Terms and conditions

Sussex Mindfulness Centre’s terms and conditions for booking courses, training and events

Please read carefully before freely engaging in, or purchasing any Sussex Mindfulness Centre (SMC) courses or training programmes, or accessing or downloading any training materials from SMC as, by agreeing to purchase you (and your employees if applicable) agree to and are bound by the terms below. If you do not agree with these terms, we recommend that you discontinue the application / purchasing process

Application

  1. These terms and conditions shall apply to the provision of all Courses, Training Programmes or Events by SMC to the Applicant.

Basis of these Terms and Conditions

  1. These Terms and Conditions shall come into effect when either:
    a. An Applicant completes the Online Booking Process; or
    b. Upon receipt by SMC of an electronic or hard copy of a signed Contract for Services, at which point these Terms and Conditions shall be deemed incorporated into the Contract for Services.
  2. Save for terms pertaining to the relevant Training in the Online Booking Process or the Contract for Services, any descriptive matter or advertising issued by SMC, and any descriptions contained on social media platforms, their website or partner promotional materials, are issued or published for the sole purpose of giving an approximate idea of the Training Courses or Programmes or Events described in them; They shall not form part of these Terms and Conditions nor have any contractual force.
  3. These Terms and Conditions apply to the exclusion of any other terms that you may seek to impose or incorporate, or which are implied by trade, custom, practice or course of dealing.
  4. Any Contract for Services is only valid for acceptance for a period of 30 calendar days from its date of issue.

Cancellation

6. You may cancel:
a) Your place on a mindfulness teacher training up to 2 months before the training start date. The following administrative charges will apply in these circumstances:

  • 10% of the overall course fee with a minimum administrative fee of £30 administration fee for UK transactions.
  • £50 administrative fee in case of transactions outside the UK.
  • Less than 2 months before the training starts: no refund can be paid.

NB: there is a further Teacher training specific contract which also applies.

b) Your place on a residential retreat up to 4 months before the start date with the above administration charges. If you cancel less than 4 months before, no refund can be paid because SMC has to secure the retreat centre with a large unrefundable deposit before the event starts.

c) Your place on any other course or training event up to 4 weeks before the course / training start date. The following administrative charges will apply in these circumstances:

  • For courses with a value of £200 + then 10% of the overall course fee with a minimum administrative fee of £30 for UK transactions will be payable. (£50 administrative fees in case of transactions outside the UK)
  • For all other courses a full refund will be given.
  • Less than 4 weeks before the events: no refund can be paid.

NB: if possible, we will offer you the opportunity to transfer your booking to another similarly priced SMC event at no further cost.

7. All cancellation requests must be emailed to SMC at smc@spft.nhs.uk with ‘cancellation request’ in the subject line. These referenced emails will be acknowledged by SMC within 14 working days of receipt (Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm UK time). Until an acknowledgement is received by SMC, the cancellation request will not be valid or effective.

8. If a refund is approved by SMC, it will be made through the original mode of payment only, unless a card has expired and new card details are obtained.

Changes to the Training

9. SMC shall use reasonable endeavours to supply the Courses or Training Programmes or Events to the Applicant in accordance with these Terms and Conditions in all material respects but reserves the right to change the content of any of the Courses or Training Programmes or Events at any time and without notice.

10. SMC shall use reasonable endeavours to meet any specified training or event dates, but any such dates shall be anticipated dates only and may be subject to alteration.

11. SMC reserves the right to amend these terms if necessary to comply with any applicable law or regulatory requirement, or if the amendment will not materially affect the nature or quality of the Courses or Training Programmes or Events, and SMC shall notify the Applicant in any such event.

12. Notwithstanding the above sub-clauses, SMC reserves the right to cancel Courses or Training Programmes or Events at any time, without incurring additional liability to the Applicant. In such circumstances, SMC will offer (at its sole discretion) alternative dates, a full refund, or a credit note.

Charges and Payment

13. Payment should be made by the Applicant using the registration page appropriate for the relevant Course or Training Programme or Event or via any web-enabled link SMC has provided. Invoices may only be raised where an employer is paying and with agreement from the SMC. We do not want to turn anyone away because the fees cannot be met, so if you would like to pay by up to 3 instalments, please contact SMC to discuss.

14. Payment of any SMC invoice is due within 30 calendar days of the invoice date to the bank account provided. Interest on the overdue sums may be payable from the payment due date.

15. All sums payable to SMC under this agreement are exclusive of VAT and an amount equal to any VAT chargeable on those sums will be due on delivery of a VAT invoice. Currently SMC does not charge VAT on services provided.

16. Unless agreed in writing by SMC, no place is secure on a Course or Training Programme or Event until full payment has been received. Once an invoice has been raised your place is dependent on prompt payment within the stated payment terms. Your place may be released if these are not met.

17. Responsibility for payment remains with the Applicant, if an employer or sponsor does not pay the invoice the Applicant will be liable to make payment or meet the cancellation charges.

18. Charges will apply regardless of any non-attendance.

Confidentiality

19. SMC and the Applicant may be given access to confidential information from the other party in order to perform its obligations under the Agreement. Confidential information shall not be deemed to include information that:
a. is or becomes publicly known other than through any act or omission of the receiving party,
b. was in the other party’s lawful possession before the disclosure,
c. is lawfully disclosed to the receiving party by a third party without restriction on disclosure; or
d. is independently developed by the other party, which independent development can be shown by written evidence.

20. Subject to the preceding paragraph, both SMC and the Applicant shall hold the other’s confidential information in confidence and not make the other’s confidential information available to any third party, or use the other’s confidential information for any purpose other than the implementation of the Course or Training Programme or Event.

21. A party may disclose confidential information to the extent such confidential information is required to be disclosed by law, by any governmental or other regulatory authority or by a court or other authority of competent jurisdiction, provided that, to the extent it is legally permitted to do so, it gives the other party as much notice of such disclosure as possible and, where notice of disclosure is not prohibited and is given in accordance with these paragraphs, it takes into account the reasonable requests of the other party in relation to the content of such disclosure.

22. You acknowledge that your information may be used by SMC on an anonymous basis without limitation including compiling and publishing reports and publishing feedback.

Applicant’s Obligations

You agree to:
a. Co-operate with SMC in all matters relating to the Courses or Training Programmes or Events.
b. Provide SMC and its employees, agents, consultants, and subcontractors, with any information which may reasonably be required by the SMC in the organisation of the Courses or Training Programmes or Events, including, but not limited to, details in respect of the Applicant(s) and ensure that such information is complete and accurate in all material respects; and
c. If applicable, where Courses or Training Programmes or Events are being delivered at its premises, provide SMC with
(i) access, training space and any equipment necessary for the delivery of the Training; and
(ii) such facilities as are reasonably notified to the Applicant in advance.

Data Protection

24. SMC is committed to ensuring that personal data is handled appropriately and in compliance with data protection law, including the Data Protection Act of 2018 and the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

25. Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is registered as a data controller with the Office of the Information Commissioner, and collects and processes information about Applicants for various teaching, research, and administrative purposes. We shall comply with any request or notice we receive from a data subject in this capacity as a data controller.

26. You may be asked to provide some personal information in order to enable the provision of certain services. By supplying this information, you are consenting to SMC holding and using it for the purposes for which it was provided. Information provided will be kept for as long as is necessary to fulfil that purpose.

27. Purposes for which information is held can include but is not limited to:
a. General administration requiring personal and course details.
b. Assessment of applications for suitability for training.
c. Management of training processes such as progress and competency reviews and teacher training certification.
d. Alumni operations, including fund-raising.
e. Provision of advice and support to Applicants via, amongst others, academic staff.
f. Applicant services and internal research, including monitoring quality and performance.

28. Employees, contractors and agents of SMC may be given access to any personal information which we collect, but their use shall be limited to the performance of their duties. Our employees, contractors and agents who have access to your personal information are required to keep that information confidential and are not permitted to use it for any purposes other than to enable you to use the website or to deal with requests which you submit to us.

29. The accuracy of personal information provided by applicants may also be checked by SMC against relevant external sources. SMC undertakes to maintain data in secure conditions, and to process and disclose data only within the terms of its data protection notification.

30. The details above indicate the nature of this notification but are not exhaustive. Please note that we are reliant on you for much of the data we hold: help us keep your record up-to-date by notifying us of any alterations to your personal details.

31. Except
(i) to the extent that we are required to do so by law,
(ii) in connection with any legal proceedings (including prospective legal proceedings), or
(iii) in order to establish, exercise or defend the legal rights of SMC, we will not disclose your personal information to any other party without first obtaining your permission.

Liability

We will be liable to you for any direct loss or damage you suffer if we either fail to carry out our obligations under these terms or breach any relevant duties that we owe to you that are imposed on us by law (including if we cause death or personal injury to you by our negligence), but not to the extent that such failure is attributable to your own fault or the fault of a third party.

We will not be liable to you for events outside our control which we could not have foreseen or prevented even if we had taken reasonable care. Events outside our control include; industrial action, over or under demand from applicants, staff illness, significant changes to our funding, severe weather, fire, civil disorder, political unrest, government restrictions and concern with regard to the transmission of serious illness. In such circumstances, we reserve the right to change or cancel parts, or all, of the Course or Training Programme or Event.

SMC cannot accept responsibility, and expressly excludes liability to the fullest extent permissible by law, for:
a. All damage to your property (including to personal I.T. equipment, vehicles and bicycles parked on SMC premises, or SMC rented buildings) unless it is caused by the negligence or fault of SMC or its staff.
b. The non-return of work submitted for assessment.
c. Personal injuries or death except in so far as it is caused by the negligence of SMC or its staff.
d. All indirect and consequential losses, however arising; and loss of opportunity and loss of income or profit, however arising.

35. Any remaining liability of SMC (in contract, tort, breach of statutory duty, misrepresentation or any other liabilities) is limited to the value of training fees paid by or on behalf of the prospective trainees to SMC, or the amount, if any, SMC receives from its insurers in respect of that particular loss, whichever is the greater. The only exception to this is in cases of any liability in negligence for personal injury or death.

36. The SMC shall have no liability under these terms if it is prevented from or delayed in performing its obligations with regards to the Course or Training Programme or Event, or from carrying on its business by: acts, events, omissions or accidents beyond its reasonable control, including without limitation: strikes, lock-outs or other industrial disputes (whether involving the workforce of the SMC or any other party), failure of a utility service or transport or telecommunications network, act of God, war, riot, civil commotion, malicious damage, compliance with any law or governmental order, rule, regulation or direction, accident, breakdown of plant or machinery, fire, flood, storm or default of suppliers or subcontractors, provided that the Customer is notified of such an event and its expected duration. Under such circumstances the SMC would attempt (as is reasonably and financially feasible) to provide alternative Course or Training Programme or Event.

Intellectual Property rights

37. All intellectual property rights in or arising out of or in connection with the Courses or Training Programmes or Events including any associated Training Materials shall be owned by SMC (unless SMC advise otherwise).

38. No reproductions, scans or copies (wholly or in part) shall be made of the Course, Training or Event materials without the prior written consent of SMC.