Skip to main content

This site is best viewed with a modern browser. You appear to be using an old version of Internet Explorer.

Privacy Notice

How the Trust membership scheme uses information about its members

All NHS Foundation Trusts have a statutory duty to engage with their local communities and staff to encourage people who use their services to become members of their Trust.

We aim to recruit and develop a membership which fairly represents people living in the communities served by the Trust. This includes patients, former patients, carers and members of the public, particularly in Oxfordshire, but also from further afield including:

  • Berkshire
  • Buckinghamshire
  • Wiltshire
  • Gloucestershire
  • Northamptonshire
  • Warwickshire.

We also provide a wide range of services for people from further afield in England and Wales and people in this wider area are also invited to play their part in our future by joining as members.

By becoming a member you are under no obligation to do anything, you do not need to attend meetings or events, or become more involved in the Trust unless you wish to do so.

Legal basis

The legal basis under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) for holding your data is that 'Processing is in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the Data Controller' Article 6(1)e. We will not keep your data for longer than necessary and all data will be deleted once you cease to be a member of the Trust.

How do we obtain your personal information?

  • To become a Foundation Trust member you will either have completed a paper or online membership form and submitted it to the Trust for approval:
    • membership forms can be found in our hospitals, libraries, GP surgeries and other places to which members of the public have easy access;
    • at an event where the Trust has a membership stand;
    • at a Governor or Membership stand at one of our hospitals;
    • paper forms are sometimes provided to other organisations holding events to include in participant packs;
    • an online membership form can be found on our Foundation Trust web pages.
  • Members of the public can only become a Foundation Trust member by completing either the paper or online form. We do not receive your details from any other source.
  • All staff who have a contract of employment for a year or lasting at least a year, this includes staff on a 'retainment of employment' contract.

What information do we collect?

Personal information is any information that can be used to identify you, which you will have provided when joining the membership scheme. For example, it can include information such as your name, date of birth, email address, postal address and telephone number, as well as information relating to any disabilities you may have.

Data protection law recognises that certain categories of personal information are more sensitive. This is known as sensitive personal information and covers health information, racial or ethnic origin. We only collect sensitive personal information if you have completed the relevant section on either the paper or online form. As a Trust we are committed to having a representative membership covering the people either living in our communities or using our services. Therefore we use the sensitive information that we hold to ensure that our membership is representative of the people who use our services i.e. by gender, age, ethnicity and socio-economic groupings.

How do we use your information?

How we use your information would largely depend on why you are providing it.

We may use your information to:

  • provide you with general news and information about the Trust;
  • invite you to meetings, lectures and other events;
  • ask your views on future plans;
  • invite you to join a project group to improve services;
  • invite you to volunteer at one of the hospitals;
  • invite you to help fundraise for the Trust in conjunction with the Trust’s Charity;
  • invite you to stand for election to the Council of Governors;
  • invite you to nominate and vote in the Council of Governor elections;
  • invite you to come along to a careers fair;
  • complete our annual submission, showing how representative our membership is, to the regulator; this is reported by age, ethnicity, socio-economic groupings and gender.

Direct marketing

If you have ticked the relevant box on the membership form, we may send you communications about our work and how you can help us to help you, for example, information about our volunteering, work experience and fundraising activities and how you can become involved.

You can let us know if you would prefer not to receive these communications at any time.

or write to:

Foundation Trust Governor and Membership Manager
c/o Media and Communications Unit
Level 3, John Radcliffe Hospital
Headley Way
Oxford OX3 9DU

Building profiles and targeting communication

We use profiling techniques to ensure communications are relevant and timely, and to provide an improved experience to our members. Profiling also allows us to target our resources effectively. We do this because it allows us to understand the background of the people who support us, importantly it enables us to provide you with a service that it better suited for your needs.

In order to create a profile for you, we may use the information which you have given us. This sort of profiling can include us using information such as your health preferences and where you live, i.e. if we are holding a talk in Banbury on dementia, we would look at who lives in the area with an interest in dementia. We may also use this information to help us determine whether and in what ways you might be interested in getting involved in our activities and receive the information that will be of most interest to you.

You can let us know if you would prefer us not to profile you in this way.

or write to our Foundation Trust and Membership Manager at the address above.

Who do we share your information with?

The processing of your information is for the purposes of the Trust to meet the legal requirements set out in UK law, or exercise the official authority established for a Foundation Trust as a public body. Your personal information will only be used in relation to your membership of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and not shared elsewhere.

If you're 16 or under

Anyone living in England and Wales aged 16 and over can become a member of the Trust. If you are under 16 and would like to receive information from the Trust via our membership scheme we suggest you ask a parent or guardian to become a member and share the information with you until your 16th birthday when we would be delighted if you would join our membership scheme.

Accessing and updating your personal information

You can request access to any membership information we hold about you.

or write to:

Foundation Trust Governor and Membership Manager
c/o Media and Communications Unit
Level 3, John Radcliffe Hospital
Headley Way
Oxford OX3 9DU

Please let us know of any changes to your name, address or email address.

You can also let us know if you would no longer like to receive communications from us.

or write to our Foundation Trust and Membership Manager at the address above.

We will delete all the details we hold for you from the membership database. If you decide you would like to become a member after this time you will need to reapply by either completing a paper membership form or entering your details into the online membership form on our website.

Back to main privacy notice