Privacy and your data
This privacy notice tells you what to expect when we collect your personal information.
Chris Alderton Counselling (CAC) uses personal and confidential information for a number of purposes. This Privacy Notice provides a summary of how we use your information. To ensure that we process your personal data fairly and lawfully we are required to inform you:
- Why we need your data
- How it will be used and
- Who it will be shared with
The law determines how we can use personal information. The Key laws are: The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Human Rights Acts 1998 (HRA), relevant health service legislation, and the common law duty of confidentiality.
CAC is the “Data Controller” for the purpose of the GDPR, and where we direct or commission the processing of patient, students, staff and visitors data to help deliver healthcare, or assist the management of healthcare services, students services, staff services and any other responsibility in the delivery of our corporate services.
CAC is a “Joint Controller” for the purpose of GDPR, where two or more controllers determine the purposed and means of processing. As a Joint Controller with another controller, together we determine respective responsibilities for legal compliance and the rights of the data subject in a transparent manner.
CAC is the “Data Processor” for the purpose of the GDPR and where we process data on behalf of Controllers and under controller’s instruction governed by a contract or other legal act under the EU or national law that is binding on us a processor.
Patients
We have to hold the details of the people who have requested the service in order to provide it. However, we only use these details to provide the service the person has requested and for other closely related purposes. For example, we might use information about patients to carry out a survey to find out if they are happy with the level of service theyreceived.
The retention period of our records from discharge, or when the patient was last seen, is either 7 years or 8 years after the patient has died. The records will then be reviewed, and if they are no longer needed they will be destroyed.
Exceptional circumstances
Except in exceptional circumstances personal data will never be disclosed to third parties. Exceptional circumstances could include:
- protecting the vital interests of the data subject (i.e. release of medical data where failure to release the data would result in harm to, or the death of, the data subject)
- preventing serious harm to a third party that would occur if the data were not disclosed
- safeguarding national security
- prevention or detection ofcrime
- apprehension or prosecution of offenders
- assessment or collection of any tax or duty or of any imposition of a similar nature
- discharge of regulatory functions, including securing the health, safety and welfare of persons atwork
Research
Sometimes, individuals may be invited to take part in research. However, CAC does not release information on patients or students without getting their approval first.
Your Information
This part of the Privacy Notice outlines what personal information we hold, why we use it and how we protect it.
What types of personal data do we handle?
We process personal information to enable us to support the provision of healthcare services to patients, maintain our own accounts and records, promote our services, and to support and manage our employees.
We also use information to support and monitor the health services commissioned in England to enable the delivery of high quality healthcare.
- The types of personal information we use include:
- personal details such as names, addresses, telephone numbers
- family details for example next of kin details
- education, training, mostly frequently of students, lecturers, staff such as
- employment details, for example for those that work for us either directly or are commissioned by us to provide aservice
- financial details, where we provide payment for services or access to funds for individual patients
- services, for example details of the services access or offered by providers
- lifestyle and social circumstances
- visual images, personal appearance and behaviour, for example if CCTV images are used as part of building security
- details held in the patient’s record, where we hold or manage the patient’srecord
- responses to surveys, where individuals have responded to surveys about healthcare issues
We also process sensitive classes of information that may include:
- racial and ethnicorigin
- offences (including alleged offences), criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences
- trade union membership
- religious or similar beliefs
- employment tribunal applications, complaints, accidents, and incident details
This information will generally relate to our staff, covered by the Privacy Notice for Staff, or for those health care professionals we manage.
In terms of patient information, information may include:
- physical or mental healthdetails
- sexual life
- offences (including alleged offences), criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences
- trade union membership
- religious or similar beliefs
- employment tribunal applications, complaints, accidents, and incident details
This information will generally relate to our staff, covered by the Privacy Notice for Staff, or for those health care professionals we manage.
In terms of patient information, information may include:
- physical or mental health details
- sexual life
How will we use information about you?
Your information is used to run and improve CAC. It may be used to:
- Check and report on how effective CAC and the services it commissions has been
- Ensure that money is used properly to pay for the services it provides
- Investigate complaints, legal claims or important incidents
- Make sure that CAC gives value formoney
- Make sure services are planned to meet patients’ needs in the future
- Review the care given to make sure it is of the highest possible standard
- To manage specialised services that we
We may keep your information in written form or on a computer. Whenever possible all information that identifies you will be removed.
Sharing your information
There are a number of reasons why we share information. This can be due to:
- Our obligations to comply with current legislation
- Our duty to comply with a Court Order
- You have consented to disclosure
CAC is responsible for protecting the public funds it manages. To do this we may use the information we hold about you to detect and prevent crime or fraud. We may also share this information with other bodies that inspect and manage public
Security of your information
We take our duty to protect your personal information and confidentiality seriously. We are committed to taking all reasonable measures to ensure the confidentiality and security of personal data for which we are responsible, whether computerised or on paper.
All staff are required to undertake annual information governance (Data Security and Protection training and are provided with an information governance awareness at induction to understand their responsibilities and agree to adhere to. The staff are aware of their information governance responsibilities and follow best practice guidelines ensuring the necessary safeguards and appropriate use of person-identifiable and confidential information.
Retaining information
We will only retain information for as long as necessary. Records are maintained in line with the BACP retention schedule which determines the length of time records should be kept.
How can you get access to your personal information?
The GDPR gives you the right to see the information that CAC holds about you and why. Requests must be made in writing and you will need to provide:
- adequate information [for example full name, address, date of birth, etc.] so that your identity can be verified and your information
- an indication of what information you are requesting to enable us to locate this in an efficient
A request for information that we hold about you has to be made with the appropriate data controller, this will be us if we are the relevant data controller.
Under GDPR we have to provide such information free of charge, however, where a fee is applicable under the terms of the GDPR and subsequent legislation, we will inform you in writing. In due course our disbursement scheme (which outlines these fees) will be available.
We aim to comply with requests for access to personal data as quickly as possible. We will ensure that we deal with requests within 30 days of receipt unless there is a reason for delay that is justifiable under the Data Protection Act.
We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. If you think any information is inaccurate or incorrect then please let us know.
Website
Privacy
CAC is committed to the privacy of individuals using this website. This privacy statement discloses the privacy practices for chrisalderton.co.uk and its subdomains.
Some features of this website, for example our contact forms, collect personal information submitted by users. Any information submitted will be kept in the strictest confidence and will never be passed on to a third party, unless there is a legal obligation on us to do so.
Content
We strive to offer accurate and up to date web content. However, the ever-changing nature of healthcare means that inaccuracies are sometimes unavoidable. Whilst we welcome feedback to correct errors, responsibility for the use of any information found here lies solely with the user.
You also assume the risk of computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses and other destructive code by downloading files from this website. To report an error or inaccuracy please contact us
Links
CAC is not responsible for the content or reliability of linked websites and does not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them. Listing should not be taken as endorsement of any kind. While we endeavour to keep all links up to date we cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and we have no control over the availability of linked pages. To report a broken or dead link please contact us
Availability
We cannot guarantee uninterrupted access to this website or the sites to which it links. We accept no responsibility for any damages arising from the loss of access to information.
Copyright
Different copyright restrictions apply to individual documents on this website. Unless otherwise stated, the following copyright statement applies to content found on this site:
CAC reserves its right to retain its intellectual property. Visitors to this website are welcome to access this copyright material and view for any purpose, or to download onto electronic, magnetic, optical or similar storage media provided that such activities are for personal use or private research. Content downloaded from this website may not be used for income generating activity without prior consent from the CAC
Cookies
Cookies are small files that are placed on your computer or mobile device by websites that you visit. Our cookies help us:
- Make our website work as you would expect
- Remember your settings during and between visits
- Improve the speed/security of thesite
- Allow you to share pages with social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter
- Continuously improve our website for you
- Make our marketing more efficient
We do not use cookies to:
- Collect any personally identifiableinformation
- Collect any sensitive information
- Pass data to advertising networks
- Pass personally identifiable data to third parties
Most web browsers allow some control of cookies. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
The cookie we use on this site include:
Google Analytics (_utma, _utmb, _utmc, _utmz): These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. Weuse the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited. It is not possible to identify or gather individual’s personal information through the collection of thesecookies.
We occasionally use our records of the pages users have visited on this website to analyse trends, administer the site and track users’ movements. Our records do not contain any personal information about users.
Changing your cookie settings in your browser
To control the way your device manages cookies, go to your browser settings. The links below are designed to help but are not exhaustive:
Changing cookie settings in FirefoxChanging cookie settings in Internet ExplorerChanging cookie settings in Google ChromeChanging cookie settings in Safari (OS X)Changing cookie settings in Safari (iOS)Changing cookie settings inAndroid
Notification of changes
If we alter any of the above, we will post notification of the changes on our homepage.
Changes to our privacy notice
We keep our Privacy Notice under regular review and we will place any updates on this webpage.
How to contact us
Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy notice or information we hold about you.
Make a complaint
To make a complaint please contact us.