is any personally identifiable data stored within the cookie.

By submitting your information to us on this website, you are providing your consent to us using cookies.

The chart below gives further details of the cookies we use:

How to reject and delete cookies

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies. However, you do not have to accept cookies and you can, should you choose at any time, block the use of cookies and delete all cookies currently stored on your computer.

Contact information

When you apply for RCOT membership or other services we will ask you to provide some contact information. This information may include some or all of the following: full name, residential address, date of birth, landline phone number, mobile phone number, email address and gender, HCPC number, previous membership number, ethnic origin, bank details and credit card details. We will only retain your Contact information for as long as you continue to use the Services and 7 years from the closure of your membership or last service use.

Device information

We also collect certain data automatically from your visit to our website or use of our services which may include some or all of the following: How you connect to the internet (IP Protocol Address) and how you engage with our site, Screen resolution, Browser data stored on your device, Information about the software you are using such as internet browser, Location data (city, region of the IP address you used). We will only retain your Device Information for as long as you continue to use the Services and 7 years from the closure of your membership.

We use your personal information in lots of ways to make our products and services as effective as possible.

To enable you to access our website and use our services
We will use your information to accept you as a new/returning member or customer and continue to provide you with our products and services.

To confirm your identity and authenticate the information you provide
As part of providing our services to you we will confirm your identity and authenticate the information you provide for security purposes.

To provide and improve member and customer support
We will use your information to be able to provide and improve the member support we provide to you (e.g. when you have questions or when you forget your log-in information).

For internal training purposes
We will use your information to ensure that our team has the knowledge and expertise to ensure we provide the best possible experience to you when you interact with us.

For reporting and analytical purposes
We will use your information for reporting and analytical purposes (e.g. how many of our members/customers are in the north or south of the country) to enable us to improve our products and services and provide appropriate levels of support.

To provide and improve member and customer support
We will use your information to inform you of service related issues and for market research, such as; if we think one of our services may be of interest to you we may contact you about them by email, on the phone or through the post.

RCOT may select particular members and invite them to be involved in market research. If you accept this invitation, we will use the feedback you give us to improve our products and services.  Your prior consent would be requested for this and you could opt out of participating at any time.

To maintain our records and other administrative purposes
We will use your information to ensure that we maintain comprehensive and up to date records of the ways we process your personal information and other operational activities and therefore we will use the information you provide for record-keeping, updates and general administrative purposes.

For complaint and dispute resolution
Whilst we will try to make sure that you are happy with the service we provide however if you do wish to  complain to us, we will use the information we have about you to help us manage your complaint.

To comply with the law
Like any other business, we are required to comply with many laws and regulations. We will, where necessary, use your information to the extent required to enable us to comply with these requirements.

If we plan to use your personal information for any purposes that are not set out in this Privacy Policy, we promise to let you know exactly what we will use it for before we go ahead and use it.

What are the legal grounds for handling personal information?

Consent

Where we collect other information from you or sometimes third parties collect it on our behalf. You will be asked to consent to this before using our website. If you choose not to give your consent, or you later remove your consent, this may affect our ability to provide the services you want, to you. We may also rely on the consent grounds for handling your personal information in the following scenarios:

• To enable you to access our website and use our services
• To confirm your identity and authenticate the information you provide
• To provide and improve member support
• For internal training, reporting and analytical purposes
• For marketing and market research

We share your personal information only with those persons who need to handle it so we can provide the RCOT and BAOT products and services you’ve signed up to. We also share it with suppliers who provide services to us which require access to your personal information only; and with resellers, distributors and agents involved in delivering the services we provide where necessary for them to do so.

We will share your data with the following third parties:-

1. Suppliers – We use a number of service providers to support our business and these service providers may have access to our systems in order to provide services to us and/or to you on our behalf.
2. World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) – We share your data with WFOT if you wish to register for WFOT Individual Membership (see WFOT’s Privacy Policy)
3. Unison – For providing union services
4. Resellers, distributors and agents – We sometimes use organisations to help provide our products services to members and customers. Personal information may be provided to them in connection with this purpose.
5. Public bodies, law enforcement and regulators – The Police and other law enforcement agencies, as well as public bodies such as local and central authorities can sometimes request personal information. This may be for the purposes of preventing or detecting crime, apprehending or prosecuting offenders, assessing or collecting tax, investigating complaints or assessing how well a particular industry sector is working.

You can obtain a copy of the information we hold about you. Please request this via the email: gdpr@rcot.co.uk

RCOT is based in the UK, which is where our databases are. We also operate elsewhere in and outside the European Economic Area, so we may access your personal information from and transfer it to these locations as well, any personal information we access from or transfer to these locations is protected by European data protection standards.

To make sure we keep your personal information safe, we apply strict safeguards when transferring it overseas. For example:

1. Sending your personal information to countries approved by the European Commission as having high quality data protection laws, such as Switzerland, Canada and the Isle of Man
2. Sending your personal information to a member organisation approved by the European Commission as providing a suitable level of high quality protection. For example, the Privacy Shield Scheme that exists in the US.

Under the Data Protection Legislation, you have the following rights, which we will always work to uphold:

• The right to be informed about our collection and use of your personal data. This Privacy Policy should tell you everything you need to know, but you can always contact us to find out more or to ask any questions.
• The right to access the personal data we hold about you.
• The right to have your personal data rectified if any of your personal data held by us is inaccurate or incomplete.
• The right to be forgotten, i.e. the right to ask us to delete or otherwise dispose of any of your personal data that we hold
• The right to restrict (i.e. prevent) the processing of your personal data.
• The right to object to us using your personal data for a particular purpose or purposes.
• The right to withdraw consent. This means that, if we are relying on your consent as the legal basis for using your personal data, you are free to withdraw that consent at any time.
• The right to data portability. This means that, if you have provided personal data to us directly, we are using it with your consent or for the performance of a contract, and that data is processed using automated means, you can ask us for a copy of that personal data to re-use with another service or business in many cases.
• Rights relating to automated decision-making and profiling.

For more information about our use of your personal data or exercising your rights as outlined above, please contact us by providing your email address, telephone number and postal address.

It is important that your personal data is kept accurate and up-to-date. If any of the personal data we hold about you changes, please keep us informed as long as we have that data.

Further information about your rights can also be obtained from the Information Commissioner’s Office or your local Citizens Advice Bureau.

If you have any cause for complaint about our use of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. We would welcome the opportunity to resolve your concerns ourselves however, so please contact us first.

Online privacy and security is the most important aspect of any member service and we take it extremely seriously. We use a variety of the latest technologies and procedures to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, destruction, use or disclosure.

We restrict access to your personal data to those employees, and third parties, who need to know that information to provide products or services to you. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect your personal data.

We will not keep your personal data for any longer than is necessary in light of the reason(s) for which it was first collected.  We may also keep it to comply with our legal obligations, resolve any disputes and enforce our rights. These reasons can vary from one piece of information to the next and depend on the products or services you have signed up to, in some cases the amount of time we keep your personal information for may vary.

In all cases, our need to use your personal information will be reassessed on a regular basis, and information which is no longer required for any purposes will be deleted/disposed of securely.

We can update this Privacy Policy at any time, if there are any really important changes to the Policy or how we use your information we’ll let you know and where appropriate ask for your consent.

Trevor White
Data Protection Officer
Royal College of Occupational Therapists
106-114 Borough High Street
Southwark
London SE1 1LB

Email us at: gdpr@rcot.co.uk