In line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), RTE Psychology is committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring that its practice is compliant with GDPR guidelines.

RTE Psychology is also registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

This policy outlines how your personal data is collected, processed and stored by RTE Psychology.

Collection and Storage of Information

When you contact RTE Psychology, your personal data will be collected and securely stored electronically. Details stored include your name, school, role and contact details. These details are stored in a password-protected database (Excel spreadsheet).

Any information you share is used exclusively by RTE Psychology for the purposes of contracting educational psychology support.

RTE Psychology will never disclose any of your personal information with any third parties.

The Health and Care Professions Council provides detailed information regarding the expectations for practitioner psychologists’ record keeping: Our expectations for your record keeping | (hcpc-uk.org).

Data Protection and Educational Psychologist Practice

When working directly with schools, the educational psychologist will collect and store data in the following ways:

• Discussion and recording of information about a child or young person during a planning meeting with the link contact for the school (usually the SENCO and/or headteacher), if verbal consent has been given by parent/carer(s). If verbal consent has not been given, the child will be referred to by his/her initials.
• Information gathered during the planning meeting is recorded in writing, shared with the link contact for the school via secure email and stored electronically within the school’s RTE Psychology folder. RTE does not hold paper copies of any written information.
• Informed consent from a child or young person’s parent/carer(s) must be obtained prior to any direct involvement, including named discussion. The consent form is issued by RTE Psychology to the school and family. A scanned or electronically completed copy of the consent form is stored electronically in a folder linked to the named child or young person. Any paper copies received are scanned and then shredded.
• Details relating to all children or young people who are referred to RTE Psychology are stored securely on an electronic database (Excel spreadsheet). The information held includes first and last name, date of birth, gender, home address, first language, ethnicity, school, year group, names and contact details (telephone number(s)/email address(es)) of parent/carers.
• The parent/carer(s) are able to withdraw their consent for EP involvement at any time. If this happens, all details and data relating to the child or young person will be deleted from the RTE databases.
• As part of EP involvement, a written report or record of work is usually completed. A copy of any written report or record is stored in the child or young person’s electronic folder, held by RTE Psychology. A copy of this report or record of work is sent to the child or young person’s school and to their parent/carer(s) via secure email.
• Any additional supporting documents relating to an individual child or young person which are gathered or shared as part of EP involvement will be stored electronically by RTE Psychology.
• RTE Psychology will hold individual child or young person records until they turn 25 years of age. At this time, all information relating to the young person will be deleted from the RTE database.
• When working with a young person over the age of 18, RTE Psychology will hold records for eight years following EP involvement. After eight years, all information relating to the individual will be deleted.

Confidentiality

All work undertaken by RTE Psychology is confidential. Information relating to a child or young person is only shared with the consent of the child or young person’s parent/carer(s).

In some instances, it may be necessary to disclose information. In an event such as this, the educational psychologist will endeavour to obtain informed consent from the child or young person and their family, ensuring that the consequences of disclosing the information are made as clear as possible. There are some circumstances in which this may not be possible or application. For example, if the health, safety, security or welfare of the child or your person is at risk or if there are other safeguarding concerns.

Further information regarding confidentiality can be found in The British Psychological Society (BPS) Practice Guidelines: BPS Practice Guidelines (2017) | BPS.

Where your data is stored

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. This information is used to track visitor use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity. For further information visit: aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org. You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the above websites tell you how to remove cookies from your browser. However, in a few cases some of our website features may not function as a result.

Please note that this website contains some links to external websites. These sites have their own privacy/cookie policy and RTE Psychology does not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies.

You have the right to access any information or records that RTE Psychology holds about you. Access to information is restricted to information about yourself, or the child/young person where you are making a request as their parent or legal guardian. Restrictions will apply when disclosure of this information would place the individual concerned at risk of serious harm. If you wish to access such information or records, or if you have any questions about this policy or how RTE Psychology uses your data, please contact RTE Psychology. The data controller is Dr Sophie Roberts and any enquiries regarding data should be made by email: info@rtepsychology.co.uk or telephone: 07470 244600.