Well Connections Ltd Privacy Notice
Last updated – 17 July 2026
This notice explains how Well Connections Ltd collects, uses, stores and shares personal information when providing referral, counselling, therapy, coaching, training and wellbeing services.
1 – Who we are
Well Connections Ltd provides mental health and wellbeing referral, counselling, therapy, coaching, training and consultancy services.
We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under registration number ZB782600.
Contact details
- Email – info@wellconnections.co.uk
- Telephone – 07736 317617
- Website – www.wellconnections.co.uk
For the purposes of data protection law, Well Connections Ltd is generally the Data Controller of the personal information it collects and uses.
In some circumstances, such as when we deliver services on behalf of a school, charity, employer or other organisation, we may process some personal information on that organisation’s behalf. Additional privacy information may apply to these services.
2 – Who this Privacy Notice applies to
This Privacy Notice applies to anyone who interacts with Well Connections, including:
- Clients and individuals seeking support.
- Children, young people, parents and guardians.
- People referred by schools, employers, charities or other organisations.
- Practitioners and associates working with Well Connections.
- Representatives of organisations using our services.
- Visitors to our website.
We may provide additional privacy information where a specific service handles information differently.
3 – Information we collect
We collect personal information relevant to the services we provide. This may include:
- Names, ages, dates of birth and contact details.
- Parent, guardian or emergency contact information.
- Referral and appointment information.
- Information about mental health, emotional wellbeing and physical health.
- Personal, family, educational, employment or relationship circumstances.
- Safeguarding, welfare or risk-related information.
- Disability, accessibility or special educational needs information.
- Clinical or professional records.
- Assessment or outcome-measure information.
- Communications, feedback or complaints.
- Payment, invoicing and contract information.
- Website usage and technical information.
Some of this information may be classified as special category data, including information about physical or mental health, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or other sensitive personal circumstances.
We may also process information relating to alleged or confirmed criminal matters where this is necessary for safeguarding or risk management.
4 – How we collect information
We may collect personal information:
- Directly from individuals or their parents or guardians.
- Through referral, enquiry and contact forms submitted on our website.
- Through consultations, assessments and appointments.
- From schools, employers, charities, healthcare professionals or other referring organisations.
- From practitioners delivering services.
- During counselling, therapy, coaching or other wellbeing services.
- Through email, telephone, video calls or booking systems.
- From safeguarding or statutory services where necessary.
Where information is provided by another person or organisation, we expect them to have an appropriate reason for sharing it.
5 – How we use information
We may use personal information to:
- Respond to enquiries and arrange consultations or assessments.
- Understand the support being requested.
- Identify and introduce an appropriate practitioner or service.
- Arrange and administer appointments.
- Deliver counselling, therapy, coaching and wellbeing support.
- Maintain appropriate referral, administrative and professional records.
- Support professional supervision and clinical governance.
- Safeguard individuals and manage welfare or risk concerns.
- Communicate with clients, parents, practitioners and organisations.
- Monitor attendance and service delivery.
- Process payments and maintain financial records.
- Respond to complaints, legal matters or regulatory enquiries.
- Meet our legal, professional, contractual and insurance obligations.
- Review and improve our services.
Where possible, we use anonymised or combined information for reporting and service development.
Practitioner recommendations and referral decisions involve human consideration. We do not use solely automated decision-making to determine which practitioner or service may be suitable.
6 – Our lawful reasons for using information
The lawful reason for processing personal information depends on the service and circumstances.
We may rely on:
- Contract – where processing is needed to arrange or provide an agreed service.
- Legitimate interests – where processing is reasonably necessary to operate, protect and improve our services.
- Legal obligation – where information must be processed or retained to comply with the law.
- Vital interests – where processing is necessary to protect someone’s life.
- Consent – where we have asked for and received clear agreement for a particular use.
- Public task – where this applies to a commissioned public service.
Where we process information on behalf of another organisation, that organisation may be responsible for identifying the lawful basis for that processing.
Additional legal conditions apply when we process special category information. These may include:
- Providing or managing counselling, health or social care services.
- Safeguarding children or adults at risk.
- Protecting someone’s vital interests.
- Explicit consent.
- Establishing, exercising or defending legal claims.
- Other reasons of substantial public interest permitted by law.
7 – Referrals and practitioners
Well Connections may share relevant enquiry or referral information with a practitioner being considered to provide support.
We will only share information reasonably needed for the practitioner to:
- Consider whether they can provide appropriate support.
- Confirm their availability.
- Understand relevant support, accessibility or risk needs.
- Arrange or provide the agreed service.
Some practitioners work as independent professionals and may act as separate Data Controllers for their own clinical records. Where this applies, they are responsible for how they use, store and retain those records and may provide their own privacy information.
Well Connections does not routinely have access to every clinical record created by an independent practitioner.
8 – Counselling and clinical records
Qualified practitioners may maintain proportionate clinical or professional records to support:
- Safe and effective professional practice.
- Professional supervision.
- Safeguarding and risk management.
- Clinical governance.
- Insurance and professional requirements.
- Complaints or legal matters.
Clinical records are treated as confidential and are not routinely shared with schools, employers, charities or commissioning organisations.
Relevant information may be shared where:
- The client has agreed.
- There is a safeguarding or serious welfare concern.
- Sharing is necessary to protect someone from harm.
- Disclosure is required by law or professional obligations.
9 – Children and young people
Children and young people have rights over their own personal information.
We aim to explain confidentiality and the use of personal information in language appropriate to the young person’s age and understanding. Parents or guardians may also receive information where appropriate.
Requests from parents or guardians to access a child’s information will be considered in light of:
- The young person’s age, understanding and capacity.
- The young person’s confidentiality.
- Safeguarding considerations.
- Professional obligations.
- The young person’s best interests.
Separate child-friendly or service-specific privacy information may be provided for school counselling and other commissioned services.
10 – Sharing information
Where necessary and appropriate, we may share relevant personal information with:
- Practitioners being considered for or providing support.
- Schools, employers, charities or commissioning organisations.
- Parents or guardians where appropriate.
- Designated safeguarding leads.
- Health, education or social care professionals.
- Local authorities, emergency services and statutory agencies.
- Professional supervisors, using anonymised or limited information wherever possible.
- Insurers, accountants and legal advisers.
- Regulators, courts and law-enforcement agencies where required.
- Providers supporting our email, booking, payment, website, cloud storage, IT and administrative systems.
We do not sell personal information.
Where another organisation processes information on our behalf, we require it to protect the information, maintain confidentiality and only use it for the agreed purpose.
11 – Confidentiality and safeguarding
Information shared during a consultation, assessment, counselling, therapy or coaching session is treated as confidential.
Confidentiality may need to be limited where:
- A child or adult may be at risk of harm.
- Someone else may be at risk.
- There is an immediate or serious welfare concern.
- Disclosure is required by law, a court or a regulator.
- The individual has agreed to the sharing.
Where it is appropriate and safe, we will explain the proposed sharing before information is disclosed.
12 – Keeping information secure
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information. These may include:
- Password and PIN-protected devices.
- Encryption.
- Multi-factor authentication where available.
- Secure email and cloud-based systems.
- Access controls.
- Confidentiality requirements for practitioners and contractors.
- Data-protection and safeguarding procedures.
- Professional supervision and governance.
- Secure deletion and destruction processes.
Although no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we regularly consider the measures needed to reduce the risk of loss, misuse or unauthorised access.
13 – How long we keep information
We retain personal information only for as long as it is reasonably required.
The appropriate retention period may depend on:
- The type of information and service.
- Whether the person was a child or adult when the service was provided.
- Safeguarding considerations.
- Professional and insurance requirements.
- Contractual and legal obligations.
- Financial and accounting requirements.
- Whether a complaint, investigation or legal claim is ongoing or reasonably anticipated.
Referral, clinical, financial and general enquiry records may therefore have different retention periods.
Information will be securely deleted or destroyed when it is no longer required. Further information about the period applying to a particular record can be requested by contacting us.
14 – Information stored or accessed outside the UK
Some technology and service providers may store or access information outside the United Kingdom.
Where this happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure appropriate legal, contractual and security safeguards are in place.
15 – Your rights
Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:
- Be informed about how your information is used.
- Request access to information held about you.
- Ask for inaccurate or incomplete information to be corrected.
- Request deletion or restriction of information.
- Object to certain uses of your information.
- Request transfer of information in an appropriate format.
- Withdraw consent where consent is the lawful basis.
- Complain about how your information has been handled.
These rights are not absolute. Information may sometimes need to be retained for safeguarding, legal, professional or insurance reasons.
To make a request, contact info@wellconnections.co.uk.
We may need to confirm your identity and authority before responding.
16 – Marketing
We may send information about our services where we have permission or another lawful reason to do so.
You can unsubscribe or ask us to stop at any time.
We do not use counselling or clinical information for marketing purposes.
17 – Website and cookies
Our website may collect technical information, including IP address, browser information and information about how the website is used.
We may use cookies and similar technologies to:
- Operate the website.
- Remember preferences.
- Maintain security.
- Understand how the website is used.
- Improve website performance.
Where consent is required for non-essential cookies, visitors will be given an appropriate choice through the website’s cookie settings.
Further information is available through our website’s cookie information and settings.
18 – Complaints
Please contact us if you have concerns about how your personal information has been handled:
- Email – info@wellconnections.co.uk
- Telephone – 07736 317617
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk.
19 – Changes to this Privacy Notice
We may update this Privacy Notice where our services, systems, legal requirements or working arrangements change.
The most recent version will be available on our website, with the latest update date shown at the top.