I will split my ethics research
into two as I work for two separate organisations. I will begin firstly with my
ballet teaching; I found that there were two documents for the organisation
under which I teach, they were labels under “Child Protection Policy” and “Child
Protection Codes of Practice” but contain all of the codes for teaching that
are dictated by the organisation.
The child protection policy
contained the following policy statement,
“The
British Association of Teachers of Dancing accepts a moral and legal responsibility
to provide a duty of care for young people involved in Dancesport, to safeguard
their well-being and to protect them from abuse.
It
respects and promotes the rights, wishes and feelings of young people.
It
will recruit, train and supervise its adult
members/officers/volunteers/officials who may be involved with young people’s
Dancesport activities to help them adopt best practices that safeguard and
protect young persons from abuse, and themselves from false allegations.
It
will require members, officials, and volunteers, to adopt and abide by its
Child Protection Policy. It will respond to any allegations and, where
necessary, implement appropriate disciplinary and appeals procedures.”
The
“Codes of practice” then goes into detail of how the child protection policy
should be put into place. The document is 28 pages in total. It details
o
Good
practice, in terms of protecting both the child from instances of abuse and the
teacher from possible allegation by maintaining professional standards
o
It is the
responsibility of everyone to report any concerns, including suspicions of
abuse or bullying which may be occurring outside the environment in which there
is contact with young person.
o
Procedure to
follow in incidence of poor practice and what this entails.
o
Signs
and signals of bullying and abuse and how to deal with this
o
Action
to take if teacher as suspicious, who to report to, how and when.
o
Issues
of confidentiality
o
How allegations
and suspension will be dealt with if a employee is suspected of poor practice
o
The responsibilities
of the teacher/ employee in recording incidents and keeping reports.
All
of the policies above have their roots in ethical principles, the organisation
is taking ownership of moral obligations to protect the children for whom they
work in order to provide a safe environment for them to learn and enjoy learning,
and to be aware of any other indication that may effect the child’s well being.
I would like to think that most individuals would see this part of a moral code
and something that they would strive to do as part of their work. This policy
and code of practice is solely concerned with the protection of the children
with whom we work, and our responsibility to keep them safe.
The
second organisation I work for is a charity within adult social care. They have
a mission statement that I think sums up quite well what they are about and goes
some way to explaining the ethics behind the charity’s work,
“ROC exists
to help as many people as possible, throughout the UK, who have learning or similar
disabilities to be who they want to be.
ROC
believes all people with a learning disability should have the chance and the
support to be able to do what they want to do. ROC will work towards making
this happen.
ROC
will do this by valuing and supporting all people who use our services, and
those who support them.”
Because
ROC is a social care provider there is lots of policy that dictate how the staff
are to conduct themselves within working situations. Because we deal with vulnerable
adults there are policies and mandatory training in
o
Safeguarding
of vulnerable adults
o
Record
keeping and confidentiality
o
Health
and safety
o
Fire
safety
o
Mental
Capacity
o
Challenging
behaviour
o
Professional
boundaries
o
Understanding
particular learning disabilities
o
Person
centred approaches (working in a way that the individual decides what is important)
The
policies as a whole are large, but the general theme is to take personal responsibility
for looking after the physical and mental well being of the people that we work
with, in a appropriate way that see’s each person as individual with rights,
feelings, aspirations, goals and values of there own. We should be
professional, not impart any of our own beliefs and feelings onto our clients
to influence their thoughts or opinions to be anything other then their own.
And to work in all possible ways to support them to achieve the goals that they
want to. Of course there are also legal responsibilities in terms of what we
provide for our clients, issues of confidentiality, appropriate support and
behaviour are also present in the policies, and codes of practice
In
workshop environments this involves keeping them safe, with good health safety
and fire precautions. Being aware of individual needs and how they like to be
supported. Providing an atmosphere of acceptance, integration and support that
allows people to express themselves without fear of judgement or harm.
In
looking further into the codes of practice and policies that are present within
both of the organisations that I work for it is clear to see that it is vast
and complicated in some instances, there are also some aspects that are more
about protecting ourselves as professionals, by following correct procedure as
there are in protecting those that we work for. Just considering personal
ethics is not enough. Although I think that the policies and procedures I have
detailed here do have sound ethical foundations that I think most people wouldn’t
disagree with, it may contain subject matter that we may not have consider when
first considering our own moral conduct at work. I feel it is of vital
importance that we are all mindful of our responsibilities, not only to
safeguard those that we work with, but also in protecting ourselves by
providing appropriate support and management of our working environments.
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