Privacy – Support and Treatment Services

Confidentiality means not sharing information that you tell us about yourself with anyone else. Whatever you tell us will remain confidential within GamCare, unless you request otherwise in writing. You can feel safe talking to us, knowing that we will not pass on your personal information to others without letting you know. 

However, occasions may arise when we are required to share your information with others. For example, if we’re worried about your safety, we may need to get you help in the following situations: 

• If you ask us to 

• If we believe your life, or someone else’s life, is in danger 

• If you’re being hurt by someone in a position of trust, like a partner, carer, or friend. 

• If you tell us that you’re seriously harming another person/people. 

We are processing your data based on the consent you have granted to us, or where we have a contractual or legal obligation to do so. 

Our staff team work to a standard code of practice, which includes strict confidentiality within the team. Staff need to discuss their work with their supervisor and may need to pass information to their colleagues to ensure we are providing the most appropriate help, but no information about an individual is disclosed to third parties outside GamCare without their consent, except in the circumstances stated above. 

The information we collect will differ slightly depending on the service you are accessing:

• When contacting the National Gambling Helpline: When you call or live chat with us, you can remain anonymous if you wish – you are not obliged to let us know about any of your personal information. Our system will automatically store your phone number or your IP address (unless you have blocked this), in case of an emergency. However, you do not have to let us know any other details if you don’t want to. Unless you would like a referral into a treatment service within the GamCare network. At this stage we would need to record more information to make sure your referral can be passed over to the right team. This information may include personal data such as your name and contact details.

If you are happy to share more information during your call or chat, we will collect non-identifying demographic information to get a better idea of who is using our services and why, and to understand how our services may be adapted to meet changing needs. We will record data about your gambling issues, and information about how we are helping you. With your explicit consent, we may also collect some sensitive data (special category data) about your health or ethnic origin.

We record calls to the National Gambling Helpline, and we store transcripts of live chats. These records are primarily to ensure that we can monitor the quality of calls and chats and pick up on areas where we can improve our service to you. Unless we have a serious concern (as described in the confidentiality section above) which means law enforcement agencies may need access to call recordings, or we require a recording for training purposes, we delete these recordings completely after 28 days.

• For Support Services (including Treatment and Online Support):  To register for these services, we need some personal information such as your name, date of birth, contact information, and some information about how you are affected by gambling.

When you have an initial assessment with one of our staff team, you will be asked to complete more comprehensive details so that we can tailor your treatment plan to make sure you’re getting the right level and intensity of support. If you would rather not answer a particular question, please let the member of staff know.

For Treatment, we will also ask for contact details for your GP, however we would only contact your GP with your permission, unless we are concerned that you were at risk of harm.

For Online Support, (via bookable appointments with an Online Support Practitioner) we store an automated transcription of the appointment. These records are primarily to ensure that we can monitor the quality of calls and pick up on areas where we can improve our service. Unless we have a serious concern (as described in the confidentiality section above) which means law enforcement agencies may need access to call transcripts, or we require a transcript for training purposes.

“For Online Support, we also store a recording of the call to allow us to monitor the quality of calls and implement any improvements to our services. We delete these records after 28 days, unless we require them for training purposes or there are serious concerns (as described in the confidentiality section above) that may require law enforcement agencies having access to them.”

When accessing Online Support via email form our Online Support Practitioners and Online Peer Support Email Service, your email address will automatically be visible to us along with any other information you provide as part of your email.  During the email support we will also ask you to provide the other personal information mentioned above.

As well as ensuring we can provide you with the best support, we collect information about you so that we can have a better understanding about who is using our service and why. With your explicit consent we may collect sensitive personal information (special category data), regarding your health or ethnic origin. This will help us to tailor our services to your needs and make sure you get the best help possible from our team. 

This type of data will always be used on an anonymised basis, to raise awareness about our services and support research into improving our understanding about gambling in Great Britain. Our funders (GambleAware) also want to understand the service we offer, so we share anonymised, non-identifying data with them as part of our funding agreement. This is pooled with data from their other funded treatment services in a national report published each year (the Data Reporting Framework). 

GamCare provides a confidential service. If you wish to be referred to a GamCare treatment service, then with your permission we will share your personal details with relevant areas of our organisation to deliver services to you. Where appropriate, we will refer your details to other Providers in our National Gambling Services Network (NGSN) to deliver services to you. Your personal information will not be used for any purpose, other than, to provide you with a treatment plan, and contact you about appointments, and issue follow up surveys, if we have your permission to do so. Your personal information will not be shared outside of our team unless there is a risk to you or someone else – please see the section on confidentiality above. 

We may share aggregated, anonymised data with agencies we work with for evaluation purposes. None of this data can be used to identify you. 

GamCare respects your data privacy rights and under no circumstances will it sell your personal information to any third-party individual or organisation.

Certainly, please email [email protected] from an email address you have used to contact us before, or call 020 7801 7000, and let us know what information you would like to access and why. We may take a few more details from you to verify your identity and make sure you get the right information. 

Please bear in mind that GamCare reserves the right not to send you any information that mentions a third party, or which could be used in any way to cause harm to you or someone else. We also cannot take responsibility for any items that may get lost in the post. 

Please note that if you register anonymous details on our systems through the National Gambling Helpline, we won’t be able to process any transcript requests that you submit to us to fulfil.  Where we have the right details for you we will provide the information you have asked for, where possible, within 30 days. 

• For the National Gambling Helpline: You can always choose not to answer certain questions and you do not have to give us your full name or address. However, you may find it helpful to give us your contact details if you want to receive information from us or if you wish to be referred for treatment.
   

• For Support Services (including Treatment and Online Support): If we hold personal information about you which you would like us to delete, please email us at [email protected] or write to us at: GamCare, 1st Floor,  91-94 Saffron Hill, London EC1N 8QP to let us know. 

• For the National Gambling Helpline: We do not delete anonymised data as we use this to help us improve our services, including for research and statistical analysis. If you have told us your contact details and you wish for us to delete these, just let us know. Call recordings and chat transcripts will be deleted from our system after 28 days. 

• For Support Services (including Treatment and Online Support): Our online support and treatment records are stored for at least seven years from the date of your last treatment or follow-up from GamCare (please note this is longer when a young person or person in care is involved). After this time, if you have not contacted us about receiving more treatment we will destroy all paper records and anonymise any electronic records to remove personal, identifiable information. 

When providing a treatment service, we have a responsibility to keep you and others safe from harm. If you have received treatment from us, you will sign a consent form which tells us that you are happy for us to keep your treatment records for seven years (this is best practice in clinical services) and longer in some cases (where a young person is involved). 

This also mean that if you would like to receive further treatment from GamCare within those seven years, you don’t need to complete all new records. 

Remember, if you would rather not give us some of your information at the start, as long as we can provide a safe service to you without it, that’s ok. Your practitioner will always explain to you if a particular bit of information will be helpful, but it’s always your choice how much information you would like to tell us. However, if you are unwilling to share your name, date of birth, address, and contact details with us, we may not be able to offer you a service as it would not be safe for us to do so. 

When seven years has passed since you last received treatment or follow-up contact from GamCare, records of your personal information will be destroyed. We will keep anonymised information – as described above – and if you have any questions about this please ask your practitioner. 

The General Data Protection Regulation provides you with the following rights as data subjects: 

• The right to be informed 

• The right of access 

• The right to rectification 

• The right to erasure 

• The right to restrict processing 

• The right to data portability 

• The right to object 

• Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling. 

For more information please visit the ICO website. 

If for any reason you would like to register a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) please visit https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/ 

Otherwise, you may wish to contact us at [email protected] to lodge a complaint. 

GamCare is one of many organisations working in the health and care system to improve care for patients and the public).

Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending Accident & Emergency or using Community Care services, important information about you is collected in a patient record for that service. Collecting this information helps to ensure you get the best possible care and treatment.

The information collected about you when you use these services can also be used and provided to other organisations for purposes beyond your individual care, for instance to help with:

• improving the quality and standards of care provided
• research into the development of new treatments
• preventing illness and diseases
• monitoring safety
• planning services

This may only take place when there is a clear legal basis to use this information. All these uses help to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations. Confidential patient information about your health and care is only used like this where it is allowed by law.

Most of the time, anonymised data is used for research and planning so that you cannot be identified in which case your confidential patient information isn’t needed.

You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt out your confidential patient information will still be used to support your individual care.

To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters.

For more information, please visit the ICO website.

If for any reason you would like to register a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) please visit https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/ 

Otherwise, you may wish to contact us at [email protected] to lodge a complaint.