Privacy Policy

Hope Community Church ("the Church", "we", "us", "our") is a Christian church based at Deveron Way, Hinckley, Leicestershire, LE10 0XD. We are a registered charity in England and Wales (Charity No. 1108872).

For the purposes of data protection law, Hope Community Church is the Data Controller for any personal information we hold about you. This means we are responsible for deciding how and why your personal data is used, and for keeping it safe.

We only collect information that is necessary for the life and activities of our church. This may include:

Information you give us directly

• Your name, email address and phone number when you contact us via our website, email or phone
• Your name and contact details when you enquire about room hire, volunteering, or church membership
• Prayer requests or pastoral information you choose to share with church leaders
• Gift Aid declarations, which include your name, address and taxpayer status
• Information provided when volunteering with children or vulnerable adults (including DBS check information and self-declaration forms, as required by our Safeguarding Policy)

Information we collect automatically

• Basic technical data when you visit our website (such as browser type and pages visited), collected via cookies and similar technologies
• IP address for security and analytics purposes

Information from third parties

• References provided by referees when someone applies to volunteer in a role involving children or vulnerable adults
• DBS check results from the Disclosure and Barring Service, processed via Thirtyone:eight

We use your personal information only for the purposes for which it was collected. These include:

• Responding to your enquiries and keeping in touch with you about church life and events
• Processing room hire bookings and related communications
• Administering Gift Aid claims with HMRC on your behalf
• Keeping records required for safeguarding, including DBS checks and training records for volunteers and staff who work with children or vulnerable adults
• Maintaining a church membership or contact list, where you have agreed to be included
• Sending church newsletters, event updates or prayer updates, where you have opted in to receive these
• Complying with our legal and regulatory obligations as a registered charity

Under UK data protection law (UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018), we must have a lawful basis for using your personal information. We rely on the following:

• Your consent — for example, when you sign up to our newsletter or submit a contact form
• Legitimate interests — for example, keeping records of room hire bookings or responding to general enquiries
• Legal obligation — for example, keeping financial records for Gift Aid, or maintaining safeguarding records as required by law and our Safeguarding Policy
• Vital interests — in exceptional circumstances, where we need to share information to protect someone's safety

Where we rely on your consent, you always have the right to withdraw it at any time. This will not affect anything we have already done based on your consent before it was withdrawn.

We do not sell, rent or share your personal data with third parties for commercial purposes. We may share your information in the following limited circumstances:

• Thirtyone:eight — our independent Christian safeguarding partner, who manages DBS checks and provides safeguarding advice
• HMRC — to process Gift Aid claims on your behalf, where you have completed a Gift Aid declaration
• Statutory authorities — such as the Police, Children's Social Services or Adult Social Services, where we are legally required to do so or where there is a safeguarding concern
• The Charity Commission — if we are required to make a reportable incident submission as a registered charity
• Church leadership and trustees — on a need-to-know basis for the running of the church

Any third parties with whom we share data are required to keep it confidential and to use it only for the purpose for which it was shared.

We keep your information only for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, or as required by law. As a general guide:

• Contact enquiries — up to 2 years after last contact, unless you become a regular church member
• Gift Aid declarations — 7 years from the last Gift Aid claim, as required by HMRC
• Safeguarding records — retained in accordance with our Safeguarding Policy and statutory guidance (this may be for many years in serious cases)
• DBS records — we record only the date and reference number of a DBS check, not the certificate itself, and update these every three years
• Room hire records — up to 2 years after the hire date for accounting purposes
• Church membership or contact lists — as long as you remain part of the church community or until you ask to be removed

When your data is no longer required, it is securely deleted or disposed of.

Under UK data protection law, you have a number of rights regarding the personal information we hold about you. These are summarised below. You can exercise any of these rights by contacting us at info@hopecc.org.uk.

Our website may use cookies — small text files placed on your device — to help us understand how visitors use the site and to improve your experience. We do not use cookies for advertising or to track you across other websites.

• Essential cookies — required for the website to function correctly
• Analytics cookies — help us understand which pages are visited most often so we can improve the site (no personal information is collected)

Our website may contain links to external sites (such as Google Maps, YouTube, or Facebook). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites and encourage you to read their own privacy policies.

Our YouTube channel and Facebook page are operated by third-party platforms. Any data you share through those platforms is governed by YouTube's and Meta's own privacy policies respectively.

We take the privacy of children very seriously. We do not collect personal information from children under 13 without the clear consent of a parent or guardian. Where we collect information about children as part of our church activities (for example, for signing-in purposes at children's groups), we handle that information in accordance with our Safeguarding Policy and with the utmost care.

Information relating to children and vulnerable adults involved in safeguarding matters is treated with additional sensitivity and is stored securely in our confidential Safeguarding File, accessible only to authorised safeguarding personnel.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or in data protection law. When we do, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. We encourage you to check this page periodically.

If we make significant changes that affect how we use your personal data, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you directly — for example, by email if we hold one for you, or by a notice on our website.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, want to exercise any of your rights, or wish to raise a concern about how we handle your data, please contact us using any of the details below. We aim to respond within 30 days.