Work within a relevant legal and ethical framework 1

CHCCS400C

Work within a
Legal and
Ethical
Framework

Nerrilyn Agius 1 24/07/2012

Element 1

Understanding legislation and relevant laws
1. Demonstrate an understanding of legal responsibilities and obligations
in your work

2. Demonstrating an understanding of key statutory and regulatory
requirements

3. Fulfilling your duty-of-care requirements

4. Accepting responsibility for your own actions

5. Maintaining confidentiality

6. Seeking the client’s agreement before providing services


As Community Service Workers we are
required to understand how legislation and
Common law affect us, our clients and our
workplace

Legislation outlines specific legal
requirements that must be adhered to by
health and aged care organisations


Legislation relevant to staff and clients in the health, disability and
aged care sector include;

Aged Care
Home and community care Access
Health services Accounts receivable
Disability discrimination, disability services Depreciation
Racial Discrimination Liabilities
Equal opportunity Owners Equity
Freedom of information Revenue
Privacy Expenses
Occupational health and safety Statement of Financial
Building standards Position (Balance sheet)
Duty of care pharmaceutical benefits Budget
Poisons and therapeutics' Invoicing
Petty cash

Think how you adhere to these in your workplace!

Think of your job
description what legal
responsibilities and
obligations are you
required to consider!


Ten national privacy principles
Principle What it means
Collection You may only collect necessary personal information. You must advise individuals that
they can gain access to this information
Use and Personal information should only be used for the reason it was collected
disclosure
Data quality Personal information must be accurate, complete and up to date.

Data security You must take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, loss,
unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
Openness You must be able to provide a policy on the management of personal information to
anyone who asks
Access and If an organisation has personal information about and individual. It must give the
individual access to the information and allow them to correct it.
correction
Unique An organisation must not use a unique identifier, such as a tax file number or its own
identifier. A unique identifier is usually a number assigned to an individual to identify
identifies them for the purposes of an organisation’s operations
Anonymity Individuals should be given the option of not identifying themselves when entering
into transactions with organisations provided it is lawful
Transborder Personal information may only be transferred to foreign countries if the same privacy
protection applies or consent is given.
data flows
Sensitive The law restricts collection of sensitive information such as individual's ethnic, origin,
political views, religious beliefs, sexual preferences membership of groups or criminal
information record.

Every day we do something quite naturally,
we practice Duty of Care

It is everywhere, it is part of our lives

We have a duty of care not to expose ourselves, our clients, our
co-workers and the general public to the risk of being harmed.

Our employer has a duty of care to train us to our job


Duty of Care means a duty not to
be careless or negligent by taking
reasonable steps to avoid harm,
whilst at the same time taking into
account sensible risk taking for
each individual


Duty of care is based on three sets
of standards;
1.Community standards;

• the community by law must
behave so as not to put at risk or
harm anyone.

• Treat others with respect and
dignity


2. Professional standards;

• Doctors, Lawyers, priests.
• Not perfect behavior
• Do require acceptable, reasonable and competent
levels of practice.

3. Agency standards

• Government standards required for finance
• State what clients can expect from the service
• Has a minimum set of standards to assist the
agency in service provision


Duty of care is sometimes thought of as
only being related to physical safety,
whereas it should actually be seen
in the context of all of the rights of people
being supported by carers.


This means agencies are accountable to their clients
and the funding bodies to provide the agreed standard
of service.
Staff then are accountable to their:
• Clients
• Families
• Advocates
• Workplace

Breach of Duty of Care can result in
a claim for negligence

For Negligence to exist four things need to be clearly
demonstrated;

1.Staff owed a duty of care to a Client

2.Person taking action must be able to show that
harm has occurred because of breach of duty of care

3.The person experienced actual harm or injury

4.The harm was reasonably foreseeable in the
circumstances

As a community service professional you
are responsible for your own actions.
You demonstrate this when you:

• are trustworthy in your dealings with others

• communicate and act in a truthful, transparent manner

• provide comprehensive and accurate information

• take responsibility for expressing a point of view

• acknowledge the results of your actions whether they
were intended or not


Team work enables workers to share
experiences, knowledge, information and
perspectives.
Key features of effective teams are:

Communication

Understanding of each others roles

Cooperate with each other

Accept responsibility for their actions

Trust
Take corrective action

Resolve conflict constructively

Contribute to the goals and the values of the team

NerrilynRecognise
Agius the diversity of individual team members
15 24/07/2012

Confidentiality of clients and carers must be
maintained at all times.

You may not think some information is
important however your client might think
differently.

You are not the judge of their personal
information


How would you safeguard your client’s information?

Keep personal information safe to prevent unauthorised access, loss,
modification, disclosure or misuse.
Ensure only authorised personnel have access to personal information
Be discreet when speaking on the telephone
Never discuss a client during your tea break or in public
Never give details about another person or their telephone numbers out
over the phone without their prior permission
Take care not to discuss clients with anyone else unless it is in the client’s
best interests.
Take all reasonable steps when transmitting personal information by email
or fax
Ensure information that is no longer required is returned to the place of
origin and disposed of in the correct manner


There is an ethical expectation that you will
not reveal any sensitive or confidential
business information about the
organisation you work for.

If your co-workers confide
in you about a personal
matter respect their
privacy.


Disclosure of information is permitted in some
instances:

• Compelled by law

• A patient’s interests require disclosure

• There is a duty to the public

• The person has consented to the disclosure


Any written document, forms,
emails or client records are
permanent and legal
documents. For this reason you
should be very particular in the
way you record information in
your workplace


People are more responsive to care if they feel they
have a choice about their day-to-day care needs. It
helps to preserve their dignity and self-esteem.

Everyone has a right to determine their own service
options. There are legal and ethical reasons for
involving your client in decisions about the services
they receive and to gain consent before any type of
care is given.


If the client is unable to give consent you may need to use:

• An advocate who will speak up on behalf of the client
o this could be the coordinator
o an appointed advocate

• A Guardian has the duty to
o protect the rights, welfare and best interest of the client
o encourage the client to live as normal a life as possible
o consider the views of the client
o preserve and recognise the cultural and linguistic needs of the
client
o protect the client from abuse, neglect and exploitation

• Power of attorney is a legal document that appoints someone to act
on behalf of someone else in matters of money, property or medical
treatment.


Work within a relevant legal and ethical framework 1

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