Social Work Practice: Values and Ethics

Social Work Pr strikeice set and ethicsIntroductionAt its most basic brotherly ladder is a consistent and nonionised approach to the fond problems of families and individuals. It is an approach that focuses on military benefiting community to help themselves (Moore, 2002).1Most practitioners enter social exertion because of a commitment to social arbitrator, or at the very least a desire to help others and to see improvement and positive change in battalions lives. Modern social lead, on with other public services, is being increasingly run along business lines and market principles. Todays social actor therefore is confronted with the managerial approach, performance indicators, cargon managers and c be packages. Given the current acres of things where everything is pull ind by budgets and the collect to satisfy those in charge by processing a cocktail dress as quickly as possible one wonders whether a social controler has time to be guided by general honorable p rinciples, let alone a specific code of practice. In the current climate it is easy to forget that social fly the coopers atomic number 18 committed to the view of the intrinsic mercifulkind worth of separately individual, and the concomitant view that each person deserves the best c ar and advice possible.In 1948 the worldwide Declarati2on of Human Rights came into being. The declaration encapsulates a view of the inherent worth and dignity of the human person. The declaration espouses the impulse of individual freedom on the basis that such freedom did not infringe the rights of others, these are the rights on which a good deal of social school practice is based. This paper will begin with a general exposition of value orientations. It will then look at the ethics and value which downstairspin social work practice. there will be an assessment of social work value and of their relevance to anti- jaundiced and anti-oppressive practice.EthicsEthics are general moral pri nciples that are intended to inform the governing of human behaviour. Thus, most people would quarter water to the view that some things such as cruelty and murder are al ways wrong, or unethical. honourable codes, however, may be based on moral principles, but are not as generalisable or universally applicable. This is because they refer to particular professions and the way in which professional behaviour is governed. Such ethical codes cannot be said to be neutral or value free because they are contextual. They arise within a certain context and are applied to a particular purpose as such, ethical codes are influenced by the ideologies held in that context (Butler, 2000). The context being examined here, is that of social work practice. Codes of practice and ethics are a lot idealistic, because they may be seen as providing a blueprint for how a social worker should act when it is impossible to legislate for every situation, and this may result in a false sense of warranter (Banks, 2003). Social workers therefore, need to be able to recognise when the code of practice within which they are postulate to work, does not lock up within a framework that is informed by human rights and social justice (Husband, 1995).The Clients NeedsShon (1991) has argued thatProfessionals claim to contribute to social well-being, put their clients unavoidably ahead of their own, and see to it themselves accountable to standards of competence and morality. (Schon, 199111-12). close to critics maintain that the way in which social services a lot operates is self-serving quite a than serving the needs of the clients, yet social workers do police themselves and their profession. The way in which they do this is to think critically about what they are doing, why they are doing it, and what moral implications this may have. Certainly social work ethics should not lead anyone to believe that the social work profession should serve itself, rather the needs of the client shoul d be most important. One of the ways this is achieved is by establishing clear relationship boundaries wee on. This is because involvement with a client that is too personal is contrary to what the BASW has to say about social work ethics and values.The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the mandate and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work (BASW,2001). 3Social work practice, in order to be ethical practice must be centred on the needs of service users Social workers of necessity intervene in peoples lives and have an influence on situations, ethical decision making is therefore a vital component of social work practice (Osmo and Landau, 2001). The familiarity is there to give advice to social workers on what constitutes ethical decision making in different contexts. good Decision MakingDecision making has to be grounded in the values and ethics of social work. Some of the issues that social workers have to deal with and that involve them in ethical decision making centre approximately balancing the rights of one individual against others, around public welfare and issues of institutional and structural oppression. This can make life difficult because the social worker has then to identify when institutions and structures are being oppressive and how the values of social work may be used to combat this. Decision making is also debatable because social workers are committed to confidentiality with respect to the people they work with. Sometimes a social worker is faced with a situation where he or she may, for the greater good, be forced to break the ethic of confidentiality because the client may be a danger to themselves of someone else. This causes a conflict of values and the s ocial worker has, with the help of his/her supervisor, to balance the needs of the individual against the needs of the greater good.At the very least social work should begin with a clear commitment to social justice which seeks to challenge distress and discrimination in all its forms because social work has its roots in the nineteenth century moves to eradicate poverty and unemployment.Everyone has the right to be protected from abuse and to be treated with respect. This is not easy when political sympathies discourses express concern for inclusion and equality e.g. for those with mental health problems, then employ discourses which ignore factors such as race, gender and class and social circumstances, that are pertinent to any proper understanding of a persons condition. The Human Rights Act of 1998 makes it mandatory for local authorities to act in ways that are conversant with the Act. Social workers help with the problems faced by people with disabilities. Social workers h ave a duty to be conversant with the Human Rights Act and the residential area Care Act of 1990. Social workers are faced with making decisions concerning what defines a person with disabilities and also how to assess their needs. If the wrong form of distribute is prescribed, e.g. detainment under the Mental Health Act for a person who does not fulfil the specified criteria, then this could be an infringement of human rights.Social workers are duty bound to base their practice on concepts of human rights and social justice but at the same time they need to be more conscious(predicate) of how the inequalities that they see in decree might affect their practice (Cemlyn and Briskman 2003). Society does not always operate in the best interests of the individual person, furthermore, the introduction of market principles into social care can mean that the profound framework within which a social worker has to act may also (however much it is unintended) work against individual right s. Some commentators e.g. Challis (1990) maintain that prior to market principles and managerialism being introduced into social care, social workers operated with a much greater degree of freedom. It is arguably the case that the social worker is duty bound to act in accordance with a process that is informed by the valuing of the human person and the concept of human rights, and may, therefore, need to be prepared to work outside of a framework that (albeit unintended) prevents them from working according to this ethic (Cemlyn and Briskman, 2003). Wolff (2002) speaks of integrity ethics being the root of social work practice because of its concern with a just society and justice for individuals. Bearing this in mind social workers seek to engage in anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice in all that they do.Anti-discriminatory and Anti-oppressive PracticeAn emancipatory and anti-oppressive attitude is a critical component of ethical social work, social workers should be people enablers, enabling people to stand up for their rights and giving them a voice. Horton and Pattapen (2004) argue that in coetaneous society individuals are often disempowered in numbers of ways and feel unable to cope with the rules that guide their lives. Social workers deal with the distress that results from this and in their practice should question social systems wherein an increasing number of people suffer from injustice, oppression, and exclusion from mainstream society. Anti-discriminatory practice means taking account of structural disadvantages i.e. how the structures of society often work against certain groups e.g. those with disabilities, women, and ethnic minorities. It also means that the social worker rewards care not to use discriminatory language and to do their best to promote the dignity and self-worth of service users.The ethos of the worth of individual human persons is often counteracted by current social work practice. Under the guidelines for socia l care social workers help individuals to convey what is best for them, in practice however, care managers are the people who hold the budgets and budgetary concerns can often be discriminatory disenfranchising the person that the social worker is trying to help (Postle, 2000). Social workers try to debar this happening but they work in a state institution that often inadvertently workings against the best interests of service users. This is why social workers need to be trained to view the world from the place of others so that they more easily recognise how the system oppresses (Moore, 2002)..ConclusionThe ethics and values that underpin social work practice are dedicated to social justice and recognition of the inherent worth of each and every individual. Social workers do their best to work in partnership with service users and to do this in a way that includes and empowers people. Social workers are dedicated to help people move forward and take control of their lives, the idea is to shift the power balance away from the social worker and towards the person that needs help. The structures of society are, in some ways, discriminatory and oppressive and social workers recognise that white masculine values disadvantage people and they are therefore committed to anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice in their work.BibliographyBanks, S. 2003 From oaths to rulebooks a critical question of codes of ethics for the social professions European journal of Social Work Volume 6 No. 2 July 2003 p. 133-144British Association of Social Workers (2002) The Code of Ethics for Social Work.http//www.basw.co.uk/.Butler, I 2000. A Code of Ethics for Social Work and Social Work Research http//www.elsc.org.uk/socialcareresource/tswr/seminar6/butler.htmCremlyn, S and Briskman L. 2003 Asylum, youngsterrens Rights and Social Work Child and Family Social Work 8 (3) pp. 163-178Husband, C. (1995) The morally active practitioner and the ethics of anti-racist social work. In good Issues in Social Work (eds R. Hugman D. Smith), pp. 84103. Routledge, LondonIfe, J. (2001) Human Rights Social Work Towards Rights-Based Practice. Cambridge University Press, CambridgePostle, F. (2000) The social work side is disappearing. I guess it started with us being called care managers, Practice, 13(2), pp. 13-27.Ring, C. 2001 Quality assurance in mental-health care A case study from social work Health and Social Care in the Community 9(6) 2001 pp. 383-390Schn, D. A. (1991) The Reflective Turn Case Studies In and On Educational Practice, New York Teachers Press, Columbia UniversitySlote, Michael. From Morality to Virtue. Oxford Oxford University Press, 1992Wolff, J. 2002 Contractualism and the virtues precise Review of International Social and Political Philosophy Volume 5 No. 2 June 2002 p. 120-1321Footnotes1 See p.17923 http//www.basw.co.uk/articles.php?articleId=2page=2