Confidentiality

The principle of our confidentiality policy is to protect and promote the rights and interests of the individual client, whilst abiding by our legal duty of care to report exclusions to confidentiality. We take our statutory and safeguarding duties seriously, so it is important that clients and LifeMapped personnel understand our limits to confidentiality.

LifeMapped is committed to maintaining high standards of confidentiality in all aspects of it’s work. This includes records and information pertaining to personnel, clients and prospective clients. Breaches of confidentiality may jeopardise the well being of staff and clients and consequently will be subject to disciplinary proceedings.

We expect all clients to sign a disclosure agreement prior to the commencement of our services to indicate that they have been informed of, and understand our confidentiality policy in respect of the information they decide to tell us, our duty to maintain confidentiality whilst also sharing necessary risk information.

  • We discuss prospective clients’ cases with the referring organisation
  • We discuss clients’ cases for the purposes of supervision within our organisation
  • We make and maintain accurate records, which are stored confidentially, and disposed of six years after case closure
  • We do not gossip about, or publicly discuss cases unless we have your permission to discuss your case with another organisation, or if have a statutory duty to report an exclusion or limitation to our confidentiality policy
If we have to report an exclusion to our confidentiality policy (see below), we will do so regardless of whether the client gives us permission at the time.
We have a duty to report the following limits or exclusions to confidentiality:
  • Disclosure of a risk of serious harm to self or others
  • Disclosure of a risk of serious harm by others
  • Disclosure of a risk of a crime having been or being committed by yourself or others
  • Disclosure of abuse (historical or current) of a child or vulnerable adult
  • Failure to attend or meaningfully engage in our service if it is a monitoring requirement

Our duty to share the above limits or exclusions to confidentiality with the relevant safeguarding organisations overrides confidentiality. Organisations with whom we share information may include the Local Authority, police, probation or other organisations with whom you may work closely.

We may have a responsibility to report on engagement and progress within our service to other monitoring agencies (e.g. probation). If we do, we will let you know our reporting duties, how often we have to make a report, and we will disclose our report to you.

Our Safeguarding and Confidentiality policies should be read together, and are designed to protect the welfare of children, vulnerable adults and the public in line with legislative requirements. We have a duty of care to share information about abuse and risk, and we take our commitment to public safety and welfare seriously.

All paid and voluntary staff, Trustees and other associated personnel are expected to abide by this policy. Clients using the service should have the policy explained to them. All clients they will need to sign the confidentiality form, which sets out what the limits to their confidentiality are.