Department of Human Services

Privacy Policy

1. The Department of Human Services is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information which we and our funded service partners handle. Personal information is information which directly or indirectly identifies a person.

2. We collect and handle a range of personal information for the purposes of providing services or to carry out our statutory functions. We also collect some personal information for planning, funding, monitoring and evaluating our services and functions, but where practicable we remove identifying details from information used for these purposes.

3. In accordance with our responsibilities, the services and functions which we and our service partners provide relate primarily to the areas of health, community support and the protection of public health and safety. They include in particular primary and community health, public hospitals, mental health, disability, family support, child protection, youth justice, housing, homelessness support, and public health. We are committed to providing coordinated care to our clients.

4. We recognise that the nature of these services means that much of the information we handle is particularly sensitive.

5. We recognise that privacy principles protect personal information both as a matter of individual right, and to support the public interest in ensuring government can collect information necessary for its services.

6. We recognise the essential right of individuals to have their information handled in ways which they would reasonably expect protected on the one hand, and made accessible to them on the other.

7. These privacy values are reflected in and supported by our corporate values: collaborative relationships, professional integrity and respect, quality, responsibility and client focus.

8. We are bound by the Victorian privacy laws, the Information Privacy Act 2000 and the Health Records Act 2001, as well as other laws which impose specific obligations in regard to handling information.

9. We have adopted the respective Privacy Principles contained in the Victorian privacy laws as minimum standards in relation to handling personal information.

In broad terms this means that we:

• collect only information which we need for a specified primary purpose

• ensure that the person knows why we collect it and how we will handle it

• use and disclose it only for the primary or a directly related purpose, or for another purpose with the persons consent (unless otherwise authorised by law)

• store it securely, protecting it from unauthorised access

• retain it for the period authorised by the Public Records Act 1973

• provide the person with access to their own information, and the right to seek its correction.

For information in our possession, this right is available through the Freedom of Information Act 1982*. For information in the possession of our service partners, this right is available through privacy legislation**. This policy is complemented by high-level departmental guidelines intended to assist the department and its funded service partners to put the policy and law into practice.

* For information about freedom of information requests,

tel. 9606 8449, email dhsfoi@dhs.vic.gov.au or visit the

department's FOI website at www.dhs.vic.gov.au/foi/

** For information about making a request under privacy legislation, contact the relevant funded service.