This page is about how we handle your information. You can also use the buttons below to understand more about how your age impacts things, what your rights are around your information and data and read our policies in full.
If you have any questions that aren't covered here, you can reach us at theteam@42ndstreet.org.uk
On this page
Information about what you might need from support and what's going on for you, so we can make sure we’re the right service for you, help you access other support you might benefit from and to help us understand how we can best support you.
Information around your identity (such as age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and so on) to help us understand who is accessing our service and to ensure we’re offering relevant and accessible support.
Information about your support journey. At your assessment and throughout support, we’ll ask you to complete wellbeing questionnaires so we can understand how things are going and chat about the impact of any support. Your worker will also keep notes about your sessions, so they can help you get the most from your support.* You can ask to read these notes at any time.
Your contact information, so that we can keep in touch and talk through your needs.
An emergency contact so that we have someone we can contact in the event of an emergency (for example, you’re injured in our building or tell us that you’re in danger).
So you know, we’d always try to talk to you before contacting your GP or your emergency contact and would only decide to talk to someone without your consent if we believed that you, another young person or a vulnerable adult is at risk of significant harm.
Your GP information, for two reasons; often this is required for our funding (as we are only able to offer support in certain locations) and so that, if we’re ever very worried about your safety, we can ask your GP to check in with you.
Lastly, if you access support through our online text platform, the conversation you have with your worker will be stored there securely, so that you can return to it whenever you want, if you'd like to reflect on the things you talked about with your practitioner.
(*We're also required to keep accurate records in line with regulation 17.2(c) of the Health & Social Care Act 2008 which states we have a duty to "maintain securely an accurate, complete and contemporaneous record in respect of each service user, including a record of the care and treatment provided to the service user and of decisions taken in relation to the care and treatment provided")
What do you do with this information?
Your worker uses the information we have about you to help them understand your support needs.
We keep this information on a secure, internal database for a period of 20 years, in line with the NHS's Records Management Code of Practice.
There might be times they will need to share some of your information with a manager, either to make sure we are offering the right support or to keep you, or someone else, safe.
Otherwise, we don’t share this information outside of our organisation to anyone, unless one of the following occurs:
1. You ask us to share it with someone.
2. In very rare circumstances, we may be legally required to do so under UK Law (such as becoming aware of a terrorism threat or a lawful request relating to court proceedings)
3. You give us permission to include information in reports that we generate (meaning there would be no information shared that could identify you).
4. We have concerns that you, another young person or a vulnerable adult, is at risk of significant harm.
What does "significant harm" mean?
Significant harm can include abuse, neglect or ill-treatment that can be physical, emotional or sexual in nature, as well as actions that might otherwise cause lasting harm to someone’s health or development.
According to the UK Data Protection Act 2018 (section 1.2.18), safeguarding concerns that can trigger sharing someone's data specifically includes:
protecting an individual from neglect or physical, mental or emotional harm, or protecting the physical, mental or emotional well-being of an individual
Any decision to share information about you will take your circumstances into account, including:
1. Any protective factors that might be helping to keep you safe
2. Who else knows what's happening and whether they’re able to support you
3. Your age (see "about your age" for more info)
If we do have concerns about significant harm and need to act, then we;
1. will always try to talk you about this first and to involve you in the decision, as much as we can
2. may talk the decision through with the 42nd Street manager on duty before sharing information, to make sure we are acting in the best interests of everyone involved
3. will only share the information needed to make sure everyone involved is kept safe and only do so with relevant services
4. will update you with the outcomes of any information sharing
How do I know my information is safe?
All the above information is stored on a secure database, which is only accessible to 42nd Street staff.
If we ever need to share written information about you for the reasons mentioned above, we use a secure, encrypted e-mail system to do that.
If you’ve given us permission, your data will be anonymised and included in reports that we produce about our service, so that no one will be able to identify you and no one outside of 42nd Street will have access to your original information in this way.
(If you access support with us through the SilverCloud CBT platform, that information is securely stored with SilverCloud. You can read their privacy policy here)
Can I see my information?
Everyone has the right to access personal information/records held about them by an organisation. This is often called a Subject Access Request (or SAR). It covers information stored physically and digitally, and includes information you have given us, our notes and any letters about you.
If you'd like to request access to the information we have about you, an SAR needs to be made in writing and we might ask you to prove your identity to make sure your information is kept secure.
To do this, you can speak with you worker, e-mail us at theteam@42ndstreet.org.uk or contact us in writing at:
42nd Street, the SPACE, 87-91 Great Ancoats Street, Manchester, M4 5AG
In accordance with GDPR (and UK Data Protection Act) we will provide the information requested as soon as we are able to, with a maximum wait of 1 month from receiving your request. There is no charge for receiving your information.
Can I have my data deleted?
In short, the answer to this is usually that we're not able to delete data held about you unless that data is inaccurate (article 16 of GDPR gives everyone the right to have inaccurate data about themselves corrected).
This is because we have to keep the records on anyone who uses our service securely for 20 years, in accordance with the NHS Records Management Code of Practice.
To explain more;
Under the UK Data Protection Act, schedule 1, a “patient record”, such as the data we hold about you, is classed as “special category data”.
Special Category Data is exempt from GDPR's “right to erasure” (having your data deleted) under certain conditions, including if it’s used for “the provision of health or social care or treatment, or the management of health or social care systems and services”.
The length of time that we have to retain these "patient records" is determined by NHS regulations, in particular the Records Management Codes of Practice 2021, which states that all mental health records must be kept for a period of 20 years*
(*The definition of a "mental health record" is one that meets the criteria in section 2 of the Mental Health Act 2008 Code of Practice. If a person is sectioned under the Mental Health Act, those specific records might be kept for longer in line with clinical judgement of those involved. Records are only kept for 10 years following a person's death)
Can I delete my online profile?
If you are registered on our online platform and would like this profile and the information stored on our online platform deleted, then yes we can do this for you. It’s important to know that there is no way to recover this profile once it is deleted. It is also important to know that we will still have to keep a health record in our secure database as mentioned in the legislation above.
To ask for your profile to be deleted, you can speak with you worker, e-mail us at theteam@42ndstreet.org.uk or contact us in writing at:
42nd Street, the SPACE, 87-91 Great Ancoats Street, Manchester, M4 5AG
Is working online secure?
We will always make sure any information we collect about you is securely and safely stored in our database; however, it is worth thinking about what equipment you are using to access the website.
Sometimes public PCs, in places such as libraries, schools or colleges, have monitoring software installed that might mean they’re not fully confidential. You can speak to the owner of the equipment to check this or contact us via your own device.
You can also use the "exit site" button to leave the page you are on at any time.
It’s important to make sure you’re the only person with the password to your online account. For tips on making a secure password, we recommend having a look here.
Could any of these policies change?
All our organisational policies are reviewed every year to ensure they’re accurate and to capture any changes in legislation that may have happened nationally (for example, changes in UK Data Law).
In general, the majority of updates won’t alter the key functions of any policy. They tend to be along the lines of incorporating new job roles, referencing any new internal systems used, referencing a different paragraph in an updated piece of legislation and so on.
In the rare instance that we ever update a policy in a significant way that could have an impact on your support with us or what we do with your data, we will get in touch and let you know.
You can always find the most up to date confidentiality and data policy on our site, and they include a list of dates when they were reviewed. Any significant changes since the last version will be highlighted on this.
