Privacy Statement

SASS is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of our clients. SASS supports and complies with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and other relevant legislation, such as the Personal Information Protection Act 2004 (Tas).In practice, this means that we will:

• use fair and lawful means to collect personal information
• take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information that we hold and/or disclose is accurate and up-to-date
• talk to you about circumstances where we may need to disclose information about you to otherparties• provide you with the opportunity to view information that we hold about you, on request
• take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, loss, and unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure
• comply with National mandatory data breach notification scheme (‘NDB Scheme’), if a data breach that poses serious risk of harm to individuals has occurred; and
• provide you with information about options for providing feedback or making a complaint, on request.

SASS will not send personal information overseas unless an exemption applies under Australian Privacy Principle (APP) 8.2. If we are required to send information overseas or you ask us to do so, we will havea conversation with you first about the terms of APP 8.2.

How we collect and use information

We collect personal information such as contact details (e.g. name, address, phone numbers, email addresses); issues and concerns discussed with our workers; and any identified needs. You can opt torestrict the type of information that you provide to us. If this means that we can only provide limited services to you, we will let you know.SASS provides de-identified statistical data to our funding bodies, as per the requirements of our service agreements. We may also provide de-identified to external accreditation auditors from time to time.

Confidentiality and disclosure of information

All SASS representatives sign a Confidentiality Agreement and Code of Conduct. Your personal information will be held and used confidentially by our staff, except in the following circumstances:

• your consent is obtained to share information with another party
• a Child Protection notification to Child Safety Services (CSS) is required, based on the information we receive (please note that SASS employees are mandated reporters of suspected or disclosed child abuse and/or neglect)
• we believe that a disclosure is necessary to prevent a serious threat to an individual’s life, or to public safety; or
• SASS is issued with a subpoena to provide information to a court of law.‍

Under the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1997 (Tas), SASS may share information with other prescribed information-sharing entities, where Child Safety Services have received information about a child or there are relevant orders in place and the information relates to concerns about the safety, welfare, or wellbeing of the child.

If you have questions about our privacy and confidentiality procedures, or would like to provide feedback about our services, please contact us.

Our full Privacy & Confidentiality Policy is available on request.