Systemic bias is part of the criminal justice system and disproportionately impacts on Māori and people with disabilities. It contributes to many, long term health, income and educational disparities. Organisational policies and procedures that ban outright the employment of people with criminal histories reinforce and perpetuate this bias. They are unfair and should be replaced.…

We’re going to see some big changes in 2021. Get your policies and procedures ready to help you manage. Here’s three areas of change, which are likely to affect social, childcare and health services. Other changes are also coming. We’ll keep you advised so sign up for the Policy Place panui. Pandemic/health and safety We…

It’s time for social, health and other services to get their policies and procedures ready for the new Privacy Act 2020. The Act commences on 1 December. The Act applies to all social service and health providers and the range of personal information that agencies collect for referral, service delivery, employment and other purposes. The…

No matter what business you’re in, you’re likely to rely on information technology(IT). In social service, health and education agencies, we use IT for a multitude of functions – enrolments, intakes, planning etc. Essentially, we would be lost without it. But have you given sufficient thought to preventing and defending against cyber threats? If you…

Whakawhanaungatanga – relationships and connection – is what it’s all about. In the social and health sectors, relationships and collaboration with other services, is key to addressing the range of issues clients OR whānau are dealing with and to making a sustainable difference to people’s lives. But it’s not always easy to collaborate.  Even with…

So you’ve got a complaints process but how effective is it? Is receiving no complaints the best you can hope for as a sign of effectiveness? Or is it the complaint outcome that matters most – ie that you were right or wrong? Here’s 5 things that we think are important to a good complaints…