Privacy Policy
Any personal information provided by you to Flock Counselling through any means (verbal, written, in electronic form, or by your use of our website) will be held and processed in accordance with the data protection principles set out in the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation for the purposes for which you have given consent, to provide the service you have requested from us, and to meet the legitimate interests of Flock Counselling.
Introduction
Samuel Shepherd, the owner of Flock Counselling (the “data controller”, referred to below as ‘I’ ‘me’ and ‘my’), is committed to protecting your privacy. Please read the following in order to learn more about Flock Counselling’s privacy policy and how I collect and use the information you give me.
This policy only applies to data collected by Samuel Shepherd for Flock Counselling. Third-party agents and any websites which are linked to my website are not covered by this policy. If you have any queries concerning your personal information or any questions about my use of the information, please contact me by email or phone.
When you request counselling with Samuel Shepherd and Flock Counselling, you will be asked to provide your personal details to me; you will be asked to consent to my processing of your data under the terms of this policy.
What information do I collect?
Counselling Requests.
Registering with me to request access to my counselling service can be done in person, by phone or by email. My request process involves providing me with your name and telephone number. I may also request information about your availability, therapeutic issues and other details which I think are relevant to processing your request.
Initial Assessment Appointments.
At any initial assessment, I ask about your current personal, social and medical information. I may also ask about your family history as well as the issues which are affecting you now. I require this information so that we can decide about my offer of counselling to you.
Other Forms
The information you give me (including all enquiries) may include your name, postal address, email address, phone number and other messages to me.
What do I use your information for?
I use information held about you in the following ways:
To provide clients with the professional counselling service requested from me.
To enable me to offer appropriate opportunities.
To offer suitable counselling appointments.
I will notify you about changes to your appointments and my service.
To seek feedback from you on your experience of counselling with me.
To improve my service to ensure it is provided most effectively for you and me.
To administer my service, including the arrangement of appointments, financial control, data analysis and statistics.
What information do I share?
I will not share any information about you with other organisations or people, except in the following situations:
Consent.
Flock Counselling may share your information with professional carers or other whom you have requested or agreed we should contact.
Serious harm.
Flock Counselling may share your information with the relevant authorities if I believe this may prevent serious harm being caused to you or another person.
Compliance with law.
Flock Counselling may share your information where I am required to by law or by the regulations and other rules to which I am subject.
As part of the backups of encrypted data processed and held by professional IT security companies.
How do I keep your information safe?
All information you provide to me is stored as securely as possible. All paper forms and correspondence are kept in a locked filing cabinet. All electronic records are stored by reputable service providers using secure internet ‘cloud’ technology, which is ISO27001 certified and GDPR ready.
Your identifiable personal material is kept separately from any session note and other descriptive material. Client notes and documentation are destroyed five years after the end of counselling. Personal contact details are destroyed/deleted after ten years of no contact or updates.
Your rights
You have the right to ask me to provide a copy of the information held by me in my records. You also have the right to require me to correct any inaccuracies in your information. If you would like to do this, please contact me in person, by email, or by phone.
You may withdraw your consent for me to hold and process your data at any time. However, your counselling will end if you do this while actively receiving counselling at Flock Counselling. You can withdraw your consent from me directly in person, by email or by phone.
Changes to this policy
I may edit this policy from time to time. If I make any substantial changes, I will notify you by email.