Organisational Policy and Procedures
The wrong and right of criminal history checking in your policies and procedures
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.…
Read MoreChanges in 2021 – How your policies and procedures can help.
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…
Read MoreReady, set, go – update your policies and procedures now for privacy changes
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…
Read MoreWhen the martians come: policy and procedure tips for cybersecurity
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…
Read MoreHow policies can help you collaborate
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…
Read More5 ways to increase the effectiveness of your complaints process
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…
Read More9 policy and procedure areas to cover off for COVID- 19
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…
Read More5 takeaways from the Coroner’s and Ombudsman’s children’s reports
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.…
Read More3 tips for upping your game using policies & procedures
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…
Read More9 tips to help you prepare for Alert Level 1 & beyond
We’re heading towards Alert level 1 so let’s get our workplaces ready. We don’t know exactly what’s involved in Level 1 but we do know that we’re going to have to be careful and vigilant about public health. Always. COVID-19 won’t be our last pandemic. Pandemic readiness must be part of how we prepare for…
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