Privacy & Data Policy
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.
