Privacy and Confidentiality Policy

Why we have this policy

Every person involved or potentially involved with our organisation has a right to privacy and confidentiality. We act with honesty, integrity and diligence to ensure that these rights are upheld. All our practices are informed by our Statement of Values and recognise, respect and promote the dignity of all people.

Comprehensive, clear and relevant records about people receiving advocacy are essential for the effective and high quality delivery of advocacy. Comprehensive, clear and relevant records also help to keep us accountable to our stakeholders.

We keep personal information about people receiving advocacy, including their advocacy needs and their use of our advocacy. People receiving advocacy have legislated rights to confidentiality and privacy in relation to the personal information we keep and our processes for collecting, using and securely storing people’s personal information.

Who does this policy cover?

This policy applies to all employees and Board members, volunteers and people receiving advocacy from Side By Side Advocacy.

How will we maintain personal information?

We will collect, keep and dispose of the personal information of people who ask for and receive advocacy in ways that protect privacy, ensure confidentiality and allow us to provide the best advocacy to each person. We comply with relevant privacy and confidentiality legislation when collecting, keeping and disposing of the records of people receiving advocacy.

When we collect, keep and use identifiable information about a person receiving advocacy, we follow procedures that guarantee privacy and ensure that records are appropriate, accurate and secure.

We collect personal information only if it is necessary and relevant to providing advocacy.

We collect personal information in a fair and lawful way, and where possible, only from the individual directly concerned.

We tell people receiving advocacy when we receive information about them from third parties.

We ask the consent of people receiving advocacy when we need to ask for information from family members, service providers and other people or organisations. We share this information with the person receiving advocacy if they ask us.

We tell people about the kind of personal information we keep and why we collect and keep it.

We only release personal information to a third party with the permission of the person involved or their authorised representative. We may make an exception to this if:

1. there is reason to believe that a person is in imminent danger or
2. records are subject to a court subpoena.
3. In this case the EO or an authorised representative will tell the person what we have done with their information.
4. Personal information is private and confidential. We store written information in a secure, password-protected database or in locked filing cabinets. Computer files are password protected.
5. Only relevant employees and nominated Board members have access to the filing cabinets and computer passwords.

When will we destroy records?

We keep records of completed acts of advocacy for statistical and evaluation purposes and store them securely for seven years.

We keep records of discontinued or completed relationships for statistical and evaluation purposes and store them securely for at least seven years.

We recognise that some people may not have a reliable, consistent way of storing information about their life. Others may seek advocacy support for a range of advocacy needs on an ongoing basis. For that reason, records may be kept for more than 7 years.

After seven years, at the direction of the EO, appropriate records are securely disposed of. Where the person receiving advocacy was under 18 years at their last contact with Side By Side Advocacy, we will keep their records for seven years after the person would have turned 25 years.

Why might we ask to share information?

Sometimes we need to share relevant personal information about people receiving advocacy: for example, to make referrals or for specific advocacy actions. We will not do this without consent. If you choose not to give permission, we may not be able to complete an advocacy action or we may need change our agreed advocacy plan.

Sometimes we may ask permission to share personal information as part of systemic advocacy or raising awareness about issues that impact people with disability. This may include press releases, stories on our website or public submissions. Where possible, we use de-identified information.

If we share personal information, we do this in a way that upholds the legislated rights to privacy and confidentiality of people receiving advocacy. All employees and Board members are made aware of Side By Side Advocacy’s commitment to upholding the privacy and confidentiality of people receiving advocacy. This commitment is demonstrated in the way that we seek, use and store personal information.

When it is in the best interest of a person receiving advocacy, we may use Citizen Advocacy records to provide an excerpt summary of the key events in the person’s life, as the Citizen Advocacy records may be the only record of the person’s life.

How do we protect privacy?

Side By Side Advocacy protects the privacy of people receiving advocacy by ensuring that we comply with the requirements of Australian Privacy Principles.

Employees and Board members follow the Australian Privacy Principles that govern standards, rights and obligation including:

1. the collection, use and disclosure of personal information
2. Side By Side Advocacy’s governance and accountability
3. integrity and correction of personal information
4. the rights of individuals to access their personal information

Employees and Board members, volunteers and other people involved with the organisation maintain the privacy and the confidentiality of information in relation to every individual involved with the organisation.

We tell people receiving advocacy about their right to privacy and confidentiality during their initial orientation to Side By Side Advocacy. We explain our privacy and confidentiality policies and procedures. We ensure that people receiving advocacy understand that Side By Side Advocacy is serious and diligent in fulfilling this responsibility.

When they are hired, employees sign an agreement to uphold the privacy and confidentiality of all people involved with the organisation.

1. All board members and volunteers who have access to confidential information sign a confidentiality agreement.
2. Only people who have signed a confidentiality agreement may have access to computers owned or leased by Side By Side Advocacy.
3. Employees comply with privacy and confidentiality in written correspondence concerning people receiving advocacy. All email correspondence carries the disclaimer “This message and any files transmitted with it are intended for the addressee named and may contain privileged information, confidential information, or both. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it and notify the sender.”
4. Only people who have signed a confidentiality agreement may have access to filing cabinets where confidential information is stored.
5. We require any person contracted with us and who works in an unsupervised capacity and/or has potential access to confidential information, to sign a confidentiality agreement.
6. We design the physical layout of our premises to maintain privacy. We arrange a private interview space when talking to or interviewing people receiving advocacy about matters of a sensitive or personal nature.
7. The EO is responsible for the ongoing evaluation of privacy issues for the organisation and brings matters of concern to the Board of Management as required.

Breaches of privacy

We consider breaches of privacy and confidentiality to be serious matters. Our Board of Management will investigate these breaches.

When someone brings an allegation of invasion of privacy or confidentiality to the Board of Management, we will investigate the allegation to determine if it is substantiated. A gross breach of privacy by an employees or Board member may result in dismissal or removal from the organisation.

Photographs and names of people receiving advocacy may be used for publicity and promotional purposes of the organisation only if the person gives prior permission.

Who may have access to confidential information?

Under some circumstances we may share relevant personal information about our clients and participants with third parties.

We may also share de-identified information about people asking for or receiving advocacy and other program participants, with our funders as part of our reporting obligations. We are consistent and careful in the way we decide who can see or hear information. We protect and uphold the legislated rights of people receiving advocacy to access their own records.

We will not allow unauthorised people to access confidential records of people receiving advocacy.

We seek permission from people receiving advocacy or their authorised representative before their records are used for organisational review and evaluation purposes.

We are required by funders to seek access to data about people receiving advocacy and to participate in a Partnership Approach to reporting. Organisations participating in the Partnership Approach use the Data Exchange’s system to report outcomes data on their services. Outcomes data is collected using SCORE (Standard Client/Community Outcomes Reporting). This data is de-identified so that it does not include the name of the person receiving advocacy. SCORE helps measure the results of a client’s interaction with a service. All people receiving advocacy are informed about the reason for data collection using SCORE and how data will be used. We obtain consent before data is collected for this purpose. We provide advocacy support regardless of whether a client consents to give data for SCORE.

How will people receiving advocacy access their records?

People receiving advocacy are entitled to access the information kept about them and to request corrections or annotations where appropriate. We will ensure that people receiving advocacy have access to their own records when this is reasonable and appropriate.

People receiving advocacy may make a mutually convenient time with our employees to access their information file. We will print information from the database as required.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, or how we may have collected stored or used your personal information you can contact us at: info@sidebysideadvocacy.org.au