Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy Effective from 25th May 2018.

On 25^th May 2018 the law changed with regard to how organisations have to protect you and your child’s ‘data’ (personal details and records) and this is called the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR. We collect and hold information about clients under the legal basis identified as “legitimate interest”, as defined under the general data protection regulations (2018).

This privacy policy explains how we use any personal information we collect in carrying out our role as practitioner psychologists. It also informs you of your rights and our responsibilities in the processing of personal information under the general data protection regulations.

It is assumed that by engaging with the service you are consenting to records being kept.

Summary of Privacy Policy

• Keeping records is an essential component of healthcare.
• Confidentiality is maintained at all times (i.e. your information is not shared) unless there are exceptional circumstances such as risk to yourself or others, when other services such as your GP may be contacted without your consent as this is a professional obligation.
• Clinical notes and questionnaires will be kept for six years after the last contact with the service.
• All information recorded on paper will be stored in a locked filing cabinet in a locked facility.
• Confidential digital information will be stored in a secure cloud service which has both any encryption key and a password.
• Confidential information (including reports) sent by the psychologist via the internet will be sent by encrypted e-mail.
• Information sent to professionals will be clearly emailed ‘Confidential’. Reports are not sent to schools directly, unless parents give consent for this.
• All electronic devices (e.g. computer, laptopn, phone) used to store data will be password protected.
• In the event of death or incapacity of the psychologist arrangements have been made for a named professional colleague who will continue with the above obligations.

What we collect

We collect information about our client’s current and previous psychological and physical well-being, and current and previous social, educational and family circumstances. We also collect information about our clients when they voluntarily complete questionnaires. We may also collect sensitive personal information defined as “special category data”, as part of a psychological assessment.

Assessments and consultations which are conducting remotely via video-teleconferencing platforms may be recorded for safeguarding purposes.

How will we use this information?

We collect information in order to provide psychological formulations, recommendations and interventions. This information is confidential.

Psychologists may discuss client’s personal information in supervision with a supervisor, who is another psychologist, for the purpose of ensuring that their practice is safe and effective, and as mandated by their professional bodies. We do not reveal names when we share information in supervision. Supervisors do not share our client’s personal information with anyone else.

If applicable, we will from time to time write to referrers and stakeholders, such as parents, named individuals in schools and other agencies. For example, following an assessment of learning abilities or emotional well-being. We will always obtain consent and discuss the content of such letters or reports before sending them.

Marketing

We do not currently use any contact information for marketing purposes. We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties.

Sharing your personal information

We do not discuss personal information with third parties. However, if our professional opinion was that there was an immediate and serious risk that a client might harm him/herself, or someone else, then we may have to share personal information with a third party, such as a GP or the emergency services, without first obtaining consent. This might be because it is not practically possible to obtain consent or because attempting to do so might lead to a delay in accessing health and therefore endanger our client’s life or that of another.

In some cases where we have to share personal information with third parties to protect our client or another person, we will only share personal information insofar as it is relevant and necessary to protect our client or another person.

In some circumstances it may be that personal information is requested by a court of law, coroner’s office or professional body. In such circumstances, our client may have limited or no rights of refusal.

We provide transaction data (e.g. copy invoices) to our accountant.

Your right to access and correct data

You have the right to know what personal data we hold about you and to make sure it’s correct and up to date. In order to receive such information, please send your request, including your full contact details, to admin@albanpsychology.co.uk.

If you would like to make a correction to the information we hold about you or personal information we hold then please contact us. We can refuse the request if such personal information is needed in the defence or exercise of legal claims, or if we believe there is an overriding legitimate interest to retain your information.

Storage of information

If you would like to make a correction to the information we hold about you or personal information we hold then please contact us. We can refuse the request if such personal information is needed in the defence or exercise of legal claims, or if we believe there is an overriding legitimate interest to retain your information.

Computers are password protected and the hard drives are encrypted. IPads and mobile devices are secured with fingerprint touch ID and passwords. Passwords are changed regularly, and it is company policy that passwords are not shared.

The information you provide relating to the assessment, such as questionnaires and previous reports, is stored on an encrypted cloud-based server. If we take handwritten notes and records during an assessment, these notes are scanned and stored as above. Original paper copies are destroyed. Q-Interactive is a cloud-based assessment tool which may be used in our assessments. Your name and date of birth is required by the assessment tool, no other personal information is uploaded. It has a two-factor authentication security system and Pearson, the owners of Q-Interactive, assure us that it is GDPR compliant. Recordings of remote assessments and consultations conducted on video-platforms are stored on a cloud-based server for 30 days before they are deleted.

Will we send emails and text messages to you?

As part of providing our service to you we will send your report to you via email. The report will be password protected and the password sent separately. To protect your information, we prefer to send passwords by SMS (text messages).

Also, as part of this service, we need to send details of your appointment, gather information and communicate other relevant information to you. We will do this via email and/or telephone. If you have indicated that you would like to be contacted to receive news and relevant information by email, we rely solely on your consent. We review consent frequently and seek to refresh consent periodically as we see appropriate. You have the right to withdraw your consent to receive relevant information at any time.

Length of storage

Personal information and the records of our work are kept for six years. We then erase those records.

Data breaches

In the unlikely event of a data breach, Alban Psychology will promptly notify you of any unauthorised access to your personal information.

Right to complain

Complaints about how we’ve handled your personal information can be made to admin@albanpsychology.co.uk or in writing to our registered address. If you are unhappy with our response, believe we are processing your personal information not in accordance with the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Policy review date: June 2022