Privacy Statement for Neat Wellbeing
Introduction
Your privacy is very important to me, and you can be confident that your personal information will be kept safe and secure and will only be used for the purpose it was given to me.
I adhere to current data protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (EU/2016/679) (the GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
This privacy notice tells you what I will do with your personal information from initial point of contact through to after your therapy has ended, including:
Why I am able to process your information and what purpose I am processing it for
Whether you have to provide it to me
How long I store it for
Whether there are other recipients of your personal information
Whether I intend to transfer it to another country
Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling, and
Your data protection rights.
I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy, and you can contact me via telephone or email.
‘Data controller’ is the term used to describe the person/ organisation that collects and stores and has responsibility for people’s personal data. In this instance, the data controller is me. My postal address is: 15 Hodder Place, Lancaster, LA1 4HR. My phone number is: 07944637135. My email address is: annie@neatwellbeing.co.uk.
My Lawful basis for collecting and holding your personal information
The GDPR states that I must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. There are different lawful bases depending on the stage at which I am processing your data. I have explained these below:
If you have had therapy with me and it has now ended, I will use legitimate interest as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information.
If you are currently having therapy or if you are in contact with me to consider therapy, I will process your personal data where it is necessary for the performance of our contract.
The GDPR also makes sure that I look after any sensitive personal information that you may disclose to me appropriately. This type of information is called ‘special category personal information’. The lawful basis for me processing any special categories of personal information is that it is for provision of health treatment (in this case counselling) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between me and you).
How I use your information
Initial Contact
When you contact me with an enquiry about my counselling services, I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. Firstly, your email address so that we can conduct our introductory Zoom session. After this, information will include a contact form with the following: name, date of birth, contact details, emergency contact details and GP details.
If you decide not to proceed, I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within 28 days. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, just let me know.
While you are accessing counselling.
Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken if:
If you disclose serious intent to harm yourself or someone else.
Any form of abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult that could still be happening.
I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevents this.
I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling service run smoothly. These details are kept securely, and password protected on a laptop/work telephone and are not shared with any third party.
I will keep written notes of each session, these are kept in a locked filing cabinet. For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than 90 days. If there is relevant information contained in a text message, I will log it in a secure file on my laptop. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after 90 days if it is not important. If necessary, I will keep emails in a secure folder on my laptop.
After counselling has ended.
Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for one year from the end of our contact with each other and are then securely destroyed. If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.
Third Party Recipients of Personal Data
I sometimes share personal data with third parties, for example, where I have contracted with a supplier to carry out specific tasks. In such cases I have carefully selected which partners I work with. I take great care to ensure that I have a contract with the third party that states what they are allowed to do with the data I share with them. I ensure that they do not use your information in any way other than the task for which they have been contracted.
Organisations I work with are:
Zoom (online clients only)
Your Rights
I try to be as open as I can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. You have a right to ask me to delete your personal information, to limit how I use your personal information, or to stop processing your personal information.
You also have a right to ask for a copy of any information that I hold about you and to object to the use of your personal data in some circumstances. You can read more about your rights at ico.org.uk/your-data-matters.
If I do hold information about you I will:
Give you a description of it and where it came from
Tell you why I am holding its, tell you how long I will store your data and how I made this decision
Tell you who it could be disclosed to
Let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.
You can also ask me at any time to correct any mistakes there may be in the personal information I hold about you.
To make a request for any personal information I may hold about you, please put the request in writing addressing it to annie@neattherapy.co.uk. If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by writing or emailing to the contact details given above.
Data security
I take the security of the data I hold about you very seriously and as such I take every effort to make sure it is kept secure.
All physical documents I hold about you will be kept in a locked filing cabinet.
I use encrypted devices and all online paperwork is password protected and the password is not shared except with the client if they ask for it.
I would welcome any suggestions for improving my data protection procedures.
If you have any questions or queries, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.
Email: annie@neatwellbeing.co.uk
Telephone: 07944637135