Request for comments
*Key*
<T> = title
<ST> = Subtitle
<R> = Recommendation
<T>CounsellingServices
Most HE and FE institutions provide Counselling Services for
employees and students. Such Counselling Services will, in the
course of their ordinary operations, be legitimately collecting and
processing personal data, including sensitive personal data (See
The Data Protection (Processing of Sensitive Personal Data) Order
2000, s.4).
<R> HE and FE Employee and Student Counselling Services
should:
- provide clients with:
-- guidance to the service’s personal data policies on data
collection and retention
-- guidance on access to counsellors’ notes and other records that
refer to them
-- a timescale for destruction of the client’s personal data.
- make acceptance by the client, of the service’s record-keeping
practices, part of the contract with the service.
- permit counsellors to discuss a client’s records with that
client, whilst ensuring that, in such discussions, references to
third parties are withheld.
- ensure total confidentiality of client personal data, subject only
to the following exceptions:
-- where the counsellor has the express consent of the client to
disclose the data.
-- where the counsellor believes that serious harm may befall a
third party if the data were not disclosed.
-- where the counsellor would be liable to civil or criminal court
procedure if the data were not disclosed.
- ensure all records are kept securely and remain confidential
within the service.
- provide for the secure disposal of personal data that is no longer
required
<R> HE and FE Employee and Student Counselling Services may
keep "risk registers" (e.g. lists of individuals who may be violent so
that counsellors can check before they arrange one-to-one
meetings). Access by counsellors to such "risk registers" should
be available only on a “need to know” basis. Inclusion on a "risk
register" may not be disclosable to a data subject under subject
access on the grounds that the health & safety of counsellors may
be at stake (s31(2)(e)).
<R> HE and FE Employee and Student Counselling Services
should ensure that where counsellors discuss casework with
supervisors:
- such discussion should be in general rather than specific
terms, so that personal circumstances may be revealed, but
not the identity of the client; or
- the client should be informed in advance that the that counsellor
may discuss their case with a supervisor should they feel it
necessary.
<R>HE and FE Employee and Student Counselling Services
should ensure counselling members of staff are bound by a Code of
Ethics and Practice (e.g. the British Association for Counselling
(BAC) Code of Ethics).
Andrew Charlesworth
Senior Lecturer in IT law
Director, Information Law and Technology Unit
University of Hull Law School
Hull, UK, HU6 7RX
Voice: 01482 466387 Fax: 01482 466388
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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