Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

At Cornerstone SDS, we’re committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This policy explains when and why we collect personal information about people, whether in paper or electronic format as well as from those who visit our website. It explains how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.

We may change this policy from time-to-time so please check it on this website occasionally to make sure you have the most up-to-date version.

Any questions regarding this policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to SDSAdmin@Cornerstone.org.uk or by writing to Cornerstone SDS, 25 High Street, Inverurie, AB51 3QA. Alternatively, you can telephone 01467 530520.

Who are we?

Cornerstone SDS is a subsidiary of Cornerstone one of Scotland’s largest charities whose purpose is to deliver high-quality care to everyone they support, enabling them to live a valued life – the life they choose. Cornerstone SDS specifically provides advice and support for those who choose care in their home.  Cornerstone are a registered charity (Scottish Charity No. SC004780). The company is registered in Scotland as Cornerstone Community Care operating as Cornerstone, Company No. SC070762 and our registered office is Johnstone House, 52 – 54 Rose Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1HA.

How do we collect information from you?

We obtain information about you both from our website or in paper format for the following reasons:

  • When you contact us about products and services
  • When you register to apply for a job online
  • When you are referred or enquire about our services whether you are a client, employer, employee or other interested party.

What type of information is collected from you?

The personal information we collect online might include your name, address, email address, details of your enquiry or job application details, IP address, and information regarding what pages you have accessed and when.

The personal information we may collect whether in paper or electronic format also includes financial information, personal medical and social care information.

How is your information used?

We may use your information to:

  • Process an enquiry that you have submitted
  • Process a job application
  • To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into by you and us
  • To carry out your obligations as a client or employer arising from any contracts entered into by you
  • Seek your feedback, views or comments on the services we provide
  • Notify you of changes to our services
  • Hold your details on our client relationship management system and/or recruitment platform
  • Send you communications, which you have requested and that may be of interest to you. These may include information about services, campaigns, appeals, and other fundraising activities.

When we use your personal information, we are required to have a lawful basis for doing so. There are various lawful bases upon which we may rely, depending on what personal information we process and why.

The lawful bases we may rely on include:

  • Consent - where you have given us clear consent for us to process your personal information for a specific purpose (in limited circumstances)
  • Contract - where our use of your personal information is necessary for a contract we have with you, or because you have asked us to take specific steps before entering into a contract
  • Legal obligation - where our use of your personal information is necessary for us to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations)
  • Legitimate interests - where our use of your personal information is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third-party (unless there is a good reason to protect your personal information which overrides our legitimate interests).

Where you are registered as a client, we will send you communications about the vital work we do for the people we support and our exciting products and services for the purposes of our legitimate interests to promote our activities.

You may ask us to stop sending such communications or change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us by email SDSAdmin@Cornerstone.org.uk or telephone on 01467 530520.

How long we keep your information

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory obligations (for example, application forms received from candidates are kept for 6 months). We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the purposes we have set out above. Where records need to be retained for a specific length of time, they will be stored securely. We will review and may delete any information that we no longer have a legitimate reason to keep.

Who has access to your information?

We will not sell, share or rent your information to third parties.

Third-party service providers working on our behalf: We may pass your information to our third-party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example, payroll providers for employers).

However, when we use third-party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes. Please be reassured that we will not release your information to third parties beyond Cornerstone SDS for them to use for their own purposes, unless you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

We work closely with various third-party product providers to bring you a range of quality and reliable products and services. When you enquire about or purchase one or more of these products from a third-party provider, the relevant third-party product provider will use your details to provide you with information and carry out their obligations arising from any contracts you have entered into with them. To find out more about our third-party providers, please contact us at                SDSAdmin@Cornerstone .org.uk or telephone 01467 530520.

In some cases, these third parties will be acting as a controller of your personal information, and therefore, we advise you to read their privacy policy. Where these third-party product providers will share your personal information with us, we will use that personal information in accordance with this privacy policy.

We may transfer your personal information to a third-party as part of a sale of some or all of our business and assets to any third-party or as part of any business restructuring or re-organisation, or if we’re under a duty to disclose or share your personal information in order to comply with any legal obligation or to enforce or apply or terms of use or to protect the rights, property or safety of our clients and customers. However, we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.

How you can access and update your information

The accuracy of your personal information is important to us. We’re working on ways to make it easier for you to review and correct the information that we hold about you. In the meantime, if you change email address or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please email us at SDSAdmin@Cornerstone.org.uk, or write to us at Cornerstone SDS, 25 High Street, Inverurie, AB51 3QA. Alternatively, you can telephone 01467 530520.

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information Cornerstone SDS holds about you. Security precautions are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information.

You also have the right to ask:

  • That we delete the personal information that we hold about you in certain circumstances (in compliance with any other legal requirements)
  • That we restrict the processing of your personal information for specific purposes
  • For the personal information that we hold about you for your own reuse in certain circumstances
  • You may also object to any processing of the personal data that we hold about you.

Any of the above rights can be exercised by emailing us at SDSAdmin@Cornerstone.org.uk or writing to us at Cornerstone SDS, 25 High Street, Inverurie, AB51 3QA. Alternatively, you can telephone 01467 530520.

Keeping your information secure

We store your personal information on our systems within the UK and have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that it’s treated securely.

Non-sensitive details (your email address, etc.) are transmitted normally over the internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Use of 'cookies'

Like many other websites, Cornerstone SDS’s website uses cookies. 'Cookies' are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. They collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual. For example, we use cookies to store your country preference. This helps us to improve our website and deliver a better more personalised service.

It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences. For more information on how to switch off cookies on your computer, visit our full cookies policy. Turning cookies off may result in a loss of functionality when using our website.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

In addition, if you linked to our website from a third-party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third-party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third-party site.

16 or Under

We are committed to protecting the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian's permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.

Review of this Policy

We keep this policy under regular review. This policy was last updated in May 2021.