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About Special Hands
Special Hands Activity Group is a community group based in Co. Meath. A volunteer ran charity, we organise activities and social events for children & young adults with additional needs. We also offer support for the parents, siblings and families of our members. More GDPR & Special HandsChanges to the law affecting Special Hands
Over the last few months there have been a number of changes to the Law which impact charities and changes the way Special Hands operates. The first is the Children’s First National Guidance for the protection and welfare of Children 2017. This act came into effect 11 Dec 2017. This law effectively places the onus on Special Hands to report any child protection concerns to the Child and Family Agency (Tulsa) and to ensure that we are fully compliant with all safeguarding procedures. As result you may have been aware that Special Hands has been proactive in the last few months ensuring that all Tutors/ Tutors Assistants/ Volunteers / Activity coordinators and parents who may assist in various activities have been Garda vetted. This is an ongoing process and if you help out with an activity and feel that you should be vetted then please contact the vetting officer - Helen Rush We have also implemented training for a number of people who are now qualified to act as mandated persons i.e. If you are concerned about an child/vulnerable adult protection issue you can report it to a mandated person and they can report it as necessary to Tulsa. The full list of mandated person will be posted on Facebook and will also be available in our new safety statement. The Safety Statement outlines our commitment to Safety and procedures which have been put in place to assist us. The Safety Statement is available on our website. Our Designated Liaison Officer will be Assumpta Kelly. The second change to the Law affecting us is GDPR - General Data Protection Regulation will comes into affect on 25th May. You have probably had a lot of websites asking you to read updated Data Protection policies lately and this is because of GDPR. GDPR will introduce signifcant changes in the area of data protection law by increasing the obligations and responsibilities of organisations in relation to how they collect, use and protect personal data. Many of the new requirements are of particular relevance to charities. As a result of GPDR we are asking everybody in Special Hands to sign our Membership forms. This membership form will ensure that all our contact details are up to date. More importantly it will explicit ask you to give us consent to contact you by Phone, SMS Messages, WhatsApp , E-mail and will ask consent for us to add you to the Facebook page and consent to use any photographs taken at Special Hands activities. By signing our membership form you will be agreeing to comply with our Code of Conduct Policy which outlines how we expect all members of Special Hands to interact with each other. The membership forms with the code of conduct will be available at all of our activities in the next couple of weeks - please only fill in once ! Membership forms can be found Here It is important to note that Special Hands will not share any of your data with any 3rd parties. Our updated Data Protection policy is available on the website. |
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