Privacy Policy

Purpose of Privacy Policy

The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the GDPR). This legislation will replace current data privacy law, giving more rights to you as an individual and more obligations to organisations holding your personal data.

One of the rights is a right to be informed, which means I have to give you even more information than I do now about the way in which I use, share and store your personal information.

This means that I will be publishing a new privacy notice so you can access this information, along with information about the increased rights you have in relation to the information I hold on you and the legal basis on which I am using it.

This new privacy policy comes into effect on 25 May 2018.

Who am I?

Ruby Speight is the data controller. This means I decide how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.

Whose information does this privacy policy apply to?

This privacy policy applies to information I collect from:

· clients;

· prospective clients;

· former clients;

· people who subscribe to my newsletters;

· visitors to my website;

What is personal data?

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. Examples of personal data I may hold about you include your contact and appointment details.

Special category data is a sub-category of personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation. Examples of special category data I may hold about you include your client notes.

How do I process your personal data?

I comply with my obligations under the GDPR by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data. I use your personal data for the purposes set out below.

1. I use your name, address, telephone number and email address to make and rearrange appointments. I am unable to send or receive encrypted emails so you should be aware that any emails I send or receive may not be protected in transit. I will also monitor any emails sent to me, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send me is within the bounds of the law.

2. I use your name, address, telephone number and email address, only if I have your explicit consent, to send you marketing materials. I am unable to send or receive encrypted emails so you should be aware that any emails I send or receive may not be protected in transit. I will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send me is within the bounds of the law.

3. Some clients and prospective clients return pre- 1st appointment questionnaires or tell me about their medical conditions and medication by email or online enquiry forms. I am unable to send or receive encrypted emails so you should be aware that any emails I send or receive may not be protected in transit. I will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send me is within the bounds of the law.

4. I keep a permanent attendance register which records all appointments for clients attending appointments to keep a record of when you were treated for tax purposes and to secure potential evidence in the event of a criminal prosecution, civil litigation, insurance claim or complaint to my regulatory body, the Federation of Holistic Therapists.

5. I may use your date of birth to help identify clients with the same name to avoid mistakes being made as to safe and appropriate treatment, for identification purposes if referring a client to another health practitioner, and for identification purposes if writing to a registered medical practitioner so that they correctly identify the client.

6. I use your presenting complaint and symptoms reported by you for the purposes of deciding treatment suitability, and formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.

7. I use any relevant medical and family history you have told me for the purposes of deciding treatment suitability, and formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.

8. I use your GP’s name and address in the event that I need to contact your GP including in an emergency and because it is a mandatory requirement in the FHT Code of Conduct and Professional Practice.

9. I use my clinical findings about your health and wellbeing for deciding treatment suitability, and formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.

10. I keep a record of and refer to that record of any treatment given and details of progress of your case, including reviews of treatment planning to enable me to: review the treatment suitability, treatment strategy and planning; and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint.

11. I record and use any information and advice that I have given, especially when referring clients to any other health professional, to help you to receive the most appropriate treatment and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint.

12. I record any decisions made in conjunction with you to help you to receive the most appropriate treatment and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint.

13. I keep accident records for any clients, visitors or staff who are involved in accidents at a premises in accordance with UK Health and Safety legislation including the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) to comply with the law and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint.

14. In the event of an adverse incident occurring to any of my clients I report the matter to the Federation of Holistic Therapists and my insurance company to enable the insurance company to deal with any potential claims and to help the Federation of Holistic Therapists to develop its safe practice guidelines, as well as providing research data and information for the FHT’s insurers and other interested parties.

15. Where relevant I maintain records of the client’s consent to treatment, or the consent of their next-of-kin in order to be able to prove that the client (and/or parent/guardian/next of kin) has given informed consent to treatment to secure evidence in the event of a civil claim, criminal prosecution, insurance claim or complaint.

16. When I receive a complaint from a person I make up a file containing the details of the complaint. This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint.

17. I will only use the personal information I collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service I provide. I may need to provide personal information collected and processed in relation to complaints to the Federation of Holistic Therapists or my insurance company.

18. I will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with my retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained for two years from closure. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle.

Similarly, where enquiries are submitted to me I will only use the information supplied to me to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues and to check on the level of service I provide.

Sharing your personal data

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential, and will be shared:

with named third parties with your explicit consent;
with the relevant authority such as the police or a court, if necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject e.g. a court order;
with your doctor or the police if necessary to protect yours or another person’s life;
with the police or a local authority for the purpose of safeguarding children or vulnerable adults; or
with my regulatory body, the Federation of Holistic Therapists, or my insurance company in the event of a complaint or insurance claim being brought against me; or
my solicitor in the event of any investigation or legal proceedings being brought against me.

For further details about the situations when information about you might be shared please see the Information Commissioner’s website at https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/personal-information/sharing-my-info/

How long do I keep your personal data?

I keep your personal data for no longer than reasonably necessary.

I keep client records for a period of 10 years in accordance with the FHT Code of Conduct and Professional https://www.fht.org.uk/fs/s/v/code_october15_final.pdf

All data is kept to-to-date through handwritten notes, held in locked and fireproof storage facilities and shredded at the end of 10 years. If the recipient of the notes or myself becomes ill or passes away, these notes will be shredded but only with consent of the individual or designated family member.

At any time you may request that changes are made to your contact details.

Your rights and your personal data

Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have certain rights with respect to your personal data as set out below.

Right of access – you have the right to request a copy of the information I hold about you.
Right of rectification – you have a right to request that I correct any personal data if it is inaccurate or out of date.
Right to be forgotten – where it is no longer necessary for me to retain data you can ask for me to erase it
Right to restriction of processing – unless I am using a lawful purpose other than consent you can withdraw your consent to processing at any time
Right to portability – you have a right to transfer the data I hold about you to another organisation
Right to object – you have the right to object to certain types of data processing such as direct marketing
The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing.
The right to be informed if your data is lost. I shall also inform the Information Commissioner’s Office in accordance with the time limits in the GDPR.
The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

For further details about these rights please see the Information Commissioner’s website at https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/is-my-information-being-handled-correctly/

Further processing

If I wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, then I will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, I will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

Contact Details

To exercise all relevant rights or queries of complaints please in the first instance contact Ruby Speight at relax@rubyspeight.com or calling 07894740247

You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF.

Data and my Website

What type of information do I collect?

I receive, collect and store any information you enter on my website or provide me in any other way. In addition, I collect the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet; login; e-mail address; password; computer and connection information and purchase history. I may use software tools to measure and collect session information, including page response times, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information, and methods used to browse away from the page. I also collect personally identifiable information (including name, email, password, communications); payment details (including credit card information), comments, feedback, product reviews, recommendations, and personal profile.

How do I collect information?

When you send a message through a contact form, as part of the process, I collect personal information you give me such as your name, address and email address. Your personal information will be used for the specific reasons stated above only.

Why do I collect such personal information?

I collect such Non-personal and Personal Information for the following purposes:

To provide and operate the services;
To provide my users with ongoing customer assistanc;
To be able to contact my visitors and users with general or personalised service-related notices and promotional messages;
To be able to respond to enquiries placed through the online contact form;
To comply with any applicable laws and regulations.

How do I store, use, share and disclose your personal information

I use a third party service, Wix.com, to host my website. I use Wix.com to collect anonymous information about users' activity on the site, for example the number of users viewing pages on the site, to monitor and report on the effectiveness of the site and help me improve it. Wix.com store your data on secure servers behind a firewall.

How do you communicate with your site visitors?

I will only communicate with site visitors who have contacted me through my site via a contact form, to answer any query they may have. I may also communicate with site visitors after they have expressed explicit consent to receive any marketing material. If at any point you wish to withdraw this consent you can contact me on relax@rubyspeight.com or 07894740247.

How do I use cookies and other tracking tools?

When someone visits my website I use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. I do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. I do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website. If I do want to collect personally identifiable information through my website, I will be up front about this. I will make it clear when I collect personal information and will explain what I intend to do with it.

I use website cookies to improve user experience of my website by enabling my website to 'remember' users, either for the duration of their visit - using a 'session cookie' - or for repeat visits - using a 'persistent cookie'.

My website search is powered by Wix. Search queries and results are logged anonymously to help me improve my website and search functionality. No user-specific data is collected by me or any third party.

I use a third party service to help maintain the security and performance of my website. To deliver this service it processes the IP addresses of visitors to my website.

How can site visitors' withdraw their consent?

If you don't want me to process your data anymore please contact me at relax@rubyspeight.com or call me on 07894740247.

I reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the website. If I make material changes to this policy, I will notify you here that it has been updated, so that you are aware of what information I collect, how I use it, and under what circumstances, if any, I use and/or disclose it.