Data Sharing Agreements

Data Sharing Agreement Guide

Use this guide prior to adjusting the Data Sharing Agreement Template to help you understand what it entails.

A Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) is a contract between you, our Partner, and us, Green Pastures, as, from time to time, we will share personal data with one another relating to residents and team members in your projects.

This document is a guide and should be read in conjunction with our Data Sharing Agreement template, which you can find on the Partner Area.

Why do we need a DSA?  

Simply to ensure that we're both doing our due diligence when sharing and processing personal data, thus meeting regulatory requirements. Looking after personal data is a natural extension of looking after residents and team members well, and should be treated with high regard.  

Your responsibility

For data relating to your residents and team members, you are designated as the Data Controller. This means that it is ultimately your responsibility to ensure that personal data is being collected and processed in a manner in line with data protection legislation. One aspect of ensuring that this is the case is confirming with any organisations that you share this data with (like us!) that they are processing the data in line with these same legislation.

Our responsibility

For data relating to your residents and team members, we are designated as a Data Processor. This means that we may process personal data when you share it with us, but we won't be collecting it directly and we are not responsible for its use within your organisation or other organisations that you work with. We are, however, responsible for ensuring that it's processed correctly within Green Pastures, in line with our own data protection policies and procedures.  

What does the DSA commit you to do?

As a broad summary, the DSA means that you commit to:  

• Share personal data with us in line with relevant legislation.
• Appoint a representative who will act as the point of contact for data sharing. This can be your project lead or any of your team members.
• Ensure that you have legitimate grounds for collecting and sharing personal data in the first instance; have processes in place for deleting personal data after a specified amount of time; and collect and process personal data in line with all relevant legislation. Ideally, you’ll outline how you do this in a Data Protection Policy or Privacy Notice.
• Let your data subjects (residents and team members) know that you will be sharing personal data with us. This should be stated in your resident documentation and in your contracts of employment or volunteering.
• Giving training to your staff and volunteers to ensure they understand how to collect and process personal data in line with your policies and legislation.
• Sign the Data Sharing Agreement and commit to regular reviews where required.

You should take the time to read through the Data Sharing Agreement in full to make sure you can comply with all aspects of it.