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…

With elections so close and the pressure on to vote, we’re hearing lots of ‘policies’. Or are they ‘promises’? And what’s the difference? It’s an important question with an election pending. It’s also important for the organisations we work for. We can all make promises, some of which we keep and some we don’t. When…

If you’re a youth, iwi or other community agency working with youth/rangatahi you may be involved in restorative justice. Restorative justice is now pretty mainstream, particularly in youth justice. It has the potential to be transformative; replacing a punitive approach to offending with a constructive and restorative approach. But transformation doesn’t come easy. It requires…

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…

Good policies and procedures can help you steer the course  – keep you on track with your compliance and guard against panicked decision making in a time of emergency. Are all policies and procedures equally important in a time of emergency? Not all. Here’s what we prioritise. Compliance Policies and procedures addressing compliance with regulations…

The Ombudsman and Coroner reports, released this month, identified inadequate treatment and care of children/tamariki by Crown agencies. The Coroner was reviewing the tragic death of a young two-year-old. The Ombudsman was reviewing policies and practices relating to the removal of newborn babies from their parents and whānau by Oranga Tamariki- the Ministry for Children.…

With so much going on the world, continuous improvement might seem like a tall ask. But don’t get dispirited. It’s not about doing more. If you monitor and check for quality, encourage and respond to feedback and enable client/consumer participation and have the policies and procedures to show for it, then you’ve got the basics…

We’re in for a new Treaty-based health and disability system. That’s one of the recommendations of the final report on the Health and Disability System Review. The Review recommends that the Treaty/ te Tiriti principles are embedded through New Zealand’s health and disability system. It also recommends amending the New Zealand Public Health and Disability…