Head Strong Privacy Statement
Collection of personal information
Information about you may be collected via spoken or written information
from yourself and /or whoever refers you to our service. With consent,
information may also be collected from other professionals working with you
(such as other allied health professionals, G.P., NHS Speech and Language
Therapist). We may also collect information about family members where this
relates to you e.g. contact details for family members.
You may use the Head Strong website without providing any personal
information. However, if you wish to make an enquiry via the website, you
are requested to provide relevant contact details, such as your name,
e-mail address and contact telephone number to enable us to respond to your
enquiry. If your enquiry does not result in you being seen by Head Strong,
then this personal information will be deleted once your enquiry has been
dealt with.
Our use of personal information
Personal information collected by us via, email, telephone or face to face,
is stored and used by us for the purpose of delivering your speech and
language therapy.
Any sensitive personal details are stored in a secure and confidential
system and processed in confidence. It will only be used for the purposes
of delivering appropriate speech and language therapy services to you.
With your consent, information about your speech and language needs will be
shared with other professionals involved in your care, when it is in your
best interests. A record of your consent is kept within your case notes.
Head Strong Privacy Information - May 2018
Unless we are required to do so by law, we will not disclose any personal
information collected to any person other than as set out above.
We do not employ agents to process personal data, for example specialist
mailing companies to send out communications.
We do not give or sell client details to any third parties.
How we use personal information
We use this information:
-
To prepare, plan and provide speech and language therapy services
appropriate for your needs
-
To communicate with you via post, email, telephone, mobile messages
and SMS in relation to: - confirming and preparing for appointments -
general communication in between appointments - sending you reports and
programmes for you- copying you in to communications with other
professionals involved with your care - sending you resources - sending you
invoices and receipts
-
For clinical audit to assess and improve our service. Results of
audits are always presented with all client identities removed
Whenever personal identifiers are not needed for these tasks, if possible
we remove them from the information we use.
How we store personal information
All information about you, is stored securely in our systems to ensure that
we have a complete record of our service to you. Our systems are compliant
with general data protection regulations. Documents which contain
confidential information such as reports, and programmes are also
individually password protected from the outset. Any paper based
confidential information such as assessments are stored securely in
accordance with Data Protection Regulations.
Videos or audio recordings may be taken of clients with consent. These are
temporarily stored on an encrypted and password protected tablet or laptop . These may then be viewed by the SLT in order to make notes in a
client record or as part of your treatment programme. The recording is then
deleted.
The minimum amount of confidential information will be taken out of the
Speech and Language Therapist's office base. When your information is taken
out of the office base it will be kept with the Speech and Language
Therapist or locked securely in the boot of a car.
Meeting our professional obligations
It is a legal requirement for all Speech and Language Therapists to be
registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). The HCPC
has clear standards of conduct, performance and ethics that all registrants
must adhere to.
These standards affect the way in which we process and share information.
Specifically:
Standard 2: Communicate appropriately and effectively
"You must share relevant information, where appropriate, with colleagues
involved in the care, treatment or other services provided to a service
user."
Standard 10: Keep records of your work
"You must keep full, clear, and accurate records for everyone you care for,
treat, or provide other services to. You must complete all records promptly
and as soon as possible after providing care, treatment or other services.
You must keep records secure by protecting them from loss, damage or
inappropriate access."
For further information the full document can be found at:
10004EDFStandardsofconduct,performanceandethics.pdf
Our lawful basis for processing personal information
Our lawful basis for processing and storing personal information is one of
'legitimate interest' (under article 6 of GDPR). We cannot adequately
deliver a service to you without processing your personal information. As
it is both a necessity for our service delivery and of benefit to you we
have a legitimate interest to process and store your data.
Data relating to an individual's health is classified as 'Special Category
Data' under section 9 of the GDPR. The regulations specify that health
professionals who are "legally bound to professional secrecy" may have a
lawful basis for processing this data. Speech and Language Therapists are
legally bound to keep client information confidential and it is under this
condition that we process and store personal information.
Your rights
Data protection legislation gives you various rights. The most important of
these are as follows:
- You have the right to a copy of information we hold about you
-
You have the right to ask for your record to be amended if you
believe that it is wrong.
How to access your records
You can access the information we hold about you by writing to us. The
address will be provided by your treating Therapist. Please apply in
writing rather than by email, so that we receive an original signature to
compare against the records we hold.
A copy of your records is provided free of charge.
We will provide access to your records within 30 days of receipt of all
necessary information.
If you have any further questions about how we use your information, please
contact your treating Speech and Language Therapist.
Further information about data protection legislation and your rights is
available from the Information Commissioner's Office or by calling 0303 123
1113, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.