All Choices’ services are confidential.  You can be sure that anything that you discuss with any of the Choices Staff (Family Planning Nurse, Doctor, Youth Worker or Receptionist) will stay confidential.  Nothing will be said to anyone including parents, other family members, care workers, or teachers – without your permission.

You may be concerned that if you are younger than 16 that confidentiality may not be kept.  There is a law from 1985, which has the long name “Gillick - v - West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority”, which protects young people’s confidentiality.  The law says that a young person, regardless of their age, is able to make their own decisions if they have sufficient understanding and intelligence.  All of the staff at Choices’ are trained in this law to make sure that you understand what, why and how to keep yourself safe.  So they will ask you some questions to make sure but your answers will still be kept confidential.

There are some rare circumstances where staff would consider breaking confidentiality.  These are if we think that you or someone else needs to be protected from serious harm.  If we think this is the case, we would always try to discuss it with you first.

If you are worried about confidentiality in Choices’ or anywhere else, you can ask any staff in any setting what their policy is before you talk to anyone and then you can decide for yourself whether you wish to talk with them any further.