Carinity Whistleblower Policy
1. What is this document for?
This document tells you how Carinity receives and handles whistleblowing disclosures.
People who are Whistleblowers have special protections by law, and we are required to have systems that make sense for everyone.
2. What is whistleblowing?
Whistleblowing means telling someone about a very serious problem (for example, unethical, illegal, or harmful activities) in a way that gives the person who tells special help from the law to stay safe.
Whistleblowing is different to making a complaint – you can give feedback or make a complaint about anything you want, but whistleblowing only applies to certain things.
How does the law keep me safe?
If you make a Whistleblowing disclosure, the law will usually protect you from being punished or getting in trouble for speaking up. No one can fire you, take you to court, or break a contract with you just because you told the truth about a problem.
If you did something bad and you talk about it in your Whistleblower report, you might still get in trouble for it, even if you told someone about it. But what you say might not be used against you in court, unless you lied.
3. Who can be a whistleblower?
Not everyone can be a whistleblower. Only the people in the list below can:
- An employee or volunteer of Carinity
- An officer of Carinity (incl. Council/Board member)
- A supplier of goods or services to Carinity
- For our Disability services:
- A person with a disability who is receiving a support or service from Carinity (NDIS recipient)
- A nominee, family member, carer, independent advocate, or significant other of a NDIS recipient.
- For our Aged Care Services:
- A person receiving Funded Aged Care Services anywhere in Australia (FACS recipient)
- A supporter of a FACS recipient
- A person who becomes aware of a thing listed in point 4.
If you have something you want to report and you are not on the above list, you can give feedback or make a complaint, and we have a separate policy for that.
4. When is it whistleblowing and not a complaint?
Your disclosure (which is another way of saying “report”) will be whistleblowing if:
- You give it to the right person,
- You actually think that it is true, and most people would agree with you, and
- The report is about:
- Misconduct (someone has done something wrong, unfair, or dishonest)
- A crime
- Something that could be dangerous for the public
- Threats to harm a whistleblower
- Breaking a rule in the Aged Care Act
- Breaking a rule in the NDIS Act
If your disclosure doesn’t have all three things above, it is feedback or a complaint and is not whistleblowing.
If your disclosure does have all three things above but you want it to be a complaint or feedback, we can receive it in that way and we will follow our feedback and complaints policy.
5. Who do I give my whistleblowing disclosure to?
We use Core Integrity to receive all Whistleblowing reports. Core Integrity is not part of Carinity and are experts at helping people safely speak up about problems.
Core Integrity can be contacted by:
| · Filling out a form online on their website: ispeakup.co/carinity | · Sending a letter to PO Box 730, Milsons Point, NSW, 1565 |
| · Sending an email to speakup@coreintegrity.com.au | · Telling one of our staff to report something to Core Integrity. |
| · Calling 1800 324 775 |
It won’t cost you any money to make a Whistleblowing disclosure to Core Integrity.
Sometimes, you can disclosure to a member of parliament or a journalist – if you want to do that, you should talk to a lawyer first to make sure you will still be kept safe by the law.
6. Can I be anonymous?
Most of the time, you can make a Whistleblower disclosure without telling us who you are.
However, if your report is about disability services, the law says you have to tell us your name – if you don’t, the law won’t keep you safe.
When you disclose to Core Integrity, you can choose how much information about yourself you want to give. The more information you give, the easier it will be for us to sort out your report.
7. How will you protect me if I make a disclosure?
If you are anonymous, we will do everything we can to keep your identity secret, and to protect your privacy unless you tell us not to.
You have the right to make a report without fear of being treated badly because of it. We will do everything we can to make sure that our staff and other people we work with and help do not treat you badly because of your report.
8. What does Carinity do with my disclosure?
After Core Integrity receives your disclosure, they send it to us. We take all disclosures seriously, and we will do an investigation whenever we can to try to fix the problem.
When we investigate, we will do everything we can to give you a chance to tell your side of the story, and we will keep you updated with how the investigation is going. You can ask for a copy of our Investigations policies at any time.
When we can, we will work with you to figure out how we should sort out what you have told us. We will keep your disclosure confidential (i.e. private) unless the law says we can’t.
We also keep track of the disclosures we receive so that we can learn about how we can get even better at caring for you.
9. Where else can I go for information?
You can learn more about Whistleblowing on the Core Integrity website: Core Integrity
You can also learn more about how to contact organisations that can support you to make a report or complaint (including the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission) here.
You are able to contact a lawyer at any time. The Queensland Law Society can help you find a lawyer – call 1300 367 757 or go to www.youandthelaw.com.au. You can also speak to Community Legal Centres Queensland to find a free lawyer near you by calling 07 3392 0092.
A PDF copy of this policy can be downloaded here.
