Privacy Policy

StemsCare Services is a trading name of Cook & Breen Pty Ltd (ABN 14 695 350 415) ("StemsCare", "we", "us"). We provide disability support services in Perth, Western Australia.

We respect your privacy. This policy explains how we collect, use, store and share personal information, including health and disability information, in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and our obligations under the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (Cth).

1. Information we collect

We only collect information that is reasonably necessary to respond to you and to provide our services. Depending on how you deal with us, this may include:

• Contact details: name, phone number, email, suburb and address, and preferred contact times.
• Enquiry details: who the support is for (yourself, a family member or someone you support professionally) and what help you are looking for.
• Participant information: date of birth, NDIS number, NDIS plan and funding details, plan manager and support coordinator details, and emergency contacts.
• Health and disability information: information about your disability, health, support needs, medications, risks, goals, and cultural, language or religious preferences relevant to your care. This is "sensitive information" under the Privacy Act, and we collect it only with your consent or where the law allows.
• Service records: service agreements, support plans, shift notes, incident reports, feedback and complaints.
• Job applicants and workers: details needed to recruit and engage staff, including NDIS Worker Screening Check results.

You can contact us anonymously or under a pseudonym for general enquiries. We will need your identity to provide NDIS supports.

2. How we collect it

Where possible, we collect information directly from you or your nominee, for example:

• by phone, email, WhatsApp or in person;
• through the enquiry form on our website;
• through enquiry (lead) forms in our Facebook and Instagram advertisements; and
• during assessments, planning meetings and the services we deliver.

With your consent, we may also collect information from others, such as family members, carers, your support coordinator, plan manager, Local Area Coordinator, health professionals or the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).

3. Why we use it

We use your information to:

• respond to your enquiry and talk with you about your support options;
• assess, plan, deliver and review your supports safely;
• match you with suitable support workers;
• prepare service agreements, invoice for services and process claims;
• manage incidents, feedback and complaints;
• meet our legal, insurance, audit and reporting obligations; and
• improve our services.

We will not use your information for any other purpose without your consent, unless the law requires or permits it.

4. Who we share it with

We share information only as needed for the purposes above, and with your consent where required:

• our support workers and staff who need it to support you;
• your plan manager, support coordinator, NDIA or other providers involved in your care;
• the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, auditors and government agencies, where required by law;
• emergency services or health practitioners, where necessary to lessen a serious threat to life, health or safety; and
• service providers who help us run our business, such as IT, cloud storage, client management, accounting and communication services. These providers must protect your information and use it only for the service they provide to us.

We do not sell your personal information.

5. Overseas disclosure

Some of our service providers, including cloud software providers and Meta (Facebook and Instagram), may store or process information outside Australia, including in the United States. Where we use these services, we take reasonable steps to ensure your information is handled consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles.

6. Contacting you

If you send us an enquiry, we will contact you about that enquiry. We may occasionally send you information about our services. You can ask us to stop at any time by calling, emailing or replying to the message, and we will respect your choice. We never use health or disability information for marketing.

7. Storage and security

We store information in secure electronic systems with access controls, and in secure physical storage where paper records are needed. Only people who need the information to do their job can access it. We train our team on privacy and confidentiality.

We keep participant records for at least seven years, as required for NDIS providers, and then securely destroy or de-identify them.

8. Our website and social media

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to understand how visitors use the site and to measure our advertising, including tools provided by Meta and Google. These tools collect technical information such as your browser type, pages visited and general location. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings.

We do not use these tools to collect health information. If you contact us through a Facebook or Instagram lead form, the details you submit are shared with us by Meta, and Meta's own privacy policy also applies.

9. Access and correction

You can ask to see the information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it if it is wrong, out of date or incomplete. Contact us using the details below. We will respond within 30 days. If we cannot give you access, we will explain why in writing, unless that would be unreasonable.

10. Data breaches

If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) as required under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme, and we will take steps to contain it.

11. Questions and complaints

If you have a question or concern about how we handle your information, please contact us first so we can try to resolve it.

We aim to respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact:

• the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: oaic.gov.au or 1300 363 992; or
• the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission: ndiscommission.gov.au or 1800 035 544.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always available on this page.