EDGE Employment Solutions – Policy on Privacy, Dignity and Confidentiality

EDGE EMPLOYMENT SOLUTIONS enables people with disability to establish careers in open employment that are of mutual benefit to the employee, employer and the community.

ALL PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY have a right to work in open employment regardless of the extent or severity of their disability.

ALL WORKERS WITH DISABILITY have a right to a fair day’s pay as have the employers a right to a fair day’s work.

JOB SEEKERS AND WORKERS must play a central role in planning their own careers.

THE PROMOTION OF JOB SEEKERS with disability for any vacancy must focus on their abilities and economic worth to the employer.

ON-THE-JOB SUPPORT AND CO-WORKER MENTORING are key strategies for equipping workers with the full range of skills necessary to succeed in their chosen careers.

KEY CONTRIBUTORS to a successful career are desire to work, support from significant others, realistic career choice and access to individualised support.

JOB SEEKERS AND WORKERS have a right to privacy, respect and freedom from abuse in all their dealings with the agency.

Website Terms and Conditions

Effective Date: November 2008

1. BACKGROUND

EDGE Employment Solutions is a non-profit organisation established for the purpose of assisting people with disability to establish careers of their choosing in open employment.

Work practices focus on assisting people with disability to obtain and maintain employment. The development, implementation and monitoring of work practices is achieved through consultation with employees, job seekers, workers, their families, employers and other stakeholders. Ultimately, service delivery is dependent on funding from external sources, primarily the Federal Government.

2. PURPOSE AND SCOPE

The purpose of this policy is to establish standards of privacy, dignity and confidentiality in the agency’s dealings with prospective, current and past users of EDGE Employment Solutions’ services. The policy has been framed around individuals’ rights as they are specified in the Freedom of Information Act (1982), the Privacy Act (1988), the National Privacy Principles, the Information Privacy Principles, the Approved Privacy Code, the Disability Services Act (1986) and the associated Disability Services Standards.

3. OBJECTIVES

The primary objectives of this policy are to ensure that: all of the agency’s registrants have the same level of privacy, dignity and confidentiality as is expected by the rest of the community and required by legislation; personal information is managed in a manner that is consistent with contemporary privacy principles and current legislation; and employees respect registrants’ individual needs and circumstances.

4. STRATEGIES

The following strategies are to be implemented to ensure that EDGE Employment Solutions meets its stated objective of ensuring that all registrants of the agency have the same level of privacy, dignity and confidentiality as is expected by the rest of the community and required by legislation.

EDGE Employment Solutions will:

Only collect information about the registrant that can be shown to be directly relevant for effective service delivery and the agency’s duty of care responsibilities.
Seek the written consent of the registrant prior to obtaining information from any other source.
Seek the written consent of the registrant prior to releasing information to any other source.
Ensure that personal information is stored securely and is not left on view to unauthorised agency employees or the general public.
Ensure that only those agency employees who need access to the above information will be granted access.
Advise the registrant of the types of personal information that is held by the agency about the registrant.
Respect the registrant’s individual needs and circumstances.
Ensure that personal information about a registrant is only held by the agency as long as it remains relevant to the delivery of effective services and the agency’s duty of care obligations.
Ensure that personal information about a registrant is held in accordance with current privacy laws.
Promptly dispose of all non-essential personal information by secure means.
Provide the registrant, support network and/or advocates attending the registration interview with information about the agency’s privacy policy.

5. DELIVERY STANDARDS

The following performance measures will be put into place to ascertain whether the strategies outlined in Section 4 are achieving the stated objective.

EDGE Employment Solutions has:

A copy of EDGE Employment Solutions’ Guide to the Policies of EDGE Employment Solutions has been given to the registrant.
All agency employees have read and understood the agency’s Policy on Privacy, Dignity and Confidentiality.
Explained to the registrant, support network and/or advocates attending the registration interview why the information sought is required by the agency.
Ensured that the registrant has authorised and signed the Authority to Release Information.
Developed appropriately worded Authority to Release Information forms.
Developed a standardised and easily retrievable registrant information system that houses all personal information pertaining to an individual registrant in the one locality.
Ensured that registrant files are stored in a secure location within the office and that the file is returned to its secure location as soon as it is no longer required by an agency employee.
Ensured that the registrant’s name or other identifying information is not displayed on whiteboards, notice boards or similar that are located in public places in the office.
Sent relevant employees to training courses in cross-cultural awareness, workplace diversity, managing challenging behaviours and recording personal information.
Ensured that photographic, video or other identifying images are not displayed or aired publicly without the written prior permission of the registrant.
Promptly disposed of all personal information that was no longer essential via the internal shredder or a confidential document disposal service.

6. REVIEW OF THE POLICY

This policy will be reviewed on a two yearly basis. However, if at any time the legislative or funding policy environment is so altered that the content of the policy is no longer appropriate, the policy shall be amended accordingly.

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