PRIVACY PROCEDURE

GENERAL

Women and children’s right to privacy should be paramount. If a woman telephoning for advice or information does not wish to give her name she should not be pressurised into doing so.

All service users will receive their mail unopened.

The Licence Agreement specifies that women do not have exclusive possession of any part of the building, including the rooms allocated to them. This Agreement has been adopted because of the genuine need to move families between bedrooms due to the different bedroom sizes and the fact that the direct access and the variation in size of families demands this approach. This lack of exclusive possession also affords staff entry to rooms.

Within the above context it is our intention to afford women and children staying in the refuge the maximum level of privacy. However, we recognise that there may be circumstances relating to the health and well-being of women, children and the household generally when it may be necessary to gain access.

Entering service users’ rooms will only be used as a last resort and issues relating to the management of private space should normally be addressed through the individual support planning route and face to face discussion with the service user concerned.

Where possible access will always be planned and agreed in advance with the woman concerned.

CIRCUMSTANCES WHERE ACCESS MAY BE REQUIRED

These are broken down into two definitions:

This second definition may apply in circumstances where:

  • There is a suspected suicide attempt.
  • There is activity taking place that contravenes House Rules and is illegal, such as the use of drugs.
  • There is suspected self-harm.
  • There is suspected harm or risk of harm to the children.
  • People are in the room but are not responding to external attempts to gain access and the staff have reason to believe there is a problem related to the above definition.
  • There is reason to believe that an unauthorised visitor is present on the premises.

The above list is not intended to be exhaustive but to provide examples. Staff are expected to use their discretion about any other types of need for urgent access. However, this discretion must operate within Definition Two set out above.

GAINING ACCESS

General points

In the context of gaining access to rooms, staff must be mindful of theirown safety. Where there is a perceived risk to staff safety in entering a room, then the police should always be called and staff will not enter the room without a police presence.

Where there is suspected supply and dealing of drugs on the premises the police must always be called.

Whatever definition entry is connected with, two members of staff must always be present to gain access to the room in order to reduce the potential risk and also to protect the staff against any accusation.

One staff member may enter a room if there is no second person onsite AND if the need is urgent in the context of Definition Two AND there is no perceived risk to the member of staff.

Non-urgent access

In situations of gaining access on a non-urgent basis, permission of the resident to enter her room will always be sought in writing. The minimum length of notice that will be given in the letter will be twelve hours.

The resident will always be invited to be present.

A copy of the letter will be placed on the resident’s file.

Where permission is denied on the grounds of inconvenience the staffwill endeavour to establish another date giving two hours’ notice. If this cannot be achieved then two staff may enter the room in the absence of the resident, although the resident will be notified in writing that this is going to happen.

Urgent access

Where this is necessary staff should still endeavour to notify the resident in writing, even if it is a very short notice e.g. one hour.

Where this is not possible because of the urgency of the issue, where the resident is present, staff should verbally notify her of their need toenter the room.

RECORD KEEPING

A record of the process and outcome of gaining access to a woman’s room must be kept on the relevant personal file.

Reviewed: / January 2016
Next Review: / January 2017
Signed: Christine Starmer
Joint Chief Executive /

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