Reliable Routes

1. About this policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Reliable Routes Psychology collects, uses, stores, and protects personal information. It applies to anyone who interacts with us, whether by visiting our website, getting in touch with an enquiry, or using our clinical services.

We are committed to handling your personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and the professional standards set by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the British Psychological Society (BPS).

If you have any questions after reading this, please contact us using the details in Section 17.
‍

2. Who we are (the data controller)

The data controller for the personal information described in this policy is:

Reliable Routes Psychological Services Ltd
Company registered in England and Wales
Company number: 16936557
Registered office: Workbench, Unit 15, Neptune Court, Vanguard Way, Cardiff, CF24 5PJ
ICO registration number: ZC145299

Reliable Routes Psychology Ltd trades as Reliable Routes Psychology and provides clinical psychology services through Dr Obss Alademerin, an HCPC-registered Clinical Psychologist and the named clinician responsible for clinical decisions.

Contact: info@reliableroutespsychology.co.uk
‍

3. What information we collect

The personal information we collect depends on how you interact with us.
‍

3.1 If you visit our website

We may collect:

Technical information such as your IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, and the pages you visit on our website
Information you submit through our contact form (name, email address, optional phone number, and any message you choose to send)
Information collected through cookies and similar technologies (please see Section 14)
‍

3.2 If you contact us to enquire about therapy or assessment

We may collect:

Your name and preferred contact details
A brief description of what is bringing you to therapy
Any other information you choose to share during your free consultation call
‍

3.3 If you become a client

In addition to the above, we may collect and process:

Full contact details (name, address, email, phone number)
Date of birth
GP and surgery details
Emergency contact information
Information collected through intake or assessment forms
Information about your physical and mental health history
Information about your social, family, cultural, and contextual circumstances, where relevant to your care
Clinical session notes, formulations, and any reports we produce
Correspondence between you and us
Payment information (we do not store card details; payment is processed via secure third-party providers)
Health insurance information (if you are accessing therapy via private medical insurance)
‍

3.4 Special category data

Information about your physical and mental health is classed as special category data under Article 9 of the UK GDPR. This category includes any information about your psychological wellbeing, diagnoses, treatments, and the contents of therapy sessions. We process this information only where necessary for your clinical care, and we apply additional safeguards in how it is stored, shared, and retained.
‍

4. How we collect your information

We collect personal information:

Directly from you (through our website, by email or phone, during consultation calls, and during therapy sessions)
Automatically when you visit our website (through cookies and analytics tools)
From third parties with your consent, for example your GP, a referring clinician, or your insurance provider
‍

5. How we use your information

We use your personal information to:

Respond to your enquiries and arrange initial consultations
Provide psychological assessment, therapy, and related clinical services
Maintain accurate, confidential clinical records as required by our professional regulators
Communicate with you about appointments, fees, and your care
Process payments and manage invoicing
Liaise with your GP, insurance provider, or other professionals where this is part of your care and you have consented
Engage in clinical supervision (please see Section 7.1 below)
Meet our legal, ethical, regulatory, and tax obligations
Manage and improve our website, and understand how visitors use it

We do not use your information for marketing or advertising purposes without your explicit consent, and we do not sell your information to third parties under any circumstances.
‍

6. Legal bases for processing

Personal data (Article 6):

Contract (Article 6(1)(b)) — to fulfil our agreement with you when you engage us for therapy or assessment
Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)) — to meet our regulatory, professional, and tax obligations
Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) — to administer our practice, respond to enquiries, and manage our website. We have considered your rights and freedoms in relying on this basis
Consent (Article 6(1)(a)) — where you have explicitly consented to specific processing, such as marketing communications or particular disclosures to third parties

Special category data (Article 9):

Health and social care (Article 9(2)(h)) — to provide psychological assessment and therapy
Explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a)) — where specific consent is required for additional processing (for example, sharing information with another professional)
‍

7. Who we share your information with

We treat your information as strictly confidential. We will not share it with third parties without your knowledge and, where appropriate, your consent, except in the specific circumstances set out below.
‍

7.1 Clinical supervision

As an HCPC-registered Clinical Psychologist, Dr Obss Alademerin engages in regular clinical supervision, as required by professional standards. Case material may be discussed in supervision in an anonymised form (without using your name or identifying details) to ensure the quality and safety of your care. Supervisors are themselves bound by professional confidentiality requirements.
‍

7.2 Your GP and other professionals involved in your care

Where it is helpful for your care, we may share information with your GP, a referring clinician, or another professional involved in supporting you. We will discuss this with you first and ask for your consent in writing, except where disclosure is required by safeguarding or legal obligations (see Section 7.5 below).
‍

7.3 Insurance providers

If you are paying for therapy through private medical insurance, we may need to share limited information with your insurer (for example, dates of sessions, an agreed code for the work, and confirmation of attendance) to process your claim. We will only share what is strictly necessary, and we will discuss with you what is required before doing so.
‍

7.4 Third-party service providers (data processors)

We use trusted third-party services to help us run our practice. These providers process personal data on our behalf and are bound by data protection obligations. They include:

Email and calendar provider (Google Workspace) — for email correspondence, calendar management, and appointment scheduling
Payment processing (bank and/or payment platform)
Cloud storage and document management for clinical records, where these are stored digitally
Website hosting and analytics (our website is built on Webflow; we may also use limited analytics tools to understand how visitors use our site)
Accountancy and bookkeeping services, who may process limited financial information about invoiced sessions

We choose providers who meet UK data protection standards and apply appropriate safeguards.
‍

7.5 Legal, regulatory, and safeguarding disclosures

We may share information without your consent where we are legally or professionally required to do so. This includes:

Where there is a serious and imminent risk of harm to you or to another person (including safeguarding concerns relating to children or vulnerable adults)
Where disclosure is required by a court order, statutory authority, or regulatory body
Where reporting is required under specific legislation (for example, certain serious offences)

Any disclosure of this kind will be kept to the minimum necessary, and we will discuss it with you wherever it is safe and appropriate to do so.
‍

8. International transfers

Some of the third-party services we rely on (such as Google Workspace) may transfer or store data outside the United Kingdom. Where this happens, we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your information, in line with UK GDPR requirements. These safeguards include adequacy decisions, standard contractual clauses, and the supplier's own UK-GDPR-compliant data-handling commitments.
‍

9. How long we keep your information

We retain personal information only for as long as is necessary, in line with professional guidance and legal requirements.

Website enquirers who do not become clients: Up to 12 months from your last contact with us, after which we securely delete the information.

Clinical records (adults): Retained for a minimum of 7 years following the end of your therapy or assessment, in line with British Psychological Society guidance and HCPC professional standards. Some records may be kept longer where there are clinical or risk-related reasons to do so.

Clinical records (young people under 18): Retained until your 25th birthday, or for 7 years following the end of therapy, whichever is later, in line with professional guidance for the retention of children's records.

Financial and transactional records: Retained for at least 6 years from the end of the relevant accounting period, in line with HMRC requirements.

Information held under your explicit consent: Retained until you withdraw consent, or until the consent expires.

At the end of the relevant retention period, information is securely deleted or anonymised.
‍

10. How we protect your information

We take the security of your personal information seriously and apply appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it. These include:

Storing electronic records in encrypted systems with access controls
Restricting access to personal information to those who need it for your care
Using encrypted, GDPR-compliant platforms for online therapy sessions
Holding paper records (where they exist) in a locked, secure location
Reviewing our security practices regularly

While we take reasonable steps to protect your information, no system is entirely without risk. If we become aware of a personal data breach that is likely to affect your rights or freedoms, we will notify you and the Information Commissioner's Office where required.
‍

11. Your rights under data protection law

Right of access — to ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you (Article 15 UK GDPR)
Right to rectification — to ask us to correct any inaccurate or incomplete information (Article 16)
Right to erasure — to ask us to delete your personal information in certain circumstances (Article 17). Please note that clinical records cannot usually be deleted before the end of the retention period, because we are legally and professionally required to retain them.
Right to restriction of processing — to ask us to limit how we use your information in certain circumstances (Article 18)
Right to data portability — to ask us to provide your information in a structured, commonly used format (Article 20), where this applies
Right to object — to object to certain types of processing, including processing based on legitimate interests (Article 21)
Right not to be subject to automated decision-making — including profiling (Article 22). We do not use automated decision-making to make decisions about your care.
Right to withdraw consent — where consent is the basis on which we process your information, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at info@reliableroutespsychology.co.uk. We will respond within one month of receiving your request, and there is usually no charge.
‍

12. Children and young people

We provide services to young people as well as adults. Where we work with a young person under 16, we usually involve a parent or guardian in the contracting and consent process, and we apply additional safeguards to the handling of their information. We will explain how information will be managed (including what is shared with parents and what stays confidential between us and the young person) at the start of our work together.
‍

13. Marketing and communications

We do not send marketing communications without your explicit consent. If you join a mailing list or sign up to receive updates from us, you can withdraw your consent at any time by emailing us at info@reliableroutespsychology.co.uk or following the unsubscribe link in any email we send.
‍

14. Cookies and website analytics

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to help it function correctly, to remember your preferences, and to understand how visitors interact with the site. Some cookies are essential for the website to work; others (such as analytics cookies) are used only with your consent. For full details of the cookies we use, please see our Cookies Policy.
‍

15. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, for example if our practices change, or if professional or legal guidance is updated. The "Last updated" date at the top of this policy will reflect any changes. We encourage you to review this policy occasionally to stay informed about how we protect your information.
‍

16. Complaints

If you have a concern or complaint about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first using the details in Section 17, and we will do our best to address it directly. We take complaints seriously, and we would rather hear about them than not.

If you remain dissatisfied with our response, you have the right to raise your complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent data protection regulator.

Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: ico.org.uk
‍

17. Contact us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, or wish to exercise any of your rights, please contact:

Reliable Routes Psychological Services Ltd
Email: info@reliableroutespsychology.co.uk
Registered office: Workbench, Unit 15, Neptune Court, Vanguard Way, Cardiff, CF24 5PJ

For the attention of: Dr Obss Alademerin, Data Controller