Privacy Policy

The Pioneer Group, 11 High Street, Castle Vale, Birmingham, B35 7PR.

The Pioneer Group processes personal data allowing The Pioneer Group to deliver services to our customers. In legal terms The Pioneer Group is the controller of the personal data you have provided to us. This Statement explains what personal information we collect from you, how we collect it and what we use it for.

The Data Protection Officer for The Pioneer Group can be contacted at The Pioneer Group, 11 High Street, Castle Vale, Birmingham, B35 7PR

What information do we collect and why?

The Pioneer Group will only collect the personal data we need from you to deliver our services. The type of information we collect from you depends on our relationship with you. We will have different data for people who rent homes from us, than those who use our community regeneration services and community focused services.

We collect information about you when you make an application with us or you access one of our community regeneration services. We also collect information when you voluntarily complete customer surveys, provide feedback or through general correspondence.

Further information may be collected during the course of a tenancy, for example photographs of properties when assessing repairs requests, or if your personal circumstances change.

Community Regeneration Services

We collect the majority of the information contained on your application or referral to join or take part in any of our services directly from you for the purpose of assessing suitability for the project or service, service delivery, managing your expectations, handling queries and complaints, progression and interaction with the project and for your health and safety whilst attending a project. Some of the information collected from you will also be used to report back to our partners and funding providers under specific obligations relating to the funding award. Where this involves the provision of your personal details, where you are directly or indirectly identified, this will be brought to your attention by way of a privacy statement on the project application.

Information is also collected for the purpose of equal opportunities monitoring. We will endeavour to make clear the form that captures this information. We may also receive additional information about you from referrals that we receive from other organisations including:

• Local schools, colleges and Further and Higher Education establishments
• Local authorities
• Local social help and welfare charities

The table below sets out the type of information we collect, the purpose of collecting this data and the legal basis for doing so:

For the purpose of equal opportunities monitoring, and only with your explicit consent, we may also collect information about the following:

• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Sexual orientation
• Disabilities
• Religion

If we become aware of a risk to our staff, contractors or other residents, or there is an issue that may affect the delivery of services, we may place a note detailing this risk on your records. When we do so, we will inform you and ensure that these flags are regularly reviewed.

How will we collect this information?

Information will be collected from you personally when you enter into an agreement or contract with us, such as through a tenancy agreement. This will be in the form of applications and any other forms which may be completed to apply for one of our properties.

It is possible that we will receive referrals containing your information from public bodies such as local authorities, but this should be done with your consent and knowledge of why they are making the referral to our services.

We may generate further personal data regarding our tenants during the course of the tenancy. This could be in the form of general correspondence, or to satisfy our statutory obligations. An example of fulfilling our statutory obligations and collecting personal data would be where photographs of properties are required for the purposes of monitoring defects or for assessing any health and safety risks.

The information we may process about you will be made clear to you at the point of completing the registration form for a specific project.

Our Legitimate Interests

Certain information is processed as it is deemed to be in The Pioneer Group’s business or commercial interests. When we rely on any legitimate interest, we will ensure that we take a balanced approach and have appropriate safeguards in line with your expectations. If we rely on any legitimate interest, we will tell you what that is.

Our legitimate interests include:

• Having appropriate security, for our offices and our sites this includes CCTV.
• Handling and investigating complaints, accidents or incidents and prevent re-occurrences.
• Keeping our records up to date.
• Collecting unpaid debt.
• To help us plan and improve the services we provide, personalise our customer services and meet our tenants’ needs
• Official Communications.
• To ensure fair and equal access for all to our services.
• Recording threatening behaviour.
• Appending data from other sources.
• To help other people or companies to provide services or utilities to your home or to contact you.
• To provide care/support services to you, or work alongside other organisations who provide care/support to you and to deal with any issues arising about your care/support services
• Sharing your information with utility providers in the event of unpaid debts.

Who will we share it with?

Where information is used for the reasons listed above, we may need to share the information about you and the people you live with other organisations. This will include:

• Companies which provide services or utilities to your home (such as the gas, electric or water board) and the relevant Council Tax department. This may be while you are living at your home or after you leave your home and may include providing a copy of your tenancy agreement when you move in and providing a forwarding address when you leave. This information may be provided to enable the company to set up your payment arrangements and/or to pursue any unpaid bills.
• People who provide services on our behalf, such as a managing agent or contractors carrying out repairs etc.
• A credit checking agency, your bank and mortgage company or other financial institutions and (where necessary) a debt collection and/or tracing agency.
• The Housing Benefit department and other Government departments which provide funding for your housing or care/support services. In particular, we may be legally required to give information about any changes in your financial circumstances to the Housing Benefit department.
• Resident representatives and board members involved in our complaints process.
• A doctor, hospital, paramedic or health worker where you require medical attention and are unable to provide the information yourself.
• Your next of kin or other people acting on your behalf in an emergency and a member of your church or religious leader, where you have requested this.
• People or agencies who provide services to you or who work with us to provide services to you, such as your care/support provider.
• The bodies involved with your care/support such as the relevant Local Authority departments, or Social Services and any alarm call centre.
• Our regulator or other bodies which look at how we provide services as your landlord and other people where we are legally required to provide information to them.
• Our legal advisors, the courts and the police. This may include information about anti-social behaviour, which we may also share via a joint website accessed by landlords, the police, social services and other bodies with the aim of reducing anti-social behaviour.
• Relevant Local Authority departments (including housing benefit, council tax, elections, adult services, fraud teams etc.)
• To relevant people and authorities such as the police, adult and child protection and social services. This may include sharing information when we have concerns about a person’s health or welfare, or where there are investigations being carried out, such as sharing information in a case conference with such bodies and other parties involved (such as teachers, nurses, etc.) or where we have concerns about possible criminal activity.
• Companies who process information on our behalf such as an external mailing company (who send out our newsletter), our archiving company, our confidential waste disposal company and providers of our information technology services and software.

Community Regeneration Service

This information is shared with our partners and fund providers for their own monitoring purposes. Where it is possible to do so, the information that we will share will not contain any details that could identify you. This means that we will, where possible, remove your name, address, contact details and other bits of information that could make you identifiable. This process means that we have removed your identity from your information before it is shared and ensures that your privacy is protected.

Some fund providers may, require information to be shared with them in a way that they can identify you as an individual. They require this for their own monitoring and evaluation process and may contact you for feedback as to your involvement with the project and to learn from your experience. We will endeavour to highlight to you at the time that you register for a project where we are obliged to report back to the funder in this way.

We may also share some of your information with organisations/suppliers that we work with, or who work on our behalf, to deliver our services to you. These organisations/suppliers operate under strict agreements and support our work through the provision of:

• Print and mailing services
• Email communication software
• Information technology software and services

There may also be times where we are legally obliged to share information that we hold about you with relevant authorities such as:

• Legal advisors, the courts or the police where we have concerns about possible criminal activity or anti-social behaviour
• Local authorities, adult and child protection and social services where we have concerns about a person’s health or welfare.
• Referral of child protection concerns to safeguarding authorities such as the Children and Families Directorate.

International Transfers of Personal Data

The Pioneer Group will not transfer your information outside of the European Economic Area without adequate safeguards in place. The Pioneer Group does not transfer any personal data internationally. If The Pioneer Group were to transfer any personal data internationally, this will be in line with our internal procedure and the terms in this privacy policy will be updated.

Data Retention

We keep documents relating to your tenancy for six years after it comes to an end, and other documents for as long as the organisation reasonably requires, which varies according to the nature and purpose of the document concerned. Further information about our retention periods is available in our Retention Policy and Schedules, which are available on request by contact our Data Protection Officer on the contact details above.

Access to your information and correction

You have the following rights regarding your personal data.

For more information about any of your rights, please visit:

Automated Decision Making and Profiling

The Pioneer Group do not make any decisions about you using automated means and we do not envisage this changing in the near future nor do we carry out any profiling. If the situation does change, we will notify you in writing.

Required Information

The provision of some items of personal data is a condition of your tenancy with us. Mandatory information is however kept to a minimum wherever possible. If you don’t want to provide this information to us it’s likely we won’t be able to offer you a tenancy.

Additional Processing

Where we capture information for purposes outside of this privacy policy, we will provide you with appropriate privacy statements explaining why we will be processing this information and the purposes we need this for.

Who and How to Contact us

For further information regarding your personal data or about The Pioneer Group’s data protection in general please contact:

Data Protection Officer

The Pioneer Group, 11 High Street, Castle Vale, Birmingham, B35 7PR

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority. In the United Kingdom this is:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
casework@ico.org.uk
0303 123 1113

The Pioneer Group

11 High Street
Castle Vale
Birmingham
B35 7PR