Question

List and describe three (3) different organisational standards, policies and procedures relating to the client development status assessment process.

Answer 1

Ans) Procedures provide specific guidelines for completing a task, such as filling out and submitting a form. The procedures are normally based on organisational policy, which deals with broad issues, roles and functions relating to the specific area, such as case management, workplace safety or purchasing.

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• Work health and safety.
• Anti-discrimination and equal employment opportunity.
• Occupational Health and Safety.
• Use of company property.
• Use of social media.
• Drug and alcohol use.

A policy is a course of action or guidelines to be followed whereas a procedure is the ‘nitty gritty’ of the policy, outlining what has to be done to implement the policy. For example, a staff recruitment policy could involve the following procedures:

• All vacant paid positions will be advertised in local and state-wide papers.
• The advertisements will have details of duties, salary range, closing date and contact details.
• All interested people will be mailed job descriptions and information about the organisation.

Most community service organisations will have in place policies and procedures that govern and regulate privacy and confidentiality of client information. This concept not only applies to what you can disclose about your clients or your organisations outside of work, but also what can be shared in network meetings. What information can be shared with other organisations, who shares it and how this information is given out should be clearly defined in any effective, professional service. It is often incorporated into a worker’s duty statement or job description.

• All organisations should have written policy and procedures, and staff training in the following areas:

- a confidentiality policy
- a clearly defined process for identifying and regularly updating a Community Resource Index so that all workers are aware of what other services are available to refer to (the index contains basis contact details and information about what each service provides)
- processes for networking with other agencies, including attending relevant interagencies (meetings of local service providers)
guidelines for case conferencing (this will be discussed in more detail a bit later)
- referral protocols, including how referrals should be made, the kind of information that can be shared with other services and any ongoing roles and responsibilities of each service with regard to the client.
- a policy for how long client information is kept after clients are no longer involved with the service. For example, different government departments produce documents that outline legal requirements for their staff in relation to storing and maintaining information.