Ethical and legal considerations for community activities

Ethical considerations are the principles that guide how you treat the people involved in an activity: avoiding harm, getting informed consent, protecting privacy and taking extra care with vulnerable groups. Legal considerations are the checks, clearances and insurance your activity must have, such as a Working with Children Check.

The National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2023), published by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Australian Research Council and Universities Australia, sets out these principles. It’s written for research, but the same ethical approach applies to community activities.

The LDAT ethics resource (PDF) has guidelines for keeping your activities ethical, from planning through to the end of a project.

Avoiding harm

Avoiding harm is a key part of working ethically in the community. Assess, minimise and manage risks when you plan your activity. The National Statement identifies these types of harm, although the list isn’t exhaustive:

• Physical harm: injury, illness or pain
• Psychological harm: feelings of worthlessness, distress, guilt, anger or fear, for example from sharing sensitive or embarrassing information
• Devaluation of personal worth: being humiliated, manipulated or treated disrespectfully or unjustly
• Social harm: damage to relationships or social networks, discrimination in access to services, employment or insurance, and social stigma
• Economic harm: direct or indirect costs to participants
• Legal harm: for example, discovery and prosecution of criminal conduct

Working with vulnerable groups

When you assess risk, take extra care with vulnerable groups and communities. The National Statement gives detailed guidance for working with specific groups, such as children, women who are pregnant, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Getting consent

People should choose to take part in your activity voluntarily. Their consent should be based on enough information to understand what’s involved, what the outcomes may be and what taking part means for them.

Privacy and confidentiality

If you collect data or personal information, protect the privacy and confidentiality of the individuals and communities involved. This covers how you collect, use, store, share and dispose of that information. See Collect your data for practical tips.

Depending on your activity, you may need specific checks, clearances or insurance. Common requirements include:

• a Working with Children Check
• a police check
• public liability insurance
• professional indemnity insurance

Requirements for Working with Children Checks and police checks vary between states and territories, so check the rules where your activity runs.

Some activities also need special ethics clearance. This is more likely when you work with vulnerable groups, so allow for it when you plan. Factor these into your Community Action Plan budget and timeline.

Last reviewed: 14 October 2026