Speech and Language Therapists Registration Board Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics Bye-law 2014

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Citation: IR SI 472/2014

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 17th October, 2014.

The Speech and Language Therapists Registration Board, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by section 31 of the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (as amended), with the approval of the Health and Social Care Professionals Council, hereby makes the following bye-law:

1. This bye-law may be cited as the Speech and Language Therapists Registration Board Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics Bye-law 2014.

2. The Speech and Language Therapists Registration Board hereby adopts the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics (“the Code”) contained in the schedule to this bye-law.

3. The Code is hereby incorporated by reference into, and forms part of, this bye-law.

4. This bye-law comes into operation on 14 October 2014.

SCHEDULE

Speech and Language Therapists Registration Board

Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics

Contents

Foreword .............. 5

About the Code .............. 6

Conduct .............. 8

Performance .............. 11

Ethics .............. 17

Appendix A — Suggested procedure for ethical decision-making .............. 19

Bibliography .............. 20

Foreword

I am pleased to present the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics for Speech and Language Therapists devised by the Speech and Language Therapists Registration Board (SLTRB) at CORU. The Code specifies the standards of ethics, conduct and performance expected of registered speech and language therapists.

Many of the standards of ethics, conduct and performance expected of speech and language therapists are common to many of the health and social care professions to be regulated by CORU. In the first instance, the Health and Social Care Professionals Council at CORU developed a framework code detailing these common standards. The SLTRB has now built on that framework code by including additional requirements which are particular to speech and language therapists.

Speech and language therapists respect the rights of individuals to be heard and to be listened to and to have information made accessible to them. Speech and language therapists, through their interventions and therapies, do everything practicable to create conditions for the individual to interact with others. This in turn brings benefits to individuals, their family and carers, and improves their quality of life.

The goal of the SLTRB is to protect the public by fostering high standards of professional conduct and professional education, training and competence among registered speech and language therapists. This Code outlines the standards of ethical behaviour and conduct that the public expects from registered speech and language therapists. The Code will be reviewed on an on-going basis to reflect an evolving profession and society.

It is important that all registered speech and language therapists read, understand and meet the standards set out in this Code. Failure to meet the standards could result in a complaint of professional misconduct being made about a registrant. Under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 , professional misconduct is defined as any act, omission or pattern of conduct of the registrant which is a breach of the Code.

The SLTRB developed this Code to ensure that the standards, ethics, conduct and performance expected of registered speech and language therapists are set out in a clear and accessible manner. We expect that all speech and language therapists will comply with these standards and that the consistent application of these standards will benefit individuals. We look forward to working with speech and language therapists, their employers and service users in realising such benefits through developments in the statutory registration process.

Helen Shortt

Chairperson

Speech and Language Therapists Registration Board

October 2014

About the Code

As a registrant you must comply with this Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics. It is recognised that ethical decision-making presents challenges and it is suggested that the paradigm at Appendix A should be consulted. If there is a conflict between the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics and a registrant’s work environment, the registrant’s obligation is to the Code.

Registrants must be aware that a breach or breaches of this Code could be held to be professional misconduct and could result in a disciplinary sanction being imposed following a fitness to practise inquiry.

In this document:

• ‘you must’ is used as an overriding principle or duty;

• ‘you should’ is used where the principle or duty may not apply in all cases or where there are factors outside your control affecting your ability to comply;

• the term “service users” includes service users, patients, clients and anyone else who uses your service.

Below is a summary of your responsibilities as a registrant grouped into three categories: conduct, performance and ethics.

Conduct

1. Act in the best interests of service users.

2. Respect the confidentiality of service users.

3. Maintain high standards of personal conduct.

4. Provide information about conduct and competence.

Performance

5. Address health issues related to your fitness to practise.

6. Obey laws and regulations.

7. Act within the limits of your knowledge, skills, competence and experience.

8. Keep your professional knowledge and skills up to date.

9. Maximise service users’ communicative abilities.

10. Maximise health, welfare, protection and safety of service users with regard to feeding, eating, drinking and swallowing.

11. Get informed consent from service users.

12. Communicate with service users, carers and other professionals.

13. Assist and advise colleagues, recently qualified registrants and students.

14. Teach, supervise and assess students and other professionals.

15. Supervise tasks that you give to others.

16. Keep accurate records.

17. Address health and safety risks.

18. Report any concerns about risks to service users.

Ethics

19. Demonstrate ethical awareness.

20. Respect the rights and dignity of people.

21. Carry out your duties in a professional and ethical way.

22. Undertake research in an ethical manner.

23. Make sure that any advertising is truthful, accurate and lawful.

Conduct

You must always keep a high standard of conduct. Your duties are to:

1. Act in the best interests of service users

You are responsible for acting in the best interests of service users.

You must:

a. treat service users as individuals;

b. respect diversity, different cultures and values;

c. respect and, where appropriate, speak out on behalf of service users;

d. recognise and respect the role of carers;

e. support the service user’s right to take part in all aspects of the service provided and to make informed choices about the service they receive;

f. do nothing that might put the health or safety of service users at risk;

g. when working in a team, be responsible for:

• your own professional conduct,

• any service or professional advice you give,

• your own failure to act,

• any appropriate tasks you delegate, and

• any tasks delegated to you;

h. protect service users if you believe they are threatened by a colleague’s conduct, performance or health. Service user safety must always come before personal and professional loyalties;

i. talk to a suitable professional colleague if you become aware of any situation that puts a service user at risk.

You must not:

a. direct those entitled to public services to private practice for reasons of personal or commercial benefit;

b. accept inducements, payments, gifts or benefits that could be reasonably perceived as affecting your professional judgement.

2. Respect the confidentiality of service users

You must:

a. treat information about service users as confidential and use it only for the purpose for which it was given;

b. check that people who ask for information are entitled to it;

c. always follow ‘best practice’, employer guidelines and data protection laws when handling confidential service user information. Stay up to date with best practice developments;

d. be conscious of your need to use social media and social networking in a responsible way, in particular, to avoid any breach of your obligations in this Code such as confidentiality under clause 2 and use of records and information under clause 16.

You must not:

give personal or confidential service user information to anyone, except if the law or your professional practice obligations requires you to do so.

You must be aware confidentiality is not absolute. You must familiarise yourself with the circumstances in which a breach of confidentiality is appropriate and justifiable.

Disclosure of information to other relevant professionals:

— Information may need to be shared with other relevant professionals to provide safe and effective care. If disclosure of a service user’s information is necessary as part of their care, you should take reasonable steps to ensure that you make such a disclosure to an appropriate person who understands that the information must be kept confidential.

3. Maintain high standards of personal conduct

You must:

a. maintain high standards of honesty and integrity;

b. work openly and co-operatively with colleagues;

c. respect the roles and expertise of other health and social care professionals and work in partnership with them.

You must not:

a. harm, abuse or neglect service users, carers or colleagues;

b. exploit or discriminate against service users, carers or colleagues in any way;

c. form inappropriate personal relationships with service users;

d. condone discrimination by colleagues, carers or service users;

e. put yourself or others at unnecessary risk;

f. behave in a way that would call into question...