PRIVACY POLICY AND STATEMENT
1. Introduction
Bedfordshire Open Door offers free, confidential counselling to young people aged 13 – 25 years who live in Bedfordshire. We are a registered charity and we are accredited by the British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy. To enable us to provide an appropriate counselling service, it is necessary to keep records of relevant personal information. All information is kept safely and securely with restricted access. We are committed to protecting your personal information
2. Personal Information we collect:
- Name
- Gender Identity
- Age
- Date of Birth
- Address
- Mobile/landline phone number
- Email address
- Relationships
- School / College / Uni
- Occupation
- Counselling history
- Medical conditions relevant to counselling
- Prescribed medication
- Presenting issues
- Session summary
3. How Bedfordshire Open Door stores your personal information:
Paper Records – all written records are stored securely in locked filing cabinets in a locked office with restricted access. We keep a paper copy of any letters we send to you in the post. We keep your counselling notes separate from your contact details.
Bedfordshire Open Door Mobile Phone – Bedfordshire Open Door allocates a number to each of our clients to keep information confidential. Your mobile phone contact details are stored under your BOD number rather than your name.
Email – If you contact us by email your email contact details will be stored in the Bedfordshire Open Door email account. We delete emails from this account when we no longer need them for reference, usually within one month. Emails we might need to refer to in the future are printed off and stored with the paper records.
Website – none of your personal information is stored on the Bedfordshire Open Door website. If you make contact with us via the website email communication facility the emails are deleted after they have been read and dealt with.
Cookies – please refer to our Cookies Policy CLICK HERE
Documents Held
Paper:-
- Client Code (BOD number)
- Contact Sheet
- Contract/Agreement
- Assessment Record
- Brief Session Notes
- GDPR Agreement
- Case Study Consent Form (if agreed)
- Consent to Share Form (if agreed)
Electronic:-
- Contact name & telephone
- Email/SMS
How we may process/share your personal information.
Supervision
All Bedfordshire Open Door counsellors have a monthly confidential supervision session with a qualified supervisor. The supervision process is to support professional practice. The counsellor will refer to you by your first name only and may refer to your information verbally when it’s helpful to support professional processes.
Emergencies
If we are concerned about your health, Bedfordshire Open Door may share your contact information with an emergency healthcare service (e.g. Mental Health Crisis Team). We will only do this if we have your permission. If we become aware of your intent to cause harm to another person/organisation (e.g. terrorism), the law may require that we inform an authority without seeking your permission. In such a situation, the law may require that Bedfordshire Open Door shares your personal information without your knowledge (known as whistle-blowing). Bedfordshire Open Door also has a duty to protect young people from harm. If we have concerns for your safety we may need to disclose information under our Safeguarding and Child Protection procedures, wherever possible we will involve and inform you in this process.
Deleting your information
When we have finished working together, Bedfordshire Open Door will delete electronic copies of your information & correspondence within one month. Bedfordshire Open Door will hold onto your written information for up to seven years past the end of our working together or 7 years following your 18th birthday whichever is longer. This is so that we have a reference of our work in situations such as you returning to counselling in the future. After this date Bedfordshire Open Door will shred all written documentation.
Your Rights
You have the following rights…
- To be informed what information Bedfordshire Open Door holds about you (i.e. this document)
- To see the information we hold about you (free of charge for the initial request)
- To rectify any inaccurate or incomplete personal information
- To withdraw consent to Bedfordshire Open Door using your personal information
- To request your personal information be erased (though Bedfordshire Open Door can decline whilst the information is needed to practice lawfully & competently)
Agreement
A printed copy of this statement will be given to you when we first meet for counselling.