Confidentiality

ABC has a strict confidentiality policy. Basically it means that information you tell ABC will stay with us. We will tell you if we need to share information about you with other professionals. 

When you talk to an ABC worker, about any issue, you can be confident that we will not tell other people in your school/ setting what you have said. We do usually need to talk to all the people involved in any bullying incident, but if you really don’t want this to happen we will try to respect this. It may not be possible for us to help you without talking to the other people concerned. 

ABC does not need to tell your parents that you have been referred to us. This is especially the case if you have been referred for help with homophobic bullying. We will not tell any other student in your school/ college or any other member of staff that you are working with her. We will not contact your parents without your consent under any circumstance. 

The only reason ABC would have to break this confidentiality is if we are worried that you, or another young person, is unsafe. For instance, if you told us that you were staying out all night, every night and were thirteen or if you told us about violence in your household. This is called child protection. We have a responsibility to ensure that young people are safe. 

If we are worried in this way, we will need to tell other adults about this. Usually this will not be your parents but will include the child protection officer from your school/ college. We will tell you if we have this kind of worry, and what we are going to do next including who we need to tell.