Sharing Your Data
The information given to us (which might be from you, or might be from other people) is confidential, which means it must only be used for proper purposes, be stored securely, and only shared where there is an identified need to.
Sharing Information for Safety
In most circumstances, we will need your consent to share information with people. However, there may be times where we can, or might need to, share your information without your consent. If we are concerned there is a risk of serious harm to you, someone else, or a group of people, we might decide to share information to keep people safe.
There are also some rare situations where the law says we must share information, or where one of our regulators (like the Care Quality Commission) needs to see information to check we’re delivering safe services. For more information, email dataprotection@cgl.org.uk.
Sharing with people and organisations you know
If there are non-healthcare organisations who you are in contact with (such as social care, housing agencies, probation, employment support services etc), having permission to discuss your care with them helps us to provide you with the best treatment we can.
You can also give us permission to share information with particular people in your life who can support your treatment, for example friends or family. Please use the table provided to indicate your preferences.
Sharing Information with Health Professionals
If there are other health professionals involved in your care, or we need to involve a new health professional in your care, we may need to share some information with them. This may include NHS services, Mental Health teams, and other community health services.
You can tell us that you do not want us to share information with other health professionals, but this might limit the treatment can offer. For example, we would not be able to safely prescribe medication to you unless your GP or Pharmacist was also aware of this. If there are certain health professionals who you do not want your information shared with, we will respect your wishes wherever possible.
Sharing with NDTMS
We share information with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) in the Department of Health and Social Care. They have a database called the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS), which they use to collect information about drug and alcohol treatment in England.
Sharing necessary and relevant information helps to see what’s not working well, so we can do something about it. It helps to make sure that people are getting the best possible care wherever they live.
We’ll always share the minimum amount of information possible. This includes your initials, date of birth, sex and the area where you live (the first bit of your postcode). You are under no obligation to share this information, and it will not impact on your treatment if you choose not to.
Further Support
We appreciate this is a lot of information to take in. Please know that if you have any questions you can speak to a member of staff.
More detailed information on how we use data can be found on our Privacy Notice (https://www.changegrowlive.org/legal/privacy)
Last Updated on 17 March 2026