Last updated: 13 August 2026

Design in Mental Health Network (DiMHN) is a registered charity working to improve mental health environments through better design. We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your information carefully.

This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, what we do with it, how long we keep it, and what rights you have under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. It applies to our website, our membership, our events and conferences, and our wider work.

Who We Are

DiMHN is the data controller for the information described in this policy.

Design in Mental Health Network (DiMHN)
c/o Topping Partnership, Incom House, Waterside, Trafford Park, Manchester M17 1WD
Email: admin@dimhn.org
Registered Charity Number: 1162561
Company Number: 07307468

What Information Do We Collect?

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:

• Your identity and contact details – name, email address, telephone number, job title, organisation and postal address
• Membership information – membership type, start and renewal dates, and your membership account details
• Directory information – the details you choose to provide for inclusion in our member and specialist directories
• Event information – registrations, speaker and session proposals, and correspondence about attending
• Financial records – invoices, payments received and related correspondence
• Communication preferences – whether you have asked to receive our newsletter or event announcements
• Contributions you make – enquiries, feedback, survey responses, and anything you post in member community areas
• Technical information – your IP address, browser and device type, and how you use our website

We collect only what we need for the purposes set out below.

Information We Do Not Collect

We do not take card payments through this website. Membership and event fees are invoiced and paid by bank transfer, so we never receive or store your card details.

We do not ask for information about your health, and we do not collect information about accessibility requirements, dietary needs or personal experience of mental health services through our website or our event registrations.

Why We Use Your Information, and Our Lawful Basis

Data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for everything we do with your information. Ours are set out below.

• Managing your membership – applications, renewals, your account and access to member resources. Lawful basis: contract, because we need this to provide the membership you have taken out.
• Listing you in our member and specialist directories, where you have asked to be included. Lawful basis: consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
• Running our conferences and events, including registration and speaker proposals. Lawful basis: contract where you have registered; legitimate interests where you have submitted a proposal for consideration.
• Sending our newsletter and news about our work and events. Lawful basis: consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
• Responding to your enquiries and feedback. Lawful basis: legitimate interests, because we need to be able to reply to you.
• Keeping financial and accounting records. Lawful basis: legal obligation under company, charity and tax law.
• Understanding how our website is used, so we can improve it. Lawful basis: consent, collected only if you accept analytics cookies.
• Keeping our website secure and preventing spam and abuse. Lawful basis: legitimate interests, because we have to protect the site and the people who use it.
• Meeting our obligations as a charity and a company, and responding to regulators. Lawful basis: legal obligation.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered whether our interest is outweighed by your rights and concluded that it is not. You can object to this processing at any time – see Your Rights below.

Our Member and Specialist Directories

Members can choose to be listed in our directories, including Find A Specialist, so that people looking for expertise in mental health design can find them. Listing is optional and only happens if you opt in. Entries typically include a name, job title, organisation and contact details.

Anything published in a directory is visible to the public and may be indexed by search engines, so please only provide details you are content to make public. You can amend or remove your entry at any time by emailing admin@dimhn.org, and we will action it promptly.

Member Community Areas

Where members can post in community or discussion areas of our website, other members will see your name and what you have written. Please do not post personal information about yourself or anyone else that you would not want shared. You can ask us to remove your contributions at any time.

Sharing Your Information

We never sell or rent your personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers.

We share information only where we need to:

• Suppliers who provide our systems – including our website hosting, email delivery, membership platform and analytics providers. They act on our instructions under contract and cannot use your information for their own purposes.
• Event partners and co-hosts – where an event is run jointly, we share the details necessary to organise it and admit you. We tell you who this is at the point of registration.
• Our professional advisers – including our accountants, where necessary.
• Regulators, HMRC and law enforcement – where we are legally required to.

Sending Information Outside the UK

Some of our suppliers are based outside the United Kingdom, or store information there. This includes Google, which provides our website analytics.

Where information is transferred outside the UK, we make sure it is protected to an equivalent standard, relying on UK adequacy regulations – including the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework – or on the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, together with additional safeguards where needed. You can ask us for more detail at admin@dimhn.org.

How Long We Keep Your Information

We keep information only as long as we need it.

• Membership records – for as long as your membership is active, then 12 months, after which we delete or anonymise them
• Directory entries – removed when your membership ends, or sooner on request
• Financial and accounting records – 6 years from the end of the financial year they relate to, as company and tax law requires
• Event registrations and attendance – 3 years after the event
• Speaker and session proposals – 3 years, as part of our conference records
• Enquiries and correspondence – 2 years from your last contact
• Newsletter subscription – until you unsubscribe. We then keep a minimal record of your withdrawal so we do not contact you again by mistake
• Website analytics – 14 months
• Website security logs – 30 days

Please note that our obligation to keep financial records for 6 years takes precedence over the 12-month membership deletion period for those specific records.

Marketing

We send our newsletter and event news only to people who have asked to receive them.

Every email includes an unsubscribe link, and you can also email admin@dimhn.org at any time to be removed. We will action it promptly and without question. Unsubscribing from marketing does not affect emails we need to send you about your membership, an event you have registered for, or an invoice.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies, such as pixels and browser storage. A cookie is a small text file placed on your device when you visit a website.

Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), we must ask your permission before placing any cookie that is not strictly necessary for the website to work. Where we rely on your consent, that consent is also our lawful basis under the UK GDPR.

Strictly Necessary Cookies – Always Active

These are set without asking, because the site cannot work without them. They keep you signed in to your member account and keep that session secure, remember your progress through sign-up and registration, protect our forms and login pages from spam and automated abuse, and remember the cookie choices you have made. They do not follow you across other websites and are never used for marketing.

Analytics Cookies – Only Set If You Agree

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand which pages are read, how long visits last, what devices are used, and whether an event page led to a registration. We use this to look at overall patterns, not to build profiles of named individuals or make decisions about you.

If you do not consent, no analytics cookies are placed on your device and no identifiable information about your visit is collected. A limited, anonymous signal may still be sent to Google recording that a page was viewed. It contains no cookie and cannot be used to identify you.

Advertising Cookies – We Use None

We do not run advertising, remarketing or social media tracking pixels on this website.

Content From Other Websites

Some pages include material hosted elsewhere, such as embedded video or maps. These providers may set their own cookies once the content loads. Where this content is not strictly necessary, we block it until you have given consent, and you will see a placeholder in its place.

How You Give, Change or Withdraw Consent

When you first visit, a banner asks how you would like us to proceed. You can accept all cookies, reject all non-essential cookies, or choose category by category. Rejecting is as straightforward as accepting, and no non-essential cookie is placed before you choose.

You can change or withdraw your choice at any time using the Manage consent link at the foot of every page. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of what we did while your earlier consent was in place.

Browser settings also let you block or delete cookies, but browser settings are not how we obtain your consent, and blocking strictly necessary cookies may stop parts of the site working.

A full list of the individual cookies we use – including names, providers, purposes and durations – is set out in our Cookie Policy.

Automated Decision-Making

We do not make decisions about you by automated means, and we do not carry out profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

Security of Your Data

We use technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections, secure hosting, access controls limiting who can see what, and monitoring to detect and block malicious activity. Our staff and Trustees receive data protection training and are bound by confidentiality.

No system is completely secure. If a breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights, we will notify the Information Commissioner’s Office and, where required, you.

Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Be informed about how we use your information – that is what this policy is for
• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Have inaccurate information corrected
• Have your information deleted in certain circumstances
• Restrict how we use your information in certain circumstances
• Data portability – receive information you gave us in a portable format, or have it sent to another organisation, where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time
• Withdraw consent at any time where we rely on it. This does not affect anything done beforehand

To exercise any of these rights, email admin@dimhn.org or write to us at the address above. We will respond within one month. There is no charge, though we may ask you to confirm your identity first.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first at admin@dimhn.org so we can put it right.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office:

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
Helpline: 0303 123 1113
ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

Information We Receive From Others

Occasionally we receive information about you from someone else – for example from a partner organisation co-hosting an event, or from your employer where they hold a corporate membership on your behalf. Where that happens we use it only for the purpose it was shared for, and we will tell you within a month of receiving it unless you already have this information.

Links to Other Websites

Our website links to other sites of interest. We are not responsible for their privacy practices or content, and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.

Updates to This Policy

We review this policy regularly. The current version is always available on our website, and the date at the top shows when it was last updated. Where changes are significant, we will tell members directly.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or your information, please contact us:

Design in Mental Health Network (DiMHN)
c/o Topping Partnership, Incom House, Waterside, Trafford Park, Manchester M17 1WD
Email: admin@dimhn.org
Registered Charity Number: 1162561
Company Number: 07307468