In late 2006 arbias successfully applied to the Alcohol Education & Rehabilitation Foundation (AERF) for funding to develop a comprehensive human resources strategy. To date human resources policies and procedures have been created as needed, and this funding allowed arbias the much needed opportunity to do this in a more strategic and consultative way. This manual is the outcome of that project and will allow arbias to approach human resources in a much more consistent, consultative and fair manner than has been possible before. It has been developed after extensive consultation with our staff and is written in such a way that future amendments to it can occur easily and consistent with the human resources strategy we have now adopted.

The manual is to be made available to other agencies within the ABI sector, for their information and use (if they wish).

We anticipate reviewing the manual periodically to ensure it continues to meet our human resources requirements over time.

We wish to sincerely thank AERF for the funding for the project, our own staff for their positive contribution to the document, and to acknowledge the work of Wendy Murphy and Norena Kavanagh in the preparation of the manual.