Policies

Website policy & copyright The content of the Council to Homeless Persons (CHP) website is provided for information purposes only. No claim is made as to the accuracy or authenticity of the content of the website. CHP does not accept any liability to any person for the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice), which is provided on this web site or incorporated into it by reference. The information on the website is provided on the basis that all persons accessing the site undertake responsibility for assessing the relevance and accuracy of its content. The information contained in the website is not to be displayed except in full screen format. No liability is accepted for any information or services, which may appear in any other format. No responsibility is taken for any information or services, which may appear on any linked websites. Copyright of materials present on this website resides with CHP. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under copyright legislation, no part may be reproduced or reused for any commercial purposes without written permission from CHP.

Privacy Statement CHP is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of clients, supporters, volunteers and staff, in compliance with National Privacy Principles as set out in Schedule 3 of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (as amended) ("the Privacy Act") and, where applicable, the Health Privacy Principles as set out in the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) ("the Health Act"). Collection of your personal information In order to provide our services, we may request personal details such as your name, address, telephone number or email address. If you choose to withhold requested personal information, we may not be able to provide you with the service you require should that depend on the collection of that information, particularly if the collection of that information for membership or magazine subscriptions or other payments. Your contact information may also be used to communicate with you about CHP events and services which we consider may be of interest to you. If you do not wish us to contact you in relation to such services, please let us know. We will not provide your personal information to any third party without your written permission. Your personal information collected from our website We collect the following information from our website for statistical purposes, to improve our website service: * User's server address and top-level domain name (eg. ,com, ,gov, .au, .uk) * The date and time of the visit to the site, the pages accessed and documents downloaded * The previous site visited and the type of browser used. We do not identify individual users or their browsing activities except, in the unlikely event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant to inspect the service provider's logs. CHP takes care to ensure that the personal information you give us on our website is protected. You can access external websites by clicking on links we have provided but be aware these other websites are not subject to CHP privacy standards, policies and procedures. Access to your personal information We take all reasonable steps to ensure that personal information that we hold about you is as accurate as is possible. We will always provide you with access to any personal information we hold about you. You are able to contact us at any time and ask for its correction if you feel the information we have about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date. Before we provide you with access to your personal information, we will require some proof of identity. We do this to protect the confidentiality of your personal information.

Complaints procedure What to do if you want to make a complaint about CHP CHP wants to give you the best quality service possible. If you have found our service helpful or have any ideas on how something can be done better, please let us know. We also want to know if you are not happy or have concerns about any part of our service. You have the right to express your comments about any part of any service at CHP. A comment may be: * a compliment * a suggestion * an idea * a fear * a concern * a complaint First it is best to talk to the person about whom you have a complaint. If you do not feel comfortable about this, you can contact their manager. If the complaint is about: * A policy worker, please contact the Manager, Policy and Communications * The Homeless Advisory Service staff or Peer Educator staff or volunteer, please contact the HAS/PESP Manager * An administration staff member please contact the Office Manager * Any of our managers, or sector development staff, please contact the CEO. * The CEO, or a member of the CHP Board, please contact the Chairperson of the CHP Board by sending an email to complaints@chp.org.au Please contact the team managers or the CEO on (03) 9419 8699 or write to them at: Council to Homeless Persons 2 Stanley Street Collingwood Vic 3066 Your complaint will be recorded in a separate file so the problem can be dealt with sensitively and quickly. We will contact you by telephone within 1 -3 days to make sure CHP understands your complaint. At this time we will: * Provide the name of the person who is managing your complaint and how they may be contacted. * State the time and the steps the worker will take to deal with your concerns. Once you have received your letter the CHP worker handling your complaint will contact you to talk about what you want to do and the next steps. If we have not been able to resolve the complaint within the 14 days we will ask you to formalise the complaint in a letter (if you have not already done so). CHP aims to investigate and resolve all complaints within a further 28 days of receipt of the written complaint. If this not possible we will write to you and explain why. All complaints will dealt with: * Seriously * Quickly * Confidentially; and * Without affecting your right to use CHP services. It is OK to have a friend or person you trust to help you in any of your dealings with CHP. This person can help you put your comments in writing, and be with you when you put forward your comments or attend any meetings. CHP will assist you if you need an interpreter. There will be no cost to you for this service. At any time you may lodge a complaint with our funding body, the Department of Human Services, Victoria by contacting their complaints line on 1300 884 706. If you believe CHP has not observed your rights under the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act, you may complain to the Ombudsman by telephoning 03 9613 6222 (or 1300 555 727 via the national relay service, or 131 450 via an interpreter).