0
 Speak to Us

Privacy Policy

October 2025

PART 1 – ABOUT THIS POLICY

1.1 Purpose

S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information we collect and hold about individuals.

S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd complies with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) under the privacy Act 1988 (Cth), other privacy laws that govern how private sector health service providers like S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd handle your personal information (including your health information), and Speech Pathology Australia’s Code of Ethics (2020).

This Privacy Policy explains how S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd manages the personal information we collect, use and disclose.

S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd is a private speech pathology practice under the joint directorship of Anne Walker and Karyn Johns.

PART 2 – HOW S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd HANDLES YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

2.1 S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd Legal Obligations

In order to provide you with the health care services that you have requested, S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd will need to collect and use your personal information.  If you provide incomplete or inaccurate information to us or withhold personal and health information from us we may not be able to complete an accurate assessment or develop and appropriate treatment plan for your child.

2.2 What information does S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd collect?

We will only collect the information we need for the primary purpose of providing quality assessment and treatment services.

We collect information from you that is necessary to provide you with speech pathology services and to manage our relationship with you.  The information we collect includes: your child’s name, date of birth, address, health fund details, and information about your child’s health history and family history.  We may also request any previous reports or correspondence from other health providers.  If your child is eligible for any early intervention services through government funding packages you will also need to provide your Letter of Introduction for these services. We require this information to assist the speech pathologist to diagnose and treat your child.

2.3 How does S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd collect health information?

We will usually collect your health information directly from you either over the phone or within your child’s assessment and or consultation appointments.  Sometimes, we may need to collect information about your child from a third party (such as a relative, educator or another health service provider).

2.4 How does S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd use your information?

S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd uses your personal information for the purpose you have given the information to us. We will use your information to provide speech pathology services to you, to manage our relationship with you and to contact you in relation to matters concerning your child’s care.  We may also use your information for other purposes permitted under the Privacy Act 1988.

Who might we disclose your information to?

We may disclose your information to the following people:

  1. disclosure to other health professionals involved in your child’s treatment

Your personal information will generally only be used by the speech pathologist involved in your child’s care, however on occasion your child’s care may be provided by a number of health professionals (for example, other speech pathologists, occupational therapists, psychologist and paediatricians) working and consulting together.  We may disclose your information to these health professionals as part of the process of providing your child’s care and to other health professionals involved in your care.

  • The referrer

S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd will usually send a summary of results and/or a discharge summary to the referrer (ie. Your child’s general practitioner or paediatrician) following your child’s assessment or discharge from S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd or at other times, as required for your child’s treatment.

If you do not wish us to provide a copy of your child’s assessment results or discharge summary to the referrer you must let us know.  Also, if the referrer’s details have changed please let us know.

  • Relatives, guardian, close friends or legal representative

We may provide information about your child’s diagnosis or treatment to grandparents, other relatives, close personal friends and/or guardians who have shared care of your child, unless you tell us that you do not wish us to disclose your child’s health information to any such person.

  • Other uses and disclosures

In order to provide the best possible environment in which to treat your child, we may also use or disclose your child’s personal and health information where necessary for;

  • Activities such as quality assurance processes, accreditation, audits, risk and claims management, patient satisfaction survey and staff education and training;
  • Invoicing, billing and account management
  • Liaising with your health fund or Medicare and where required provide information to your health fund or Medicare in order to verify treatment provided to your child;
  • For the purposes of sending you standard reminders, for example for appointments and follow up care, by text message or email to the number or address which you have provided to us.
  • Other uses with your consent

With your consent we may also use your information for other purposes such as including you on a marketing mail list, or research.  Please note, however, that unless you provide us with your express consent for this purpose, we will not use your information in this way. We will not disclose your personal information to any individual who is outside of Australia.

2.5 Access to and correction of your health information

You have a right to access the personal and health information that we hold about your child.  You can also request an amendment to your personal and health information should you believe that it is inaccurate.

If we do not agree to change your file information in accordance with your request, we will permit you to make a statement of the requested changes and we will enclose this with your file.

Should you wish to obtain access to or request changes to your child’s health record you can ask for our Privacy Officer (see details below) who can give you more detailed information about the access and correction procedure for S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd.

Please note that S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd may recover reasonable costs associated with supplying this information to you.

2.6 Data Quality

S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd will take reasonable steps to ensure that your child’s personal information which we may collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date.

2.7 Data Security

S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd will take reasonable steps to protect your child’s personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.  We use technologies and processes such as access and control procedures, network firewalls, encryption and physical security to protect your and your child’s privacy.

S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd will destroy or permanently de-identify any of your child’s information which is in its possession or control and which is no longer needed for the purpose for which is was collected.  S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd is required to keep the files of children for ten years after they have turned 18 under Queensland law.

2.8 What to do if you have a complaint about privacy issues

If:

  1. You have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy;
  2. S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd does not agree to provide you with access to your child’s personal information; or
  3. You have a complaint about our information handling practices,

You can lodge a complaint with or contact our Privacy Officer on the details below.  We will promptly review your complaint and provide a response to you.

 2.9 How to contact us if you have a complaint about privacy issues

By letter: Anne Walker Privacy Officer S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd PO Box Unit 2, 20 Nerang Street, Nerang 4211.

By email: [email protected]

By telephone: 1800SPEECH

PART 3 – HOW S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd HANDLES YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WHEN YOU VISIT OUR WEBSITE

This section of our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your personal information which is collected from our website www.speechforkids.com.au.

The Privacy Policy applies to your use of our website and the use of any of the facilities on our website.

3.1 Collection

When you use our website, we do not attempt to identify you as an individual user and we will not collect personal information about you unless you specifically provide this to us.

Sometimes we may collect your personal information if you choose to provide this to us via an online form or by email, for example, if you:

  • Submit a general enquiry via our contacts page; or
  • Send a written complaint or enquiry to our Privacy Officer

When you use our website, our Internet Service Provider (ISP) may record and log for statistical purposes the following information about your visit:

  • Your computer address;
  • Your top level name (for example, .com, .gov, .org, .au)
  • The date and time of your visit
  • The pages and documents you access during your visit; and
  • The browser you are using.

Our website management agent may use statistical data collected by our ISP to evaluate the effectiveness of our website.

3.2 Cookies

A “cookie” is a device that allows our server to identify and interact more effectively with our computer. Cookies do not identify individual users, but they do identify your ISP and your browser type.

The website uses temporary cookies.  This means that upon closing your browser, the temporary cookie assigned to you will be destroyed and no personal information is maintained which will identify you at a later date.

Personal information such as your email address is not collected unless you provide it to us. We do not disclose domain names or aggregate information to third parties other than agents who assist us with this website and who are under obligations of confidentiality.  You may be able to configure your browser to accept or reject all cookies and to notify you when a cookie is used.   We suggest that you refer to your browser instructions or help screens to learn more about these functions.  However, please not that if you configure your browser so as not to receive any cookies, a certain level of functionality of the S.P.E.E.C.H. Pty Ltd website and other websites may be lost.

3.3 Links to third party websites

We may create links to third party websites.  We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices employed by websites that are linked from our website.

3.4 Use and disclosure

We will use any personal information collected via our website in accordance with our privacy policy.