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Privacy Policy

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I, Keena Cummins, am an independent Speech and language therapist (Sole Trader) and Director of VERVE child interaction. I am registered with the Royal College of Speech and Language therapists (RCSLT), the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the Association of Speech and Language Therapists in Independent Practice (ASLTIP).

I operate the websites:
www.vervechildinteraction.org

I am committed to protecting the privacy of information provided by clients.

Use of Personal Information

Personal information obtained via the above websites, emails, telephone conversation or in person is stored and used for the purpose of delivering your child’s speech and language therapy.

Your child’s personal data will only be used for:

  • Preparing, planning and providing speech and language therapy services appropriate for your child’s needs.

  • Communicating with you via post, email, telephone, mobile messages and SMS in relation to: confirming and preparing for appointments; general communication in between appointments; sending you reports and summaries for your child (always password protected).

  • Copying you in to communications with other professionals involved with your child (your child’s initials rather than full name will be used in emails); sending you resources; sending you invoices and receipts; Clinical audit to assess and improve our service. (Results of audits are always presented with all client identities removed).

  • Management and administration, for example surnames of clients are included in the password protected accounting database.

  • Whenever personal identifiers are not needed for these tasks, if possible, they will be removed from the information used.

Storage of Personal Information

All information about you, your child and their speech and language therapy is stored securely in accordance with Data Protection Regulations to ensure that there is a complete record of our service.

With your consent videos will be taken and shared with you at the time of filming and stored as part of your child’s record. They are filmed on an encrypted and password protected tablet and transferred within 8 hours to an encrypted password protected hard drive. They can be deleted at your request.

The minimum amount of confidential information will be taken out of the Speech and Language Therapist’s office base e.g. school visits and will be kept with the Speech and Language therapist.

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

Meeting 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.

I am registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a Data Controller.

ICO registration: www.ico.org.uk/ESDWebPages/Entry/ZA266569

Lawful Basis for Processing Personal Information

The 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 your child without processing their personal information. As it is both a necessity for service delivery and of benefit to your child, I have a legitimate interest to process and store 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.

Responsibilities

I am committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of your child’s record and actively implement security measures to ensure their 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, the parent, various rights. The most important of these are as follows:

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

Contact

If you have questions about how your information is used, please contact:

Keena Cummins
VERVE Child Interaction

keena@keenacummins.co.uk

07985 944 072

Therapy room:

82–84 Childers Street
Deptford
London SE8 5FS