Confidentiality
Policy
The Ribbons Drop-In Centre provides an environment in which
confidentiality is of paramount importance. To ensure that
anyone coming to the Centre can be confident of this, everyone
is required to agree and uphold this policy on confidentiality.
This will be part of the process to protect the security and
personal confidence of anyone using the Centre.
• To protect confidentiality everyone coming to the
Centre is required to sign in using their registration number
only so they cannot be identified.
• Information regarding the Centre is strictly private
and cannot be shared outside of the Centre except with the
sole purpose of promoting the Centre and its services.
• The general policy of the Centre is that any information
concerning individuals who use the Centre is strictly private
and cannot be shared unless the individual gives expressed
and informed consent. This is regardless of whether that person
is a volunteer or service user. The person holding that information
must not discuss it with a third party, record it or use the
information in any way without the explicit informed consent
of that person.
• Some information about registered users will be held
and shared under certain circumstances. They are as follows:
Whilst you remain as a registered user, your registration
form will be kept on file and your basic contact details entered
into a database which will be used for mailing purposes. You
can choose not to receive mailing from the Centre at any time.
We will also keep a brief record of any service we provide
for you. This will be limited to the minimum necessary to
enable us to meet your needs and will only be shared on a
‘need to know’ basis. Please say if there is anything
you do not want us to share in this way. Your contact details
and any record the Centre holds can only be accessed by authorized
staff.
• We may need to share basic information if we refer
you to another agency in order to secure the best service
for you and to meet any risk assessment requirements they
may have.
• To share, record or use any information about an
individual in any other way than described above will constitute
a breach of confidentiality.
• Information about whether someone is a volunteer
for the Centre is also confidential and may not be shared
without the expressed and informed consent of that person.
Breaches of confidentiality
Any breach of confidentiality will be regarded as serious.
It is accepted that most breaches of confidentiality are accidental
rather than deliberate. The Centre Coordinator must be notified
if a breach occurs. In the event of a breach being deliberate
or negligent, this will be dealt with in an appropriate manner.
The common sense principle governing confidentiality is that
in order to minimize the chance of a breach occurring, the
number of people accessing confidential information will be
kept to a minimum. Information will only be divulged on a
“need to know” basis.
May 2005
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