Author: Regaugetswe Esther Netshiozwe

• Promotes awareness of the profession and the needs of children, youth, and families to the community
• Models ethical behavior in relationships and interactions with community members
• Promotes respect and appreciation of diversity, racial equality, social justice and cultural humility
• Encourages informed participation by the public in shaping social policy and decisions affecting children, youth, and families

[10/01 09:52] neftaly@saypro.online

THE APPLICATION OF THE REQUIREMENTS WITHIN CHILD AND YOUTH CARE WORK ENVIRONMENT.

Implement procedures to ensure all services and responses to clients comply with duty of care and accepted standards of ethical behaviour.

Duty of care requires that an acceptable standard of care that is ‘reasonably practicable’ be provided to ensure the health and safety of those at the workplace and also to those affected by the work that you do. Therefore, any services and responses to clients must comply with this duty of care and fall within the accepted standards outlined in your Code of Conduct.

Community and disability services workers often face many ethical dilemmas in their day-to-day work with clients. Examples include:

• deciding whether to accept a gift from a grateful client
• deciding how to respond to a request for out-of-work hours contact with a client
• deciding whether to notify about a crime which a client has told you about
• dealing with a young client’s request for a cigarette
• deciding what to do about a client’s dishonesty in not declaring their employment income to Centrelink
• deciding what to do about a co-worker’s inappropriate use of agency resources.

In order to respond effectively to dilemmas like these, you need to be given clear guidelines for your work; these guidelines are usually contained within the policy and procedures of your organisation. All workers should be introduced to these at their induction.

Professional supervision is another avenue where critical decision-making problems can be discussed and resolved. Most effective organisations have a clear process for supervising their staff; regular supervision sessions are scheduled into a worker’s timetable. If you are in an agency where this does not happen, it is your right as an employee to seek guidance from your supervisors on any matters where there are no clear-cut guidelines.

It is important for workers to raise these issues within the staff environment as many other workers may be facing the same problems; consultation might signal the need for a new or revised policy to deal with the issue.