This policy was last reviewed by Nic McNamara in March 2022

About Autism Empowered

I am an Independent Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) providing support for autistic children and adults. I am registered with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) and the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

My website can be found at www.autism-empowered.co.uk

You can contact me on nic@autism-empowered.co.uk and 0787 6630543

As an Independent SLT, I am committed to protecting the privacy of information provided by clients.

Collection of Personal Information

Information about you or your child may be collected via spoken or written information. With written consent from either the client or the client’s Parents/ Guardians, information may also be collected from other professionals e.g. School Staff, care staff, NHS professionals. We may also collect information about family members where this relates to you or your child e.g. contact details for parents and relevant medical or developmental history.

If I do not meet with you or your child following an enquiry, personal information will be deleted once the enquiry has been dealt with. If an enquiry results in me working with you or your child, these details may be added to your child’s personal record.

How Personal Information is Collected

Personal information collected by me via email, Facebook, telephone or face to face, is stored and used by me for the purpose of delivering support for you or your child.

Any sensitive personal details are stored in a secure and confidential way and processed in confidence by myself and shall only be used for the purposes of delivering appropriate services to you or your child.

With your written consent, information about you or your child’s needs will be shared with other professionals involved in your or your child’s care, when it is in your or your child’s best interests. A record of your consent is kept within your / your child’s clinical notes.

Unless I am required to do so by law, I will not disclose any personal information collected to any person other than as set out above.

I do not employ agents to process personal data, for example specialist mailing companies to send out communications and I do not give or sell client details to any third parties.

How Personal Information is Used

I use the collected information in the following ways:

• To arrange, plan and provide support services as appropriate to meet your / your child’s needs
• To communicate with you via post, email, telephone, mobile messages and SMS in relation to:
  – arranging and planning for sessions 
  – communication in between sessions
  – sending you copies of reports (always password protected)
  – communicating with other professionals involved with you / your child (your / your child’s initials rather than full name will be used in emails)
  – sending you invoices via post, email or face to face

Whenever personal identifiers are not needed for these tasks, if possible we remove them from the information we use.

How Personal Information is Stored

All information about you / your child and their support is stored securely in accordance with Data Protection Regulations.

Documents containing confidential information including clinical notes and assessment record forms are recorded on a specialist computer programme which is password protected and only accessible by me.  The programme is called WriteUpp and is used widely within both the NHS and other Allied Health Professions.

Documents which contain confidential information such as reports and programmes are stored on a personal laptop with password protection, only accessible by myself.

I access emails on both my password protected laptop and a smartphone which is protected with a passcode.

Videos may be taken of clients with consent. These are temporarily stored on a password protected laptop. These may then be viewed by the SLT in order to make notes in a client record within 24 hours of the appointment. The video is then deleted.

The minimum amount of confidential information will be taken out of my base. When your / your child’s information is taken out of the base it will be kept on my person or it will be locked in the boot of my car (whichever is deemed to be the most secure at that time).

In accordance with law, all children’s records will be kept securely until your child is 25 years old. After this time all records relating to your child will be destroyed.

For adults, records will be held for 8 years following the last time you were seen.

Meeting our professional obligations

It is a legal requirement for all Speech and Language Therapists to be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). The HCPC has clear standards of conduct, performance and ethics that all registrants must adhere to.

These standards affect the way in which we process and share information. Specifically:

Standard 2: Communicate appropriately and effectively

 “You must share relevant information, where appropriate, with colleagues involved in the care, treatment or other services provided to a service user.”

Standard 10: Keep records of your work

“You must keep full, clear, and accurate records for everyone you care for, treat, or provide other services to. You must complete all records promptly and as soon as possible after providing care, treatment or other services. You must keep records secure by protecting them from loss, damage or inappropriate access.”

For further information the full document can be found at: http://www.hcpc-uk.org/assets/documents/10004EDFStandardsofconduct,performanceandethics.pdf

Personal Data Breaches

In the unlikely event that a personal data breach should occur, this would be reported within 72 hours to the local authority. In cases where data was not encrypted, the breach would also be reported to the Parent/ Guardian.

UK Data Protection Law and EU General Data Protection Regulations

Data Protection Law lays down wide-ranging rules, backed up by criminal sanctions, for the processing of information about identifiable, living individuals. It also gives individuals certain rights in relation to personal data held about them by others.

I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a Data Controller. You can view my ICO registration by visiting: https://ico.org.uk/ESDWebPages/Entry/ZB316505

Lawful Basis for Processing Personal Information

My lawful basis for processing and storing personal information is one of ‘legitimate interest’ (under article 6 of GDPR). I cannot adequately deliver a service to you or your child without processing your / their personal information.  As it is both a necessity for my service delivery and of benefit to you / your child, I have a legitimate interest to process and store your / their data.

Data relating to an individual’s health is classified as ‘Special Category Data’ under section 9 of the GDPR. The regulations specify that health professionals who are “legally bound to professional secrecy” may have a lawful basis for processing this data.  Speech and Language Therapists are legally bound to keep client information confidential, and it is under this condition that we process and store personal information.

My Responsibilities

I am committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of your / your child’s record. I actively implement security measures to ensure information is safe, and audit these regularly.

I will not release your personal details to any third party without first seeking your consent, unless this is allowed for or required by law.

I am constantly working to ensure compliance with current data protection regulation.

Your rights

Data protection legislation gives you various rights. The most important of these are as follows:

• You have the right to a copy of information we hold about you / your child.
• You have the right to ask for your record to be amended if you believe that it is wrong.

How to access your / your child’s records 

You can access the information I hold about you / your child by writing to us at the address given below. Please apply in writing rather than by email, so that we receive an original signature to compare against the records we hold.

A copy of your / your child’s records is provided free of charge.

We will provide access to your / your child’s records within 30 days of receipt of all necessary information.

Please make your request in writing to:

Subject Access Requests
Autism Empowered
39 Darnbrook Rd
Barnoldswick
Lancashire
BB18 5RE

If you have any further questions about how I use your information, please contact nic@autism-empowered.co.uk

Further information about data protection legislation and your rights is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office or by calling 0303 123 1113, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Signed: 

Designation                  Nic McNamara, Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Date:                                 07/03/2022