What are the Key things to note under the Early Intervention Policy?
- Early Intervention is preventative in nature - aimed at engaging with employees in a remedial and supportive manner
- The 4 phases to Early Intervention:
1. Identification
2. Analysis
3. Engagement and Intervention
4. Feedback and Follow up - Early Intervention is not a disciplinary sanction and information collated through the process must not be used for disciplinary, performance appraisal or appointment processes
- Early Intervention applies to all employees.
What are the Policy statement and policies under the Early Intervention Policy?
- This policy document outlines our approach to early intervention, and provides links to procedural guidelines.
- This policy is in place to provide an overview of what we mean by early intervention, why it is important, and how we approach this as an organisation.
What is Early Intervention Policy?
- Early intervention identifies employees who may not be performing to an acceptable and professional standard, whose past and present behaviour and traits may be indicators that they pose a risk to themselves and Police through future misconduct or unethical behaviour.
- Early intervention is preventative in nature and aimed at engaging with employees in a remedial and supportive manner through conversation and support such as mentoring, relationship assistance, coaching, and/or other internal and external assistance.
Why does the Early Intervention Policy exist?
- Pressures and demands from a Police employees professional and personal lives can impact on how they perform their duties.
- The objective of Early Intervention is to identify when that may be happening and engage with the employee as Early as possible to reduce risk of harm to themselves and others.
- It takes a collaborative approach with a view to reducing the likelihood that employees will engage in misconduct or unethical behaviour in the future.
How does the Early Intervention Policy work?
- We use information from a number of different databases to develop a comprehensive picture of an employee. We use this information and referrals to identify employees that may be in need of some form of support, guidance and assistance.
- We engage with employees to provide them with information, insight and support.
- We work together to identify if any additional support mechanisms are needed to ensure they are high performing and meet and maintain the standards of behaviour outlined in Our Values and Our Code:
. We respect and maintain the privacy of our employees, and the confidentiality of Early Intervention information.
. We understand that Early Intervention is not a disciplinary process.
. We use the following Early Intervention Guidelines to inform our approach to Early Intervention.
Explain first of four phase of the Early Intervention guidelines: Identification
- The first step to Early Intervention is the identification of the employees that may be in need of support or assistance.
- This can be initiated in a number of ways:
. Employees - Self referral
> Employees may wish to approach their Supervisor, the District Early Intervention Lead or the National Early Intervention team for support and assistance.
> Direct contact with the National Early Intervention team based at PNHQ can be made confidentially via telephone or via email: EIS@police.govt.nz
. Peers
> Peers may approach an Employees supervisor to raise concerns regarding their colleagues. Supervisors should then make a referral to the District Lead. Alternatively Peers may make a referral direct to the District Lead or to the National Early Intervention team.
. Supervisors
> Supervisors may identify employees who are in need of assistance and support and should make a referral to the District Lead or to the National Early Intervention Team.
. Early Intervention Database
> Early Intervention is managed and recorded through the IAPRO database and is administered by the National Early Intervention team based at PNHQ which has sole access to that part of the database.
> This process collates and gathers existing information from IAPRO and other Police databases and analyses it against pre-determined thresholds. As an employee nears or reaches the pre-determined threshold, an alert is then triggered.
Explain 2nd of four phase of the Early Intervention guidelines: Analysis
- When an employee is referred to the National Early Intervention team or multiple alerts on an individual are received, the National Early Intervention team undertakes analysis of the data to determine whether Early Intervention engagement is required for the employee.
- The data is collated in a report and provided to the District Lead. This is the same information that will be provided to the employee as part of the Early Intervention meeting. The relevant District Commander or National Manager is also notified.
Explain 3rd of four phase of the Early Intervention guidelines: Engagement and Intervention
- Once an employee is identified for early intervention:
. The District Lead will contact the employees supervisor to discuss and find out more about the employees situation. Together they will determine if an Early Intervention meeting is required and the best way to approach the employee.
. The main focus of the District Lead is to help facilitate and support Supervisors in conducting Early Intervention meetings with their employees. - The purpose of the Early Intervention meeting is for the supervisor and/or the District Lead, to meet with an employee in an informal manner and to talk through their Early Intervention information.
- The conversation is private and may require open and frank discussion around personal matters or concerns. In the majority of cases Early Intervention may simply entail this conversation with the employee and no further action will be necessary.
- In other cases, an offer of assistance may be made to the employee if the supervisor and District Lead consider that it would help address any concerns.
- Assistance could range from training, mentoring, support, confidence building, relationship assistance, counseling, anger management and money management. Any outcome must be agreed between the supervisor and the District Lead.
- Following the initial meeting, engagement in Early Intervention is voluntary. No one will be required to participate; nor will they be disciplined or disadvantaged for choosing not to. When the employee chooses not to participate in further intervention a record will be retained in IAPRO for reporting purposes.
Explain final of four phase of the Early Intervention guidelines: Feedback and Follow up
- The District Lead will follow up with the supervisor and employee to ensure that any agreed support and follow up actions are arranged.
- Employees will also be asked to provide feedback on their Early Intervention experience to enable continuous improvement of our processes.
Explain ‘Confidentiality of Early Intervention Data’?
- The report produced by the National Early Intervention team must only be used for the purposes of Early Intervention and remain confidential to those people involved in Early Intervention in the course of their duties.
- No information about Early Intervention is held on the employees personnel file.
- The District Lead and the Supervisor cannot disclose personal information outside of the EI meeting without the employees consent unless they reasonably believe that disclosing the information:
. Is for one of the purposes for which the information was obtained or is directly related to one of these purposes; or
. Is necessary:
> To prevent or lessen a serious threat to public health or safety or to the life or health of a person
> To avoid prejudice to the maintenance of the law; or
> As part of any court process - Limits on disclosure of personal information are detailed under Principle 11 of the Privacy Act 1993.
- Early Intervention is not a disciplinary sanction and any information collated during this process must not be used for disciplinary, performance appraisal or appointment processes. The only exception is where there is a proposal to remove an employee from Police, in which case the material may be referred to and taken into account when looking at the employees complete disciplinary/employment history.
- If the Early Intervention process identifies behaviour that is considered to be a potential criminal, disciplinary, or performance issue, it is considered unsuitable for Early Intervention and must be referred to an appropriate person outside the Early Intervention team.
