VIRGINIA POLLY SMITH COUNSELLING in conjunction with OXFORD COUNSELLING CENTRE

PRIVACY POLICY

Holding your information:

In providing you with counselling services I will need to obtain and handle your personal information, that is: your name, phone number, email, address and GP details.  This information is required to facilitate therapeutic services which are appropriate to your needs. Your personal information will be held on my password protected phone and PC for the purposes of communicating via call/text/email in regard to our therapeutic relationship, and at my home, in a locked filing cabinet.

I will keep a record of your session dates on paper, identified by your initials, stored in a locked filing cabinet at my home for administrative purposes, to record the number, theme and dates of our sessions together.

I will hold the information about you for as long as you receive services from me and for seven years following the last date of our session together.  You have the Right to Erasure and can ask me to remove any personal information I hold about you.  If you wish to evoke your Right to Erasure, please email me at polly@oxfordcounsellingcentre.com. Please note that in some circumstances, e.g. commitment to HMRC inspection of my financial records, I may have to keep some personal information that I hold about you.  In these circumstances I will let you know as soon as possible and we will agree a mutually acceptable date to erase.

You have the Right to Access the personal information that I hold about you. If you wish to evoke your Right to Access, please email me at polly@oxfordcounsellingcentre.com

I am also registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

Protecting your information:

In order to protect your personal data, I follow the guidelines and recommendations in line with my professional bodies and regulatory bodies. In the unlikely event of my security processes being compromised, leading to a significant breach of your information, I will endeavour to inform you within 72 hours.

Confidentiality:

The confidentiality of your personal data is very important to me.  All my services are confidential and I will not share your information unless I judge that there is a serious risk of harm to yourself or others, or with your written consent, or when I am legally obliged to do so.

Professional Will:

In accordance with the requirements of my professional body I am required to hold a Professional Will in the event that I am unable to see you in the short term or in the event of my death.  Under these circumstances you will be contacted by my professional colleague Beth Roberts, who holds a list of my clients’ first names, contact numbers and the day of your session.  She does not hold any clinical information about you.