POLICY STATEMENT ON ACCESS TO RECORDS, DATA PROTECTION, CHILD PROTECTION AND CONFIDENTIALITY

INTRODUCTION
Gold Surestart offers a large range of services to families both inside and outside their homes. In order to provide these services it is necessary and important to keep information about you to enable us to provide a high level of support. Each family receiving a service from Surestart staff has a file in which we keep records of attendance, referrals and other relevant information. This file also contains a restricted section, which is information given to the project by others in confidence and cannot be shared with you without their permission.

CONFIDENTIALITY
Information about you or your family is NOT shared with other families using the Project. The staff group work as a team which necessitates the sharing of information about your family within the team. This will include the reason why you have been offered a service and allows the different skills and experience within the team to help your family in the most appropriate way.

REQUEST FOR ACCESS
Files are kept in a locked filing cabinet. It is your right to see your file at any time and it will be made available to you as a matter of routine. To access your file, contact your key worker and they will arrange for this to take place. The Project will retain records in accordance with the procedures of Barnardo’s NI who are currently Lead Body for the Project.

CHILD PROTECTION / PROVISION OF CARE FOR CHILDREN
Staff employed with Gold Surestart have all received a Police Clearance which states that there is no reason why they should not work with children.

Should your child have an accident whilst in our care we will ensure that you are informed of: -

  • What happened.
  • The name of the staff member who was caring for your child.
  • How staff responded and if appropriate how we further plan to develop the service.

If you have any concerns about the safety of your child in our care please talk to us. Should we be concerned about your child’s safety or welfare we will immediately contact you to discuss this with you in a sensitive manner. In very serious circumstances it may be necessary for us to contact Social Services about your child without coming to you first, this is because our first priority is to ensure that children are protected and remain safe. If this occurs we will explain our actions to you fully.

Surestart ethos is to work together with all its service users. If you need support or advice about the issue of children’s safety please talk to us, we want to work with you in enabling your children to reach their full potential.

POLICY STATEMENT ON COMPLAINTS
We value every user of the Project and strive to ensure your experiences of our services are both beneficial and positive.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of the service you are receiving during the time you spend with us – please say.

You can speak to your key worker or the Project Manager. You have a right to expect that they will:-

  • Listen to what you have to say.
  • Respect your opinion.
  • Decide with you on what action to take.
  • Inform you of what action was taken.

If your personal issues cannot be resolved in this way you have the right to make a formal complaint to the Management Committee.

Gold Community Partnership, 2b Coagh Crescent, Cookstown, BT80 8NH.
Tel: 028 86769994, Fax: 028 86769778, E-mail: gold.partnership@btconnect.com