Privacy Policy
Self-referral form for personal data
To find out how we collect and store patient information please refer to the Trust's patient information and how we use it page.
Self-referral form for equalities and monitoring data
The final section of the self-referral form includes data collection for equalities and monitoring purposes. This data is reported anonymously. This is reported to the IAPT (Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies) collection. You can find out why and how this data is processed on the NHS Digital website.
Confidentiality in treatment
The information you share with us will be treated confidentially at all times. The information will be used by our service and other healthcare professionals within the NHS involved in your psychological wellbeing. This will usually be your GP, but may include other healthcare professionals such as your psychiatrist or mental health nurse, if applicable. We may access your health records from secondary care mental health services e.g. the Assessment and Treatment Service (ATS) or Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service, where the sharing of information would support the best care for you.
Confidentiality can be broken if you disclose information to us about risk of harm to yourself or others. We may become concerned about risk of harm to others from information you give us about a person's behaviour now or in the past, including a long time ago. Examples of this are childhood sexual abuse and physical abuse. If we are concerned about this we will discuss this with you and keep you informed of the steps we need to take. Please discuss any questions you have about this with your practitioner.
Clinical conversations and how we store your notes
We record what you say in confidential sessions via clinical written notes. We keep a summary of these notes in our secure system which you have the right to request a copy of. We do not video or audio record sessions without your consent, however we may ask for your consent to record your sessions via audio or video for training and ongoing professional development of our therapists. We will explain in detail at this point about the storage, confidentiality and deletion of this recording and you are under no obligation to give your consent and your access to treatment will not be affected. Only clinicians involved in your treatment have access to your notes.
Emails
As standard, we send emails about appointments and questionnaires using normal, non-encrypted email service. This means you can open them in your inbox as you would any other email and they do not have any additional security measures. If you would prefer to receive encrypted emails, with extra security, we can set you up to receive emails that require a password to open them via an online portal called Egress, provided by NHSmail. You can request this at any point.
By giving us your email address you are consenting to receive all correspondence about your treatment via email. To opt out of email correspondence please call us.
Contacting us about your data
If you have any concerns about how your information is used or wish to exercise any of your rights as stated above, please contact the Data Protection Officer.
The Trust's Data Protection Officer is: Head of Information Governance
Telephone: 01273 666473 or email:
You also have the right to raise a complaint with the Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Helpline: 0303 123 1113 or make a complaint online.