Code of Conduct

The charity shares with its staff a commitment to upholding the highest standards of professional conduct.
To this end its professional staff will abide by the various codes of conduct of the Charity and all staff will accept the disciplines required for the effective management of the organization and most effective delivery of services to clients.
All paid staff and volunteers are expected to apply themselves diligently to their responsibilities, and to take every reasonable step to ensure that they are capable of carrying out these responsibilities in the manner prescribed by the charity.
All employees at all times observe the charities policies and procedures as agreed and developed by the trustee board, will abide by the terms and conditions in their contracts of employment, and follow such disciplinary rules as maybe adopted from time to time.
To this end the charity has adopted the following disciplinary rules. It is stressed that this list is not exhaustive, but indicative of what may constitute misconduct. Other issues may arise which may also be subject to the disciplinary process; areas indicated as potentially gross misconduct may on occasion be treated as lesser offence, and vice versa.
Gross misconduct is described as an action so serious that the charity would be justified in dismissing a member of staff on the first offence without notice, behaviour that makes further trust between the charity and the employee impossible and thus destroys the contract of employment. Other misconduct is indiscipline that falls short of this definition.
Examples of gross misconduct are:

Theft or unauthorised possession of, or wilful damage to, the charities another employees or client’s property, including fraud, deceit or dishonesty.
Continued refusal to carry out reasonable management instructions.
Extreme rudeness or abuse towards managers, colleagues, clients or members of the public.
Unbecoming conduct at work which would threaten workplace relationships, including:

Fighting or assault connected to workplace
Being under the influence of alcohol or unprescribed drugs
Endangering the health or safety of others
Sexual relationship with a child or vulnerable adult
Harassment or direct discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, religion, sexuality, disability, marital status or age.

Criminal convictions where the credibility of the charity is threatened by its connection with the convicted employee.
Significant and unauthorised breach of confidentiality.

Examples of other types of potential misconduct are:

Poor timekeeping, absenteeism or failure to work to a pattern acceptable to the charity.
Failure to f to follow charities policies and procedures, where not covered by gross misconduct rules.
Deliberately working below an acceptable standard.
Abuse of the sick pay, annual or special leave arrangements.
Failure to carry out reasonable instructions.
Disruption of the work of colleagues.
Damage to property arising from negligence.
Milder examples of offences listed under misconduct rules.

It is not necessarily possible to determine whether an offence should be classified as gross or other misconduct without investigation. The severity of misconduct, if proven, is finding of the disciplinary process, not itself an accusation. The charity has therefore adopted its own disciplinary procedure to provide a framework for investigation and decision.