Who We Are

Umbrella Assessment and Therapy is an independent practice that is owned and run by Frances Roberts (Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist) and Dr Katy Atkinson-Jones (Senior Clinical Psychologist). We are registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council. Umbrella Assessment and Therapy provides services to children and adults in the home and/or educational setting, or through teletherapy services.

Umbrella Assessment and Therapy also subcontracts associate speech and language therapists and clinical psychologists, who are also fully qualified and registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council. Details of therapists’ qualifications can be provided on request.

Collection of personal information

Information about you (adult assessments) or your child (child assessments) may be collected via spoken or written information from you or parents/carers. With parental consent, information may also be collected from other professionals working with your child (such as teachers, nursery staff, childminders, NHS Speech and Language Therapists, etc.) We may also collect information about family members where this relates to your child e.g. contact details for parents and relevant medical or developmental history.

If you enquire about services and this does not result in you or your child being seen by Umbrella Assessment and Therapy then your personal information will be deleted once your enquiry has been dealt with. If your child is subsequently seen by Umbrella Assessment and Therapy these details may be added to their personal record.

Use of personal information

Personal information collected by email, telephone, or face to face, is stored and used by Umbrella Assessment and Therapy for the purpose of delivering yours or your child’s assessment.

Any sensitive personal details are stored in a secure and confidential system and processed in confidence by Umbrella Assessment and Therapy.

With your consent, information about yours or your child’s assessment will be shared with other professionals involved in your or your child’s care, when it is in your or your child’s best interests. A record of our consent will be kept in your or your child’s case notes.

Unless required to do so by law, we will not disclose any personal information collected to any person other than as set out above.

Only subcontractors of Umbrella Assessment and Therapy will have access to this information on a ‘need to know’ basis. We do not give or sell client details to any third parties.

How your personal information is used

We use this information:

To prepare, plan and provide assessment appropriate to your or your child’s needs
To communicate with you via post, email, telephone, text messages (via SMS or WhatsApp) in relation to:
- Confirming and preparing your appointments
- General communication in between appointments
- Sending you information such as reports
- Sending you resources
- Sending you invoices and receipts
For clinical audit to assess and improve our services
For management and administration, for example, names and home address are stored in a password protected database
Whenever personal identifiers are not needed for these tasks, if possible we will remove them from the information we use.

How your personal information is stored

All information about you, your child, and your/their assessment is stored securely in our systems to ensure that we have a complete record of our services to you. Paper documents are stored in a locked filing cabinet only accessible to clinicians. Electronic information is stored in a password protected, encrypted folder only accessible to the named clinician.

Videos or audio recordings may be taken of clients with parental consent. These are temporarily stored on a password protected laptop. These may then be viewed in order to make notes in a client record within 7 days of the child’s appointment. These videos may be sent to you via encrypted message upon your request with your consent within 7 days of the appointment. After this these recordings are deleted. The assessment report serves as a written record of observations made during the recorded assessment.

The minimum amount of confidential information will be taken out of our office base. When you or your child’s information is taken out of the base it will be kept with clinicians or locked in the boot of our cars (whichever is deemed to be the most secure at the time).

In accordance with the law, all records will be kept securely until your child is 25 years old. After this time all records relating to your child will be destroyed. For adult assessments, all records will be kept securely for 8 years after the date of your assessment, after this time all records relating to you and your assessment will be destroyed.

Meeting professional obligations

It is a legal requirement for all Speech and Language Therapists and Clinical Psychologists to be registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC). The HCPC has clear standards of conduct, performance and ethics that all registrants must adhere to. These standards affect the way in which we process and share information. Specifically:

Standard 2: Communicate appropriately and effectively

‘You must share relevant information, where appropriate, with colleagues involved in care, treatment or other services provided to a service user.’

Standard 10: Keep records of your work

‘You must keep full, clear, and accurate records for everyone you care for, treat, or provide services to. You must complete all records promptly and as soon as possible after providing care, treatment, or other services. You must keep records secure by protecting them from loss, damage or inappropriate access.’

For further information the full document can be found at: http://www.hcpc

u.org/assets/documents/10004EDFStandardsofconduct.performanceandethics.pdf UK Data Protection Law and EU General Data

Protection Regulations

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.

All limited companies managing personal data are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a Data Controller. You check ICO registration by visiting: https://ico.org.uk/

The lawful basis for processing personal information

Our lawful basis for processing and storing personal information is one of ‘legitimate interest’ (under article 6 of GDPR). We cannot adequately provide a service to you or your child without processing their personal information. As it is both a necessity for our service delivery and of the benefit of your child, we have a legitimate interest to process and store their data. Data relating to an individual’s health is classified as ‘Special Category Data’ under section 9 of the GDPR. The regulations specify that health professionals who are ‘legally bound to professional secrecy’ may have a lawful basis for processing this data. Speech and Language Therapists/Clinical Psychologists are legally bound to keep client information confidential and it is under this condition that we process and store personal information.

Our responsibilities

We are committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of yours or your child’s record. We actively implement security measures to ensure their information is safe, and audit these regularly. We will not release your personal details to any third party without first seeking your consent, unless this is allowed for or required by law. We are constantly working to ensure compliance with current data protection regulation.

Your rights

Data protection legislation gives you, various rights. The most important of these are as follows: You have the right to a copy of the information we hold about you or your child. You have the right to ask for your record to be amended if you believe that it is wrong.

How to access yours or your child’s records

You can access the information we hold about you by making a written, signed request. A copy of yours or your child’s records is provided free of charge. We will provide you with a copy of yours or your child’s records within 30 days of receipt of all necessary information.

If you have any further questions about how we use your information, please contact us on umbrellasheffield@proton.me

Further information about data protection legislation and your rights is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office or by calling 0303 123 1113, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.