Privacy & Data Policy
This page explains why we collect personal information, how we use it and what steps we take to make sure it is kept secure.
Privacy notices apply to anyone who shares personal information with us: service users, staff, volunteers, job applicants. Described here is a general overview of our treatment of personal information as well as more detailed information for service users.
INFORMATION ABOUT YOU
In order for London Friend to be able to fulfil its responsibilities to deliver counselling, drug & alcohol support and social groups, we will need to record personal information about you. This information includes your name, address and contact details, and GP practice. Depending on the support accessed will also takes notes of relevant medical mental and physical health information and aspects of your personal social, sexual and family history that you choose to share with London Friend. This information will be retained in password protected files, on a password protected PC which has virus protection software installed as well as password protected servers.
Your contact details will be used to contact you. Other personal data such as your name, address and/or date of birth will be used to verify your identity and if there is a need to contact your GP or other agencies or a request for access to personal data from yourself or your representative or legitimate legal instrument such as a court order.
This personal information will be held for a as long as necessary to guarantee the duty of care after the cessation of our counselling relationship, except where there is a mutually agreed decision to retain it for longer or where London Friend believes that it is in the best professional interests to do so.
INFORMATION ABOUT COUNSELLING AND KEYWORKING SESSIONS
London Friend will also record notes of each counselling and keyworking session under an identifying code. These notes will be a brief factual record of the session. This set of notes will include any agreements made with regard to for example, cancelled sessions or changes to the way the therapy is conducted. The notes are held on a password-protected computer or server.
These notes may be shared under the identifying code with London Friend’s counselling supervisor, counselling professional body or similar for purposes of maintaining professional standards.
These notes will be held for as long as possible after the cessation of counselling and keyworking except where London Friend agrees with you to retain them for longer or where we believe that it is in our best professional interests to do so.
We may make information from these notes available to legitimate third parties under the following conditions:
- Receipt of a request from you if the release of the notes is not judged by London Friend as likely to cause you significant harm or harm to another person
- Where there is a specific legal requirement for London Friend to do so
- Where there is an ethical duty for London Friend to do, for example to avoid serious harm to yourself or another
YOUR RIGHTS
You have the right to ask to see any information held by London Friend about you. To do this please send an email to the office (office@londonfriend.org.), the counselling service (counselling@londonfriend.org.uk) or the antidote service (antidote@londonfriend.org.uk). You also have the right to ask for information that you believe to be incorrect to be rectified. London Friend will endeavour to provide you with the information requested within four weeks.
If we become aware of a situation where your personal information may have accidentally or maliciously been obtained by a third party, lost or destroyed, London Friend will notify you within three days.
If you are concerned about the way that your information is being held please discuss this with London Friend. If you are still unhappy, you have the write to complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO). London Friend is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office.
7 Data Protection Principles
- Lawfulness, fairness and transparency
- Purpose limitation
- Data minimisation
- Accuracy
- Storage limitation
- Integrity and confidentiality (security)
- AccountabilityPersonal data shall be:
"(a) processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to individuals (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency’);
(b) collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes; further processing for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes shall not be considered to be incompatible with the initial purposes (‘purpose limitation’);
(c) adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed (‘data minimisation’);
(d) accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date; every reasonable step must be taken to ensure that personal data that are inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, are erased or rectified without delay (‘accuracy’);
(e) kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed; personal data may be stored for longer periods insofar as the personal data will be processed solely for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes subject to implementation of the appropriate technical and organisational measures required by the GDPR in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals (‘storage limitation’);
(f) processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures (‘integrity and confidentiality’)."
If you have any questions about data protection at UHI please contact the Data Protection Officer office@londonfriend.org.uk.
Data Security
London Friend keeps data of staff, volunteers and service users secure. Physical copies of any sort of data will be kept in rooms which are locked with a keypad. Digital data is stored on secure servers.
How to complain
If you have any concerns about our use of your personal data, you can make a complaint to us using the contact details at the top of this privacy notice.
If you remain unhappy with how we’ve used your data after raising a complaint with us, you can also complain to the ICO.
The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
