Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy

Please find our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy below. You can also download copies of these through the links under each section title.

Terms and Conditions

Please click here to download a copy

Working Hours

Communican Speech and Language Therapy operates on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays between the hours of 9.30 and 7pm. The service is also open on Saturday mornings between 9.30 and 12.30. However, you are welcome to email /leave messages other days as there may be occasions where your enquiries can be can respond outside of these dedicated working times and days.

Travel

Travel from base (Blackwell) to anywhere within 10 miles is not charged. For travel to anywhere outside of this 10 mile radius, an additional travel cost of 45p per mile will be required. If this applies, the Speech and Language Therapist will discuss this with you prior to arranging an initial appointment.

Fees and Payment

Fees – Current fees are outlined on the 'Prices' page of the website. Fees are subject to annual review.

Payment – The full initial assessment fee must be paid at least 24 hours prior to the appointment. This also applies for review and demonstration sessions. If for any reason you are unable to do this, you must inform Communican Speech and Language Therapy as soon as possible and alternative payment arrangements will be made.

If following initial assessment ongoing therapy is advised and agreed, you can choose to pay each week, or all together at the end of the month. At the end of the month I will send receipt for all payments received that month.
Accepted payment is bank transfer or cash (to be discussed and agreed on an individual basis). If you choose to pay all together at the end of the month, you will be invoiced by the therapist and paid by the last day of the month/within 24 hours of receiving the invoice (e.g. if your last appointment is on the last day of the month).
In addition to the above, as of 01/02/2023, there is an option to pay using your credit or debit card via Square, a secure online payment system. If you wish to use this system please let the Speech and Language Therapist know and a secure link will be sent to you via email.
If payment is missed and the Speech and Language Therapist is not informed of this beforehand, then services will be suspended immediately.

Cancellation

If you cancel an appointment with over 24 hours’ notice, no fee will be charged. If an appointment is cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice, the full appointment fee will be charged. In the instance where a you are funding intervention for a client to be seen in their education setting, if the education setting cancels the appointment with less than 24 hours’ notice you (the parent) will be charged. If the therapist is unable to attend an appointment, the maximum possible notice will be given and no charge will be incurred. The appointment will be rescheduled at the next possible convenient time.

Consent

Consent for assessment and treatment must be given by the child’s parent/carer before any intervention is provided by the therapist. An electronic consent form will be provided via email by the therapist. This must be completed and sent back via email prior to initial appointment.

Sharing of Client Information

In the best interests of the child, information about the child may need to be shared with other professionals. Such information will be treated confidentially in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations 2018 (GDPR). Information will only be shared with the signed consent of the child's parent/carer. Communican Speech and Language Therapy are not responsible for information that is shared by outside agencies (e.g. school). In the event that information is shared by an outside agency without the consent of the parent/carer, the responsibility lies with that agency. Communican Speech and Language Therapy holds a Data Controller registration with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). For more information please about how your information is processed please see our data protection policy.

NHS Therapy

All clients are eligible for referral to speech and language therapy within their local NHS trust. It is the responsibility of the client to inform the independent therapist if they are receiving, or on a waiting list for NHS therapy, and to inform the NHS therapist of any independent therapist involvement. Communican Speech and Language Therapy works in accordance with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) ‘Working in Harmony’ guidelines.

Termination of Therapy

It is within the therapist's rights to terminate therapy or intervention with 24 hours notice. It is within the rights of the client to terminate therapy or intervention with 24 hours notice. This does not apply to school contracts. Term and termination of therapy for school contracts will be agreed in liaison with the school and drawn up in the contract prior to start of service.

Reasons to discharge may include:

The child’s speech and language skills are within normal limits.
The child has reached their communication potential.
Therapy sessions have not been regularly attended.
The child might not be ready to access therapy.
Advice/programmes have not been carried out at home

Terms and Conditions

Terms and conditions are subject to change. Amendments to terms and conditions will be communicated to clients at the point of change. Agreement to these amendments is implied unless the client contacts Communican SLT to dispute the terms.

Privacy Policy

Click here to download a copy.

Who we are

Communican Speech and Language Therapy provides assessment, intervention, advice, reports and training in a range of locations including client homes and education settings. In addition, Communican Speech and Language Therapy has a website that is updated and reviewed regularly. www.communicanspeechandlanguage.co.uk.

Communican Speech and Language Therapy is owned and run by Rachel McCartney. Rachel is a Speech and Language Therapist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), the regulatory body for Speech and Language Therapists. In addition Rachel is also a member of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) and the Association of Speech and Language Therapists in Independent Practice (ASLTIP). Communican Speech and Language Therapy also abides by the laws of The Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018.

Communican Speech and Language Therapy is committed to protecting the privacy of information provided by clients.

Collection of personal information

Information about your child may be collected via spoken or written information from parents/carers. With parental consent, information may also be collected from other professionals working with your child (such as teachers, nursery staff, childminders, NHS Speech and Language Therapist). We may also collect information about family members where this relates to your child e.g. contact details for parents and relevant medical or developmental history. You may use the Communican Speech and Language Therapy website without providing any personal information.

If your enquiry does not result in your child being seen by Communican Speech and Language Therapy then this personal information will be deleted once your enquiry has been dealt with. If your child is subsequently seen by Communican Speech and Language Therapy, these details may be added to their personal record.

The website contains links to other internet sites which are outside our control and are not covered by this privacy policy. We are not responsible for data which you provide through any such linked websites.

Our use of personal information

Personal information collected by us via: email, telephone or face to face, is stored and used by us for the purpose of delivering your child's speech and language therapy.

Any sensitive personal details are stored in a secure and confidential system and processed in confidence by Communican Speech and Language Therapy and shall only be used for the purposes of delivering appropriate speech and language therapy services to your child.

With your consent, information about your child's speech and language needs will be shared with other professionals involved in your child's care, when it is in your child's best interests. A record of your consent is kept within your child's case notes.

Unless we are required to do so by law, we will not disclose any personal information collected to any person other than as set out above.

We do not employ agents to process personal data.

We do not give or sell client details to any third parties.

How we use personal information

We use this information:

To prepare, plan and provide speech and language therapy services appropriate for your child's needs.
To communicate with you via email, telephone and text messages in relation to: confirming and preparing for appointments, general communication in between appointments, sending reports and programmes for your child (through password protected documents and/or emails), copying you in to communications with other professionals involved with your child (your child's initials rather than full name will always be used in emails), sending you resources, sending you invoices and receipts.
For clinical audit to assess and improve our service. Results of audits will always be presented with all client identities removed.
For management and administration. Whenever personal identifiers are not required, we remove them from the information we use whenever possible.

How we store personal information

All information about you, your child and their speech and language therapy is stored securely an online system called ‘WriteUpp’ to ensure that we have a complete record of our service to them. All documents containing confidential information are only accessible via a login and password which is held by Rachel McCartney. Any paper based confidential information such as assessments are stored securely in a locked fire-proof storage facility until it has been scanned onto Write-Upp. Following this, the paper copy will be destroyed in accordance with Data Protection Regulations.

Videos may be taken of clients with parental consent. These are temporarily stored on an encrypted and password protected tablet. These may then be viewed by the Speech & Language Therapist (SLT) in order to make notes in a client record within 24 hours of the child's appointment, after which the video is destroyed. Videos can also be shared with parents upon request.

The minimum amount of confidential information will be taken out of the Speech and Language Therapist's office base. When your child's information is taken out of the office base it will be kept with the SLT or will be locked in the boot of the SLT's car (whichever is deemed to be the most secure at that time).

Once a child is discharged, all case notes/ files will be stored onto the WriteUpp secure cloud system until they can legally be destroyed. In accordance with law, all records will be kept securely until your child is 25 years old. After this time all records relating to your child will be destroyed.

You can access WriteUpp’s privacy policy here: WriteUpp Privacy Policy

Our professional obligations

It is a legal requirement for all Speech and Language Therapists to be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). The HCPC has clear standards of conduct, performance and ethics that all registrants must adhere to.

These standards affect the way in which we process and share information. Specifically:

Standard 2: Communicate appropriately and effectively "You must share relevant information, where appropriate, with colleagues involved in the care, treatment or other services provided to a service user."
Standard 10: Keep records of your work.
"You must keep full, clear, and accurate records for everyone you care for, treat, or provide other services to. You must complete all records promptly and as soon as possible after providing care, treatment or other services. You must keep records secure by protecting them from loss, damage or inappropriate access."

UK Data Protection Law and EU General Data Protection Regulations

Data Protection Law provides comprehensive rules for the processing of information about identifiable, living individuals. It also gives individuals certain rights in relation to personal data held about them by others. Rachel McCartney is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a Data Controller.

Our lawful basis for processing personal information

Our lawful basis for processing and storing personal information is one of 'legitimate interest' (under article 6 of GDPR). We are required to process their personal information in order to deliver our service to your child. As result, we have a legitimate interest to securely process and store their data. Data relating to an individual's health is classified as 'Special Category Data' under section 9 of the GDPR. The regulations specify that health professionals who are "legally bound to professional secrecy" may have a lawful basis for processing this data. Speech and Language Therapists are legally bound to keep client information confidential and it is under this condition that we process and store personal information.

Our responsibilities

We are committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of your child's records. We actively implement security measures to ensure their information is safe, and audit these regularly.

We will not release your personal details to any third party without first seeking your consent, unless this is allowed for or required by law.

We are constantly working to ensure compliance with current data protection regulation.

Your rights

Data protection legislation gives you, various rights as the parent. These include the following:

You have the right to a copy of information we hold about your child.
You have the right to ask for your record to be amended if you believe that it is wrong.

How to access your child's records

A copy of your child's records is provided free of charge.We will provide access to your child's records within 30 days of receipt of all necessary information. Your request must be made in writing to the registered address of Communican Speech and Language Therapy.

If you have any further questions about how we use your information, please contact hellocommunican@gmail.com.

Further information about data protection legislation and your rights is available from the Information Commissioner's Office.