Codes of Conduct Research & Focus Group Report Version: 0.1 Date: April 2008 Author: Melanie Hall Status: For Commentbrought to you by COREView metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.ukprovided by Digital Education Resource Archive
- 2 - 1.Introduction....................................................................................................... 32.Code of practise or code of conduct? ............................................................... 42.1Code of practice......................................................................................... 42.2Purpose of code of practice ....................................................................... 42.3How are they used; ....................................................................................52.4Code of conduct......................................................................................... 52.5Purpose of code of conducts...................................................................... 52.6How are they used .....................................................................................63.What is the current position? ............................................................................ 63.1Code Commonalities.................................................................................. 73.2Suitability ................................................................................................... 84.Focus group ..................................................................................................... 84.1Focus group responses ............................................................................. 84.1.1What works well about the code? ....................................................... 84.1.2What is it like to be associated with the code? ................................... 94.1.3What do you do to support it?............................................................. 94.1.4How was it built and implemented? .................................................... 94.2Issues ...................................................................................................... 104.3Analysis ................................................................................................... 104.4Future planning........................................................................................ 105.Summary ........................................................................................................ 116.Next steps ...................................................................................................... 117.Appendix 1: Example code of conduct............................................................ 138.Appendix 2: Example code of practice............................................................ 149.Appendix 3: Codes Used ................................................................................17
- 3 - 1. Introduction The Ten Year Youth Strategy ‘Aiming High for Young People: a ten-year strategy for positive activities’ identifies a range of activities and ideas to transform facilities and support services for young people in England. It considers how the Government can help all young people, particularly those in deprived areas, to take part in enjoyable and purposeful activities in their free time, which will help them to develop new skills and raise their aspirations. It also outlines initiatives to support the workforce development needs of the workforce that supports and works with young people. In December of 2007, LLUK was commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) to work with the Children’s Workforce Development Council and other stakeholders to undertake scoping work around a number of the proposals resulting from the Ten Year Youth Strategy. One of these proposals is to investigate the creation and introduction of a code of conduct across the youth work sector. To take this work forward LLUK is delivering early planning and scoping activities to consider how such a code of conduct scheme for youth work might be designed, developed and implemented. This paper reports on the research undertaken and focus groups that were held to gather the sector view and use of codes of conduct. These will inform the development of an implementation plan to take the work forward in 08/09.
- 6 - 2.6 How are they used Codes of conduct can be utilised by organisations in two ways, firstly simply as guidance or as a reference point for employees for use during their day to day operations as the code outlines the principles, values and/or standards that guide the decisions, procedures and systems of the organisation. Secondly they can be used a management tool to regulate the performance of the employees. While a code of conduct is not normally enforced by statute, individual organisations or representative bodies, as part of their own employment or membership criteria, can use them as a framework and set of standards that employees should adhere to. Should employees do not adhere to the code of conduct it can be used as a basis for any disciplinary action. The adherence to any codes of conduct can be written into employment contracts effectively enforcing the use of a code of conduct within an organisations working practice. Codes of conduct can be a valuable method of publicising the organisations professionalism and ethical standpoint to the wider public.As an example in 2002 the GSCC launched their code of conduct to: .. put in place a Code of Conduct so that people will be able to see very clearly what can be expected of social workers and what can not be expected, so that there are not so many unrealistic expectations of them. One of the things we want to do is create real clarity about what is expected of social workers. At the moment there aren’t nationally agreed standards as to what is proper practice and good practice within these fields. ...... setting those standards in consultation with professionals and the people who use the services and once we have those then people will know what is expected of them.............. to give people real confidence in the value of having these standardsLynne Berry, Chief Executive of the General Social Care Council53. What is the current position? To establish the current position research was undertaken into the use of codes of conduct and practice within the youth workforce. This took two forms firstly to search for published codes in organisations who work with young people and secondly a focus group to gain the views of the sector of the creation of a workforce code of conduct. Examples of existing codes were obtained by contacting sector skills councils, voluntary and faith organisations and by contacting Local Authorities in England directly to obtain currently used codes used by services in their areas. A search for codes over the internet was also undertaken. A large number of codes of conduct and codes of practice were collected from a wide geographic and workforce areas. The majority of the responses were from local authorities. Initial findings found that there are limited numbers of codes which are used England wide, these tend to be utilised by representative bodies such as General Teaching Council England; and for large voluntary large organisations such as YMCA, and the Scout Association. 5 http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=78651
- 7 - The other codes returned were locally used codes utilised by local authorities in youth services. These varied in content from detailed dedicated codes of practice to a generic code for the whole of the local authority’s staff. Local Authorities codes were found to be more likely to only have a code of practice and no code of conduct. Smaller local projects published codes of conduct, which were specific to their own circumstances such as rugby or netball clubs. Upon reading, all of the codes of practice and codes of conduct a number of commonalties were noted mainly in the areas of child protection, respect human dignity, social justice, integrity and competence. A breakdown of the codes returned is shown in appendix 1. It should also be noted that the National Occupational Standards for the youth workforce contain the values for the workforce; these are in effect a moral structure that have been derived from the workforce and accepted by them. 3.1 Code Commonalities Common themes that were apparent in the codes collected are shown in the diagram below
- 8 - 3.2 Suitability Codes that are in currently in use and successfully demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of each type of code; • If a sector is narrowly defined or if operations are performed within one organisation then a common code of practice to define working practices is practical e.g. teaching in secondary schools. The code of practice can be written as a detailed document to outline the specific working practices needed. Attempting to apply working practices across a diverse field with many tasks done in many ways is impractical. • If a sector or group of organisations have a common set of values but have different working practices or operations then a code of conduct is suitable. A code of conduct as a moral framework can be applied across a wider audience, and then allow the sector or organisations generate their code of practice to suit. 4. Focus group Two focus groups were held to investigate attitudes to the creation of a code of conduct for the youth work sector. A group of attendees from differing areas took part in an appreciative inquiry workshop that was designed to discover what the benefits of having such a code of conduct were, if such a scheme would be welcomed, if so how it could be generated and to investigate methods of implementation. Appreciative inquiry is a method of approaching problem solving, team-building and solution development. It is a strategy for intentional change that identifies the best of “what is” to pursue dreams and possibilities of “what could be”; a cooperative search for the strengths, passions and life-giving forces that are found within every system and that hold potential for inspired, positive change. The groups were given a scenario that it is 4 years in the future and a code of conduct is in place and is accepted by the sector. The groups were then asked to reflect on a number of questions regarding the code and it’s affect on the sector. These were: • What works well about the code? • What is it like to be associated with the code? • What do you do to support it? • How was it built and implemented? 4.1 Focus group responses The responses are detailed below; 4.1.1 What works well about the code? • The code has been adopted by all areas and levels of the organisation. • Encourages all to manage in the organisation, in that it enables different levels of the organisation to raise issues regarding the code for resolution. • All staff own it. • Built by the sector and is relevant to it.
- 9 - • Grown from grass roots upwards. • It’s simple; a set of simple statements in plain language that is understood by all. • It incorporates the ethics and values of Youth Work. • It inspires and aspires good practice and behaviour. • It isn’t used as a management tool or as a disciplinary document. • People are using it to: • Inform induction • Inform training • Quality assurance • As means to raise complaints/concerns about service • People know about it through information/promotions about the sector. • Young people and families are aware of it. 4.1.2 What is it like to be associated with the code? • I don’t have to explain myself repeatedly as it is written down. • It is responsive to change e.g. legal changes, societal changes. • It is empowering; enables users to question and to change practice to suit the code. • It is part of everything I do. It is embedded in our methodology. • Clear and understood by all. • Feel pride in my profession. • Confidence in your role. • Professional identity. 4.1.3 What do you do to support it? • It is embedded into all practice. • Participated in the building of the code. • We recognise it as the cornerstone of our work. • Build it into commission contracts. • Build it into induction/training courses. • Developing CPD for youth workers based on the code of contract. • Making sure the code is well promoted and communicated. • Build it into membership criteria for umbrella organisations. 4.1.4 How was it built and implemented? • Total stakeholder involvement. • All stakeholders believe in the concept and buy in.
- 11 - Concern was raised regarding the introduction of a licence to practice and of the intention of the code within such a scheme. It was stated that a clear statement that reflects the situation would be welcomed as it may affect the sector’s attitude to the production and introduction of the code. The group were supportive of the idea that currently used codes of conduct and other research should be used in the production of the code and that the identification of the key bodies should reflect the sector as a whole .i.e. voluntary and community organisations should be included as well as that statuary bodies They were also very clear that they would be supportive of a wide-ranging consultation on the production of the codes of conduct at all stages of development. To summarize, the focus groups were generally supportive of the idea of a code of conduct and felt that it would be of benefit to the sector as a document in it’s own right as a publicity driver and as a unifying tool. They had concerns around the links with the licence to practice and would welcome further information. Other concerns were around the possibility that a code of conduct would be imposed on the sector or if the sector would be integral in the development of the code. 5. Summary It would seem from the research that a code of conduct for the youth workforce, depending on continuing stakeholder support, is an achievable goal. The commonalties of the codes of conduct and the values already embedded in the national occupational standards are a firm foundation for the generation of the code of conduct. There are benefits to be gained from having a code of conduct that is suitable for all. These are; • A common moral framework for all to adhere to; built from current good practice • Sharing good practice • As a unifying tool, should both statuary and voluntary bodies sign up • Transferability, should a worker move to another youth workforce organisation the code of conduct is the same • A public relations exercise. To raise the profile of the youth workforce • New organisations can adopt it rather that spend time and effort in generation of a new code • Standard publication would enable central distribution, advice, training and guidance to be generated for the code of conduct. A code of practice for the workforce however is not an achievable goal at this time. To truly reflect all of the operations, the diversity of the variations of tasks and structures within organisations within the sector would need a document of encyclopaedic proportions. The changes that are taking place within local authorities to integrate the services are a period of change and the practices that are in place will be in a state of flux and it may be prudent to wait until good practice is evidenced. 6. Next steps To summarise, research has been completed to give a reference point for understanding similar codes of conduct and areas of commonality. The next steps for this scoping exercise are to compile a set of documentation, which describes the route that would need to be taken to progress the programme.