Privacy Statement for Advocacy and Advocacy Helpline

We are only able to keep information about you when you know:

• Exactly who is keeping your information and data
• Why we are keeping your information
• What reasons we have for keeping your information
• The types of personal information we will keep
• Where your personal data has come from
• Who we might share information with and why
• How long we will keep your information
• What your rights are for example- if you want to see your records
• What if you think the information you have about me is wrong?
• How you can stop us from having your information
• How you can make a complaint

We can only keep information that is relevant to our work with you.  These are called records.  Records have to be accurate, up to date, secure and kept for a limited amount of time only.  You might ask us:

What information do we collect from you?

From the time we start working with you on our helpline  we record basic information about who you are (name, age, gender, language you speak, if you have a disability and your ethnicity), where you live, names of carers, social worker, the work we are doing with you and why you want us to speak up for you or with you.

Most of your personal data comes from you.  Sometimes it might come from a carer, social worker, residential worker or personal advisor.  For example, if your social worker contacts us for you, provides information that is useful to us working with you, if you were ill, unable to speak or have a complex disability.

All the information we have about you we will share with you unless it would put you or someone else in danger.

Why do you keep this information?

We keep information about you to help us to:

• Decide the best advice and support to give you and so we know what work we have done with you and where things are up to.
• Assess the type and quality of support you have received.
• Check if you (or anyone else) is in serious danger;
• We also keep this information so you can see the work we did to support you and the information we have (See “How long you will keep my information”)

We may also use your information to:

• investigate your concerns if you need to complain about our services; refer you to another service (we would only do this with your agreement);
• check you have got a good service from us by undertaking an audit where we review young people’s records;
• check the quality of the services we provide by being assessed by other organisations to obtain a service quality mark and/or as part of a accreditation processes (your information remains confidential and is kept on our systems);
• investigate serious incidents (this is when we notice that something has gone wrong, or nearly went wrong, with the service we provide to you);
• plan future services to ensure we meet the needs of young people;
• report on our performance to the organisations who fund us and to the Department for Education (this information is always provided in a way that means you can’t be individually identified unless we have your consent to identify you);
• conduct research and development, with your consent;
• Communicate publicly about the difference that we make to young people.  This would never be done in a way that would identify individual young people without their explicit permission.

In addition to the staff and volunteers who work in our services, our managers and our small team of data analysts, and on rare occasion third party service providers may have access to your data but only if they need to. Anyone who has access to your information has signed an agreement to keep your information confidential.

Who might we share this information with?

We have to report about how many people we have worked with and what the general issues have been if we are working with you to provide a service for a local authority, children’s home, health service or other agency or government department.  If we are asked to share any of your personal details we will always get your permission before doing this.  We will not share information about you unless you agree to us doing this.

However, if you or another child are unsafe or at risk of being hurt in some way we would have to share some important information. We would always tell you about this as long as doing this did not put you at more risk. Occasionally, we may also have to share information for legal reasons.  Again we would always talk to you about this if we can.

Who is keeping my information and data?

Coram Voice workers record your information on a system which is safe and secure.  The organisation is Coram Voice, QEII Centre, Coram Campus, 41 Brunswick Square, London, WC1N 1AZ, 020 7833 5792.

Coram Voice is part of the Coram group of charities.  For Coram Voice services, electronic records are saved on a secure database that is available to Coram Voice and Coram Workers on a need to know basis.  This means no one who will look at your information who does not need to.

Any paper records we have are kept in locked cabinets.

How long will you keep my information?

We will keep your information until you are 25 if we worked with you when you were under 18 years old or if you were older than 18 when we worked with you, for 7 years once we have stopped working with you.  For example, if you were 22 when we stopped working with you we would keep your information until you were 29.  We may keep it longer if policy or law means we have to.    After that time they are securely destroyed.

Anonymised data may be stored on our secure system. This means that we remove any information that would allow you to be identified before we save information on our system.

All workers who have access to your records have been trained to work to the same confidentiality policy where your rights to confidentiality are respected and protected.

What are my rights over my information?

To keep information about you we have to have a legal reason for doing this. These are that you agree and want us to work with you (give consent), to make sure we provide you with the support you need (contractual compliance, legal obligation, vital interests) and to make sure we give you advocacy support where we are contracted by a local authority, other body or agency (contractual compliance)

Can I see my records?

You have a right to see all the information we hold on you by asking your advocate to see your records at any time. To do this just phone your advocate or contact Coram Voice, QEII Centre, Coram Campus, 41 Brunswick Square, London, WC1N 1AZ, 020 7833 5792. data.protection@coramvoice.org.uk

You should be able to see your file within one month.  

What if I think the information you have about me is wrong?

You have a right that all information we have about you is correct. If you think that some of the information we hold about you is inaccurate (for example you name is spelt wrong, we have recorded work done incorrectly) please speak to you advocate or contact Coram Voice, QEII Centre, Coram Campus, 41 Brunswick Square, London, WC1N 1AZ, 020 7833 5792.

data.protection@coramvoice.org.uk.

We will give you an answer about your request within one month. 

How can I stop you keeping my information?

You can say you do not want advocacy support or advice whenever you want.  You can stop giving us permission to collect your information at any time and we will do this.  We will then keep any information we already have and record that you do not want advocacy from us anymore.  You of course can come back if you want advocacy anytime until you are 26 years old.   If you do not want us to keep any information about the work that we have done with you please speak  your advocate, the Helpline Manager, 0808 800 5792, help@coramvoiceorg.uk  or contact Coram Voice, QEII Centre, Coram Campus, 41 Brunswick Square, London, WC1N 1AZ, 020 7833 5792. data.protection@coramvoice.org.uk

How can I make a complaint?

If you are unhappy with how we are using the information we have about you please speak to your advocate or the Helpline Manager, 0808 800 5792, help@coramvoiceorg.uk to see if they can sort it out. You can also make a complaint.

You can complain to: The data controller Coram Voice, QEII Centre, Coram Campus, 41 Brunswick Square, London, WC1N 1AZ, 020 7833 5792. data.protection@coramvoice.org.uk

If you are not happy you can also complain to:

The Information Commissioner

Wycliffe House, Water Lane

Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Help line:  0303 123 1113

This notice was last updated on 05/06/2018