Looking after your information
Looking after your information
Looking after your information is certainly a priority for us. By contacting Teenage Helpline, you put a lot of trust into us, and we respect this.
While engaging with our friendly mentors, you have complete flexibility and freedom to choose what information you share. There may be times we ask for additional information if we think we need it, but you are always allowed to say no.
All of our mentors understand the sensitivity of the information you share, and have been trained on how to handle the data they receive. You don’t need to worry when you contact us.
There are times when we may have to share your information, but rest assured we will only do this if we absolutely need to and we will only share the information that is necessary. All of our information is stored in accordance with the strict Data Protection and GDPR regulations.
If you ever have any worries about the information that we hold about you, please contact us. Our team would be very happy to talk to you more about this.
Our confidentiality agreement
All of our employees and volunteers sign a confidentiality agreement before undertaking any work with us, and before they have access to any information we store.
The agreement states that:
- All information shared with employees and volunteers by young people using our service must be kept within Teenage Helpline, and not stored or shared outside of the organisation.
- Only designated employees or volunteers within Teenage Helpline have the authority to share information outside of the organisation to maintain confidentiality.
- Information will only be shared within Teenage Helpline on a need to know basis. Only those that need to know bits of information should know it.
- All information will be securely stored within systems that can only be accessed by Teenage Helpline employees and volunteers, and the security of this information is a top priority.
This is not a promise!
Our confidentiality agreement is not a promise to you that we will keep your information a secret. We can never promise secrets. We will always do our bit to keep your information safe, and this will never be shared to any third parties unless there is a good reason for us to.
If the information you share with us tells us there is a serious risk to the health, safety or well-being of yourself or someone you know, we have an obligation to intervene and share the information we have with third parties to ensure you remain safe. If we have to do this, we will only ever share the most necessary information and will never share anything that does not need to be shared.
Where possible, we will always tell you first if we think we are going to have to share your information.