Privacy Statement

Privacy Statement

In order for me to provide a safe, ethical, and professional service, I may need to collect, store, and use personal information from my service users. This privacy statement sets out the terms in which I do this, what data I collect, why I collect your data, how it is stored, who has access to it, those I may share it with, and how long I will retain it for.

The Data Protection Principles

I will comply with data protection law. The law states that the personal information that I hold about you must be:

1. Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
2. Collected only for valid purposes that I have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
3. Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes
4. Accurate and kept up to date
5. Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes that we have told you about
6. Kept securely

The information that I collect

I collect details about each service user from the referral form and initial assessment forms to include:

• Name
• Address
• Date of Birth
• Age
• Telephone Number
• Email address
• Doctor Details
• Next of kin
• Your reasons for accessing this service. These reasons include relevant medical history and your thoughts around your current emotional state. I may mark any session appointments in my diary as client initials only.

Why I need to collect this personal data

The information that I collect, enables me to determine the service users’ needs, and level of risk. The Information is needed to safeguard my clients, should I be required to break confidentiality as per my ethical obligations of maintaining the safety of the client themselves or others that may come to harm.

Confidentiality, Exceptions & Data Protection

Respecting your confidentiality is up-most important to me, but there are certain limitations to confidentiality in counselling, and there are circumstances where a therapist may have to break confidentiality either because of a legal obligation, an individual obligation, or an organisational policy requirement.

It is important that both the therapist and the client are aware of the circumstances where confidentiality may be broken.

Here is an outline of some of the main limitations of confidentiality within counselling in the UK.

Legal Limitations:

• Disclosure of money laundering – In accordance with The Money Laundering Regulations 2007.
• Disclosure of any intended acts of terrorism – in accordance of the Terrorism Act 2006.
• Disclosure of Drug Trafficking – In accordance to the Drugs Trafficking Act 1996.
  A Judge can legally order the release of client notes

Other Common Limitations

• Disclosure of significant intention to harm yourself or others and or intentional suicide attempt. (Policies within any organisational environment I may be working in, and to act in accordance). At times it may be necessary for the therapist to consult your GP or Health Professional where a serious risk to self or others is considered.
• Disclosure of risk to children from people other than the client (in any context) working to safeguarding children’s policy and the Children’s Act 1989.

In the rare circumstance that a disclosure does occur, it would be, if possible, with your knowledge and consent and would only be used to parties who could directly assist.

**Please note that due to regulations of law, any matters that are currently in or soon to be investigated or be heard in a court of law cannot be discussed within your sessions**

Any breaking of confidentiality will be reported to my Clinical Supervisor as a matter of course.

Storage of information

Each Service user’s personal information is kept in an individual file and is stored in a locked filing cabinet at all times, of which only I hold the key. Each service user is given a coded reference number for their file.

My email server is Proton Mail. This is a secure and encrypted email service which ensures that all emails are confidential.

Access to information

Access to any private information is on a need-to-know basis only, and is limited to myself as the Director and therapist within the service, and designated therapists to their own service user should I expand within the future.

Sharing of information

I may only share personal information in the event of a requested court order for my notes, otherwise your details will not be shared with other individuals or agencies without your written consent.

Your rights to access your data

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected. You may be asked to correct the information yourself.
• Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

The timescales in which I keep information for

I keep your data for no longer than necessary, only retaining it for any period required by law.

Under the NCPS Code of ethics and working to professional standards, I will keep accurate records that are a short summary of sessions, appropriate and factual and adhere to data protection act 1998 and in accordance to GDPR 2018. I will store the therapy agreement and privacy statement on an encrypted device or within a locked filing cabinet and they will be held for three years, after this time all notes will be destroyed.

Sometimes, the nature of certain requests to therapeutic work will require me to keep data for a longer period of time, I will advise you if this is the case.

My privacy statement is provided under the terms of the European Union General Data Protection Regulations 2017 and the UK Data Protection Act 2018

I adhere to:

The Data Protection Act 1998

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2016/679

I am registered as a Data Controller with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

My Cancellation Policy.

I have a strict cancellation policy which is always adhered to.

I do require a minimum of 24 hours’ notice to cancel a pre booked session. Please note that if you do not attend a session that has been pre booked or in fact cancel your session for any reason with less than 24 hours’ notice you will be always be invoiced for full payment and I regret that I will be unable to facilitate further sessions with you until the missed payment has been received.

Refunds will only be given if sessions are pre-paid and over 24 hours have been given to cancel.