Privacy Policy

CHAT Youth Counselling values the personal information provided by clients, staff and volunteers and take great care to preserve the privacy of and safeguard this information.

This Privacy Notice explains how CHAT will collect, store and control the use of the personal information provided by clients, staff, volunteers and donors. CHAT may change this policy from time to time. It can be checked for amendments on the CHAT Youth Counselling website.
www.chatyouthcounselling.org.uk

Having read this policy, if you wish to change the way in which CHAT uses the information provided
or if you have a question about how the information is used please email info@chatyouthcounselling.org.uk or write to CHAT Youth Counselling, The Courthouse, Mill Road, Oundle, Peterborough. PE8 4BW

How and why do CHAT collect personal information?
CHAT collects personal information in several ways all associated with the smooth running of a youth counselling service.

For clients accessing the support of CHAT counsellors and therapists, personal information is collected in person or on a form completed by a referring professionals with the client’s consent. Young people over the age of 13 are legally able to give permission for the collection and use of their personal information. Parents’ permission is obtained for younger children or those deemed not to be competent to grant this permission.

Personal information of employed staff will be collected using a range of forms, or through contact with CHAT, via the phone, email or in person; as part of the selection and recruitment process and for the purpose of employment and re-imbursement of individuals. Further information is collected as part of the DBS process to enable safeguarding checks.

Volunteers complete forms with personal information as part of the application process and to declare conflicts of interests, to enable eligibility to volunteer and for the required safeguarding checks.

Contact details e.g. name, address, phone number, email address is collected for clients, staff and volunteers to facilitate communication on behalf of the charity.

CHAT will contact individuals if any further personal information is required and explain the use of the information requested.

How does CHAT use your personal information?
CHAT uses personal information in a number of ways, which may include;
• Communication relating appointments, meetings, or information
• Processing applications for employment or volunteering within the service
• Applying for DBS Safeguarding checks for adults working or volunteering in the service
• Employment processing for staff
• Responding to enquiries
• Dealing with complaints or concerns raised about one of our staff or volunteers
• Processing any donations made to us

How long does CHAT keep the personal information?
Personal information is only retained by CHAT for as long is necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was originally collected and to comply with any legal requirements.

Who does CHAT share individuals’ personal information with?
CHAT will never sell your details to any third party and does not buy any personal data.

Personal information will only ever be used to manage your involvement with CHAT Youth Counselling.

If you have made a Gift Aid declaration, we may need to disclose the information you have provided as part of the Gift Aid declaration to HMRC in order to reclaim Gift Aid on your donation.

We may share or disclosure your personal information if we are required to do so by any law or court order and, for example, to fulfil our obligation in respect of safeguarding young people.

What is the legal basis for CHAT to process personal information?
CHAT will only use or process personal information for legitimate purposes as part of the work of CHAT Youth Counselling service and if it is reasonable to expect the information is needed to provide the service. For example, it is reasonable for CHAT to collect your name and contact details to enable appointments or meetings to be arranged or rescheduled and you would reasonable expect this to happen.

Whenever, CHAT processes personal information for legitimate purposes, the rights and interests of the individual will be considered and will not proceed if we feel that there is in an imbalance, or you would not reasonable expect it to be processed in this way.

Client confidentiality is of paramount importance. Photographs or personal information of clients will never be used on website, social media platforms or in press releases. Specific consent will be obtained from staff and volunteers for these actions.

How do CHAT keep personal information secure?
All electronic information is stored in devices with password security. Paper records are held within properties with security controls in place. The CHAT website may contain links to other sites. Whilst CHAT tries to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the content or the privacy practices employed by other sites. Please be aware that websites that have links on CHAT site may collect personally identifiable information about individuals. This privacy statement does not cover the information practices of those websites or advertisers.

CHAT may send communications by email. Email is not a fully secure means of communication and whilst CHAT does its utmost to keep the system and communications protected, it cannot guarantee this.

How does CHAT maintain accuracy of personal information?
CHAT will make every effort to ensure personal information is obtained and stored accurately. Any inaccuracies will be updates as they are discovered.

Individuals’ rights regarding CHAT’s use of personal information
Individuals have various rights in respect of the personal information CHAT holds about
them. These rights are set out below:
• to be informed about the collection and use your personal information
• to access a copy of your personal information
• to object to processing of your personal information or to restrict its processing
• to have your personal information corrected if inaccurate
• to request that your personal information is erased, (without needing to specify a reason)

If an individual wishes to exercise any of these rights or to make a complaint, email info@chatyouthcounselling.org.uk or write to CHAT The Courthouse, Mill Road, Oundle, Peterborough, PE8 4BW

CHAT will consider each request in accordance with all applicable data protection laws and regulations. No administration fee will be charged for considering and/or complying with such request unless the request is deemed to be excessive in nature.

Upon the successful verification of an individual’s identity, the individual is entitled to obtain the following information about their personal information:
• The purpose of the collection, processing, use and storage of the personal information.
• The categories of personal information stored.
• The recipients or categories of recipients to whom the personal information has been or may be transmitted along with the location of those recipients.
• The envisaged period of storage of the personal information or the rationale for determining the storage period.

In certain circumstance, CHAT might not be able to provide an individual with access to some of your personal information, but where appropriate, we will notify you of the reasons for this.

Individuals can also make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office and the contact details and further information about how to do this can be found at: https//ico.org.uk/

Drafted August 2018
Adopted October 2018