Privacy Policy
Privacy and Data Protection Policy Statement
June 2021
Wendy Pearson, operating under the name ‘Your Autism Mentor’ offers a mentoring, coaching, advice and support service for autistic children, young people and adults (hereinafter called ‘mentees’).
Your Autism Mentor operates under the website www.yourautismmentor.com.
Your Autism Mentor is committed to protecting the privacy of information provided by mentees and their families.
Collection of Personal Information
Your Autism Mentor may collect information about the mentee in spoken or written form directly from mentees or their parents/carers (if under 18 years old). With personal or parental consent, Your Autism Mentor may collect information from other professionals working with them, such as educational staff and health care professionals. Your Autism Mentor may also collect information about family members where this relates to the mentee, e.g. contact information for parents/carers, relevant medical developmental history/information.
You may access the Your Autism Mentor website without providing personal information: however, if you wish to make an enquiry via the website, you are required to provide your name, email address and contact telephone number to enable Your Autism Mentor to respond to your enquiry. You may add comments or queries which might also contain personal information.
If your enquiry does not result in engagement with Your Autism Mentor, this personal information will be deleted once your enquiry has been dealt with unless you have consented to the information being retained. If a mentee subsequently engages with Your Autism Mentor, these details may be added to their personal record.
The website contains links to other internet sites which are outside of Your Autism Mentor’s control and are not covered by this privacy and data protection policy. Your Autism Mentor is not responsible for data you provide through any linked websites.
Use of Personal Information
Personal information collected via the Your Autism Mentor website, email, telephone calls, virtual or face-to-face meeting is stored and used by Your Autism Mentor for the purpose of delivering the mentee’s mentoring or support programme. Any sensitive personal details are stored in a secure and confidential system and processed in confidence by Your Autism Mentor. This information will only be used for the purpose of delivering appropriate mentoring support with mentees.
If appropriate and with consent, Your Autism Mentor will share information about the mentee’s needs with other professionals involved when it is in the mentee’s best interests.
Unless required to do so by regulation or law, Your Autism Mentor will not disclose any personal information collected to any person other than as set out above.
Your Autism Mentor do not employ agents to process personal data, give or sell mentee details to third parties.
Your Autism Mentor use mentee information to:
- prepare, plan and deliver mentoring and other services according to need
- communicate with you via post, email, telephone, text or virtually to:
– confirm and prepare for mentoring sessions
– general communication between appointments
– transmitting resources, information or reports
– copy you into communications with other professionals involved with mentee (only initials will be used)
– send you invoices and receipts
– to manage and administer mentee work
Wherever personal identifiers are not needed for these tasks, if possible, Your Autism Mentor will remove them.
Storage of Personal Information
All information Your Autism Mentor store about mentees and their families are stored securely to ensure complete and accurate record of service with them using a secure electronic cloud-based system called Outlook One-Drive which is compliant with UK Data Protection Regulations. Any paper based confidential information is stored securely in accordance with regulations.
A minimal amount of confidential information may be taken out of office locations to facilitate mentoring sessions. If this occurs, it will be kept with the mentor or locked in the boot of their car (whichever is deemed to be most secure at the time).
Records will be kept securely for 3 years after the last entry. After this time, all mentee records will be destroyed. Your Autism Mentor can supply you with a copy of these records up until this time.
UK Data Protection Law
Data Protection Law lays down wide-ranging rules, backed up by criminal sanctions, for the processing of information about identifiable, living individuals. It also gives individuals certain rights in relation to personal data held about them by others.
Wendy Pearson, trading as Your Autism Mentor, is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a Data Controller.
Your Autism Mentor’s Lawful Basis for Processing Personal Information
Your Autism Mentor’s lawful basis for processing and storing personal information is one of ‘legitimate interest’. Your Autism Mentor cannot adequately deliver a service to mentees without processing their personal information. As it is both necessary for service delivery and of benefit to mentees, Your Autism Mentor have a legitimate interest to process and store their data.
Your Autism Mentor’s Responsibilities
Your Autism Mentor are committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of mentee records and actively implement and review security measures to ensure their information is safe. Your Autism Mentor will not release mentee personal details to any third party without first seeking your consent unless this is allowed for or required by regulation or law.
Your Rights
Data protection gives you, the mentee, parent or carer, various rights. The most important of these are as follows:
- You have the right to a copy of the information Your Autism Mentor hold about you (for which an administrative charge can be made)
- You have the right to ask for your record to be amended if you believe that it is wrong
How to Access Records
Mentees, parents or carers can access information held about them in writing. I will provide access to mentee’s records within 30 days of receipt of all necessary information.
If you have further questions about how Your Autism Mentor uses your information, please contact: wendy@yourautismmentor.com.
Further information about data protection legislation and your rights is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office www.ico.org.uk.