Privacy Policy

Your privacy is very important to me and you can be confident that your personal information will be kept safe and secure and will only be used for the purpose it was given to me. I adhere to current data protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (EU/2016/679) (the GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.This privacy notice tells you what I will do with your personal information from initial point of contact through to after counselling has ended.

I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me using the options below:

 My postal address is: Pippin, Salisbury SP2 8EE

 My phone number is: 07769 650707

 My email address is: bridgetwoodward@protonmail.co.uk

 My lawful basis for holding and using your personal information

 The GDPR states that I must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. There are different lawful bases depending on the stage at which I am processing your data. I have explained these below:

If your child has had counselling with me and it has now ended, I will use legitimate interest as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information.   

If your child is currently having counselling or if you are in contact with me to consider counselling or parent mentoring, I will process your personal data where it is necessary to inform me as I work with you and your child/ young person.   

The GDPR also makes sure that I look after any sensitive personal information that you may disclose to me appropriately. This type of information is called ‘special category personal information’. The lawful basis for me processing any special categories of personal information is that it is for provision of health treatment (in this case counselling) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between me and you).

How I use your information

 Initial contact:

When you contact me with an enquiry about my services, I will collect information to help me decide whether counselling or mentoring would be the right option in the form of a questionnaire. If work together doesn’t go ahead then I will immediately destroy this information.  

 While you are accessing counselling or mentoring:

Rest assured that everything discussed in sessions is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken I was concerned about harm to your child or to someone else, then under “Duty of Care” I am obligated by law to inform the relevant authorities. This is to support you and your family to live well, and I would always aim to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.

 I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling service run smoothly. These details are kept securely on a personal laptop which is password protected.  They are not shared with any third party.

 I will keep brief written notes of each session which are kept anonymous, these are stored securely in a locked cabinet.

 I don’t use text messages other than to make arrangements and these texts will be deleted after a month. I don’t store your contact number on my phone.  I use an end-to-end encrypted email address and all emails are deleted after we have terminated sessions.  

 After sessions have ended:

 Notes will be safely destroyed 2 years after we have terminated counselling sessions. For parent mentoring notes will be destroyed after a year.

 I will only keep a record of the number of sessions attended and the start and end date for 6 years after the child turns 18 (counselling only).  This information will be stored securely on my laptop.

If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please let me know.

 Are sessions confidential?

 Everything that happens in sessions is strictly confidential. To ensure I am doing my job effectively and that I have the right support, I may discuss elements of our sessions with my supervisor. During these discussions I do not disclose any details that may identify your child to my supervisor, and my supervisor adheres to GDPR practices.  Occasionally, to aid my professional development I may take a photo of artwork produced to supervision.  This image will be deleted immediately after the session.  

 Data Security

 I take the security of the data I hold about you very seriously and as such I make every effort to make sure it is kept secure:

 Hardcopy documents - are all stored in a locked filing cabinet in a locked building

Text messages – my phone is password protected

Emails – my email account is encrypted and password protected

 Your rights

 I try to be as open as I can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. You have a right to ask me to delete your personal information, to limit how I use your personal information, or to stop processing your personal information. You also have a right to ask for a copy of any information that I hold about you and to object to the use of your personal data in some circumstances. You can read more about your rights at ico.org.uk/your-data-matters.

To make a request for any personal information I may hold about you, please put the request in writing addressing it to bridgetwoodward@protonmail.co.uk

 If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by writing or emailing to the contact details given above. I would welcome any suggestions for improving my data protection procedures.

 If you want to make a formal complaint about the way I have processed your personal information you can contact the ICO which is the statutory body that oversees data protection law in the UK. For more information go to ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.