Privacy Policy

NORTH EAST EDINBURGH COUNSELLING SERVICE

DATA PROTECTION & PRIVACY POLICY

Updated October 2023

 

Any personal data provided by you to NEECS 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 Regulations 2018 for the purposes for which you have given consent, to provide the services you have requested from us, and to meet the legitimate interests of the charity.

 

Introduction

NEECS (North East Edinburgh Counselling Service the data controller, referred to below as “NEECS”, “us” or “we”) is committed to protecting your privacy. Please read the following in order to learn more about NEECS’s privacy policy and our information collection and use practices. If you have any queries concerning your personal information, or any questions on our use of the information, please contact the Manager. When you request counselling with NEECS, become an employee or volunteer with NEECS, or otherwise provide your personal details to us, you will be asked to consent to our processing of your data under the terms of this policy.

 

What information do we collect?

    • Counselling Requests – Registering with us to request access to our counselling service can be done online or by telephone. Our request process involves providing us with your name, address, telephone number, emergency contact, email address, your date of birth, GP Practice, potential referral source, further details on your background/demographics which you can opt not to answer, counselling preferences and availability to attend counselling.

    • Feedback forms – If you have attended counselling with NEECS, we will send you an online survey with some questions about your experience. Responses are anonymous, unless you give specific details which can make it possible to identify clients.

    • Other Forms – The information you give us on our forms (including all enquiry and application forms) may include your name, postal address, email address, phone number and other messages to us.

    • Donors – The information you give us when making a donation may include your name, postal address, email address, phone number, amount donated, Gift Aid status, and messages.

    • Website – We use Google Analytics to collect anonymous data relating to user behaviour and ‘web traffic’ statistics. The collection and use of this data by Google Inc. is subject to their own Privacy Policies

    • Employment – In order to apply for job opportunities advertised on our website and elsewhere, and to become an employee of the charity, you will be required to provide your contact details and other personal information contained in your CV (such as employment history and qualifications), as well as contact details of referees. This information is only processed for the purpose of considering your job application, making any offer of employment, and administering your contract of employment.

What do we use your information for?

We use information held about you in the following ways:

    • To provide clients with the professional counselling service requested from us.

    • To offer suitable counselling appointments, and to allocate clients and counsellors for counselling.

    • To notify you about changes to your appointments and other changes to our services.

    • To seek feedback from you on your experience of counselling with us.

    • To improve our service to ensure that it is provided in the most effective manner for you and for us.

    • To administer our service, including the arrangement of appointments, the handling of donations, and for financial control, data analysis, research, statistical and survey purposes.

    • To report to funders using data that has been anonymised.

    • To keep in touch with those who consent to this, for the purposes of organisational, service and professional development.

    • To fulfil our administrative, legal and contractual obligations as an employer.

What information do we share?

We will not share any information about you with other organisations or people, except in the following situations:

    • Consent – NEECS may share your information with professional carers or others whom you have requested or agreed we should contact.

    • Appointments – We may temporarily share your contact and referral details with NEECS counsellors who conduct appointments.

    • Serious harm – NEECS may share your information with the relevant authorities if we have reason to believe that this may prevent serious harm being caused to you or another person.

    • Compliance with law – NEECS may share your information where we are required to by law or by the regulations and other rules to which we are subject.

How do we keep your information safe?

The information provided is stored securely in cloud-based storage and to our Database by the Service Co-ordinator.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is never completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your information using industry-standard protocols and encryption, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to us via email, including forms completed on our website. Any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access. Any documentation is destroyed three years after the end of counselling. Gift Aid declarations are destroyed/deleted after seven years, and personal contact details are destroyed/deleted after seven years of no contact or updates.

 

Your rights

You have the right to ask us to provide a copy of the information held by us in our records. You also have the right to require us to correct any inaccuracies in your information. If you would like to do this, please contact the Service Co-ordinator. You may withdraw your consent for us to hold and process your data at any time.  However, if you do this while actively receiving counselling at the NEECS, your counselling would have to end. 

 

Cookies

We do not use cookies to collect any personal information on our website or to share your browsing behaviour with any third party except:

Google Analytics – Like hundreds or thousands of websites you visit, we use Google Analytics to collect generic, anonymous data from all visitors to monitor how our website is used. This data is shared with Google in return for the service they provide.

Cookie Notice – Ironically, the law requires that you receive a notification about our use of cookies, so we have to use another set of cookies specifically and only to collect the information that you have seen this notice and agreed to it.

If you are aware of or find any other cookies on this website, please let us know immediately as they have not been installed by us. 

 

Changes to this policy

We may edit this policy from time to time. If we make any substantial changes we will notify you by posting a prominent announcement on our website.