HARCSAC provides a confidential counselling and information service to women over 18 years of age, who reside in the county of Hertfordshire.

Apart from the initial assessment process (please see GDPR policies and procedures), we do not keep notes of what a client tells us either in a face to face meeting or on the telephone.

We will not tell anyone one outside of our group of volunteers and our supervisor(s) anything about our clients without their express consent except in the following circumstances:-

1. If we believe that they are at risk of immediate serious harm.
2. If an identifiable vulnerable child or person is at risk of immediate serious harm or if there is current abuse of an identifiable vulnerable person.
3. If we are instructed by the courts to reveal details about a client or receive a witness summons to appear in court
4. If the data is anonymised and the individual unidentifiable

In any event that did or may require us to break confidentiality as outlined in points 1-3 above, we will conduct a full and open discussion with the client about our intended actions to inform the authorities and jointly decide on the action to be taken to prevent future harm.

Confidentiality agreements with our counsellors apply after volunteers have left the organisation.

We keep a certain amount of identifiable personal client information which is kept in a secure place and is only kept for the purpose for which it was collected.   We will not share personal data with anyone.  Full information about the data we store, how we use it, a data subjects rights to see, amend or have it deleted can be found in our GDPR policies.

Clients can be provided with a copies of our GDPR, Note Keeping and Destruction Policy for further information if required.

During any face to face or video meeting, there are two volunteers present.  We do not accept individual confidences as this would limit us in seeking support and advice from our colleagues and supervisors thereby limiting the support we can provide.

Other than our supervisors, we will only seek advice or information from a third party with a client signed consent.  Wherever possible we will be guided by the client to determine exactly what she wishes us to say or establish with any third party on her behalf.

From time to time HARCSAC may need to revise its policy on confidentiality as circumstances change.  If changes are made HARCSAC will notify and explain those revisions to all existing clients.