Privacy Notice
TQ1 Family Service is committed to protecting your personal information. We comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulations which begin from 25th May 2018. We are registered with the Information Commissioners Office.
This notice provides you with information about how we process your information and how we keep it safe.
Why do we need your information?
In order to provide our services to you we need to collect, store and process your personal information known as ‘data’. Data is defined as information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified by that data. This includes but is not limited to information such as your name, address, date of birth and national insurance number. We will only process data that is relevant to the work that you have asked us to do for you.
What information do we need?
This will vary depending on the service you have asked us to provide for you but will most certainly include your personal data and may also include sensitive personal data such as information about your health, religion or sexual orientation.
This may be information provided to us by you or third parties. Third parties could be people or organisations that have asked us to help you, family members or professionals that are involved in your case.
Who has access to it?
TQ1 Family Service will only use your information within the service. We do not sell information or share it with third parties for marketing purposes.
In order to provide you with the service you have asked us to provide we may need to share your information with third parties. This could be the Court or Tribunal, the Local Authority, Solicitors or other parties involved in your case, Cafcass, HMRC, Barristers, Experts and Transcription Agencies.
Your name may appear on our bank statements and those statements may be shared with HMRC or our accountant for the purposes of complying with company law.
Who is responsible?
Joanne Stewart is our Data Protection Officer. Should you require any further information about this policy she can be contacted by email at info@tq1familyservice.org.uk or by telephone at 07531282552.
How do we protect your data?
We are committed to protecting your data and take all reasonable measures to keep it safe. Our offices are secured and manual files are stored securely. We also hold information electronically, on cloud based storage systems and/or an external hard drive and use safeguards such as encryption to ensure that your electronically stored information is secure.
We may also hold your name and contact number on our company mobile phone which has password security. Should we exchange messages by text, those messages will also be retained or stored on our mobile phone. If you are not happy for us to do this, please indicate this on the attached consent form and we will contact you to discuss an alternative option.
Confidentiality
Confidentiality is an important principle that enables people to feel safe in sharing their concerns and to ask for help. However, the right to confidentiality is not absolute. Sharing relevant information with the right people at the right time is vital to good safeguarding practice.
- All staff at TQ1 Family Service are familiar with our internal safeguarding procedures for raising concerns.
- All client information is locked away and only accessed when necessary.
- We can also contact the Police or the Local Authority Safeguarding Lead for advice, without necessarily giving an individual’s personal details.
- We ensure that others are not put at risk by information being kept confidential, i,e if we are able to take action to prevent a serious crime.
- We only share information on a ‘need to know’ basis and do not share more information than necessary.
- TQ1 Family Service record decisions and reasoning about information that is shared.
You have the right to request copies of all information we hold about you and we are legally required to provide this to you within thirty days. If you would like to make a Subject Access Request, please do so in writing to Joanne Stewart, TQ1 Family Service, PO BOX 607, Torquay TQ1 9LY or by email to info@tq1familyservice.org.uk
Right to be forgotten
You also have the right to be forgotten from our records. If you request this, then we are legally obliged to comply with your request unless there is a legitimate reason why we cannot.
Please feel free to discuss any concerns or questions you may have with our Data Protection Officer (DPO) Joanne Stewart, TQ1 Family Service, PO BOX 607, Torquay TQ1 9LY info@tq1familyservice.org.uk 07531282552