Policies

Feedback and Complaints

Somerville Housing has established mechanisms for anyone to lodge a complaint or grievance and provide compliments. Complaints and compliments are a valuable source of feedback and an effective tool for improving service delivery and development.

Somerville Housing actively seeks constructive feedback, both positive and negative, as a source of ideas for improving services and activities. Somerville Housing Board Members, Executive and Management are committed to maintaining a workplace free of all forms of misconduct and are supportive of whistleblowing.

Rights and Responsibilities

Somerville Housing acknowledges that individuals who access our services (participants) come from a multicultural society of individuals with their own principles, standards, beliefs, values, and capabilities, who hail from a wide variety of ethnic, religious and socio-economic backgrounds. All people have the right to the same level of dignity, privacy and confidentiality as is expected by the rest of the community.

We are committed to ensuring that people retain maximum control over their own lives by having primary involvement in, and influence over, decisions that affect them. People we support have the opportunity to develop and maintain skills and to participate in activities that enable them to achieve valued roles in the community.

Somerville Housing is committed to establishing culturally sensitive practices that ensure people receive services that recognise and support their cultural heritage and maintain links with their family, friends and significant others.

Furthermore, it is also important that people we support, their families and/or legal guardian(s) are offered opportunities to be involved in various aspects of the organisation. To this end we invite all individuals, their families and legal guardian(s) to participate in policy development, surveys of service, recruitment, individual meetings and appointments, organisational network functions and other activities or events as they arise.

Somerville Housing has a zero tolerance approach to violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination of all peoples.