Department of health code of conduct

[caring guy]

At my place of work we were recently given a document called "code of conduct for healthcare support workers and adult social care workers in England". We were told that these guidelines apply to us. The link is below:

 

http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/component/docman/doc_download/2246-code-of-conduct-healthcare-support.html

 

My concern is under section 1 called be accountable by making sure you can answer for your actions or omissions

 

There is a statement which reads:

 

2. always behave and present yourself in a way that does not call into question your suitability to work in a health and social care environment.

 

For me what type of offences, committed outside of work, could be deemed to make you unsuitable?

 

I'm happy that things like theft, assault and the other obvious things which would preclude you from working with vulnerable people BUT I see this as a very broad spectrum of things that could be used as an easy way to dismiss a member of staff who has committed an offence.

 

For example, a person who does not pay a parking ticket. Are they unsuitable? Where do you draw the line here?

 

This is a very worrying way to threaten staff.

[steampowered]

This is very common. It is written in my employment contract. Similar things are written into the Code of Conduct that all solicitors are legally obliged to follow. The same thing applies for many finance professionals regulated and I am sure many other regulated professions.

 

In an employment situation there are always going to be difficulties drawing a line, it is very difficult to lay down hard and fast rules. For example, there are always going to be cases where it is not clear whether someone has committed "gross" misconduct justifying immediate dismissal or merely misconduct justifying a warning. If you qualify for unfair dismissal rights the employer still has to act reasonably in the circumstances, so they could not rely on that clause to dismiss you for a parking ticket as a reasonable employer would not see this as something calling into question your suitability to work in healthcare.

[becky2585]

As SP has said, it's common in certain industries. In the legal industry our regulators are clear that you must behave appropriately to the profession at all times, in or out of work.

 

For example, a solicitor would theoretically be unable to get steaming drunk around anyone who actually knows they are a solicitor... Whether it would actually end up with them being struck off though, I don't honestly know, but you need to show you're an upstanding citizen with those types of clauses. It also protects the business from you bringing it into disrepute.

[caring guy]

As SP has said, it's common in certain industries. In the legal industry our regulators are clear that you must behave appropriately to the profession at all times, in or out of work.

 

For example, a solicitor would theoretically be unable to get steaming drunk around anyone who actually knows they are a solicitor... Whether it would actually end up with them being struck off though, I don't honestly know, but you need to show you're an upstanding citizen with those types of clauses. It also protects the business from you bringing it into disrepute.

 

I agree with the sentiment entirely.

 

What I struggle with is when an opinion of something comes into play as opposed to a definitive list of offences.

 

In my example some people may think not paying a parking ticket is bringing the name of the council into disrepute, some people will see that as disrepute.

 

Opinions create problems as opposed to well laid out scenarios.

[assisted blonde]

always going to have opinions and tbf that's got to be better black and white really dosent work there has got to be some flexibility.