Terms & Conditions of Service - Psychotherapy | Eating Disorders Treatment

V20240630

These Therapy Terms are the standard terms which apply to the services we provide to you, or your child, (known as the “Services”), by us, Oxford Mind & Body Limited, whose business address is 130 High Street, Oxford OX1 4 DH (known as the “Practice”, also referred to as us/we/our).

Please read these Therapy Terms carefully and sign at the end to indicate your acknowledgement and acceptance. If you have any questions on any part of this document, please do not hesitate to ask before signing.

Professional Information:

All Clinicians working at Oxford Mind & Body are registered with the United Kingdom’s Health and Care Professions Council, (HCPC www.hcpc-uk.org) and or the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP https://babcp.com/ ). All Clinicians practising within the UK must be registered with an accrediting body. In order to maintain their practising registration, all Clinicians must continue to demonstrate compliance with a range of standards of conduct, performance and ethics.
All Services offered by the Practice are delivered under the regulations in law as specified by the HCPC and BABCP in the United Kingdom.

Consultations and Appointments:

Consultations shall be by appointment only. Details of the consultation timings, length and fees shall be made available to you in advance of the consultation.
Initial appointments can be made by emailing or telephoning the practice.
Subsequent appointments can be made during your consultation with us, by telephone or email.
If you know you are going to be late for an appointment, you should contact us to tell us. If you arrive later than 15 minutes after an appointment time, we will try to provide the Services you have booked but if we decide that we cannot, the appointment will be treated as cancelled without notice by you and you may be charged (See Cancellations below). This is the case no matter whether the appointment is for a face to face, online, or telephone session.

Online Sessions:

Sessions may be provided online via a pre-agreed livestream service (for example Zoom, Teams, WhatsApp, Skype).
When using a third-party supplier for online sessions your personal and special category data will be treated in accordance with our Privacy Policy and may be subject to the privacy policy of the third-party supplier. We will not be liable to you for any costs or losses incurred by you as a result of using any third-party online provider for the purposes of attending a session virtually with us. You should make yourself familiar with such providers own terms and conditions and privacy policy.
If we provide any of our Services as a livestream, we will use all reasonable endeavours to start at the time scheduled. If the start is delayed by circumstances beyond our control, we will not be liable for any such delay.
In some limited circumstances, we may need to suspend the provision of an online session for one or more of the following reasons:
- (ii) In the event of illness or other circumstances beyond our control.
- (i) To fix technical problems or to make necessary technical changes;

In the event of any of the circumstances listed above occurring, then we will use reasonable endeavours to give as much notice as possible to you.
Ahead of your online session, we ask you to plan where in your location you will sit for the meeting. It is important that the connection to the internet is as strong as possible.
We will share with you some best practice tips for accessing our services via an online provider either before or at the beginning of the first online session.
It is important that you ensure the space is private and that you cannot be interrupted or overheard. You are strongly encouraged to make any necessary arrangements with anyone you may normally share the location with to ensure that your protected space can be achieved.
Wearing earphones attached to your mobile, laptop or tablet device is helpful in blocking out “feedback” noise and ensuring extra privacy.

Recording of sessions:

To maintain our high-level professional accreditations, we are required to audio or video record some therapy sessions to be discussed within our clinical supervision. It is important to note that there is no expectation or requirement for you to agree to this, but please let us know if you would feel happy for your session to be recorded for this purpose.
You must not record the session without discussing and agreeing this with us first. It is not permitted, under any circumstances, that any agreed recording is shared with others or in any social media platform.

Cancellations and missed appointments:

Missed and cancelled appointments are chargeable in full, except for breaks agreed in advance.
If you are unable to attend your appointment, we might be able to offer an alternative session the same week (subject to availability).
If a health insurance company or your employer is funding your therapy, cancelled and non-attended sessions will be billed to you directly. You should check with your employer or health insurance provider to ensure you know when they will and will not cover your costs.
We may cancel an appointment booked by you at any time before the time and date of that appointment due to unforeseen circumstances. If we cancel an appointment we will refund to you in full any advance payment that you have made to us for that appointment.
We will use all reasonable endeavours to start appointments at the time you have booked, but the start may be delayed by the overrun of a previous appointment or by other unforeseen circumstances.
If we are prevented from or delayed in performing our obligations by your act or omission or by any circumstance outside our control, we will not be liable to you for any costs, charges or losses sustained or incurred by you that arise directly or indirectly from such prevention or delay.

Fees & Payment:

We bill monthly in advance. Therapy may be paused if invoices are not paid in full by the end of each calendar month.
Letters and reports may incur additional fees.
In absence of prior written agreement to the contrary, payment of our charges is required on receipt of our invoice. Failure to make payment within 28 days of the due date may result in the matter being referred to a debt collection agent whose charges will be added to and payable with the invoice debt.
Clients are requested to use the reference number on the invoice, so that the payment can be easily identified.
We may alter our prices without prior notice. Increases made between the time when you book an appointment and the date of the appointment will not apply to your appointment on that date.
Chasing unpaid invoices attracts an administration and interest charge of 8% above the Bank of England base rate from the due date until the final settlement date. We may suspend the provision of our Services to you in the event that any due fees remain unpaid.

Funding via Employer:

For clients attending therapy through a direct arrangement with their employer or the employer’s representative, we normally invoice and collect payment from the employer or the representative unless otherwise agreed.
Invoices are sent monthly to the employer or representative. Payment for cancelled appointments or for any failure to attend without prior notice may be the client’s own responsibility. We advise clients to check with their employer or their representative what the arrangements for payment are in the event of missed or late-cancelled sessions.

Private healthcare funding

Our Psychologists are registered as clinical practitioners with a number of healthcare providers.  Each provider and every healthcare plan has different rules and regulations of engagement. As the insurance policy holder, you are responsible for checking with the insurer how many sessions will be funded and whether you have the responsibility to part-pay the fee.
If the Services are being covered by your private healthcare insurance (e.g. AXA, Aviva, BUPA, etc.) you will be asked to provide the name of the insurance company, your policy number and authorisation code.
We are not party to any contract between you and your insurance provider.
Please note that some insurance companies will not pay for any missed/cancelled appointments, and in such circumstances, you will be fully liable to pay the full costs to us (see above). You should check your health insurance policy to ensure you know when they will and will not cover your costs.
If you are obliged to pay any excess or part payments as part of your health insurance policy, then these will be paid by you directly to us as per the terms set out in the Fees & Payment section above.
In cases where we accept your treatment will be covered in full by a health insurance company then payment of our charges will be made by your health insurance company and the payment terms in this section will not apply to you except for missed treatments (see above).
In some occasions you will be responsible for payment of all outstanding charges on your account regardless of the health cover you have. It shall be your responsibility to pay all sums due to us and to reclaim such sums from your insurance provider. You should keep track of the number of sessions that have been agreed by your insurance company and to alert them if any treatment session is needed.

Personal Belongings:

You are responsible for your own belongings that you take to a Session. We will not be liable for any loss, damage, theft or destruction of any of your belongings.

Confidentiality:

The information discussed in our consultations and appointments with you are of a confidential nature. We provide a safe place in which you [and/or your child] can share your feelings and thoughts with us.
Our commitment to client confidentiality is not affected by who pays for the service provided by us.
We will ensure that any confidential information you [and/or your child] disclose to us shall not be disclosed to any person except as permitted in this section.
We may disclose confidential information relating to you [and/or your child]: (i) to our employees, advisers, other healthcare professionals or social agencies who need to know such information for the purposes of carrying out our Services to you; (ii) as may be required by law, a court of competent jurisdiction or any governmental or regulatory authority; and/or (iii) if we believe that you [or your child] are at risk of harming yourself [or themselves] or others, in which case we are entitled to report this to the relevant organisation. Where possible any breach of confidentiality related to risk of harm will be discussed with you [and/or your child] first.
We shall not use your confidential information for any purpose other than to perform our obligations under these Therapy Terms.
We shall ensure that any person to whom we disclose your confidential information to in this section also comply with these confidentiality obligations.
It is a requirement for all Psychologists and Accredited Psychotherapists to have regular Clinical Supervision sessions in which they discuss their work in a safe and confidential space with an equally or more experienced colleague. All work that is discussed in these sessions is completely anonymised. Supervisors are bound by the same professional and ethical regulations as our practitioners and do not discuss clinical material outside of the supervisory context.

GP and medical teams

It is our standard practice to liaise with GPs and medical teams as necessary. We will discuss and seek your consent for this when we start sessions.
We may inform your referrer (if applicable) of your progress, but the details disclosed will be discussed with you beforehand. We also recommend that you inform your GP about our sessions.
We require your GP’s name and surgery address and details of your next of kin/emergency contact person.

How We Use Your/the Patient’s Personal Information (Data Protection)

We will only use your personal information as set out in our Privacy Notice on our website. If you do not have access to the internet we can provide you with a printed version of our Privacy Policy.
We are registered as Data Controllers with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as required by the Data Protection (Charges and Information) Regulations 2018.

Note keeping

Brief notes are made after each session in order to recall information and support our work together. 
Notes and personal information are kept in secure systems, according to the Data Protection Act (2018).  Notes are not kept on computers.

Limitation of Liability:

We will be responsible for any foreseeable loss or damage that you may suffer as a result of our breach of these Therapy Terms or as a result of our negligence. Loss or damage is foreseeable if it is an obvious consequence of our breach or negligence or if it is contemplated by you and us when a contract with you is created. We will not be responsible for any loss or damage that is not foreseeable.
We provide all Services only for your personal and private use/purposes. We will not be liable to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, interruption to business or for any loss of business opportunity.
Nothing in these Therapy Terms is intended to or will exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.
Furthermore, if you are a “consumer” as defined by the Consumer Rights Act 2015, or a consumer for the purposes of any other consumer protection legislation, nothing in these Therapy Terms is intended to or will exclude, limit, prejudice, or otherwise affect any of our duties or obligations to you, or your rights or remedies, or our liability to you, under the Consumer Rights Act 2015; the Consumer Contracts (Information and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013; the Consumer Protection Act 1987; and any other consumer protection legislation.
For more details of your legal rights, please refer to your local Citizens’ Advice Bureau or Trading Standards Office.

Changes to these Therapy Terms:

We may from time to time change these Therapy Terms without giving you notice, but we will use our reasonable endeavours to inform you as soon as is reasonably possible of any such change.

Complaints and Standards:

We are committed to providing as helpful and compassionate a service as possible to meet the needs of all our clients.
We always welcome feedback from our clients and, whilst we shall use all reasonable endeavours to provide a high standard of service, care and treatment to all clients and patients, we nevertheless want to hear from you if you have any cause for complaint. If you have any complaint about our Services or any other complaint about us, please raise the matter with our Lead Psychologist, Dr Gislene Wolfart who can be contacted at contact@oxfordmindandbody.co.uk.
If this is not possible, or should you feel you would like to take the matter further, you can contact the British Psychological Society for further advice. https://www.bps.org.uk/submitting-complaint
You may wish to raise your concern directly with the Health and Care Professions Council, should you feel you have encountered an issue of fitness to practise. This can be done by following this link: https://www.hcpc-uk.org/concerns/raising-concerns/

Crisis management and emergencies

The type of psychological work offered is not suited to managing emergencies or crisis. If you require urgent help between appointments then please contact your GP, use the NHS 111 service for advice, phone 999 or attend A&E. You can also contact the Samaritans’ anonymous helpline on 116 123 or Childline on 0800 1111 (for those under 19 years).

General

We reserve the right, at any time, to withdraw therapy and our Services to you based on clinical judgement. In such circumstances, any advance payments will be refunded for any Services not provided.
We will not undertake any procedure that is in conflict with any law in force, any voluntary or mandatory code or practice, or any similar rules, regulations or codes.
We insist that we do not meet you or your child face to face if you are experiencing symptoms of an infectious illness, e.g. Covid, influenza or chest infection. Online or telephone sessions can be arranged in lieu, should you or your child be well enough.
Appointment times or other queries can be clarified by contacting your clinician directly. Their details will be provided to you once you commence therapy.
If you need to contact us between appointments please do so by email or telephone. We do not provide therapeutic support outside of therapy sessions. We aim to respond to emails/voicemails promptly but there may be delays.
We are required to ensure that certain information is given or made available to you as a Consumer before we make our contract with you except where that information is already apparent. This information is included in these Therapy Terms or will be made available to you before we accept a booking from you. All of that information will be part of the terms of our contract with you.
If you have any questions regarding these Therapy Terms, please do not hesitate to discuss with us, either in a session or by contacting us.

No Waiver

If a party fails to enforce a right under this Agreement, that is not a waiver of that right.

Severance

If any provision of these Therapy Terms is held by any competent authority to be invalid or unenforceable, in whole or in part, the validity of the other provisions of these Therapy Terms and the remainder of the provision in question shall not be affected.

Governing law and jurisdiction

These Therapy Terms are subject to the laws of England & Wales and the jurisdiction of the English Courts.
As a consumer, you will benefit from any mandatory provisions of the law in your country of residency.