CHCPRT001 - Scenario: Jack - Agressive While Parents Are Separating

[NXXC]

Hi,

I am having trouble with one of my assessments, a scenario regarding legal and ethical.

Scenario
Jack is a 4-year-old child within your kinder room. You are aware that Jack’s mother Amy is good friends with Mel who is the kinder teacher. Jack has been displaying some aggressive behaviours towards some of the other children within the room. You have noticed this behaviour has significantly increased since Jack’s parent’s announced that they were separating. You have approached Mel with your concerns, and have expressed that you feel that a meeting should be set to discuss the concerns with Jack’s parents. Mel responds by saying that she knows Amy really well so she will have a chat with her at a BBQ that they are attending together on the weekend. She says that she does not want to cause the family any more stress by calling them in for a formal meeting. The following Monday, Amy attends the service and lodges a formal complaint with the service director regarding Mel’s conduct, stating that she has acted unprofessionally in discussing her son’s behaviour in a public setting at the BBQ on the weekend and that she now feels humiliated. There were also other families who attend the services present at the BBQ and Amy expressed that they were within earshot when Mel was discussing Jack’s behaviour with her. Amy also states that after the BBQ, another parent spoke with her and informed her that she had overheard one of the educators in the room discussing Jack’s behaviour when she arrived to collect her child. She stated that the educator used Jack’s name to identify him, and spoke very loudly regarding her feelings about how Amy should be handling her son's behaviour at home.

There are 9 questions in total and the ones below are the ones I am having trouble with.

1. What are the legal and/or ethical considerations/dilemmas within this scenario? How would you address these as an educator?
Ethical - Mel spoke to Amy as a friend rather than as the Kinder teacher of her child, spoke to Amy about child discipline/rearing in a public place.
Legal - Confidentiality was not maintained.

4. What steps would you take to ensure that as an educator you were working in a manner that upheld the rights of the child and the family?

5. What regulation breaches have you identified within this scenario? You will need to research the regulations and National quality standard and outline the specific regulation/s and standards that have been breached.
- NQS, QA 7, S 7.3, E 7.3.1 and 7.3.4?
- Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014
- Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010
273 Duty of confidentiality
(1) An individual who is, or who has been, a person
exercising functions under this Law must not
disclose to another person protected information.
Penalty: $5000.
- Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005
40. Confidentiality
(1) In this section—
"relevant person" means—
(a) a person who is or has been the Child Safety Commissioner; or
(b) a person who is or has been a delegate of the Child Safety Commissioner; or
(c) a person who is or has been an authorised person; or
(d) a person who is or has been a member of an advisory committee referred to in section 38; or
(e) a person who is or has been appointed to assist an advisory committee referred to in section 38;
"senior available next of kin" has the same meaning as in the Human Tissue Act 1982.
(2) A relevant person must not, except to the extent necessary—
(a) to carry out functions under this Part; or
(b) to exercise powers under this Part; or

(c) to give any information he or she is expressly authorised, permitted or required to give under this Part—
disclose to any other person, whether directly or indirectly, any information acquired by reason of being a relevant person if a person who is or has been a child in out of home care or a child whose death is the subject of an inquiry under Division 4 or a member of that person's family will or may be identified from that information.
Penalty: 60 penalty units.
- Education and Care Services National Regulations
Subdivision 4 Confidentiality and storage of records
181 Confidentiality of records kept by approved provider
The approved provider of an education and care service must ensure that information kept in a record under these Regulations is not divulged or communicated, directly or indirectly, to another person other than—
(a) to the extent necessary for the education and care or medical treatment of the child to whom the information relates; or
(b) a parent of the child to whom the information relates, except in the case of information kept in a staff record; or
(c) the Regulatory Authority or an authorised officer; or
(d) as expressly authorised, permitted or required to be given by or under any Act or law; or
(e) with the written consent of the person who provided the information.
Penalty: $2000.
182 Confidentiality of records kept by family day care educator
A family day care educator must ensure that information kept in a record under these Regulations is not divulged or communicated, directly or indirectly, to another person other than—
(a) to the extent necessary for the education and care or medical treatment of the child to whom the information relates; or
(b) a parent of the child to whom the information relates; or
(c) the approved provider or nominated supervisor of the family day care service; or
(d) the Regulatory Authority or an authorised officer; or
(e) as expressly authorised, permitted or required to be given by or under any Act or law; or
(f) with the written consent of the person who provided the information.
Penalty: $2000.


6. Do you feel that there has been a breach of practitioner/client boundaries? Explain your response, and explain how you would act to ensure that ethical client/practitioner boundaries were maintained.
- Yes.

7. As an educator, outline TWO (2) potential work practice improvements that you could implement into the service to avoid this situation occurring again.
- Have a staff meeting speaking about the relevant issues and using the appropriate documents, hand them out to workers so that they may become further knowledgeable.
- I cannot think of another one.

9. Outline the impacts that the identified breaches would have on the child, the family and the worker
Worker - fired, demoted, no further relationship with that family and possibly others, bad reputation and not trusted by families, staff and director.
Child - Other parents warn children to stay away (hinder social and emotional development), lead to further aggressive behaviour, get in trouble with parents, not get the help he needs.
Family - May leave the centre, request another educator - broken relationship and trust, feeling embarrassed could lead to social isolation from other families.

If someone could just let me know if I am going in the right direction with these.

Thank you

[Lorina]

Yes, you're on the right track with your responses!

A few things you could add:

4) Privacy and Confidentiality should be maintained at all times. Any discussions about any child to another educator should be done in private, away from parents, other educators, and children.

6) Yes! You're right! Discussing these issues at a social event is unethical and the educator should have requested a meeting with the parent or approached her with her concerns.

7) Request educators to arrange a meeting to discuss concerns or email/phone parent to let them know about concerns they may have.

Hope this helps!

,
Lorina

[NXXC]

This has been very helpful, thank you so much !!

[Lorina]

You're most welcome!

,
Lorina