Gift Giving and Receiving

Staff must, at all times, exercise the highest standards of integrity. In particular they should avoid any situation where they could be suspected of obtaining improper benefit by nature of their employment.

While it is impossible to lay down hard and fast rules, staff should be mindful that the borderline between genuine expressions of goodwill or appreciation, and that of bribery / seeking to gain favour can appear extremely fine.

The general principle is that the giving or receiving of token gifts may be acceptable but these should only be made/accepted with the approval of the Home’s manager.

For example:

1. Children or their families may attempt to give staff gifts or money, staff should not accept any such offer and should report any such occurrences to a senior member of staff or the Home’s manager;
2. On some occasions, children or their families may offer token gifts as a sign of appreciation to staff. In these circumstances, when it may give offence to refuse the gift and the relative value of the gift is small, staff are free to accept remembering that the acceptance of any gifts, under whatever circumstances should be bought to the attention of the Home’s manager as soon as practicably possible and a note is made on their staff file;
3. Suppliers or potential suppliers to the Home may offer gifts, seeking contracts to sell goods or services. Staff are expected to declare any such gifts or discounts.

It is not acceptable on special occasions such as on birthdays or religious festivals, for staff to buy a child a gift separate from those given by the Home.

Staff should instead speak to the manager if they have ideas for gifts for the young person and ensure this is arranged within the home.

If staff wish to “gift” their belongings, such as old DVDs or video games to a child, this must be with agreement from the manager and recorded as a “donation to the home”, as opposed to giving an item as a gift to a specific child.

Each home has a log for Gifts and Donations to the home. Once discussed and authorised with the Registered Manager, this must be logged accordingly.