Ngā mihi o te tau hōu

With the new year, there’s lots of legislative change coming your way. What do you need to get your policies and procedures up to scratch?

Yes, 2019 looks set to be a year of significant change for human services.
Big legislative change is due to commence and organisational policies, practices and procedures will need to be reviewed and updated.
Big changes that we, at thePolicyPlace, are gearing up for include:

Domestic/Family violence reforms:

The Domestic Violence – Victims’ Protection Act 2018 is commencing April 2019 and we will be updating our employment and staffing policies for our members.
The Family Violence Act 2017 is commencing July 2019. At this stage, we think this will require updating of client services and risk management policies and procedures.

Child and family/whānau services:

Oranga Tamariki (National Care Standards and Related Matters) Regulations 2018, relate to children and rangatahi in care. Policies and procedures for iwi social services, community social services and other agencies approved to provide care to tamariki and rangatahi (under s396 of the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989) will need to be reviewed and updated.

The care standards may also impact on agencies approved to provide community and other other services to children and young people who are in the custody or care of the Ministry of Children/Oranga Tamariki. We are watching this space closely as the Ministry starts to work their own way through their obligations in this new space so that we can update our members’s policies and procedures as necessary.

Children, Young Persons, and Their Families (Oranga amariki) Legislation Act 2017. The commencement of the majority of provisions in this Act warrants everyone working with tamariki, rangatahi and whānau to review their policies. Policies relating to staffing, professional development, diversity & inclusion and Te Tiriti o Waitangi, are just some of those that will need to be reviewed and possibly updated.

Contact the Policy Place for help with reviewing and updating your policies and procedures to support these changes.

In our next post…
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In our next post we will update you on the domestic violence changes that are due to take effect in April in workplaces across Aotearoa.

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