'It's My Business' - your privacy with us
Our confidentiality policy for children and young people
What is a confidentiality policy?
A confidentiality policy explains that The Maze Advocacy Project will not discuss the things you have told us with people outside our organisation unless you give us permission to do so.
Why is it important for me to know about it?
It is important so that you know you can trust everyone at the Maze Advocacy Project to respect your privacy. That way you know that we will not talk to people about you without you knowing.
What is your policy?
Our policy is that we won’t tell other people about the things you have told us unless you ask us to or give us your permission.
The records we keep to help us do a good job for you are also confidential. We won’t show these to people outside our organisation unless you give us permission or the law says we must (but that is very rare). Of course you can ask to see your records whenever you want and can even help write them if you like.
Although we won’t talk to other people about what you have told us without your permission, you can choose to tell anyone you like – it’s your information so you can share it with whoever you like.
Will you ever tell other people things about me without my permission?
Most of the things we talk about can be kept private. However, if you decide to share some information with us that makes us think you or someone else is ‘at risk of significant harm’ we may need to talk to another agency about it so that we can help keep everyone safe. We might also need to do this if we see something that makes us think someone is at risk of significant harm.
If you have to tell someone who will you tell?
We would usually talk to a social worker with social services but if someone is in immediate danger we might have to call the emergency services first to make sure they are safe.
Will I know if you have told social services or the emergency services something without my permission?
We would always try to tell you first. Hopefully you will be able to agree to us talking to them but if you can’t we will tell you if we are going to have to pass on (disclose) the information anyway. Unless it is an emergency we would talk to our manager first about it and we would hope you could be involved in that discussion too if you wanted to be.
If we could not get hold of you and we think someone might be in immediate danger we might have to pass the information on before we have told you. However, we will always try to let you know first.
If you have to tell someone something about me how will I find out what is going to happen next?
We will always try and explain what will happen next in the process for you and if we don’t know we will try and find out for you if you want us to. If you like we can also help you say what you think about the information being passed on so your feelings are taken into account in what happens next.
My advocate has explained the policy to me but I still have some questions about it. How can I find out more?
Your advocate should explain all about confidentiality when they start work with you but if you would like to find out more you can ask your advocate to go through it again or talk to the Project Leader, Joe Roberson. Just call the numbers on the information leaflet to find out more.
Your Voice, Your Rights
- Your Voice, Your Rights
- What things can we help with?
- What is advocacy?
- Meet the people at Maze
- How did the Maze Advocacy Project begin?
- How to be your own advocate
- Your first meeting with an advocate
- A day in the life of a Maze advocate
- 'It's My Business' - your privacy with us
- Your Rights
- Maze Young Advisors Group
We help young people age 6-19 in Somerset and Cardiff to get their views heard on issues affecting their emotional or mental wellbeing. Our service is free, independent and confidential.