Confidentiality and Information Sharing Agreement
Southern Domestic Abuse Service’s trading as Stop Domestic Abuse aim is:
To support you in whatever choices you make
Inform you of choices that are available to you
To create a safe environment for you to disclose sensitive and personal information
To respect your decisions
We will use information you give us to help keep you, children and adults at risk safe. We will also use this information to improve the services we offer you and others. Our legal basis to process your data is our legitimate interests to provide the best service to our clients and to report to organisations that fund the work we do. When reporting to funders all information is anonymous.
Sharing Information
The information you provide is confidential and will not be shared without your consent unless:
- You, any children, or adult, are likely to be seriously injured or harmed
Or
- We have a legal obligation to do so.
There may be times when it is useful for us to share information about you with other agencies. Your case worker will ask your permission and you will be able to say yes or no. The only exception to this is if your situation is ‘high risk’ then we can share information without your permission. We will always try and tell you when information is being shared unless it is not safe to do so, or we can’t contact you. In this situation we will only share relevant information that will improve yours, a child’s, or an adult at risk safety.
If we do not have your consent to share your information, we will discuss the situation with a senior member of the team and will write on your case file what we shared, why and who with. In the event that a senior staff is not available prior to the decision, it will be reviewed within 48 hours.
Special Category Data
Some data is more sensitive, this is referred to as special category data. Special category data includes race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion. We will process this information, with your consent, for the purpose of reviewing equality of opportunity within our service. You can choose not to give us this information or refuse consent for us to process this information. You can also withdraw your consent by writing to us. We will ask your permission to share special category data unless if it is to detect a crime, safeguard a child or an adult at risk, or to protect your life and you are unable to give consent.
Processing Information
We will process information on your sex life when necessary for the provision of our confidential support service provided to you.
We will process data on any criminal offence information for the purpose of safeguarding anyone at risk, and to provide our confidential support service to you.
We will tell you what information we are given about you from other sources and if any of it is incorrect, we will change it
Your data will be stored on our cloud-based systems, none of which are outside the United Kingdom, and is compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation. Only authorised people at Southern Domestic Abuse Service will have access to this information unless you say otherwise.
We will not keep your information for longer than 12 years following your support ending, and we will strive to keep it up to date.
Anonymous Information
We may need to share your information outside our service to help us monitor our performance, understand more about domestic abuse and the best ways to improve that lives of the people who experience it. When we share information in this way your identity and your children’s identities will be removed. We are part of a national research programme run by Women’s Aid Federation of England, to support research into domestic abuse, and to help campaign for more and better services. It is up to you if your information is made available for these reasons, and this will not affect the service you receive.
We have to provide statistical information to our funders; no individual or family can be identified from this information.
Your Rights
You have the right to:
Be informed about the collection and use of your data.
Be given a copy of the data that we hold on you.
Have inaccurate information changed or deleted.
Withdraw your consent after this has previously been given.
Object to our collection and use of your data, and request we delete or restrict our use of your data, if we are not doing so legally.
Contact Information
Southern Domestic Abuse Service of PO Box 53 Havant, PO9 1UA / info@stopdomesticabuse.uk is the Data Controller in charge of processing your personal data provided.
The Data Protection Officer is the Business Support & Development Director.
Information Commissioner’s Office - 0303 123 1113