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CHCCS400A: Work within a relevant legal and ethical framework

Follow identified policies and practices

Contents

Perform work within identified policies, protocols and procedures 3

What are policies and protocols? 3

Contribute to the review and development of policies and protocols as appropriate 4

When to review or develop policies 4

Your contribution 4

Work within position specifications and role responsibilities 7

How to use your job description 7

Seek clarification when unsure of scope of practice as defined by position description or specific work role requirements 9

Clarifying scope or practice in position description 9

Seek clarification of unclear instructions 11

Certificate III in Children’s Services: CHCCS400A: Reader LO 9255 © NSW DET 2010

Perform work within identified policies, protocols and procedures

What are policies and protocols?

Policies?Policies may include a statement of the service’s philosophy, or basic beliefs, as well as step-by-step procedures that relate to how things should be done in practice. They are often developed by staff and management together. Policies often shape the direction of the service.

Service policies are an important source of information about your legal and ethical obligations, and should support your decisions concerning duty of care issues.

Protocols?Where policies are unwritten there are usually standard practices for dealing with certain situations. Legally such ‘unwritten’ standard practices and protocols are still considered to be policies and can be taken into account when a breach of duty of care is considered. For example, if the service doesn’t have a policy on staffing numbers, this is still assumed knowledge as it is in the Regulations, so the obligation to follow the regulated ratios still holds. This is true with most other directions, simplified in policies and procedures, but originally held in Acts, Regulations or other legal documents. If a policy contradicts an Act or Regulation, then you need to follow the law.

Certificate III in Children’s Services: CHCCS400A: Reader LO 9255© NSW DET 2010

Contribute to the review and development of policies and protocols as appropriate

When to review or develop policiesPolicies and protocols are regularly reviewed in order to ensure they reflect current good practice and legal requirements. Policies should be reviewed:

• when there is a change within the legal requirements (eg new Act or Regulation)

• regularly as part of your service’s annual review and planning time• for accreditation purposes• as new information on good practice emerges• when you notice that a policy or protocol contradicts the law or ethical

guideline.

Your contributionYour responsibilities as a childcare worker in relation to the development of policies and protocols are outlined within the Australian Early Childhood Association (AECA) Code of Ethics. Your responsibilities are to:

• Update and improve your expertise and practice in the early childhood field continually through formal and informal professional development.

• Engage in critical self-reflection and seek input from colleagues.• Communicate with and consider the views of your colleagues in the early

childhood profession and other professions.• Support research to strengthen and expand the knowledge base of early

childhood, and, where possible, initiate, contribute to and facilitate such research.

• Work within the limits of your professional role and avoid misrepresentation of your professional competence and qualifications.

• Work to complement and support the child rearing function of the family.


• Be an advocate for young children, early childhood services, and your profession.

• Recognise the particular importance of formal qualifications in early childhood studies, along with personal characteristics and experience, for those who work in the early childhood profession.

• Act in the community in ways that enhance the standing of the profession.

While not all these points direct you in ways to contribute, many do. If you update and improve your expertise (number one) you are gaining new knowledge on good practice based on current research in child care. This may lead you to make suggestions to your team or coordinator/supervisor around new or modified policies so that the service is up-to-date with current issues.

For example, you may be reading about the effects of gender bias on boys in child care, resulting in part from the low numbers of male carers, and female bias in choosing activities. You may wish to address this with other staff, perhaps by proposing that an approach which addresses ‘boys activities’ as well as ‘girls’ be accepted as a core point in the service’s philosophy. This is a starting point that would give you a basis for further discussion and information-sharing within the team.

How to contributeIf you have a suggestion about a changed or new policy idea, you should:

• discuss it with your supervisor• ask if it could be discussed at a team meeting to see if others hold similar

views or have further knowledge on the topic• make sure there is a ‘who’ and a ‘when’ next to it, if the new information

is seen as important to act on. That means someone is responsible for following it through and developing the policy or protocol, and that there is some time when they need to report back on it.


How to make a contribution or suggestion

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You can contribute by:

• identifying new knowledge• being familiar with current policies and protocols• being willing to make suggestions and contribute to discussions• volunteering to follow things up if others are unable to.

Activity 1

Activity 2


Work within position specifications and role responsibilities

All workers in children’s services have job descriptions. These outline your role and responsibilities within the workplace. Your role and responsibilities will vary according to the position you are working in, your level of training and the type of service you work in.

For example, if you were employed as an out of school care hours worker you may have a different role in supervising children’s travel to and from the service than a childcare worker in a service for under 6 year olds. Supervisors have more responsibilities than untrained assistants, and owners or management committee members have a different set of responsibilities again.

How to use your job descriptionIt is important that workers have a copy of their job description that can guide them in determining their role and level of responsibility and assist them in making decisions and taking actions on a day-to-day basis. Sometimes you may be unsure as to what your responsibilities are, when you should seek direction and when you should show initiative and not seek outside direction.

It is therefore important to be familiar with your job description and to ask earlier rather than later if you are not sure about a point in it. If you are unsure about what a point means, it is important to check with your supervisor as to who usually does the task or what the point covers. It is better to check than to unknowingly act outside your area of responsibility.

Remember, a job description will help you determine your level of responsibility in relation to ‘duty of care’. If you act outside the guidelines set down by your job description and this leads to an injury to a child, colleague, parent or visitor, then you may be considered negligent.

Some parts of the job description eg ‘additional duties as requested’ may not be immediately clear. The duties should not include anything that contradicts your legal or ethical responsibilities to the children or others. When in doubt, maintain the ‘best interests of the children’ ie their safety and well-being, as a guide on how to respond.


Job description


Seek clarification when unsure of scope of practice as defined by position description or specific work role requirements

It is important to understand your role and associated responsibilities, and to act within them. Acting outside your job description can lead to uncomfortable consequences for you and for the adults and children you work with.

Think of job descriptions as part of a larger set of supports which include international conventions such as the Convention of the Rights of the Child 1989 as well as State/Territory Child Care Acts and Regulations. Your Code of Ethics is also included here, as well as service accreditation procedures. Your job description allows you to see which parts of each piece of legislation is your responsibility, and supports groups of childcare workers to work together effectively as a team.

Where Regulations are not applicable, either due to the type of service or the particular situation, then a ‘general principle’ of what is reasonable applies. This means that childcare workers need to consider other standards when determining what reasonable and careful behaviours are—standards such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the AECA’s Code of Ethics and centre policies and procedures.

Clarifying scope or practice in position descriptionIn a childcare centre, you may come across situations where you’d need to clarify the practices and the scope of responsibility within your position description.

Clarification may be necessary in these situations:

• staff changes occur• staff conflict arises• working conditions change• regulations change


• staff qualifications change.

It is also really important that you recognise your own limitations and seek assistance when you are having trouble fulfilling your obligations and work role.

The first thing you should do is to discuss your concerns with your supervisor. Approach him or her with a well prepared and logical reason as to what it is you are having difficulty with, what you have done to try and achieve all the requirements and perhaps some suggestions as to what might be done to remedy the situation.

The concern may need to be dealt with confidentially. Is the issue relevant to only one staff member or does it affect everyone? Are you lacking some skills or resources that are required to complete your tasks? If so, are there any staff development training or further learning you could be involved in to increase these skills? Is there a possibility of purchasing particular resources or making changes to the service to make resources more available?

Can the issue be resolved at a Centre level or does it require other resources to be accurately clarified? Perhaps it is necessary for consultation with relevant policies, regulations, industrial awards and lawful instructions to ensure that whatever the issue is that requires clarification, it is done so accurately and in a timely manner.


Seek clarification of unclear instructions

If an instruction to do something is unclear, and you can’t immediately get answers, or the answers are not acceptable, go to these wider supports for guidance. For example, a child hurts themselves outside and your supervisor tells you to go and get the first aid kit. Which is the priority:

• maintaining the staff:child ratio outside? • obeying your supervisor’s direction? • attending to the child who is hurt?

Hopefully, your centre will already have a policy about what to do in such an event so that you can maintain both the ratio and attend to the hurt child. Perhaps you can contact other workers (eg the cook or the director) to either bring out the first aid kit or make up the staff numbers. Perhaps there should be a policy that states that a first aid kit should be available outside while people are out. In any case, the safety and well-being of the child is your first priority, and the policies should support this so you don’t have to break any rules to look after them. If you do have to break the wider rules, then the policy is inadequate.

Sometimes, as noted earlier, directions will get lumped under ‘any other duties as required’. These duties need to be fair and reasonable within the wider directions, Acts and Regulations. If they are not, you need to ask for clarification. Again, if this is not possible, do what you feel is ‘reasonable and careful behaviour’ (ie behaviour that protects the rights of the children and is in the best interests of children).

Activity 3

When working as a team member in a children’s service the need to communicate instructions in both written and verbal forms is a must.

There are times that we may receive unclear instructions from a staff member, parent, supervisor or member of the management team. If at any time you do not understand an instruction, you would be well advised to ask the person concerned to repeat or clarify the information in the instruction. Due to the nature of children’s services there is usually little time available for all team members to meet on a daily basis. Therefore diary systems, notice boards,


newsletters and quick memos are all effective communication skills that will be implemented to assist the day-to-day running of a service.

Sometimes in verbalising or writing an instruction or message the person ‘telling’ has a different understanding of the message than you do, or what it is interpreted to mean. Therefore it is important to gain understandings and clarification of any instructions that you may receive and may not understand from the person concerned. If this person is not available or unapproachable, seek the support and assistance of your team leader or Director.

The importance of the need to have any unclear instructions clarified cannot be reinforced too strongly, as the health, safety and welfare of children, staff, parents, and the community may depend on the implementation of the instruction. By not clarifying instructions so that you understand them, you may breech your duty of care or another of your legal responsibilities and obligation


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