This is a public facing policy
Research Policy
Policy Index: Management
- Relevant Legislation, Standards and Agreements
The following Legislation apply to this policy and supporting documentation:
Disability Act 2006 – (Vic)
National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013– (Cth)
Victorian Civil & Administrative Tribunal Act 1998 – (Vic)
Privacy Act 1988 – (Cth)
Privacy Regulation 2013– (Cth)
Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 – (Vic)
Freedom of Information Act 1992 – (Vic)
Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 – (Vic)
National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992 – (Cth)
Health Records Act 2001 – (Vic)
Health Records Regulations 2012– (Vic)
The following Standards apply to this policy and supporting documentation:
National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007) - Updated May 2015
Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research
Human Services Standards
Standard 1 - Empowerment
Standard 2 – Access and Engagement
Standard 4 – Participation
National Standards for Disability Services
Standard 1 – Rights
Standard 2 - Participation and Inclusion
Standard 4 - Feedback and Complaints
Standard 6 - Service Management
National Quality Standard (ACECQA)
Standard 2.1; Element 2.7
Standard 7.3, Element 7.3.4
- Purpose
This policy outlines Yooralla’s commitment to the development of a research culture in collaboration with diverse stakeholders, which enhances the human rights of the person and improves their quality of life. Yooralla is committed toadvancing contemporary evidence-based practice amongst its workforce and ensuring: protection of research participants and the safety and quality of research; privacy and confidentiality; financial probity; legal and regulatory compliance; risk management; and proper monitoring arrangements.
- Scope of Policy
This policy applies to all Yooralla employees engaged in research projects involving Yooralla customers where there is the potential for ethical risks and Yooralla staff and stakeholders regarding quality assurance and service delivery.
- Definitions
Any defined terms below are specific to this document:
Applied Research– Original work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge with a specific application in view. It is undertaken either to determine possible uses for the findings of basic research or to determine new ways of achieving some specific and predetermined objectives.
Complaint – A verbal or written expression of dissatisfaction or concern where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected.
Conflict of Interest – A situation, or the risk of a situation, where a Board member, Executive Director, employee, volunteer or subcontractor of the organisation has:
a) duties and obligations arising as a result of holding a position or from contractual obligations, and
b) private interests, personal relationships, and/or business interests, that could possibly corrupt or be perceived to corrupt, or improperly influence the motivation or decision-making of that individual in performing their role or obligation, that may or may not result in a private or material benefit to the individual or a third party.
A private or material benefit can still be defined as a conflict of interest even if the activity undertaken and benefit received arise out of activities undertaken in one's own time.
Continuous Quality Improvement– The process of identifying, describing, and analysing strengths and problems and then testing, implementing, learning from, and revising solutions.
Ethical Risk– The potential for harm (beyond business as usual) to an individual, family, community or society arising from a research project.
Ethics– An accumulation of values and principles that address questions of what is good or bad in human affairs.
Intellectual Property – Intellectual property (IP) includes patents, copyright, future copyright, trademarks, know-how and designs.
Quality Assurance – A systemic process of checking to see whether a service is meeting specific requirements.
Research – A systematic approach to gaining new knowledge or building a better understanding of concepts. Research is an intellectual investigation aimed at discovering, interpreting and revising human knowledge. It is a broad concept and there is no simple, single way to define research for all disciplines.
Research Agenda– A Board-approved guidance that sets the direction for research aligned with Yooralla’s strategic plan to assist Yooralla’s own researchers and reviewers and to assist researchers from partner organisations.The research agenda guides where funding might be sought, who Yooralla should partner with and what approaches are out of scope or low priority. It helps guard against potential conflicts of interest and helps understand the opportunity costs of investing resources in areas of lower priority.
Research Governance– Implementation of the principles, requirements and standards of research.
Research Governance Framework– All of Yooralla’s activities that in combination govern research, irrespective of who is responsible for any one activity.
Research Governance Officer – Position within the Quality, Innovation and Safeguards division responsible for providing guidance to assist researchers across Yooralla in meeting obligations for the effective governance of research, including: ethical and scientific quality; auditing and monitoring processes concerning intellectual property, publication and dissemination, document management, consent, and contracts; maintaining a research register; handling complaints of misconduct and being aware of and minimising any real or perceived conflicts of interest.
Research Misconduct – Research misconduct includes fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing or reviewing research or in reporting research results.
Site Specific Assessment– Before Yooralla (through its CEO or delegate) can authorise the commencement of research, the relevant decision makers consider the risks involved in conducting the research against Yooralla’s levels of tolerated risk. A range of information is considered, including: the suitability of the facilities at which the research is to be conducted; staff capability (skills and experience) and capacity (time); budget and other resources; conflicts of interest; reputation; legal, regulatory, jurisdictional and other requirements.
Strategic Basic Research– Experimental and theoretical work undertaken to acquire new knowledge directed into specified broad areas that are expected to lead to useful discoveries. It provides the broad base of knowledge necessary to solve recognised practical problems.
Survey – A tool used to capture information from stakeholders by asking a series of questions. A survey can be in the form of an online survey where people complete answers to questions on a website, face to face or on paper.
- Policy Statement
Yooralla’s mission is to provide quality, sustainable and flexible services that uphold human rights and create opportunities, empowering individuals to live the life they choose. Yooralla seeks to lead change and be thought leaders in transforming society. This requires investing with academic institutions to undertake research that establishes the evidence to change practice, leading to greater human rights for people with disabilities.
Yooralla’s research program will be limited to strategic basic research and applied research where new knowledge or concepts are sought to improve disability-related outcomes or to better position Yooralla as a provider of choice in disability services.
The Board, through its Service Delivery and Quality Committee, is responsible for identifying the problems or issues that would be most beneficial for Yooralla to pursue through research. Establishing Yooralla’s research agenda will determine the areas, type, scale and time lines of research projects and partnerships that are appropriate for investing time and resources into preparing applications for funding, ethics approval, site assessments and all other preliminary activity.
Relationship to our Values and Strategic Directions
In undertaking and collaborating on research, Yooralla will:
- focus on customers’ choice and decision-making as active participants of research;
- conduct research in a transparent manner and ensure that ethical standards are adhered to; and
- ensure that research participation is voluntary.
Yooralla endeavours to deliver services which meet the needs of a person accessing its services. In doing this, Yooralla seeks to ensure that its practice is evidence based, effective, efficient and based in human rights preservation and promotion. As a commitment to continuous quality improvement, Yooralla strongly encourages staff to participate in professional development, research and update their practice in an on-going manner.
Research Governance
All research undertaken in Yooralla in partnership with universities abides with the respective university’s process for approval, consent, ethics application and review, data management and retention, legislative and regulation compliance, financial management, research misconduct and complaints handling in relation to the research.
Research undertaken by staff as part of their professional development or post-graduate studies must be directed to their line manager in the first instance and then with the Chief Practitioner for approval, following review by the Research Governance Officer. The research proposed must be aligned with Yooralla’s vision, mission and values; and with Yooralla’s Research Agenda. The research by staff will follow the respective university’s process as noted above, after there is agreement that the research proposed can be undertaken. The Chief Practitioner consults with the relevant Executive Director before approval for staff research is given.
Ethics approval must be obtained from the relevant university and a copy of the ethics approval must be forwarded to the Research Governance Officer prior to commencement of the research within Yooralla. The Research Governance Officer will ensure the ethics process is appropriate and adheres to Yooralla Research Agenda.
All research that involves people with disabilities, their families/carers and staff must be voluntary. Respect must be shown to participants and their families/carers or support person. Information about the research must be presented in a way that ensures the participant’s right to information, privacy and autonomy in accordance with the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006.
Should a survey be selected as a tool for capturing research or quality assurance information, Yooralla’s online survey tool is survey monkey which is managed by Marketing & Communications. All surveys to staff, customers and external stakeholders are required to use Yooralla’s survey monkey site to ensure brand compliance, consistency and clarity of tone, and to ensure that all records and research findings are retained with Yooralla. This is in line with Yooralla’s commitment to quality assurance best practice. Even if a survey is to be administered as a paper-based survey only, a survey monkey version is required and the response data is to be entered onto the online version to enable a central retention of survey content.
Complaints related to Research
Complaints from research participants about a Yooralla partnership research they are involved in, should take their complaint to the university researcher or the university’s complaints process as outlined in the research information. However, the participant may choose to contact the Chief Practitioner or Research Governance Officer for any assistance.
Complaints from researchers about any Yooralla research partnerships should be directed to the Chief Practitioner in the first instance who will liaise with the principal researcher(s) to resolve the matter.
Complaints from staff, committee members and other interested persons should be directed to the Chief Practitioner in the first instance. Other interested members may include senior managers and the executive.
Where complaints may be difficult to resolve, the advice of the Chief Executive Officer and the executive will be sought. This may include the Chief Executive Officer and/or executive member seeking independent advice if required.
Research Misconduct
Complaints concerning research misconduct of a Yooralla’s research partner will be dealt with according to the relevant university’s research complaints process. The Chief Practitioner or delegate appointed by the Chief Executive Officer will refer the complaint of research misconduct to the relevant university process.
Complaints concerning research misconduct of a Yooralla employee engaged in research will be referred to the relevant university’s research complaints process and referred to Yooralla’sRespect in the Workplace Policy.
Complaints categories may include but are not limited to the following:
i)breaches of privacy / confidentiality;
ii)misappropriation / falsifying data / dubious authorship / plagiarism / misrepresentation;
iii)careless or inappropriate collection, analysis, use or disclosure of information;
iv)conflicts of interest;
v)coercion/failure to appropriately obtain consent;
vi)departures from good research practice;
vii)non-compliance with relevant legislation; and
viii)unethical behaviour.
Responses to complaints should be in writing by the relevant university and/or from the Chief Practitioner or delegate of the Chief Executive Officer.
Further enquiries related to research complaints should be directed to the Research Governance Officer or Chief Practitioner.
Conflicts of Interest
Situations in which financial or other personal considerations may compromise, or have the appearance of compromising, an investigator's judgement in conducting or reporting research. A conflict of interest in research exists when the individual has interests in the outcome of the research that may lead to a personal advantage and that might therefore, in actuality or appearance compromise the integrity of the research. Conflicts of interest also apply to HREC members who may use information obtained during the reviewing process for personal advancements.
Any conflicts of interest are to be declared accordingly with the respective university’s process and related Yooralla’s policy. See policy on Conflict of Interest .
Intellectual property rights, authorship and publication
Research results should be communicated responsibly. A culture supporting knowledge creation and knowledge transfer is encouraged.
Yooralla seeks to attract industry and government funding for research and knowledge transfer.Research agreements must recognise both background and any new Intellectual Property rights which either precede or arise from the project.
Research in Yooralla encourages affiliations with other institutions including universities and research collaborative groups.Clear written arrangements of the research data custodianship and publication guidelines are necessary prior to research commencement.
Yooralla has ownership of all intellectual property created by its staff during their period of employment. This excludes moral rights and scholarly work. Circumstances may exist where employees should be assigned additional rights.
Intellectual property arising from collaborative research projects such as those with affiliated universities is subject to the terms and conditions of any formal agreements between Yooralla and the University or the collaborative research partnerships.
Where there has been contribution from others to a research project, the rights associated with joint contribution need to be respected. Collaborators should discuss, define, agree and document decisions according to intellectual property principles; or defined in the terms and conditions of agreement.
Where individual research and research partnerships are undertaken by staff and conducted within Yooralla or involving Yooralla’s customers, authorship affiliation, publication or any presentations at conferences/forums must acknowledge Yooralla and/or Yooralla’s contribution.
Yooralla retains the property rights to all research and quality assurance activity conducted seeking feedback from customers, staff and suppliers. All research findings will be held with Yooralla’s quality team.
Collaborative Research Projects with universities and/or external sponsors
A contractual agreement must be in place between Yooralla and universities and/or any external sponsor prior to the commencement of a research project. The agreement should cover the following:
i)financial management;
ii)intellectual property;
iii)authorship and publication;
iv)secondment;
v)ethics approval;
vi)ownership of equipment and data;
vii)confidentiality;
viii)copyright;
ix)commercial returns;
x)responsibility for ethics and safety clearances; and
xi)reporting arrangements.
The Chief Practitioner in collaboration with the executive or executive delegate will lead the negotiation of contractual agreements. Yooralla’s Chief Practitioner has responsibility to oversee the contractual agreements and is responsible for approving contractual agreements. The Chief Practitioner, and the relevant executive member or delegate will be part of research contractual agreement negotiations.
Research development and research partnerships will be discussed with the Chief Executive Officer and/or executive in the first instance.
Research partnerships and research progress will be reported to the Board Service Delivery and Quality Committee.
Approval Process
The proponent(s) of any quality improvement or research project must first obtain in principle support from a member of Yooralla’s Executive who may authorise a commitment of time and resources to complete the necessary pre-approval work. This includes developing a concise, plain language proposal that describes in two pages the ‘why’, ‘what, ‘when’ and ‘how’ of tackling the identified problem or gap in knowledge. The proposal is to include an assessment of the project’s alignment with the Research Agenda, the degree of ethical risk – negligible, low or potential risk – and whether the nature of the project is quality improvement or research.
Once reviewed by the Research Governance Officer, the proposal is reviewed by the Executive team who will consider safety for customers and staff, privacy, opportunity costs and any ethical risks. For quality improvement projects where the risks are deemed to be negligible or low and exceeded by the potential benefits, the proponents will be authorised to proceed.
Quality improvement projects deemed to have potential ethical risks will require approval from a Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) before being authorised by the CEO to proceed.
Low risk and potential risk research project proposals will require approval from an HREC. Normally, research projects deemed to be of negligible risk by the Executive team will reviewed by an HREC.
Ethical approval is a pre-requisite for research commencement, however, Yooralla may choose not to authorise ethically-approved research because of other factors.
A site specific assessment (SSA) is conducted by the Research Governance Officer on the recommendation of the Research Governance Officer in respect of a satisfactory SSA and having HREC approval, the CEO may authorise a research project to proceed.
Reporting Outcomes
For all approved projects, a final report is required within 2 months of project completion. The final report is submitted to the executive team and the Service Delivery and Quality Committee. The report describes the outcomes achieved, lessons learned (including unanticipated benefits and harms), an account of resources invested (financial inputs, personnel, in-kind contributions), implications for practice (at Yooralla and for the sector) and recommended next steps (including a knowledge translation plan). The approving HREC receives an annual progress report for research projects that require HREC approval. The HREC must receive a separate final report in the required format in the required time frame.