Report on Policies, Procedures, Legislation for Community Services

This report provides a comprehensive overview of community service operations, focusing on the necessity of documented policies, procedures, and protocols. It examines relevant legislation, regulations, and ethical conditions, including the Children's Services Act and various anti-discrimination and privacy regulations. The report explores systems designed to uphold client rights, address cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity, and outlines actions required when client rights are not properly upheld. It emphasizes the importance of keeping clients informed, encouraging their participation, and monitoring compliance. Furthermore, the report highlights the significance of continuous improvement in policies and procedures, including the modification of policies based on internal and external factors, feedback from clients and employees, and legal reviews. The conclusion underscores the role of community service providers in promoting equality and opportunities within society.

SUMMATIVE
ASSESSMENT

Table of Content
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
1. Requirement of documented policies, procedures and protocols................................................3
2. Legislation, regulations and ethical conditions applicable on community service operations....3
3. Systems that might be put in place to ensure legal rights of clients are upheld and to make
certain cultural, linguistic and religious diversity are responded to appropriately..........................4
4. Actions required to be taken if client rights are not properly upheld.........................................4
5. Contribution towards improvement of policies and procedures..................................................4
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Community Service Providers are organisations which offer social services such as Child
Care, Mental Health Care, education and other welfare services to general public. This services are
provided by government, private and not for profit organisations. This report includes necessity of
documented policies, procedures and protocols. Further, the below report explain regulations and
legislations applicable on community services providers. Furthermore, policies adopted for ensuring
legal rights are discussed in this report. Moreover, actions taken for improvement in clients rights
are explained in this report.
1. Requirement of documented policies, procedures and protocols
It is legal responsibility of community service providers to document policies, procedures
and protocols in order to formulate everything on a structured manner. Documentation is also
necessary for colleagues so that they can complete their task in ethical manner. It is necessary in
order to provide protection to staff members or employees of an organisation. If a service provider
is having proper documentation than other trustees and funders can rely on it and can easily believe
that organisation is working according to its mission ad objective(Ettner and et.al., 2016).
For Example- If policy document of a community service provider describes that no
employees and other staff member of organisation are connected with any client than this policy
provide equality which in turn builds trust in other clients.
Further, documentation also essential as it includes detailed information of all legal
legislations and provisions applicable on community service provider. Documentations of policies
and procedures are also necessary to ensure rights of clients and employees in organisation.
Policies define rules, regulations, mission and objectives of an organisation which helps a
company in running its operations in a flexible manner. Thus, legal documentation and
authorisation of is essential.
2. Legislation, regulations and ethical conditions applicable on community service operations.
Different laws such as Children's Services Act (1996), Children's Services Regulations
(2009) and CH&S are applicable of operations of Community Services Providers. Further, The
prevention of discrimination, Anti-harassment, Privacy, Social Justice, Individual Rights, Industrial
legislation, Childhood education & care, Access & Equity, Freedom of Information and Equal
Employment Opportunity are regulations and ethical conditions necessarily adapted by community
service providers (Deakin and et.al., 2015).

3. Systems that might be put in place to ensure legal rights of clients are upheld and to make certain
cultural, linguistic and religious diversity are responded to appropriately.
Different types of systems or policies are required to be formed in order to protect rights of
clients and to provide equality on the basis of culture and religion. These systems should be Anti
biased, honouring diversity and inclusion. Further, community service providers are able to
respond to different culture, linguistic and religions(Tseng and Chang, 2017).
Anti-biased system describe that a service provider is required to treat its clients equally and
has to provide same rights for all clients. Further, responsibility is given to every person accepting
rights of others, little political powers are also necessary for clients. Al human rights are described
through systems like International Charter, Legislations, regulatory requirements and statutory
requirements. All these policies also describes that rights of clients are protected and as per these
policy's approval is to taken form clients for sharing information and structured storage systems.
4. Actions required to be taken if client rights are not properly upheld
Below described actions are required to be taken if rights of client are being upheld-
 Keep Clients Informed- Community Service Provider are required to inform rights of &
responsibilities to clients. Further, detailed information about services provided by
organisation is given to clients and all the information must be provided in a structured
form.
 Client Participation Formed- Communities are required to take feedbacks from clients to
ensure what types of services are required to be improved and what type services are being
added in portfolio of services offered. This build trust and enhances interest of clients and
funders. This action can be taken through managers of community and committees
conducting survey. Feedback from clients are also beneficial for service providers to
improve services of organisation.
 Monitoring by funding bodies- An action is to be taken by community service providers to
ensure fulfilment of legislative and funding responsibilities in the field of Upholding Clients
of community service providers of Australia. This activity can be done through visiting
agencies (Myers and et.al., 2015).
In the case, where clients right are not properly upheld strict action needs to be taken. In such
kind of situation service providers should investigate every aspect where \client’s right are supposed
to be not upheld. Once, verification or enquiry has been done then service provider should take
legal action in against to the employees if defaulted.

5. Contribution towards improvement of policies and procedures.
It is an essential requirement for a service provider community to improve and modify
policies and procedures according to changes made in other external and internal factors such as
changes in social beliefs & changes in objectives of organisation. According to department of health
and families of Australia policies are required to be modify in order to operate organisation
activities in an effective manner and to provide details of legal & ethical guidelines followed by
community service provider. Modification in policies also improve relationship among clients and
community service providers.
Policies can be improved by identifying aims and objectives of business and modification in
policies must reflect aims. Further, managers of service community must conduct interviews of
employees and are required to conduct survey of clients to find out if there is any requirement of
improvement in policies. If improvement in policies made in accordance with the suggestions given
by clients and employees than that will enhance their interest in business.
Improvement in policies and procedures can also be made by examining different types of
legal laws applicable on community service providers and changes in provisions of legislation also
contributes towards improvement of procedures and policies.
Division of policies in different section makes it easy for clients and employees of
community to find out information which are related to them. For Example- A community can
describe protocols applicable on employees & clients in 1st section and in 2nd in includes objectives,
mission and other work related policies. Review of policies & procedure by any legal authority also
contributes in improvement of policies (Kvig and et.al., 2019).
In addition to this, being a community service provider, with regards to making
improvement in policies and procedures focus needs to be placed on taking feedbacks from users.
This in turn helps concerned service provider is identifying areas where deficiencies take place.
Along with this, performance needs to be monitored in against to predetermined benchmarks. It also
assists in identifying areas which require improvement.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that service provider communities promote equality
and provide opportunities to seek individuals in society. This report outlined different types of
legislation applicable on community service providers. Further, this report summarises rights and
responsibilities of clients of community services providers.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Kvig, E. I. and et.al., 2019. Negotiating the boundaries of psychosis: A qualitative study of the
service provider perspective on treatment delay in community mental health. Early
intervention in psychiatry. 13(2). pp.272-280.
Myers, K. and et.al., 2015. Effectiveness of a telehealth service delivery model for treating
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a community-based randomized controlled
trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 54(4). pp.263-
274.
Tseng, S. H. and Chang, F. H., 2017. Transitioning from hospitals to the community: perspectives of
rehabilitation patients with neurological disorders and their service providers. Disability and
rehabilitation. 39(23). pp.2420-2427.
Ettner, S.L. and et.al., 2016. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act evaluation study:
Impact on specialty behavioral health utilization and expenditures among “carve-out”
enrollees. Journal of health economics. 50. pp.131-143.
Deakin, S. and et.al., 2015. Are litigation and collective bargaining complements or substitutes for
achieving gender equality? A study of the British Equal Pay Act. Cambridge Journal of
Economics. 39(2). pp.381-403.