07919 187250

07526 090520

Privacy & Data Protection

We take your privacy and any data you may provide us very seriously. Therefore, we want to be upfront about the ways we deal with privacy, data and sensitive information.

Data Protection

The privacy policy set out by Hope Highland is to ensure the data collected by your counsellor during your assessment and therapy via telephone, email or internet is used in a secure and appropriate manner in compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Personal data is anything that identifies a living person from data or other information from that data. Hope Highland may collect the following information: name, contact details (telephone number, email address, postcode and address) and or additional information a client may provide. The Data Protection Act 2018 controls how Hope Highland use your personal information. In the UK, GDPR is implemented by the Data Protection Act 2018.

Whilst collating and processing your personal data, Hope Highland adheres strictly to the ‘data protection principles’, ensuring your information is:

  • used fairly, lawfully and transparently
  • used for specified, explicit purposes
  • used in a way that is adequate, relevant and limited to only what is necessary
  • accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
  • kept for no longer than is necessary
  • handled in a way that ensures appropriate security, including protection against unlawful or unauthorised processing, access, loss, destruction or damage

Under the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the right to request the personal information held by Hope Highland at any time.


Your Rights

Under the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the right to:

  • be informed about how your data is being used
  • access personal data
  • have incorrect data updated
  • have data erased
  • stop or restrict the processing of your data
  • data portability (allowing you to get and reuse your data for different services)
  • object to how your data is processed in certain circumstances

You also have rights when an organisation is using your personal data for:

  • automated decision-making processes (without human involvement)
  • profiling, for example to predict your behaviour or interests

Disclaimer

Links Present On This Website

Through this website we provide links to other websites, which are out with the control of Hope Highland. The inclusion of any links is purely for information purposes and does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorsement of the views expressed within them.

Technical & Service Issues

Hope Highland takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.

Security of Your Information

Hope Highland is committed to ensuring that your information is secure. Suitable physical, electronic and logistical procedures are in place to safeguard and secure any information that is collected online.


How We Store Personal Information

At Hope Highland all documentation is held in secure locked cabinets. Client notes are anonymised and held separately from personal information. Diary appointments only record initials. We only retain this information for a maximum of 6 years at which point it is shredded. Clients may choose this information is destroyed at any time.

Information Sharing

Personal Information will only be shared if:

  • you request us to do so
  • there is an issue relating to safeguarding
  • if there is a legal requirement to do so

What we are going to use the information for:

To make contact with you, to record the relevant personal contact details you give consent for me to hold, and to record minimal hand-written session notes.

When and how we delete the information we hold:

On request, or six years after our last contact, we delete by electronic means and destroy paper records by shredding.

Where this information is stored:

We store your contact details and signed contract in a file in a locked cabinet. We use only your initials in our diary. Client notes showing date and a brief outline of session content are recorded in an anonymised hand-written paper format and stored in a separate file to the one in which your personal details are stored.

When we pass on personal information:

We will only share personal information as follows:

  • If during our contact time with you we become aware that there is a safeguarding risk to either you or another person, we will contact the college/professional body/ emergency services/where appropriate.
  • In the event of the long term absence of your counsellor all documentation will be managed by Hope Highland, please see the guidance on ico.org.uk