Providing services

Duty of care and the standard of care when providing services

Your community organisation will need to consider your duty of care, and the standard of care you need to meet, when providing services to your clients or the public.  A Victorian community organisation may owe its clients or the public a duty of care under the common law (judge made law) of negligence, or under the negligence provisions in the Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic).  

This means a community organisation may be liable for any acts or omissions made by the organisation, which results in an injury to a client or the public or damage to their property. There are a number of legal tests that must be satisfied before your organisation will be held liable for negligence (for more information see the link below to the Fitzroy Legal Service Law Handbook).

While negligence claims against community organisations are rare, your organisation should look to operate in a way that reduces the risk of injury to your clients and the public (and the risk that your volunteers or employees will be injured whilst volunteering or working for your organisation - see The people involved > Volunteers).  You need to consider any obligations you may be under to do background checks on the people involved in your organisation (see The people involved for a Guide to Working with Children Checks).  You should also look at getting appropriate insurance coverage to protect you from liability in the event of any unforeseen incidents (see Getting started > Insurance and risk management).  Your organisation should seek legal advice about its potential liability if you think it may be exposed to legal action.

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Privacy when providing services

Some community organisations, including those that have contractual arrangements with government (including funding agreements) may be required to comply with privacy laws (see the Information Privacy Act 2000 (Vic) and Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)).

Where these Acts cover your community organisation, you must comply with the relevant Information Privacy Principles or National Privacy Principles which set out how personal information is to be collected, held, managed, used disclosed or transferred.  Even where your organisation is not covered, it is best practice to follow the relevant privacy principles as they are not overly onerous and reflect public expectations on the way personal information ought to be handled.

Personal information under the Information Privacy Act 2000 (Vic) includes information or an opinion that is recorded about a person and that means that the person can be identified.  It does not matter whether the information recorded is correct or not, it still counts as personal information if the person can be identified. 

Information about health is covered by the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic).  It includes personal information collected to provide or when providing health services. It also creates some specific exceptions for health service providers.

Your community organisation should provide an opportunity for people that believe their records are inaccurate or out-of-date to have them amended as appropriate.

For further information see Running the organisation > Document retention requirements for community organisations, and the links below.

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Discrimination and human rights when providing services

Discrimination

The Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) protects a number of personal attributes from discrimination in various situations including in employment and in providing goods and services.  Your organisation needs to know about the personal attributes and the situations covered by the Equal Opportunity Act and also the exception and exemptions that are available.  Information on this area of law is available at the following links:

As of 1 August 2011, when the new Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) came into force, there are a number of new laws which affect community organisations - importantly, the sexual harassment provisions of the Act now apply to volunteers (in the same way that they apply to employees).

The new Act also creates a positive duty on community organisations to eliminate discrimination where possible, and makes some changes to indirect discrimination. 

The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission has created a series of fact sheets to help volunteer-involving organisations, and volunteers, understand the new Act. See the links below.

Human rights

Victoria also has a Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities. For more information on how your community organisation can assist with protecting and promoting human rights please see the following factsheet.

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Australian Consumer Law

The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) is a single, national law regulating consumer protection and fair trading, which applies in the same way nationally and in each State and Territory of Australia. The ACL imposes obligations on both individuals and companies or organisations who engage in trade or commerce or supply goods or services to consumers. The ACL obliges them to act fairly and honestly and to ensure that the good and services they supply are safe.

The ACL will apply to all not-for-profit community organisations when they engage in trade or commerce or supply goods and services to consumers, and covers five main areas:

• unfair business practices;
• unfair sales practices;
• unfair contract terms;
• consumer guarantees; and
• product safety.

Each area is addressed in the following factsheet: 

Unsolicited selling provisions in the Australian Consumer Law

It is likely that your organisation will need to comply with the unsolicited consumer agreement provisions in the ACL if your community organisation goes door-knocking, makes unsolicited telephone calls or approaches people in public spaces to:

• sell goods or services;
• seek donations in exchange for items such as chocolates, auction items or raffle tickets.

It is important that your staff and volunteers know and understand these provisions, so that you can make sure your practices and sales agreements are compliant with the ACL. The following fact sheet will assist community organisations to understand when and how the new unsolicited consumer agreement provisions in the ACL will affect them.

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