Guideline 2: Seeking consent from clients
Many services funded by government are asked to collect and report information about how their programs are working. To do this in a safe, ethical, and legally compliant way, services need to seek consent from clients to participate in evaluation activities. This ensures that any personal information is used transparently and in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), which governs how personal information can be collected, used, and disclosed.
Consent to participate in evaluation is different from consent to receive a service. Even if a client agrees to take part in your program, you must separately ask for their permission to use their information for evaluation or reporting. Evaluation participation is always voluntary and should never affect the support a client receives.
This guide provides information to help services:
- understand the importance of informed consent,
- know when and how to seek client consent for evaluation, and
- record consent in a way that is appropriate, proportionate, and safe.
You should use this resource as part of:
- Stage 1 of the workflow map, Plan before you start collecting data to check consent requirements.
To understand where you should use each resource read the full workflow map [PDF 1.55MB].