The following privacy policy sets out where and how S.M.I.L.E Counselling records your personal data, what we do with it and what we do to keep it secure. It also outlines your rights over the personal data we hold about you. 

This privacy policy applies to you if you use our services in our locations, over the telephone, online or through mobile applications or otherwise by using our website or by interacting with us on social media, via telephone, by post or by email (our “Services”). 

Who are we 

 S.M.I.L.E Counselling is the trading name of S.M.I.L.E Counselling (Scotland) – a Scottish registered charity number SCO46166. We provide counselling, training and education services. 

S.M.I.L.E Counselling may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page to ensure that you are happy with any changes. 

What types of information do we hold 

 S.M.I.L.E Counselling retains different types of information in order to provide you with our Services. 

Adults 

• Name and contact details including email address, postal address and telephone number 
• Date of birth and gender 

• Relationship status 
• Ethnic origin 
• Occupation 
• Anonymised counselling notes from any counselling sessions undertaken. 

Children and Young People 

• Name, date of birth, gender, parent(s) name of the child or young person 
• Referrer and reasons for referral 
• School name, academic year and school record 
• Professional engagement 
• Anonymised counsellor notes from any counselling sessions undertaken 

• Any form of artwork completed by a child or young person during counselling sessions. 

Training participants 

• Name and contact details including email address, postal address and telephone number 
• Details of employment (if attending as part of workforce training) 
• Training requirements 

• Payment details (for short workshops and professional courses) 
• (For courses leading to professional accreditation only) Education and training history, employment record and references. 

Online 

• The pages visited 
• When and how long our website was visited 

• Each device’s IP (Internet Protocol) address 
• The type of Internet browser used (e.g. Chrome, Safari or Firefox) 
• Referring website. 

What sorts of sensitive information do we hold 

 

In some cases, S.M.I.L.E Counselling will hold what is classed as sensitive information in order to provide you with our Services. 

Adults 

• In order to monitor equal opportunities, we will use ethnic origin, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and gender 
• (For those attending counselling) health details 
• (For those attending counselling sessions) we may record counselling sessions with the appropriate written consent 

• (For those attending counselling sessions) where relevant to counselling sessions, your sexual life, sexual orientation, beliefs and other sensitive data. 

Children and Young People 

• (For those attending counselling) health details 
• (For those attending counselling sessions) we may record counselling sessions with the appropriate written consent 
• (For those attending counselling sessions) where relevant to counselling sessions, sexual life, sexual orientation, beliefs and other sensitive data. 

Training participants 

• Health record 
• Sexual life and sexual orientation 
• Religious beliefs 
• Details of any disability 

• Criminal convictions 
• We may record training sessions with appropriate written consent. 

How we use your information 

 

The information S.M.I.L.E Counselling collects may be used to complete the following: 

Adults 

• To provide you with our Services 
• To communicate with you and provide details of our Services 
• To arrange, cancel or reschedule appointments for counselling 
• Personalising the delivery of our Services to you 

• Statistical analysis 
• Research purposes 
• To find ways to improve our Services 
• To monitor diversity and equal opportunities 
• To maintain a record of our correspondence with you 

• To record your attendance and record anonymised notes of your counselling sessions 
• To flag risks. 

Children and Young People 

• To register referrals for Counselling 
• To communicate with you (and your parent/guardians where relevant) and provide details of our Services 

• To record attendance 
• To record anonymised notes of counselling sessions 
• To note assessment scores 
• To flag risks 
• Statistical analysis 

• Research purposes. 

Training participants 

• To register your interest in our Services 
• To communicate with you and provide details of our Services 
• To arrange, cancel or reschedule training sessions 

• To take payments or process refunds 
• Personalising the delivery of our Services to you 
• To assess suitability for professional training 
• To record attendance 
• To note assessment and examination scores where relevant 

• Statistical analysis 
• Research purposes 
• To find ways to improve our Services 
• To maintain a record of our correspondence with you. 

In order to provide some of our Services to you it is necessary to share your information with a small number of our 3rd party partners and suppliers. 

We share your information with the following 3rd party partners and suppliers: 

• Quickbooks 
• Workflo 
• Tacklit 

This information is shared in order to provide you with our Services and specifically to process your data for the following: 

• To securely process payments 
• To communicate by telephone with clients 
• Record anonymised notes of counselling sessions. 

The following information is retained by these 3rd party partners and suppliers: 

• Name 

• Billing Address 
• Telephone number 
• Card Payment Details, Card Type and Authorising Bank. 

Personal data is shared with Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland (COSCA) for courses accredited with them. Scottish Mental Health courses require online registration with the National Health Service (NHS). For SCQF courses data is shared with Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). 

In exceptional circumstances, for example, if a counsellor believes that someone may come to harm, S.M.I.L.E Counselling will break confidentiality and share information with the relevant authorities. 

Your rights  

 

Under General Data Protection Regulations, you have the following rights regarding the data that we collect and process in the delivery of our services. These are: 

• The right to be informed about the collection and processing of your data – covered by this privacy policy statement 
• The right of access to your data, specifically: 

• The right to confirmation that your data is being processed 
• The right to access your personal data held by S.M.I.L.E Counselling 

• The right to rectification of your data if it is inaccurate or incomplete 
• The right to be forgotten – your right to request deletion or removal of data held by S.M.I.L.E Counselling 
• The right to restrict processing of your data by S.M.I.L.E Counselling: You have the right to object to us processing your personal information if we are not entitled to use it anymore, to have your information deleted if we are keeping it too long or have its processing restricted in certain circumstances. 

• The right to data portability – your right to obtain and reuse your personal data where: 

• It is personal data you have provided to S.M.I.L.E Counselling 
• Data is processed by your consent, and 
• Data is processed automatically. 

• The right to object to: 

• Processing of your data based on legitimate interests or concerns 
• Direct marketing 
• Processing for purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics 

An Assessment of Risk will be undertaken before providing counselling notes and some of these may be redacted where there are concerns for example about Child Protection. 

How long do we keep your information for 

 

We will keep your personal data in order to provide you with our Services. Your personal information will be retained in accordance with law and regulation, and we will never retain your data for longer than permitted under law and regulation. 

Adults 

• Information regarding counselling appointments 

• Electronic copies: retained for 3 years after the conclusion of any counselling sessions 

• Counselling records are retained for a period of 3 years after the conclusion of any counselling sessions 
• Payment information is kept for 7 years 
• Complaints information is retained for a period of 30 years. 

Children and Young People 

• Children and Young People counselling records are retained for a period of 7 years after the conclusion of any counselling sessions 

• Complaints information is retained for a period of 30 years. 

Training participants 

• Training records including payment information are retained for a period of 7 years after the conclusion of the training course 
• Complaints information is retained for a period of 30 years. 

Online 

• Details of online enquiries regarding any of our Services are retained for 1 year 
• Anonymised details of your use of our website and online Services are retained for 24 months. 

If asked to do so by you, we will delete your personal data if it is no longer necessary for the provision of our Services to 

Links to other websites 

 

From time to time, we will provide you with links to other websites. These websites are not under our control and as a result, we will not be liable to you for any issues arising in connection with their use of your personal data, the website content or the services offered to you. 

You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question. 

Sharing data on social media 

 

In the process of using our Services, you may have the opportunity to share information through social media networks like Twitter and Facebook. This can be, for example, when you ‘retweet’, ‘like’, ‘share’ or review our Services. 

When you do this your personal information may be visible to the providers of those social media services, their other users and other third-party organisations. It is, therefore, your responsibility to be aware of this and use the appropriate privacy settings on your social media accounts so that you have control over how your data is used and shared. 

Security 

 

In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure of your data, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. 

For example, all data is stored securely on designated drives and servers and is only accessible to authorised individuals. 

Information exchanged via our website using live chat and contact forms are securely encrypted before being transmitted over the Internet. Encryption makes it difficult for unauthorised people to view information travelling between computers. 

If a security breach is suspected, we have a procedure in place to ensure the breach is limited and the security restored and updated accordingly. High risk breaches will be reported to the individuals concerned and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) within 72 hours. 

How we use cookies 

 

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added. Please note you cannot be identified from the data we collect. 

S.M.I.L.E Counselling’s website uses four types of cookies: 

• ‘necessary cookies’ to allow our website to function; 
• ‘preference cookies’ to enhance your website experience by remembering things like your preferred language; 
• ‘statistic cookies’ to anonymously analyse your use of our website; and 
• ‘marketing cookies’ used to track visitors across websites. 

Necessary cookies allow our website to function properly. These cannot be deselected as they allow basic functions like page navigation. Our website cannot function properly without these cookies. 

Preference cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. 

We use statistic cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. This data is anonymous and we only use this information for statistical analysis purposes. 

Marketing cookies are used by other organisations in order in order to display ads that should be relevant and engaging to you based on the websites you have visited. 

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. 

You can choose to accept all cookies, decline cookies or select individual cookie types to accept/decline. Adjust your preference to each cookie type by visiting our Cookie Policy and clicking ‘Changing your consent’. 

Find out more about cookies on our website. 

Controlling your personal information 

 

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. 

If you wish to exercise any of your rights as set out above, have a question about this policy, have a question about the way your personal data is processed, or a complaint about this policy, please contact us by email or by post: 

Email the Data Protection Officer 

FAO Data Protection Officer 
S.M.I.L.E Counselling 
Fairbairn House 
6 Fairbairn Place  
Livingston 

EH54 6TN 

Your rights also allow you to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner. To find out more visit www.ico.org.uk