A word about confidentiality

Confidentiality is crucial to the kind of work we do and our fundamental principle is that the identity of Relate clients and the information they share with our organisation is never made known to anyone outside Relate.

That said, as a charitable company and professional counselling organisation, we also have certain obligations to the law of the land and to the welfare of our clients and their families.

This means that, in certain very specific circumstances, we may sometimes have to break confidentiality, with or without the permission of our clients.

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The specific circumstances in which we are compelled to share information with agencies and professionals outside Relate are listed below:
  • When a client tells us something that leads us to believe that they or someone else is in very serious danger
  • When we receive a formal order to release information from a Court

 

Whenever such an event takes place, we always do our utmost to obtain the consent of our clients to the precise nature of the disclosure and, in all cases, we try to restrict any information that is released to an absolute minimum.

Finally please note that, even in circumstances where clients may actively wish us to release information, often, for example, to their solicitors, our general policy is not to do so. This is to prevent the counselling and therapeutic work we offer being used for purposes other than that for which it is intended.

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