Children's Privacy Policy

Read this page if you're a child getting help from us.

This page tells you about the information we collect about you. It tells you what we do with it and why. It tells you what you can do about it.

Read this page with an adult. Ask them to explain anything you don't understand.

Click on each heading to find out more.

We are Dr David Hawker and Dr Debbie Hawker. We are clinical psychologists who provide ARREST services. We are also joint data controllers for ARREST. That means we share the job of using the information we know about you.

Usually it is David who works with children, but we may share information about you between us.

David is also the one in charge of making sure we look after your information and use it in the ways we’ve said we do.

Please ask an adult to contact David here if you have any questions about privacy.

What we learn about you. When we work with you, we might learn a lot about you. We find out what you tell us, and we find out what other people tell us.

Some examples. Here are some of the things we might learn:

To help you. We use it to help you and your family stay healthy. We use it to help you and your family get more healthy. The law calls these reasons legitimate interests.

To obey the law. Sometimes we use information because the law says we must, for instance to keep you or other people safe. The law calls these reasons legal obligations.

Notes. We write down what you tell us so we can remember it when you talk to us again.

Other people. We talk to other people who can help you. We write down what they say.

Letters and emails. We might write letters or emails about our work with you.

Privacy and safety. We keep your information private unless you agree we can pass it on, or unless we have to tell other people to keep you safe.

Keeping your information safe. We keep your information safe so it won’t easily be lost or stolen. We try to keep it written in such a way that no-one would know it was about you, even if it was lost or stolen.

People who can help you. We might talk to people like these:

Talking and listening. We might hear things from them about you, and we might need to tell them things about you. We might need to talk to them or write to them.

Teaching and learning. We might also talk about you with other people who work with children. That helps us learn how to help you, or helps them learn how to help children better. If we do that, we protect your identity. That means we don’t tell them anything about you that would tell them who you are.

What do we tell other people about you?

Not everything! We don’t tell other people everything we know about you. If we do tell other people, we only tell the people who need to know, and we only tell them what they have to know.

Keeping you safe. There’s only one type of thing we always have to tell someone else about. That is if you or someone else is in danger or has been seriously hurt.

Sending information. We might use Skype, or phone calls, or emails, or letters to pass on information about you. We are careful to use safe ways of sending information on the internet.

Unsafe countries. We take special care to keep information safe if we have to send information to countries that the European Union thinks are not safe enough. You might live in one of those countries, so we might have to send information there. We will make sure your parents know about the risks of sending information to unsafe places.

Usually until you're 25. When you grow up, you might decide you want to know what we know about you. We will keep information about you safe until your 25th birthday (or your 26th, if you were 17 when we last saw you), and then we will destroy it.

Exceptions. Very rarely the law says we have to keep your information longer.

Ask us. If you want to know what we know about you, please make sure to ask us to see it before you’re 25 or 26.

What you can ask us

You can ask to see what we know about you.

You can ask us to change it if it’s wrong or has something missing.

If you don’t agree with us using what we know about you to help you, you can tell us. If you want us to stop, you need to tell us why.

If we don’t have a lawful reason to carry on using your information, you can ask us to stop using it or to destroy it.

How to ask us

Either you or your parents could ask us to do any of these things, which are called subject rights requests. Contact us here if you would like to make a subject rights request.

How we'll reply

We have to respond within a month. Usually we cannot charge a fee.

Should you or your parents ask?

While you’re still a child, we will need to consider whether you’re mature enough to understand what’s being asked and what it involves. If we think you are, we will respond to you and not your parents. Otherwise we will need to hear from your parents. Either way we will consider what’s best for you.

What if you're over 18?

Do also ask us if you’re over 18, and you want to make a subjects rights request about information we collected about you when you were a child. We have to respond in the same way as we would have done when you were a child, except we do not have to check with your parents.

If you are over 18 when we collect information from you, you're legally an adult. So please also look at our general privacy policy, which gives details of how we use your personal information as an adult.

What else we might have to do

If we change your information or how we use it because you have asked us to, we also must tell you about anyone else who we passed your information onto, and we must tell them about the changes.

What if we don't do what you ask?

Sometimes we do not have to do what you ask us to do, or we may not respond as you wanted us to. If you are not happy with our response, you or your parents may complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

If you have other questions about your privacy, you can read our full privacy policy here, or ask us questions about it here.

If you've read enough about privacy and want to know how we work with you, find out about that here.