Privacy Statement

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (the DofE) appreciates the importance of keeping personal information private and protected for everyone associated with the charity. This includes participants doing their DofE, the adults helping them, DofE employees and those who support the charity.

You can be assured that we do our best to ensure that your personal information is secure so that your confidentiality is maintained. All of our data is held in accordance with ISO27001 (and independently audited by BSI ref. IS 566019), an Information Security standard to which the DofE is certified and audited against. As you would expect we adhere to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that came into force on 25 May 2018, which gives you control over the information we store about you, and how we contact you in the future.

We will only use your information so we can communicate information to help you participate in a DofE programme, or support those who are participating; and to tell you about activities which may be of interest to you.

This statement explains how we achieve these goals and gives details of our privacy practices, including what information we collect about people through our website, eDofE (including mobile versions of the site) and across all our other services. It also outlines how the information will be used or disclosed, and rights with respect to our collection and use of personal data.

By using our services and providing us with your personal information you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Statement.

In general - why we collect personal information

We collect your personal information because it helps us to support our Licensed Organisations, DofE centres, groups and participants undertaking their programmes. Additionally, it allows us to invite you to fundraising initiatives and to benefit from information and advice about expedition kit and special offers negotiated by the DofE charity. It also enables us to give you convenient access to our online services and support mechanisms. In addition, personal information helps us to continue to develop and improve the way the DofE charity operates and supports its network.

In order to help participants achieve their Award, the DofE provides an app (iOS and Android). Specifically for the DofE app we offer the user calendar, camera and photo integration and notifications features; these features help with uploading photographic evidence of completing activities, managing time and messaging Leaders. The app user remains in complete control of enabling and disabling this functionality. The DofE has no access to data stored within the app or device relating to calendar, camera and photos. The only app data which the charity has access to is programme related; this is described with the Programme Delivery Section. The app user submits data and any supporting evidence (photos or text) as part of their programme.

What information the DofE collects, why and how it is used

There are two types of information you provide us with when using our services:

– Personal information provided when completing fields on our websites (e.g. in eDofE).

– Information collected by us as you interact with our services.

The information is used to provide you with a service that you have requested, to answer an enquiry or as part of our fundraising and commercial programmes. We negotiate special offers and opportunities relevant to all DofE stakeholders (including participants, leaders, volunteers and parents) – see DofE Offers section below. We may ask you to provide us with personal information on a voluntary basis in certain areas of our services. This information will be used for the purposes outlined at the time of collection.

Programme delivery

We keep records of your activity on eDofE to help us understand how you use the system so that we can make it a more effective tool for you. You can update your unique username and password at any time on your eDofE profile. Information on ethnicity, disability and wellbeing are collected and used anonymously for statistical purposes by the DofE in order to ensure that we are making the DofE accessible to all, and that the programme has a positive impact on those taking part. We also collect the email address of the parents/carers of our participants to keep them up to date with information to help support their young person complete their DofE programme. We contact all parents/carers to obtain an opt into this content, once opted in they can opt out at any time.

The DofE e-newsletters, magazine and other operational emails contain vital updates and useful programme information, so all participants, and the adults involved in delivering their programme will receive those appropriate to their roles.

Adults can determine the frequency of the notification emails sent out via eDofE through their eDofE account.

We may also send information about the programme and changes to eDofE and other programme-related services from time to time.

The DofE assumes that all the data entered into eDofE through a Leader recorded account or by any Leaders on behalf of a participant is dictated by participants and input directly onto eDofE. If, however, data is first collected and written down outside of eDofE or taken from a system not owned or hosted by the DofE, then this should be kept safe and ultimately destroyed in accordance with your organisation’s own GDPR procedure and policies.

DofE Offers

We have a range of specially negotiated offers – including branded merchandise, free prize draws, privilege discounts, expedition kit information and alumni opportunities – from the DofE and our partners to tell you about, which provide an income to the charity.

In certain circumstances your identifiable personal information will be passed onto third parties to fulfil our obligation to you, for example a mailing company to dispatch your personalised DofE Card. In some circumstances unidentifiable personal information may be sent to an approved DofE supplier to enable a discount / benefit to be provided to you. An example of this is working with a driving insurance provider to offer DofE participants a reduced annual premium. Please see the section on ‘Who has access to your information’ below regarding how third parties use this information for more information on this.

Email communications relating to the above are not mandatory and you will need to opt into receiving this content. Once you have opted in, you can opt out at any time by the ‘unsubscribe’ function at the bottom of any email sent by us.

We may use some information that we hold about you, for example your age, what Award level you are doing, and whether you have opened and clicked through previous emails, to help us send the most relevant information to you.

Events Terms & Conditions

The following Terms and Conditions apply to all events undertaken in the name of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

These Terms and Conditions set by The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award govern purchase of, attending, and participation in our events.

Ticket purchasing

In order to take part in the Event, you agree to pay the stated ticket price or registration fee. Bookings for events will only be confirmed upon receipt of a completed and signed booking form and acceptance of the event’s T & C’s. Payment must be made in full prior to the event within the time scale stated on the booking form. We reserve the right to limit the number of places an individual may book for an event to avoid issues arising from potential over-subscription.

Card fees may be applicable when purchasing tickets online.

Early bird booking rates are only available where specified within the individual event booking information. Not all events will include an early bird booking rate.

Tickets cannot be resold to a 3rd party or transferred to another event.

By purchasing a ticket to an event, the participant acknowledges and agrees to be bound by and responsible for complying with these T&Cs.

Participation

You agree that you are solely responsible for your actions and save as provided elsewhere in these terms and conditions, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award are not responsible for any injury or illness that you may suffer as a result of your participation in the Event.

Loss or damaged items

You acknowledge that:

1. You are taking part in the Event at Your own risk;

2. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is not responsible for lost or stolen property at the Event.

Cancellations

Notice of cancellation from the Event must be communicated by emailing [email protected]. Cancellations must be agreed in writing. Date of receipt of notice will dictate whether cancellation is accepted and to what costs.

CANCELLATION POLICY:

More than 60 days from the event date – 75% refund/credit of the full ticket price.

Within 60 days of the event date – 50% refund/credit of the full ticket price.

Within 30 days of the event date – No refund/credit with be given.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award reserves the right to alter the arrangements as described due to unforeseen circumstances.

The fee is non-refundable, but we may in our discretion refund the Fee in limited circumstances such as: The Event is cancelled by the venue, provided that we receive a refund on sums we paid to the venue for the Event; or if we have to cancel the event due to circumstances beyond our control such as a historical event, or any another reason we deem reasonable.

You acknowledge that The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award tickets and event places are limited, and payment of the Fee and reservation of the place has an effect on expenditure of the charity and charity income for the Event.

In the case of events organised by third parties, such as challenge events, substitution will only be permitted if the event organiser’s terms and conditions allow.

 

Covid19

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award events are taking place in accordance with the latest government guidelines and the normal cancellation policy applies. Should government guidance and restrictions change which lead to the postponement or cancellation of an event due to Covid-19, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award will issue a full refund for the affected event booking, or transfer places to a future event.

If you display symptoms or contract Covid-19 and you are prevented from attending, we may at our discretion transfer your booking to a future event.

Admission

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award reserves the right to refuse admission to the event to any person who is not on the guest list provided and you may be asked to provide up to two different types of ID.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award reserves the right to refuse admission to the event to any person who is under the age of 18, whose attendance has not been approved in advance in writing, or any one heavily under the influence of any alcohol or drugs.

Any changes in guest names must be received no later than 7 days before the event.

Speakers

Speakers, performers, and entertainers advertised as part of an event are correct at the time of being advertised. We reserve the right to vary such appearances where they are subject to professional engagements.

Photography and Filming

By purchasing a ticket and attending an event you are agreeing to the fact that you may be included in photographs and film of the event that may be used in future advertising or through our internal and external communication channels. If you do not wish your images to be used in such a way, then please inform the office before the event takes place at [email protected].

Where an individual is included as a single image, or where that individual is the main subject of the image, we will gain their express consent to the use of that image as described above.

When attending an event at a Royal Palace/ Estate you are not permitted to share any photographs or film through any social platforms unless the permission to do so is granted by The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award on request. This applies to any photography or film you may have involving any members of The Royal Family.

Personal data

You are expected to provide us with your personal details and be subject to a full background security check if you are attending an event at a Royal Palace/ Estate or attending an event in the presence of a member of The Royal Family.

By signing up to the event we will hold your personal information, and any information provided in relation to your guests, for the purposes of proper administration of the arrangements surrounding the event. We will not use your personal data for any other purposes without your consent (as defined in our privacy policy). In addition, any sensitive personal data (such as access requirements or dietary requirements) will only be retained after the event with the express consent of the individual to whom that data relates.

By signing up to the event you are confirming that you are happy to receive email communications relating to fundraising. You can unsubscribe to this at any time by emailing [email protected]

Any queries in relation to these Terms and Conditions should be addressed to [email protected]. The governing law is that of England and Wales.

Fundraising opportunities

For fundraising opportunities, we collect personal information when you ask about our activities over the phone, in person, by letter or in email, when you register with us for an event, make a donation, subscribe to our newsletter or otherwise give us your personal information. We use this information to provide you with the information, services or products you have asked for, process donations you have made, inform you of changes to our service and policies, claim your Gift Aid donation, send you communication that includes information about our campaigns, volunteering and fundraising activities and to detect and reduce fraud and credit risk. Whenever we call our supporters we always start by asking if they are happy to take the call. We strictly adhere to all fundraising legislation and guidelines and are registered with the Fundraising Regulator.

Profiling

Through monitoring your interest in our range of products and services, we will create a profile of your preferences so that any contact we have with you is appropriate, relevant and timely. We may make use of additional information about you when it is available from external sources to help us to do this effectively. This activity is done to understand our audiences, and, for supporters, helps us to limit our communications only to those who are interested in our cause, and have the means to support us.

Who has access to your information?

The DofE will not provide any information collected that personally identifies you to any other company or organisation, unless it is required to do so by law, Court Order by other Government or law enforcement authorities or as described in this Privacy Statement.

Data collected on eDofE is shared with the relevant Licensed Organisation and DofE centre, as a necessity to enable young people to complete their DofE programme and achieve their Award and for DofE Leaders to manage programmes effectively. Participant personal information is never shared with other participants.

We may pass your information to our trusted third-party service providers and other associated organisations who are authorised to work on our behalf, for example to process donations and send you mailings such as our magazine. We disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service. In circumstances related to a certain product we will send your data to fulfillment houses; we have a written agreement with all fulfillment houses and all data is destroyed after use.

We do not store credit card details and we only share customer credit card details with our agencies involved in processing your donations/purchases.

Remarketing

The DofE may pass on your personal information to online advertising tools, including Facebook Custom audiences, Google Adwords Match and Google Analytics to carry out ‘remarketing activities’ – this is so that if you’ve visited our website we can direct you back to it through ads shown on sites across the internet by third-party vendors, including Google and Facebook. These third party vendors may use cookies to serve these ads based on your past visits to our website. You can opt out of a third-party vendor’s use of cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page.

Use of cookies

As is standard practice on many websites and online services, DofE online services use ‘cookies’ and other technologies to help us understand which parts of our services are the most popular, where our visitors are going, and how much time they spend there. We also use cookies and similar technologies to see if our online advertising is bringing people to our resources, services and other online training and downloads. We use cookies and other technologies to study traffic patterns on our website, to make your visit to our website even more rewarding as well as to study the effectiveness of our participant and network communications. We also use cookies to customise your experience and provide greater convenience each time you interact with our services.

If, however, you prefer not to enable cookies you can disable them on your PC and laptop. Please note that certain features of the DofE website and eDofE will not be available once cookies are disabled. In order to maintain the security of your session, by logging into eDofE you are giving implied consent that you are happy for cookies to be set.

As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information includes Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp and clickstream data. We use this information, which does not identify individual users, to analyse trends, to administer the site, to track users’ movements around the sites and to gather statistical information about our user base as a whole.

In some of our email messages we use a “click-through URL” linked to content. When a customer clicks one of these URLs, they pass through our web server before arriving at the destination web page. We track this click-through data to help us determine interest in particular topics and measure the effectiveness of our communications. If you prefer not to be tracked simply avoid clicking text or graphic links in the email or website.

External links

The DofE’s online services provide links to various websites that we do not control as well as to websites of our partners and supporters. When you click on one of these links, you will be transferred out of our websites and connected to the website of the organisation or company that you have selected. Even if an affiliation exists between our websites and a third-party website, we exercise no control over linked sites and are not responsible for the privacy practices of other organisations and their websites. Each of these linked sites maintains its own independent privacy and data collection policies and procedures. If you visit a website that is linked to our site, you should consult that site’s privacy policy before providing any personal information. This Privacy Statement applies solely to the information gathered by the DofE.

Your rights

All programme emails and information are compulsory for all participants undertaking their DofE programmes and for all adults supporting them. This is to ensure everyone receives consistent information at the same time. We will however contact you to ask for you to opt in to any other communications that are not programme related. Once you have done so you can still opt out at any time by visiting www.DofE.org/preferences. It can take up to 30 days for your preferences to be registered, therefore you may still receive email communications during this time. Please be aware that there are other instances when you may continue to receive email communications such as if you are a parent and your child has used your email address for their eDofE profile; participants receive programme emails as mandatory for their DofE programme. Please note, messages will still be posted within the eDofE messaging system, but you can choose not to receive promotional information from our partners to an external email account.

Although every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the information the DofE provides is accurate at the time of publication, audiences who rely on any information do so at their own risk. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award does not warrant its accuracy and disclaims any liability to any third party anywhere in the world for any injury, damage, loss or inconvenience arising as a consequence of any use of or the inability to use any information on the DofE’s website and other communications to the fullest extent permitted at law.

Access and correction

You have a right to know about the personal information that the DofE holds about you and to receive a copy of that information on request. You also have a right to request corrections to, or deletion of, the information that the DofE holds about you. If you wish to exercise these rights please contact us by post or email at the address shown in the ‘Contact’ section below. We will send you a copy of all the personal data held about you. Please apply in writing to: The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, 9 Greyfriars Road, Reading, Berkshire RG1 1NU.

Security

We build in safeguards to keep all your personal information as secure as is digitally possible. In addition to a rigorously enforced data handling policy, all our staff members are made aware of their obligations to keep the information for authorised use only. Of course no technology is foolproof, but we have made every reasonable effort to keep our systems up to date with the relevant protocols.

All personal data is accessible only to those who need to use it. We make that judgement based upon the sensitivity and value of the information in question;

We always consider keeping personal data:

– In a lockable room with controlled access.

– In a locked drawer or filing cabinet.

– If data is computerised it is stored on network servers and on password-protected databases and not on local systems and have suitable security access levels determined, applied and monitored.

– Particular care is taken of portable ICT equipment, memory sticks etc. which are password protected and encrypted to prevent unauthorised access.

– Sensitive personal data is not kept on memory sticks or routinely taken from DofE premises on any form of removable media.

The security measures that we have put in place ensure that:

– Only authorised people can access, alter, disclose or destroy personal data.

– Those people only act within the scope of their authority.

– If personal data is accidentally lost, altered or destroyed, it can be recovered to prevent any damage or distress to the individuals concerned.

Future policy

We may need to update or modify this Privacy Statement at any time, and modifications are effective upon being posted on the DofE websites and in eDofE. You are responsible for reviewing this privacy statement periodically to ensure that you are aware of any changes to it.

Contacting the DofE

If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement, the privacy practices of the DofE or if you want to exercise any of the rights that you are given under this Privacy Statement you can contact:

E: [email protected]

P: The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, 9 Greyfriars Road, Reading, Berkshire RG1 1NU

Assessor's Report

When an Assessor enters an email address into our portal to submit an Assessor’s report for a DofE participant it is stored on our secure database servers and only shared with that participant’s Leaders so that they can contact the Assessor if they have any queries. It is not used for any other purpose. We do not share it with the participant nor any third party.

Memory website

Upon submission of your memory onto www.dofe.org/memories it will be reviewed by a member of our team. We reserve the right to reject any memories that we deem unsuitable.

By submitting your memory, you understand that you are granting The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award the right to freely to use your image/photo and quote/story for all aspects of communications and marketing of the DofE, including, but not limited to, PR, social media, advertising, promotional materials including leaflets and posters, editorial, digital content, stakeholder (including supporters’) promotional DofE content and presentations, in any medium (including online). There is no however no guarantee that the memory submitted will be published by DofE in any form.

Opportunity Finder

This link opens an external site. All content is not affiliated with DofE. Please click proceed if you understand these risks.