If you have any questions, concerns, or don’t understand any part of this Policy please email us at admin@pathwayssocialwork.com or call our Director Christy on 0421 818 948

 

Background

 

This Policy outlines how Pathways Social Work  meet our ongoing obligations to you in respect of how we manage your Personal Information. 

 

We have adopted the Australian Privacy Principles (“APPs”) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”). A copy of the APPs may be obtained from The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (“OAIC”) on its website – link is here.

 

What is Personal Information?

 

Personal Information is information or an opinion that identifies an individual.

 

This information may include your:

 

• name;

• date of birth;

• mailing address;

• street address;

• email address;

• telephone number; or

• any other information that may be required to facilitate your dealings with us.

 

How do we collect Personal Information?

 

Personal Information is obtained in several ways including correspondence, telephone, email, via our website, social media, and from other publicly available sources. Where reasonable and practicable to do so, we will collect your Personal Information only from you. However, in some circumstances we may be provided with information by third parties. In such a case we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of the information provided to us by the third party.

 

Why do we collect Personal Information?

 

For the primary purpose of providing our services to you.

 

We may also use your Personal Information for secondary purposes where you would reasonably expect such use or disclosure for example if we need to talk to any other people supporting you – we would only do this with your consent.

 

When we collect Personal Information, we will, where appropriate and where possible, explain to you why we are collecting the information and how we plan to use it.

 

Disclosure

 

We may disclose your Personal Information in accordance with any consent you give such as to the NDIS, or where disclosure is authorised or compelled by law for example – if we feel that you are a risk to yourself or others we will notify the police and other authorities.

 

At Pathways Social Work we are mandated notifiers and are therefore required to report any concerns relating to the welfare of a child.

 

We will also disclose your information to the relevant bodies such as the Adult Safeguarding Unit if we are concerned about your own safety and wellbeing and the NDIS Commission if we are concerned about your safety as a result of the actions of a provider or another participant.

 

We may also share your information within the Pathways Social Work team where this is necessary to ensure you receive the best possible support. All our team are bound by our confidentiality policy.

 

Electronic Communications

 

If you provide us with an e-mail address or mobile phone number, you consent to us using them to contact you. We will not share these details without your consent.

 

Security

 

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference and loss, as well as unauthorised access, modification or disclosure and we use a number of physical, administrative, personnel, and technical measures to protect your personal information.

 

Cookies

 

Cookies are small data files transferred onto computers or devices by websites for record-keeping purposes and to improve your website user experience.

 

Most browsers allow you to choose whether to accept cookies or not. If you do not wish to have cookies placed on your computer, please set your browser preferences to reject all cookies before accessing our website. Please note however, that some data may still be collected separately by tools such as Google Analytics, even though you may have set your browser preferences to reject all cookies. The information collected about you using cookies will not ordinarily be your personal information, because you will not be identified or reasonably identifiable to us from it.

 

Anonymity

 

Individuals have the option, to interact with the OAIC anonymously or using a pseudonym. Where reasonably possible. For example, if you contact the OAIC enquiries line with a general question, you will not be asked for your name unless it is required to adequately handle your enquiry.

 

However, for most of your interactions with the OAIC your name, contact information and enough information about the matter will be required to enable the OAIC to deal with the matter fairly and efficiently.

 

Accessing & Correcting Your Information

 

You may request access to the information we hold about you at any time by contacting us. We will respond to your request within a reasonable time.  There is no fee for making a request. We take all reasonable steps to ensure that the information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to date. We encourage you to advise us as soon as there is a change to your contact details. You may also choose to have case notes and emails sent to you in real time to ensure you are always up to date with the information on file.

 

Information about another person or other people

 

If you provide information about any other person, you will inform them that you are providing this information to us, the reason you are providing their information, the fact that we have collected personal information from you, and of the contents of this Statement and Consent.