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Privacy notice for the Mental Health Support Team

Introduction

This privacy notice explains what types of personal data we may hold about you, how we collect it, how we use it and who we may share information with. We are required to give you this information under data protection law. This privacy notice should be read in conjunction with the corporate privacy notice.

Achieving for Children is registered as a controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Registration number ZA045069.

Achieving for Children’s Mental Health Support Team (MHST) is a Tier 1/2 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) that works in partnership with other agencies that provide health, social care and education. The MHST consists of a multi-disciplinary team of psychological professionals who are based in schools to provide support and early help to children and young people. The team offer therapeutic work for those who have mild to moderate mental and emotional health difficulties such as anxiety, low mood and common behavioural difficulties. The MHST covers all schools in Kingston and Richmond.

The MHST works in partnership with the child or young person's school. The school is required to seek parent or carer consent to discuss the challenges that you or your child or young person are experiencing during a consultation with a senior member of the MHST. During the consultation, your child’s needs will be discussed and support options considered. This may result in recommendations or signposting to other, more appropriate services. However, there are some instances where a referral to the MHST could be considered appropriate. With parental consent obtained, the school is able to make a referral on your child or young person’s behalf to the MHST. The MHST also accepts self-referrals from parents and young people in secondary school.

Personal data we collect

We collect information from parents or carers for children and young people below and within statutory school age, and from young people themselves if they are aged 16 or over and no longer in compulsory education. We collect the following personal information:

  • personal identifiers and contact details (such as name, date of birth, contact details and address, as well as details of parents or carers)
  • details of your family, relatives and carers
  • special category data such as ethnicity, languages spoken, disabilities, gender
  • details of special educational needs and disabilities
  • physical, mental and emotional health information 
  • current school
  • information about other professionals involved with your child
  • education, health and care plan details
  • safeguarding information
  • NHS number

We may seek personal information from other sources including:

  • other departments in Achieving for Children
  • your child or young person's GP in regard to their health
  • school or education provider
  • other involved professional practitioners such as Tier 3 CAMHS at South West London and St George’s NHS Trust

How we collect your personal information

We collect personal information in the following ways:

  • face to face
  • audio and video calls
  • email
  • referral form
  • other assessments or reports

How we use your personal data

We hold the information securely and use it to:

The MHST collects and uses personal data in order to provide your child with the best and most appropriate care. This is essential in helping us to:

  • Confirm who you are and when we can contact you.
  • Make decisions about your child or young person’s ongoing care and treatment.
  • Share information with South West London and St George’s NHS Trust CAMHS teams to inform decisions about your child or young person's ongoing care and treatment.
  • Ensure that our staff have accurate and up to date information in order to assess your needs and improve your child or young person's care.
  • Prepare statistics on the service performance in order to manage, improve and extend the services we are able to provide to your child or young person.
  • Allow us to investigate complaints, claims and incidents.

Lawful basis for processing your personal data

The basis we rely on to process personal data is article 6(1)(e) UK GDPR: processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority, which includes providing and managing health and social care services to our service users.

Lawful basis for processing special categories of personal data we rely upon

The basis we rely on to process special category data is article 9 (2)(h) of the UK GDPR: processing is necessary for the provision of health or social care or treatment.

How long your personal data will be kept

Clinical records of children and young people receiving support will be retained until children reach their 26th birthday.

Keeping your information secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Who we share your personal information with

We will only share information when we have your consent or where it is appropriate and legal to do so. Where this is necessary, we are required to comply with all aspects of the Data Protection Act 2018. Organisations we may share your personal information with include:

  • South West London & St George’s NHS Trust
  • your child or young person's GP
  • your child or young person's school
  • other departments in Achieving for Children such as Early Help or Special Educational Needs

Your rights and access to information

Under data protection legislation you have the right to request access to the information that we hold about you. To request a copy of your data, please read the Individual Rights Requests page and then submit your request using your preferred method of contact.

You also have the right to:

  • object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress
  • have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed
  • prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing object to decisions being taken by automated means
  • in certain circumstances have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed; and
  • a right to seek redress, either through the ICO, or through the courts

If you have any questions or concerns about the way we process personal data, or would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, please contact our Data Protection Officer: [email protected]

The National Data Opt Out

This is the service that allows patients to opt out of their confidential patient information being used for research and planning. To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, visit the NHS your data matters website.

If you want to make a complaint about how we handle your personal data, we ask that you give our Data Protection Officer the opportunity to respond in the first instance but you are not obliged to do this. You can make a complaint directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office.