Transcript Welcome to Careers Australia

CHCCS411C Work Effectively in the Community Sector
#2 : Working Ethically in Community
Services
Youtube video: Life as a social worker in Cambridgeshire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwp9oUoeJzI
Lesson Outline
• What are ethical guidelines?
• What are client’s, employees & employers rights and
responsibilities?
• How Community Service Workers work ethically:
understanding duty of care, confidentiality, conflict of
interest, access & equity
Youtube video: David Batstone: Unethical Behavior at Work?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-nz0kojLv8&feature=related
What is Ethics?
• Always tricky to define, ethics could be broadly
summed up as a system of beliefs held about
what is a moral judgement and right conduct,
they are moral principles (rules, guides)
Link between Ethics & Values
Our values could be said to make up our ethics…Values
relate to principles and attitudes that provide
direction to everyday living. Values also refer to beliefs
or standards considered desirable by a culture, group
or individual
Ethical Guidelines
• Ethical guidelines in Community Services direct
the way in which services are carried out by
responding to:
1. Client rights
2. Employer’s rights & responsibilities
3. Employee’s rights & responsibilities
4. Organisation & staff rights and responsibilities
Rights & Responsibilities
1. Client Rights (Individuals, Groups, Communities)
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Right to make decisions and have choice
Right to protection
Right to justice
Right to adequate shelter
Right to freedom of movement
Right to education
Rights taken from UN Declaration of Human Rights
Respecting Rights and Responsibilities in the
Workplace
2. Employer Rights & Responsibilities:
Employer’s responsibilities:
• Legal requirements for employee dismissal
• Legal requirements to provide safe work environment
free from discrimination and sexual harassment
• Enterprise workplace agreements – as part of working
contract arrangements, e.g. Overtime, parental leave
• Relevant employment legislation – wage rates,
employment conditions
Rights & responsibilities
Employer’s responsibilities:
• Provide written job descriptions and procedures for jobs
• Orientate staff by providing information about the organisation’s
purpose, structure, programs, policies and procedures
• Provide initial training and ongoing training where necessary
• Communicate clear expectations and provide support and
supervision
• Evaluate the efficiency & effectiveness of staff & the services
provided
Rights & responsibilities
3. Employee (YOU!) Rights and Responsibilities
Your rights as an employee:
• Wage and Leave entitlements
• The right to union representation
• Protection through commonwealth & state policy e.g.
discrimination and sexual harassment in the
workplace, WHS, Privacy ACT,
• Appropriate supervision
• Safe workplace environment
Rights & responsibilities
Your responsibilities as an employee:
• Duty of care
• Confidentiality and privacy of organisation, client and
colleague information
• Adherence to WHS
• Adhere to organisational policies and procedures
including ethical behaviour
• Attendance requirements
Rights & responsibilities
Your responsibilities as an employee :
• Be a trained professional with attitudes, skills, and
knowledge aimed at maximizing the human potential
and worth of all persons
• Safeguard the dignity of the client
• Maintain the integrity of the practitioner
Rights & responsibilities
4. Organisation & Staff Responsibilities:
• Uphold client rights through both organisational
policy/procedures and staff’s individual practice
standards
• Duty of Care – reasonable care to avoid harm
• Confidentiality – maintaining privacy of client
information
• Conflict of interest – personal interest clashes with
job responsibility
Rights & responsibilities
In Australia our
laws are based on
the rights of the
citizens and their
responsibilities in
respect of other
community
members and the
government itself.
Recognise and
respond when
clients rights and
interests are not
being protected
Client Rights
Protect the rights
of clients when
delivering
services to them.
Rights and Responsibilities
Both yourself (employee) and the organisation (employer)
you work for have rights and responsibilities, beyond the
clients who use services, which contribute to ethical
working practices and more broadly...
Promote safety and effectiveness!
Duty of care
• Your duty of care is your legal duty to take
reasonable care to avoid others being harmed.
• First, you must take steps to identify risks: any
reasonably likely harmful effects of your actions and
inactions. (The law calls this reasonable
foreseeability).
• This is not crystal ball gazing but using your skills,
knowledge and experience.
Youtube video: Wales this Week - Social Services Care Proceedings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OOrhvWwwrw&feature=related
Discuss in groups the issues here in relation to duty of care and ethics
Duty of care
Duty of Care
• If you identify a reasonably likely risk of harm, you must take
reasonable care in response.
• Does have a legal basis
• But, underpins most of our work within the community services
area too..
• Basically it means reasonable care is taken in our actions and
inactions to make sure others are free from harm or injury.
Discussion Questions:
• Which people in your life do you feel you have a duty of care towards?
• What is the nature of that duty? What has led you to assume that duty of care?
• Refer to handout/link http://www.yapa.org.au/youthwork/facts/dutyofcare.php
Duty of care
Breach of duty of care occurs when:
• A staff member has a duty of care to another
• Harm has occurred because of a breach of duty of care
• There was a minimum standard that should have been
met
• The standard was not met
Duty of care
Activity: groupwork
Consider you are organising an outing for a group of
young people from the youth service you work at.
List what actions you would need to take to fulfill your
duty of care before, during, and after the outing.
Confidentiality
Confidentiality
Clients have a right to their personal information being kept
private, except where:
a. with the client's permission referrals are to be made and other
professional consultation is sought; information between
workers may provide for better outcomes for clients... But clients
have the right to decline!
b. failure to disclose information would put the client or others at
risk... eg. Where a client says they are going to hurt themselves
or others
Confidentiality
Where information is shared about clients, the following steps
ensure consistency:
• Information should only be shared on the basis that it is in the
best interests of the client
• Client’s signed consent should be obtained before any
information passed on
• Consent from a guardian should be obtained if the client is
unable to consent
Confidentiality
Your organisation’s policy on confidentiality may
relate to:
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Storage of records
Destruction of records
Access to records
Release of information
Verbal and written communication
Confidentiality
Breaches Include:
 Permitting someone to look over your shoulder at your
computer screen.
 Safe guarding workplace laptops
 Giving out confidential information over the telephone if the
caller is not authorised to have the information.
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Confidentiality
Discussion on confidentiality:
How would you maintain confidentiality when chatting
with co-workers, especially in community work?
What is your attitude to discussing what belongings
people have in their homes?
Should you refer to clients by name when chatting
about them – after hours?
How should you ensure confidentiality with the need to
give a client’s phone number to another worker in your
organisation?
Notification & Reporting
Identifying and reporting a breach in procedures:
• Breaches of organisational codes of ethics and
conduct are to be reported according to organisational
requirements
• Breaches of security could lead to lost business
and legal action
Conflict of Interest
Conflict of Interest
Definition:
A conflict of interest involves the abuse -- actual,
apparent, or potential, of the trust that people have in
professionals.
The simplest working definition states:
“A conflict of interest is a situation in which financial or
other personal considerations have the potential to
compromise or bias professional judgment and
objectivity.”
Conflict of Interest
A conflict of interest may occur when a person
allows a personal interest to clash with a public
duty:
• Often blurs the boundary between unbiased,
independent actions taken by a worker or organisation
• E.g. City councillor takes money in exchange for
confidential information; a community services worker
takes substantial gift in exchange for provision of
services not normally available
Conflict of Interest
A potential conflict of interest involves a situation that
may develop into an actual conflict of interest.
A potential conflict of interest implies only the possibility
of bias or unfairness, not a likelihood.
It is important to ensure that no potential conflict of interest
exists whether or not decisions are actually affected by a
personal interest
Conflict of Interest
Conflicts of interest may involve:
• Individuals
• Institutions
Some individuals, in certain circumstances, may have
conflicts occurring on both an individual and an
institutional level.
There are many varieties of conflicts of interest, and they
appear in different settings and across all disciplines
Activity: discuss in groups the possible conflict of interests that
may occur in working for Child Safety (as an employee)
Conflict of Interest
Things to do to ensure against conflict of interest:
• Identify relevant codes, rules, policies, by-laws
• Ensure your workplace has a process to assess and
manage conflict of interest i.e employees follow
policy & procedures
• Inform/Ask a supervisor if issues arise
• Seek information/support from other professional
bodies
Access & Equity Principals
• Access –need to make services available to everyone
who is entitled to them, free of any form of
discrimination on the basis of a person’s country of
birth, language, culture, race or religion.
• Equity – need to develop and deliver services on the
basis of fair treatment of all those clients who are
eligible to receive them.
Activity 1.Refer to sample access & equity policy handout/link:
www.ourcommunity.com.au/files/boards/Access_&_Equity_Policy.doc
Activity 2: Working ethically in Community services Case Study handout
References
•An introduction to Person Centred Therapy, online video, accessed 27 May, 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpfm5sY0OX0&feature=relmfu
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Assertiveness - Tips for being assertive & saying 'No‘, online video, accessed 28 May, 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZynhvBShqU
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Bogutz & Gordon - Legal Issues for Mental Health Care Treatment, online video, accessed 28 May, 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmzOmdLpzyg&feature=related
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Building Stronger Communities through Stronger Community Organisations, Our Community.com.au, Policy Bank,
West Melbourne, accessed 20 July, 2012, date site last updated not disclosed
http://www.ourcommunity.com.au/boards/boards_article.jsp?articleId=1453
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Building Stronger Communities through Stronger Community Organisations, Our Community.com.au, Access &
EquityPolicy, West Melbourne, accessed 13July, 2012, date site last updated not disclosed
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www.ourcommunity.com.au/files/boards/Access_&_Equity_Policy.doc
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Chenoweth L & McAuliffe D 2011 The road to social work & human service practice, 3rd edn.,Cengage Learning
Australia.
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Corey G, Corey MS & Callanan P 2011 Issues and ethics in the helping professions, 8th edn., Cengage Learning:
Brookes/Cole , United States.
References
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David Batstone: Unethical Behavior at Work?, online video, accessed 28 May, 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-nz0kojLv8&feature=related
Dept. of Communities, Child Services & Disability Services, 2012, Queensland Government, What is Child
Abuse?, accessed 22 July, 2012, http://www.communities.qld.gov.au/childsafety/protecting-children/what-is-child-abuse
Geldard D & Geldard K 2011 Basic personal counselling : a training manual for counsellors, 7th edn., Frenchs
Forest, N.S.W.Pearson,Sydney.
Kenny S 2011 Developing communities for the future, 4th edn., Cengage Learning Australia.
Lauren Mackler at Harvard Business School - Managing Conflict, online video, accessed 28 May, 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZOVWzKzpNg&feature=related
Maidment J & Egan R (eds) 2009 Practice skills in social work & welfare, 2nd edn., Allen & Unwin, Australia.
Managing Values Across Cultures, online vuideo, accessed 29 May, 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DSV1NUGS3o
McDonald C, Craik C, Hawkins L & Williams J 2011 Professional practice in human services organisations,
Allen & Unwin, Australia.
Nick Manning , 2005, YAPA (Youth Action & Policy Association), Surry hills NSW, accessed 23 July 2012
NSWhttp://www.yapa.org.au/youthwork/facts/dutyofcare.php
Reflective Practice - feedback from peers and learners, online video, accessed 29 May, 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmgJJrxOtaA
References
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The Meaning of Human Services, online video, accessed 30 May, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4XrBTBN2Ew
This Could Be You: The Many Faces of Social Work, online video, accessed May 30, 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77UGDj48oHs&feature=related
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Welcome to the UN, it’s your world, 2012, New
York, accessed 28 May, 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77UGDj48oHs&feature=related
• Three Life Lessons for New Social Workers, online video, accessed May 31, 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b3RJbvOPtU&feature=relatedons
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Vanessa Allen - Aboriginal Community Worker, online video, accessed 29 May,2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHMrVlUh2Mo
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Wales this Week - Social Services Care Proceedings , online video, accessed 31 May, 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OOrhvWwwrw&feature=related