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Confidentiality

We encourage students to share relevant disability-related information, including mental health requirements, to allow us to highlight the support and funding that is available as well as to discuss any support requirements or reasonable adjustments you may have whilst at Bangor University. Reasonable adjustments are agreed with you and are outlined in a Personal Learning Support Plan (PLSP).

Any information you share with us regarding your disability, health and wellbeing will be treated as sensitive personal data under the Data Protection Act (1998) and will be kept confidential to the Disability Service. Relevant information is passed on to others in the University with your expressed permission, and then only on a ‘need to know basis’, to ensure that the support and adjustments you have agreed to in your PLSP are put in place. Any member of staff who is aware of your disability as a result of your PLSP or communication from the Disability Service will treat this information in line with the Data Protection Act (1998). If you have any reservations whatsoever about this process, please discuss with a Disability Services Adviser.

Record keeping

Disability Services will store your personal data on a password protected database on a secure University server and in keeping with the Data Protection Act (1998). Access to this data is limited to staff within Disability Services. Paper documentation is kept in secure cabinets. We operate a disposal schedule to ensure that data is not kept any longer than is necessary.

If you have a PLSP, a record of this will also be kept by your School's Disability Tutor to ensure that relevant staff are able to make the necessary adjustments or provide the appropriate support.

The University is required to submit data concerning disability to the Funding Council in statistical form only (HESA data). No information which would identify an individual student is contained in the data.

Duty of Care

In very exception circumstances, duty of care would over-ride our duty of confidentiality and minimal disclosure to another party (eg: doctor, social worker or police) would then be appropriate. The circumstances which form the limits of our confidentiality are:

  • concern that the person is at risk of serious harm to themselves or to others; or
  • where the Adviser would be liable to civil or criminal court proceedings if the information was not disclosed.

Further information

Policies on confidentiality and sharing of disability-related information are contained in the Code of Practice on the Provision for Disabled Students.

For Bangor University’s policies on record keeping, see here and here.

Questions?

If you have any queries in relation to confidentiality and how information is shared, please email a Disability or Mental Health Adviser at: disabilityservice@bangor.ac.uk or phone 01248 383620 / 382032 to make an appointment to see one of the Advisers.