Confidentiality
What is confidentiality?
Confidentiality is about how we use information from you and about you in a respectful way, to protect your rights and help provide effective support.
What does it mean for me?
Confidentiality means that you can talk to your support worker, or another staff member. It also means that you can trust that person to be careful with the information you give them and make the right decision about what to do with the information.
It means we won’t tell anyone else what you tell us unless we absolutely have to.
The same applies to anything you tell us on a form, letter or e-mail.
Keeping information about you confidential
We will only pass on the information that you give us to anyone outside the Stonham HomeStay service in the following circumstances:
- You give us permission. If we think it would help to give you the best possible service, we will ask you to give us permission to share information with other organisations or people. We will ask you to sign a form agreeing to us sharing the information. You can withdraw your permission at any time, although that may mean we have to look again at how we provide a service for you.
- The information is about a crime or illegal activity, or if a court orders us to.
- We are worried that you might come to harm from someone else, or hurt yourself or someone else. This is what we call ‘Safeguarding’ and we follow North Yorkshire’s Multi-Agency Safeguarding procedures.
- An organisation with a legal responsibility asks us for information, for example, Housing Benefit, social services and the probation service.
We will not discuss your details with anyone else who uses our services.
If you ask us to investigate a complaint, we will check with you first what information you want us to discuss with other people.
Can I see what’s on my personal file?
Yes, you can ask to look at your file in front of your support worker or another staff member. We will aim to give you an appointment within 48 hours of you asking. Other people who use our services cannot look at your file.
If you would like a copy of any information you see on your file, ask the staff member who is with you when you look at it. They will copy the papers you want for you.
If someone else has given us information about you, we cannot show it to you unless they give us their permission.
If you are not happy about any information we have about you on your file, please discuss this with your support worker or another staff member. If you are not happy with what they do about it you can make a formal complaint.
We must keep some information we have on your file even after you have left our service. Our rules about confidentiality still apply to the file.
Data Protection
The Data Protection Act means that we keep all the information we have about you securely and use it in line with the law. This applies to written and computer records.
For more information
If you want to talk to someone in confidence, or see your personal file, please ask your support worker or another staff member in the service.