Legal/ethics Flashcards
Manage legal and ethical compliance
Policies and procedures include the following information:
(general, and “key information”
Information about:
How the service must function;
The roles and responsibilities of all key staff members; The systems regarding governance and coordination of the organisation;
Governance and management;
Cover key information such as:
• Human resources;
• Employee roles, rights and responsibilities;
• Service user rights and responsibilities;
• Workplace health and safety and risk assessment;
• Quality assurance and audit compliance;
• Safeguards and freedom from assault, abuse, neglect and exploitation;
• Conflict of interest;
• Confidentiality and privacy;
• Complaints and feedback.
Dependent on the type of human service organisation (e.g. aged care, disability, youth, domestic and family violence, mental health), there could also be various other types of policies and procedures.
Primary purposes of policies:
Explain to anyone employed by, involved with, or interested in a service provider:
The way the service operates;
The key operational procedures;
How the service complies with any legislation, funding or department obligations.
Policies must always be reflective of industry best practice and should be current and operational.
Ways for organisations to ensure that their policies are appropriate to the needs of their service users, staff and general service requirements:
(5 things)
Liaising with auditors
(regarding P+P appropriateness and discussing methods of review and mechanisms to update policies as a result of feedback received from audit).
Requesting feedback
(from service users, their informal support networks, staff and anyone associated with the service).
Providing training regarding P+P
(to staff and anyone else for whom training might be helpful).
Attending industry network events and discussing policy and procedure with other industry professionals.
Conducting regular reviews of P+P
(and providing information about any changes to all who are associated with the service provider).
Staff/employee role regarding policy and procedure development is to:
(5 things)
Recognise feedback and pass it on and/or record it appropriately;
Encourage anyone in the organisation to utilise feedback mechanisms for the purpose of passing on information which could be used for policy review;
Participate in any requests from anyone in the service to review policies, procedures or workplace documents;
Ensure you are aware of the policy framework of the organisation and that you’re familiar with the policies and procedures which are related to your role and the responsibilities you have;
Complete workplace documents in a manner which is conducive with policy and procedure frameworks and provide feedback to a relevant person if you find any specific stipulations to be unrealistic or unachievable.
(examples: you cannot complete a task within the timeframe stipulated by policy, or a required confidentiality consent form is not provided in a certain language for a specific client group)
(5) Ways to understand best practice:
Become involved in industry reference groups;
Attend networking events;
Participate in functions held by other service providers; Attend professional development, training and up-skilling opportunities;
Sector websites have up-to-date information regarding sector practice, templates, audit tools and general information to help individuals and organisations remain well informed and current.
Common law is:
Judge-made law, which is determined by individual matters heard in a court room.
Common laws are rules which are not yet included within legislation: therefore, enforceable by the threat of litigation.
Ie: can sue for, but police won’t arrest for (unless there’s a component which breaches the legislation).
Example of common law:
Duty of care:
the responsibility that everyone owes to all others to ensure that our actions or omissions don’t adversely affect the safety or wellbeing of another person.
This particular responsibility is stipulated in some pieces of legislation which relate to particular groups of people (such as police, paramedics etc), but is not stipulated generally in a piece of legislation which relates to all people in all jobs.
Duty of care is a balancing act of:
Legal - What does the law suggest we do?
Professional/ethical - What do other workers expect us to do?
Organisational - What does our organisation, and its funding body, say we should do?
Community - What do clients/family and other community members expect us to do?
Personal - What do our own beliefs and values suggest we do?
Balance the safety of the client against:
The safety of other people/our personal safety
Other rights of the client (e.g. the right to privacy)
The aims of the service (e.g. to empower young people)
The limits of our organisation (eg. $ and other resources)
The key components of most human rights and human services based legislation:
to direct, protect and inform
Direction : the stipulations and requirements which are set by this particular piece of legislation which affect a particular person, group of people, organisation or Department.
Protection: the way this statute will safeguard a particular person, group or people, organisation or Department.
Informing: the general information that this Act will provide in addition to the mechanisms regarding direction and protection.
The following Acts relate to all areas of human/community services and are essential to understand and be aware of:
Privacy Act 1988 (CTH); Information Privacy Act 2009 (QLD); Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (QLD); Guardianship and Administration Act 2000 (QLD); Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (QLD); Community Services Act 1997 (QLD); QCAT Act (QLD); Public Guardian Act 2014 (QLD
If you work, or what to work with people with a disability, then the following Acts are most likely to be relevant to you:
Disability Services Act 2006 (QLD);
Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (CTH);
Forensic Disability Act 2011 (QLD
State Vs Commonwealth legislation and convention :
When State legislation contradicts Commonwealth legislation, the Commonwealth legislation will win, but only to the extent of the inconsistency, or contradiction.
When writing legislation, it’s preferred that a certain ‘convention’ be used to keep it consistent and easy to read. You will notice that the name of the Act and the year are all written in italics, then the State or Commonwealth is in brackets after the name and not italicized. Writing legislation in this manner will make your work appear more professional and is a more appropriate method to use in the workplace.
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities:
This convention is an international human rights treaty of the United Nations intended to recognize ‘all human rights and fundamental freedoms and the need for persons with disabilities to be guaranteed their full enjoyment without discrimination.’
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child:
This convention is an international human rights treaty that outlines a child’s distinct rights as human beings. It conveys an international commitment to the advancement of children’s rights.
Human rights issues affecting people with a disability:
of 541 survey responses:
Participation and inclusion in society (15.75%*, 217**) Work and employment (13.49%, 193) Access to services (8.57%, 131) Welfare and social security (8.25%, 105) Health and safety (8.14%, 104) Negative attitudes and stereotyping (7.79%, 115) NDIS roll-out (7.22%, 99) Education (6.09%, 84) Violence, abuse and neglect (5.42%, 73) Housing (5.17%, 76) Living independently (3.82%, 61) Access to justice (3.43%, 50) Reasonable adjustments/accommodations (2.65%, 42) Other (2.16%, 31) Transport (1.95%, 29) Assistance animals (0.11%, 3)