Who we are

Liverpool Speech Therapy is an independent speech and language therapy service set up by Sophie Humphries, a qualified Speech and Language Therapist, who is registered with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC).  

 

Liverpool Speech Therapy delivers an independent speech and language therapy service to children in the home and/or educational setting.

 

Liverpool Speech Therapy operates a website at www.liverpoolspeechtherapy.com

 

Liverpool Speech Therapy is committed to protecting the privacy of information provided by clients.

 

Collection of personal information

Information about your child may be collected via spoken or written information from parents/carers.

 

With parental consent, information may also be collected from other professionals working with your child (such as teachers, nursery staff, childminders, NHS Speech and Language Therapist). We may also collect information about family members where this relates to your child e.g. contact details for parents and relevant medical or developmental history.

 

You may use the Liverpool Speech Therapy website without providing any personal information. However, if you wish to make an enquiry via the website, you are requested to provide relevant contact details, such as your name, e-mail address and contact telephone number to enable us to respond to your enquiry. You may add comments or queries which might also contain personal information. If your enquiry does not result in your child being seen by Liverpool Speech Therapy then this personal information will be deleted once your enquiry has been dealt with. If your child is subsequently seen by Liverpool Speech Therapy these details may be added to their personal record.

 

Our use of personal information

Personal information collected by us via the Liverpool Speech Therapy website, email, telephone or face to face, is stored and used by us for the purpose of delivering your child’s speech and language therapy. Any sensitive personal details are stored in a secure and confidential electronic-based system and processed in confidence by Liverpool Speech Therapy and shall only be used for the purposes of delivering appropriate speech and language therapy services to your child. With your consent, information about your child’s speech and language needs will be shared with other professionals involved in your child’s care, when it is in your child’s best interests. A record of your consent is kept within your child’s records. Unless we are required to do so by law, we will not disclose any personal information collected to any person other than as set out above. We do not employ agents to process personal data, for example, specialist mailing companies to send out communications. We do not give or sell client details to any third party.

 

How we use personal information

All information about you, your child and their speech and language therapy is stored securely in our systems to ensure that we have a complete record of our service to them. We use a secure electronic cloud-based system called “WriteUpp” which is compliant with general data protection regulations. Prior to being uploaded to this system documents are temporarily stored on a OneDrive cloud-based system which is only accessible via a password held by the individual therapists. Documents which contain confidential information such as reports and programmes are also individually password protected from the outset. Any paper based confidential information such as assessments are stored securely in accordance with Data Protection Regulations. Videos may be taken of clients with parental consent. These are temporarily stored on an encrypted and password protected tablet. These may then be viewed by the SLT in order to make notes in a client record. The video is deleted as soon as it has been processed and is no longer required. The minimum amount of confidential information will be taken out of the Speech and Language Therapist’s office base. When your child’s information is taken out of the office base it will be kept with the Speech and Language Therapist or will be locked in the boot of the Speech and Language Therapist’s car (whichever is deemed to be the most secure at that time). 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 our 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. Specifically: Standard 2: Communicate appropriately and effectively “You must share relevant information, where appropriate, with colleagues involved in the care, treatment or other services provided to a service user.” Standard 10: Keep records of your work “You must keep full, clear, and accurate records for everyone you care for, treat, or provide other services to. You must complete all records promptly and as soon as possible after providing care, treatment or other services. You must keep records secure by protecting them from loss, damage or inappropriate access.”

 

For further information the full document can be found: https://www.hcpc-uk.org/standards/standards-of-conduct-performance-and-ethics/

​

UK Data Protection Law and EU General Data Protection Regulations

Data Protection Law lays down wide-ranging rules, backed up by criminal sanctions, for the processing of information about identifiable, living individuals. It also gives individuals certain rights in relation to personal data held about them by others. Sophie Humphries is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a Data Controller. You can view her ICO registration by visiting www.ico.org.uk

 

Our lawful basis for processing personal information

Our lawful basis for processing and storing personal information is one of ‘legitimate interest’ (under article 6 of GDPR). We cannot adequately deliver a service to your child without processing their personal information. As it is both a necessity for our service delivery and of benefit to your child, we 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.

 

Our responsibilities 

We are committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of your child’s record. We actively implement security measures to ensure their information is safe, and audit these regularly. We will not release your personal details to any third party without first seeking your consent, unless this is allowed for or required by law. We are 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. 

 

How to access your child’s records

You can access the information we hold about you by writing to us (address will be supplied at point of contact). Please contact us by telephone or email for the address and once supplied, please apply in writing rather than by email, so that we receive an original signature to compare against the records we hold. A copy of your child’s records is provided free of charge. We will provide access to your child’s records within 30 days of receipt of all necessary information.

 

If you have any further questions about how we use your information, please contact info@liverpoolspeechtherapy.com

 

Further information about data protection legislation and your rights is available from the Information Commissioner's Office or by calling 0303 123 1113, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.