Privacy Notice

Privacy notice

Syndicate Explorer Scout Unit takes the issue of privacy very seriously and we are committed to protecting and respecting our members’ privacy. This Privacy Notice sets out our current data processing practices. If you have any queries or concerns regarding these practices, you should contact us.  The easiest way to do so is to email us. 

The Information we collect

We collect and keep the following types of personal information

Potential members – waiting list

We collect the personal details of young people who would like to become future members of the Explorer Unit so that we can operate a waiting list.  We keep contact details for their parent or carer, the name and date of birth of the young person.

We keep details on our waiting list until:

The young person starts as a member of the Explorer Unit;

Their parent or carer lets us know that they no longer want a place in the Explorer Unit; or

They reach the age of 18 years.

Current youth members

We collect and keep details of the young people who are members of the Explorer Unit.  The information we hold includes their name, address and other contact details, date of birth, relevant medical information and details of their progress in Scouting.  We also keep contact details for their parent or carer.

This information is used by the leadership team of the section the young person currently attends to permit them to run a safe and effective Scouting programme.

As each young person moves between one section and the next, their information is passed to the relevant section within the Explorer Unit.  Once they have moved on, it is removed by the leaving section.

If a young person moves to another Explorer Unit, we normally pass this personal information on to the leadership of their new section.  If you would like us not to do this, please let us know.

Adult volunteers or potential volunteers

We collect and keep details of adult volunteers or potential future volunteers.  This includes their name, address, telephone number(s), email address, date of birth, any other Scouting roles held, their Scout training and the dates of any DBS checks that have been carried out.  If they would like to tell us, we may keep details of their hobbies, skills and occupation. 

How we collect, store and process the information.

We collect personal information in a number of ways.

We normally receive requests to add a young person to our waiting list by email, often via a form on our website.  We transfer the details to Online Scout Manager (OSM) and delete the original email.

We receive a paper form when each young person joins the group. We transfer information from these forms to Online Scout Manager (OSM) and then destroy the paper copy.

Section leadership teams may print copies of personal details so that they are easily to hand when running their Scouting programme.   They may also access these details online, including on their mobile phone.

Occasionally we need to request additional information, or check the information we hold, before an event or camp.  We normally collect this information on paper forms, which we keep for the duration of the event and then destroy.

We receive details of adult volunteers on a paper form or by email.  We transfer details onto the Scout Association’s Compass system and then destroy the paper form or email.  We must collect details of suitable identity documents so that we can request a DBS check. We do not retain that information for any longer than is strictly necessary.

Sharing of data

We will not usually share the personal information of young people or their parents or carers with other people or organisations.  Occasionally, when we use a third party (for example PGL) to deliver part of our programme, we may pass on details of young people.

When a young person leaves the Group, we may pass their details onto another part of Scouting which they are moving to.  This may be another Explorer Unit.

During any part of an event or weekly meeting, those participating may take photographs or video, which may include pictures of individuals.  We may keep these images for as long as necessary. We may publish some of those photographs or videos on our website or on Facebook. If you would prefer us to avoid publishing photographs or video of a specific young person, please let your section leader know.

We will always share information about adult volunteers with The Scout Association.  This is so that we can conduct proper suitability checks.

Security of information

We take the security of your information very seriously.  Leaders who have access to Online Scout Manager (OSM) can only access it with a personal username password and either a secret answer or a security key.

We destroy paper records as soon as we have transferred the information to OSM or the event has ended and we no longer need it.

We delete emails about joining the group once we have transferred the information on to OSM