Privacy Statement

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 How Disability Connect uses your personal information

Organisation: Disability Connect Mentoring Limited (trading as Disability Connect), company number 13268728
Version: 2.0
Last updated: 17 October 2026

Disability Connect is the trading name of Disability Connect Mentoring Limited, a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (company number 13268728). Our registered office is 192 The Parkway, Iver, SL0 0RQ.

We are the “data controller” for the personal information described in this statement. 

Our Data Protection Lead is Steven Jones. You can contact him at info@disabilityconnect.org.uk or on 07599 115615.

This statement explains what personal information we collect, why we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and what your rights are. It covers our mentoring schemes, our opportunities pool, focus groups, product reviews, events, our other services, our website, and projects we run with funding.

• If you join our opportunities pool: your name, preferred name and pronouns, contact details and how you prefer to be contacted, where you live, your LinkedIn profile (if you give it), whether you are working or studying, the opportunities you are interested in, which types of impairment or condition apply to you (or “prefer not to say”), the lived experience you choose to share, any adjustments you need, your education, work and other experience, your interests, any mentoring experience, why you want to take part, and how you heard about us
• If you also answer our optional equality questions: your age group, sex, whether your gender identity is the same as your sex registered at birth, ethnic group, religion or belief, sexual orientation, and whether you are a carer
• If you become a mentor, or take part in a focus group, product review or event: your attendance, the views and feedback you give us and, if we pay you, your bank details
• If you are a mentee or client organisation: your name, job title, organisation, contact details, goals for mentoring, session attendance and feedback
• If you take part in a funded project: as above, plus your survey answers about confidence and employment, the next step you take after mentoring and, if you agree, whether you are in work later
• If you contact us, or are a partner: your name, contact details and what you tell us
• If you visit our website: information collected by cookies, if you agree (see section 10)

We collect most information directly from you, for example through our opportunities pool form. If you are referred to us, for example by Jobcentre Plus or an employment support organisation, they share your details with us with your agreement.

The law requires us to have a “lawful basis” for each way we use your information.

• Recruit, train and match mentors, and arrange sessions: contract, or steps before entering a contract
• Keep you on our opportunities pool, match you with opportunities and contact you about them: consent, and explicit consent for any disability or health information
• Check that we are reaching and supporting people fairly: explicit consent, which you give by choosing to answer our optional equality questions
• Run focus groups, product reviews and events: consent, or contract where we pay you to take part
• Pay mentors and other participants: contract, and legal obligation (tax and accounting records)
• Deliver mentoring and other services to client organisations: contract and legitimate interests
• Make adjustments so you can take part: explicit consent
• Run, monitor and evaluate funded projects, and report to funders: legitimate interests, and explicit consent for any disability or health information
• Keep people safe: legitimate interests, and for sensitive information, the safeguarding condition in the Data Protection Act 2018
• Use testimonials, or send you our newsletter if you ask for it: consent
• Keep accounts and meet our legal duties: legal obligation
• Run our website and use analytics cookies: consent, for any cookies that are not essential

We only ask for what we need, such as whether you are disabled and what adjustments would help you take part. You decide how much to share. We will never share it with a mentee, client, employer or partner unless you agree, except where we must to keep someone safe.

Our equality questions are optional, and every question has a “prefer not to say” answer. We use the answers only to check that we are reaching and supporting people fairly, and only in anonymised, summary form. They are never used to decide who takes part.

When you complete our opportunities pool form, we keep your details so we can invite you to take part in our work, such as mentoring, focus groups, product reviews and events. We do this with your consent, and with your explicit consent for any information about your disability or access needs.

You stay on the pool for as long as you want to. Once a year, we email you to check you still want to be on it and to update your details. If you do not reply within four weeks of our reminder, we remove your details. You can leave at any time by emailing info@disabilityconnect.org.uk, and we will remove you within a week.

If you ask to leave, we keep only your email address on a “do not contact” list, so we do not add you again by mistake.

• Your mentoring partner. Before your first session, we share a short profile with your matched mentor or mentee. You see it first.
• Clients who commission focus groups or product reviews. We share your views and feedback, but not your name or contact details unless you agree.
• Suppliers who work for us, such as Microsoft (Teams, Forms and email), GoDaddy (our website), our bank, bookkeeper, accountant and insurers. They can only use your information to provide their service to us.
• Project partners. In funded projects, these may include organisations that help us recruit employers, organisations that refer people to us, and independent evaluators. We have a data-sharing agreement with each of them.
• An independent benefits adviser, if you agree, so they can check that payments from us will not affect your benefits.
• Funders, such as government departments and their grant administrators. We give them anonymised or summary information wherever possible.
• Others, where the law requires it, such as HMRC, the police, or a council if we are worried about someone’s safety.

We never sell your information.

Some of our suppliers, such as Microsoft and GoDaddy, may store information outside the UK. When they do, it is protected by UK adequacy regulations or approved contract terms.

• Opportunities pool: for as long as you want to stay on it. We check with you every year and remove your details if you do not reply.
• Equality monitoring answers: until you leave the opportunities pool. We only ever report them in anonymised, summary form.
• Responses to our opportunities pool form: deleted from Microsoft Forms once we have added your details to our pool records
• General enquiries: 12 months
• Mentoring records: 2 years after the mentoring relationship ends
• Focus groups and product reviews: recordings, if you agree to them, are deleted once we have written up the findings, and within 3 months. Notes are kept for 2 years.
• Records we must keep for a funder: as long as the grant agreement requires, usually up to 6 years after the project ends
• Payment and financial records: 6 years after the end of the financial year
• Bank details: deleted from our working systems 3 months after your last payment
• Testimonials: until you ask us to stop using them

Our website is built with GoDaddy. It uses cookies that are essential for the site to work and, if you accept them, analytics cookies that help us understand how people use the site. You can accept or decline analytics cookies using the banner on our website, and change your choice in your browser settings at any time.

You have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the information we hold about you
• ask us to correct information that is wrong
• ask us to delete your information
• ask us to limit how we use your information, or object to us using it
• ask for your information in a format you can take to another organisation
• withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent

We do not make decisions about you using solely automated means. To use any of your rights, email info@disabilityconnect.org.uk. We will reply within one month, and you will not usually have to pay.

If you are unhappy with how we have used your information, please tell us first at info@disabilityconnect.org.uk. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and keep you informed about what we are doing.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Our services are for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect information about children.

We review this statement every year. We will publish any changes on our website and tell the people we are working with about important changes.

This document is available in other formats, including Easy Read and large print. 

Contact info@disabilityconnect.org.uk.