Legislation and policy

You will need to know what laws will affect you. It probably won't be too hard if you work personally with people at grass-roots level.

On the other hand, your compliance load might be quite heavy if:

• you need a visa to work in another country (e.g. requiring work permits, etc.)
• your program tends to be institutionalized
• your activities need specific kinds of government permits
• you are working with government at any level
• you could be sued under common law for your activities.

Listing your legal and ethical responsibilities could be a lot of work but will help prevent you and your organization from being vulnerable to prosecution or civil action.

As it is effectively the compilation of a legislation register for your organization, your organization would be wise to adopt it if it doesn't have something similar in place already.

Write a list of the legal and ethical requirements that affect your role, including the rights of clients.

Your list needs to be simple enough to be helpful, but it will be quite long. Your summary should not be so long and complicated that it is hard to use. It should be clear enough to orient new staff so that they can comply with it, with no other information. It should also provide a quick reference for existing staff. State all requirements in full sentences, not just a list of points.

It should state:

• Things that you and your staff or clients must do or must not do
• Rights and responsibilities that they have

Start by asking your supervisor, the business manager of your organization, and/or your professional association.

Here's a list of all sorts of legal and ethical things that could apply to you.

 

Policy and procedures

As a way to maintain legislation compliance, you will need to develop whatever policies and procedures your organization needs to implement the project. See the e-books: Writing policy | Writing Procedures (Links opens new windows.)