Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy

Last Updated: November 2025

Terms of Use

Jurisdiction

Clarity Speech Therapy trading as Excel Speech Therapy ABN 37 535 968 416 (we, us, our) operates with a principal place of practice in New South Wales, Australia. We provide telehealth services to clients across Australia where legally permitted. Clients accessing telehealth services acknowledge that services are provided from NSW and are subject to NSW jurisdiction. Clarity Speech Therapy trading as Excel Speech Therapy and its associated entities do not represent that we are permitted to provide speech pathology services in each jurisdiction from which this website may be viewed.

Material on Website

Material on this website ("Material") is intended to contain matters which may be of interest. The Material is not, and is not intended to be, health, education or legal advice. The Material may be updated and amended from time to time. We endeavour to take care in compiling the Material; however the Material may not reflect the most recent developments. Health and education outcomes in the future may differ from outcomes described in the Material.

Visitors to this website should not act or refrain from acting on the basis of any of the Material without first obtaining advice specific to their own situation from a qualified speech language pathologist. Use of this website or receipt of any of the Material is not intended to and does not create any speech pathologist-client relationship.

The Internet is not a secure medium and communications to and from this website may be intercepted or altered in transit. We do not warrant that the website is free from anything which may damage any computer which accesses the website or data on such computer.

Assessment Limitations

Our assessments provide standardised evaluation of language and literacy abilities using evidence-based tools and protocols. These assessments do not constitute a diagnosis of giftedness, which requires comprehensive cognitive assessment by a qualified psychologist. Our reports may be used as part of a broader gifted identification process and provide objective data about language and literacy development. Assessment results represent performance at a specific point in time and should be interpreted in conjunction with other relevant information about the individual.

Payment Terms

Payment is due on the day of service delivery via bank deposit.

Cancellation Policy: Cancellations must be made at least 7 days in advance. Cancellations made with less than 7 days notice will incur a cancellation fee equivalent to the full service fee.

No Refunds: No refunds are provided once services have been delivered. If you have concerns about the service provided, please contact us to discuss.

Consent for Minors

For clients under 18 years of age, consent must be provided by a parent or legal guardian. Where parents are separated or divorced, we require consent from the parent with parental responsibility, or both parents where parental responsibility is shared. We may request documentation of parental responsibility where there is uncertainty. By booking an assessment or service for a minor, you confirm that you have the legal authority to provide consent on their behalf.

Informed Consent

Before commencing assessment or services, we will discuss the purpose, process, potential outcomes, costs, and your rights. You have the right to ask questions, request clarification, and withdraw consent at any time. Assessment reports are provided for your personal use and may be shared with schools, medical professionals, or other services as you determine. Reports remain your property and you control their distribution.

Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we exclude completely all liability to any person for loss or damage of any kind (however caused, including by negligence) arising from or relating in any way to the Material and/or any use of the website ("Services"). Where any law implies a warranty into these terms of use which may not lawfully be excluded, then to the maximum extent permitted by law, our liability for breach of the warranty will, at our option, be limited to the supply of the Services again, or the payment of the cost of having them supplied again.

Copyright and Trade Marks

Unless otherwise indicated, we reserve all copyright in the content and design of this website. We own all such copyright or use it under licence or applicable law. You may make a temporary copy of part or all of this website on your local computer for the sole purpose of viewing it, and print a single hard copy of a whole page of this website for personal use, provided that any copyright notice on such page is not removed. You may not, in any form, or by any means:

• otherwise reproduce, adapt, store in a retrieval system, transmit, print, display, perform, publish or create derivative works from any part of the content or design of this website;

• cause any of the Material to be framed or embedded in another website; or

• commercialise any information, products or services on this website,

except with our prior written consent or as permitted by applicable copyright legislation.

Product and company names referred to on this website may be trade marks owned by us or third parties.

Links to or from Other Sites

This website may contain links to websites at domains other than the Excel Speech Therapy domain. Such sites may be controlled or produced by third parties. Except as indicated, we do not control, endorse, sponsor or approve any such websites or any content on them, nor do we provide any warranty or take any responsibility for any aspect of those websites or their content.

You must not create or maintain any link from another website to this website without our written consent.

Privacy

You need not disclose your identity to us in order to use this website. However, this website may use "cookies" to collect anonymous traffic data from users who access this website. Our internet server may also automatically record details about any computer used to access the website (such as the IP address, domain name and browser type), the date and time of access, and details of the information downloaded. This information is used for internal statistical purposes and to improve this website. Any other information supplied to us (for example if you send us an email) is treated in accordance with our privacy policy.

Contact

If you have any questions relating to these terms of use, please contact us.

Privacy Policy

Thank you for accessing our Privacy Policy.

We are Clarity Speech Therapy trading as Excel Speech Therapy ABN 37 535 968 416, of 66 Berry Street, North Sydney, New South Wales, 2060, Australia.

What is this policy about?

We are committed to protecting your privacy in your dealings with us.

This policy explains how we manage personal information, what kinds of personal information we hold, why we hold it, and how we collect, store and handle it.

Like most private health businesses in NSW, we are bound by both the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (including the Australian Privacy Principles) and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW) (together, the Privacy Laws). This Policy is intended to reflect our obligations under the Privacy Laws.

Hard copies of this policy are available for free in our reception area, and you may request a portable document format (pdf) copy, again at no charge, by way of email to our Privacy Officer.

When we refer to "clients" below, we mean both former and current clients, as well as people who make inquiries about our products and services (i.e. potential clients).

What kinds of personal information do we collect and hold?

"Personal information" means information or an opinion about an individual whose identity is apparent or can reasonably be ascertained. To provide evidence-based speech pathology services to our clients, we need to know personal information about them and others, including:

• names, ages, genders, and other identifying information;

• Medicare and health fund details (including Medicare numbers and health fund insurers and the extent of their coverage);

• developmental, medical, ethnic, language, cultural and social histories (including medications, diagnoses, surgeries, and allergies);

• disabilities and impairments;

• family histories, to the extent they may be relevant to our assessment, diagnosis and/or treatment of clients;

• work and education histories;

• hobbies, motivations, interests, and activities in which clients and their families participate; and

• financial information concerning the ability of clients to pay for our products and services.

For sensitive information – such as information about your health that is reasonably necessary for us to provide you with services or products – we will seek your consent.

How do we collect personal information?

We collect personal information by telephone (e.g. when you first call us to book an appointment for yourself or your child), via our website, pages on our social media sites (e.g. on our Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn sites), through our client questionnaires (which are usually filled in by a client or carer as part of our assessment process), by written letters, reports and other documents (e.g. through doctors reports you provide to us), through emails, sms and other forms of electronic communication, and in interviews and other interactions in our clinic (including face-to-face interviews and interviews conducted electronically, such as by way of telehealth video conferencing).

Who do we collect personal information from?

We collect personal information from clients or someone authorised to act on a client's behalf (e.g. their parents, carers or guardians). Wherever practicable, we will ask for the information directly. However, we may need to contact others when relevant to a client's circumstances (e.g. when working with clients who cannot communicate their needs without the assistance of others). In these cases, we will, where practicable, make you aware of the fact that we have collected this information and the circumstances of the collection.

When you give us information about other people, we rely on you to have obtained their prior consent and on you to tell them of the types of third parties we may provide the information to and why.

Why do we collect personal information?

We collect personal information to deliver, review and improve the products and services that we provide. Generally, these services and products relate to speech-language pathology. If we didn't collect this information, we wouldn't be able to carry out of business or provide our products and services to you in accordance with the standards required by law and the Speech Pathology Australia Code of Ethics. If you do not provide the personal information that we request, we would not be able to carry out our business and provide our products or services to you.

More specifically, we need personal information (including health information) to provide clients with assessment, diagnosis and management services and products related to their speech, language, voice, fluency, swallowing/feeding, and/or literacy-related issues, and/or multi-modal communication. We also need this information:

• for administrative purposes of managing our business;

• when necessary, to fulfil our obligations under law, regulation and/or Speech Pathology Australia's Code of Ethics;

• for billing management (either directly or through insurers or other compensation agencies);

• discussions between speech pathologists and others working at our clinic (including other speech pathologists and sub-contractors) related to the care of clients;

• discussions and other communications with your doctors, other health professionals, and education professionals in relation to your care;

• discussions with insurers; and

• any insurance or compensation or other claims or litigation (including threatened litigation).

From time to time, we may use personal information (but not sensitive health information) to provide you with news or offers about our products or services that may be of interest to you. These products and services will be related to our speech pathology business described above and will be products and services that we believe will be relevant to you. You have a right, at any time, to tell us that you don't want to receive this type of material.

Can people access our products and services anonymously?

No. Due to the nature of our services and products, we cannot offer them to people who wish to be anonymous, wish to use a pseudonym or who do not provide us with enough information to properly identify them for the purposes of providing services and products.

Who will see or have access to your personal information?

Your information may be seen or used by people working for or on behalf of Clarity Speech Therapy trading as Excel Speech Therapy and other service providers including (without limitation):

• our directors and shareholders;

• our speech pathologists (employed or contracted);

• our administrative staff (employed or contracted);

• doctors, other health professionals, and education professionals;

• our third-party professional advisors and service providers, including (without limitation) our lawyers, book-keepers, accountants, auditors, tax consultants, actuaries, management consultants and IT service providers (including software-as-a-service provider); and

• Medicare, private health insurance providers, our insurers and reinsurers.

We will not rent, sell, trade or otherwise disclose to any other third parties any personal information about you without your consent, or unless we are required by law (including pursuant to a court or tribunal order), or where a permitted general situation (including a permitted health situation) exists within the meaning of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), or if we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary for enforcement-related activities.

Important note: To promote the safety, welfare and wellbeing of vulnerable children in NSW, the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 (NSW) requires NSW speech pathologists who are members of Speech Pathology Australia to take reasonable steps to proactively exchange information, and co-ordinate the delivery of services, with NSW Health, schools, non-government organisations, the Family and Federal Courts, the police and other prescribed bodies in NSW. These obligations generally override confidentiality and privacy rights.

Security of your personal information and data retention

We know that you are concerned about your personal information – especially your health information. We will use reasonable endeavours to prevent unauthorised access to, modification of, disclosure, misuse or loss of that information as required by law.

Our directors and staff have reviewed the requirements of the Privacy Laws and our third-party service providers have been made aware that they are required to comply with the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

We have data protection measures in place (including password-locked computers) when we store personal information electronically. Our hard copy health records are stored in a locked filing cabinet on site accessible only to authorised staff.

If we no longer need personal information about you for any purpose described above, then we will take reasonable steps to destroy the information or to ensure that such information is de-identified. This obligation is subject to an important exception – under the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW), we are obliged to retain health information:

(a) about adults for 7 years from the last time we provided them with a service or product; and

(b) about children, until the individual has attained 25 years of age.

Access to and accuracy of your personal information

We take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information we collect about or from you is accurate, complete, up-to-date and relevant whenever it is used, collected or disclosed. Subject to the recognised exceptions to access for organisations contained in the Australian Privacy Principles (APP12.3), you have a right to access you information if you wish (subject to any privilege or legal restrictions); and, if it is reasonable and practicable to do so, we will give you access to the information in the manner requested by you. By law, we may charge you a reasonable fee to cover the cost of retrieving and processing the information.

If you believe personal information that we hold about you is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete or misleading, we will, on receipt of your request, take steps that are reasonable in the circumstances to correct the information.

What happens if personal information is disclosed outside Australia?

Given the increasing globalisation of electronic information systems and the businesses of service providers, it is likely that personal information may be disclosed to a person or entity outside Australia (e.g. to a third-party service provider managed outside Australia). For the same reason, it is not practicable to specify the countries in which such recipients may be located.

If your personal information is disclosed by us to an overseas recipient (e.g. to an insurer or IT-service provider), we will take reasonable steps in the circumstances to ensure the overseas recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles in relation to the information.

Complaints

If you believe your privacy has been prejudiced by something we have done or failed to do, you have a legal right to lodge a complaint.

Our Privacy Officer can be contacted by phone, email and in writing.

We will respond to you in writing within 15 days of receiving your complaint. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can refer your complaint to our Board of Directors, who will respond to you within 15 days of receiving such complaint.

Want more information?

If you have any questions about this policy, or have any concerns about the personal information you or others have given us about you, please contact us.

More information on the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) can be found on the website of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.