Code of Practice

Professional conduct

We have a high level of professional integrity and demonstrate this by adhering to our organisational aims, objectives, core values, policies and practices. All at EVB shared similar values, beliefs, ethics and objectives. We strive to provide a holistic service to all.

Equality, diversity and equal opportunity

We at EVB are dedicated to promoting equality and diversity issues and implementing anti-oppressive practice. We do not accept any prejudice or discrimination at EVB and will challenge and report language and behaviour based upon sex, gender, sexuality, race, socio-economic status, disability, age and faiths. To celebrate diversity and acknowledge past and current imbalances in relation to equal opportunities is vital within any organisation. All people should feel able to access our services and be treated with respect, support and understanding.

Confidentiality

The information shared with us is not shared with any other organisation.  We do not share emails, submissions or comments with any other organisations without express, written consent. If we feel that anyone is at risk of significant harm, we may be required by law to share confidential information.  The relevant section of The Children Act 1989 is Section 47. We will endeavour to discuss this issue with the person(s) in question before acting.

Anonymity

Many of us working on this campaign are survivors of some form of domestic or sexual abuse, which we are still managing the after effects of. We have decided to remain anonymous in order to manage our risk.  We are all aware that our private details, such as names are valuable ‘currency’ to those who perpetrated abuse against us. Until we feel safe enough to manage the risk of further abuse, we are working anonymously. It is one of the reasons that we allow anonymous submissions – we know how easy it is to track information online, and how calculating abusers and stalkers can be in order to continue to abuse. Our policy on confidentiality has not changed – everything shared with us is published on our website for others to read as long as we have express consent for this.  Those who communicate with us by email are requested to confirm that they give consent for the contents of the email to be published.

Personal information (including email addresses) is not, and will not be shared with any other organisations. We are in the process of writing a ‘Terms of Service’ policy for this site, which will expressly state that we do not share your personal data; however submissions may be shared with organisations that we are working with.  These provide anecdotal evidence of the need for change within the media and professional organisations and will help us to achieve our campaign goal of language, culture and attitude change around victim blaming. In addition to our personal experiences, we have all undertaken professional domestic abuse training – including (but not limited to) Freedom Programme for Professionals, Freedom Programme for Survivors; Safeguarding (Adults & Children); Relate Counselling Skills for non-counsellors; The Effect of Domestic Abuse on BMER Women; Forced Marriage & so-called Honour Based Violence; Information Sharing & Confidentiality.

Data Protection

We are exempt from registering with the Information Commissioners Office and the details of this can be found here.  We will continue to check with the ICO and update our policies as required by law.

When sending a submission to our site, the only information we hold is the writer(s) name (the name provided). When submissions are published, only the name chosen to share with us is publicly visible.  We do not hold any other information, such as email or IP addresses.

If you comment on a submission, we hold IP & email addresses on a confidential server accessible only by our website administrators. We need this information to manage content and it helps us keep the site spam-free.  We do not share this information with any other organisation or agency. We take our website security seriously, and have strict regulations in place in order to limit who has administrator privilege.

If writers wish to remove comments or submissions, we will endeavor to do this within 24 hours and all of their personal information (IP & email – applicable for comments only) will be deleted at the same time, so it will no longer be accessible to our web admin.  Writers  can ask us to remove content by clicking here

Ethics

Although we do not offer counselling, we have decided to adhere to the BACP Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling & Psychotherapy. This framework outlines six ethical principles:

1. Being trustworthy: in practice this includes outlining clear boundaries and expectations, adhering to confidentiality and being honest

2. Autonomy: this means to trust that the individual is able to make their own decisions as they are their own expert. As an agency, it is our role to provide accurate information, empathic, holistic and consistent support, provide a person-centred approach and to empower.

3. Beneficence: this means to act in the best interests of the individual. In practice this may mean to attend regular support and supervision, to access learning and development, monitoring practice and outcomes. All of these prove a commitment to promoting the individual’s well-being.

4. Non-maleficence: this means a commitment to avoid harming the individual through exploitation, incompetence, and malpractice: both as a worker and to challenge others if this occurs.

5. Justice: to treat individuals fairly, with respect and with dignity. To be mindful of the potential challenges that may arise, to be committed to equality of opportunity, and to avoid discrimination.

6. Self-respect: this means to ensure self-support and self-development is fostered. This includes seeking counselling or therapy and other opportunities for personal development.

Employing the six ethical principles is vital to ensure good working practice. Although these principles are recommended for the practice of counselling and psychotherapy, they could apply to all aspects of work within an organisation: such as management, supervision, training and development.

If you would like more information, please Contact Us.