Ethics and Values in Social Work

✍ Scribed by Sarah Banks

• Publisher: Red Globe Press
• Year: 2020
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 341
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

With over 40,000 copies sold across its lifetime, this is social work classic from a leading international author. Synthesizing the complex ideas and concepts that characterize social work's value base, Sarah Banks expertly provides a clear and systematic account of professional ethics in relation to social work practice, framed within a global context. Ethics and Values in Social Work is co-published with the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) and this fifth edition provides revised and updated analysis of professional regulation and codes of practice.

Written with Banks' trademark accessibility and theoretical rigour, this updated edition continues to be a relevant and invaluable resource for all students taking Ethics and Values modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as educators and practitioners of social work.

New to this Edition:
- Revised and updated analyses of professional regulations and codes of practices
- Updated case studies with an increased number of global examples of social work practice
- More cases featuring adults

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
List of Figures, Lists and Tables
List of Practice Focus Boxes
Preface to the fifth edition
Situating ethics – local and global perspectives
Changes to the fifth edition
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The current context of social work
Terminology: ‘social work’, ‘social workers’ and ‘service users’
Social work
Social workers
Service users
Terminology: ‘ethics’ and ‘values’
Ethics
Values
Professional values and personal values
Ethics, religion and politics
Religion
Politics
Rationale and aims of the book
The structure of the book
The use of exercises, cases and further resources
Further resources
CHAPTER 1: Ethical challenges in social work
Introduction
The ethical, the technical and the legal
Ethical issues, problems and dilemmas
What are the ethical challenges in social work?
1. Rights and welfare of the individual
2. Public welfare
3. Equality, diversity and structural oppression
4. Professional boundaries and relationships
Reflecting on the ethical challenges
Social work as a human services profession
Social work and state welfare systems
Blame and guilt in social work
Conclusions
Further resources
CHAPTER 2: Principle-based approaches to social work ethics
Introduction
The place of religious ethics
Principles
Respect and autonomy in the social work relationship: duty-based principles
Kant and respect for persons
Discourse ethics as a development of Kantian ethics
Respect for persons and the social work relationship
Biestek’s (1957) principles
Developments in the 1960s and 1970s
Critiques in the 1970s and 1980s
Promoting welfare and justice in society: utilitarian principles
J.S. Mill and utilitarianism
Contemporary utilitarianism
Commitments to emancipation, social and environmental justice: the challenge of radical, anti-oppressive and ecological principles
Radical and structural approaches
Environmental justice and green social work
Macro and micro perspectives
‘Common morality’ approaches to ethics
Kantian–utilitarian principles
Kantian–utilitarian–radical principles in social work
Dignity and worth of all human beings
Application to social work: Emphasis on the participation of service users in decision-making and the promotion of empowerment – the development of service users’ skills and self-confidence so they can participate more in society – is a manifestatio
Welfare or wellbeing
Application to social work: Much of modern social work is explicitly about ensuring that the ‘best interests’ of particular service user groups are served, for example children in child protection work. While it is hard to define ‘best interests’,
Social and environmental justice
Application to social work: Distributive justice is a central focus in social work, especially for those working in the public sector, in that social workers are responsible for distributing public resources, whether they be counselling, care or mon
Conclusions
Further resources
CHAPTER 3: Character and relationship-based approaches to social work ethics
Introduction
The importance of character in the professional role: virtue-based approaches
Virtues for social work
The caring relationship between professional and service user: the ethics of care and non-western ethics
Links with feminism, eastern religions, African and Indigenous worldviews
The ethics of care and professional ethics
Vulnerability and relationships as core themes in care ethics for social work
Responding to the call of the other: the ethics of proximity
Diversity, narrative and constructionism: postmodern ethics?
Unsettling humanity: posthuman ethics
The fragmentation of value
Elements of professional ethics: principles, character, care and relationships
Towards a situated ethics of social justice
Conclusions
Further resources
CHAPTER 4: Principles into practice: professionalism and codes of ethics
Introduction
The traditional model of professionalism and trait theory
Democratic professionalism
Professional associations and regulatory bodies
Professional codes of ethics for social work
The components of codes of ethics
Differences and commonalities between codes of ethics
The functions of codes of ethics
Protecting service users and guiding practitioners
Contributing to professional status and identity
Disciplining and regulating professionals
Some limitations and critiques of codes of ethics
Codes are too general and open to interpretation
Codes are too prescriptive and are ‘unethical’
Codes of ethics inhibit multiprofessional and interprofessional working
Codes are professionally defined rather than incorporating service users’ values
Codes are philosophically incoherent and hybrid documents
Codes locate responsibility and blame for public issues with individual social workers
Conclusions
Further resources
CHAPTER 5: Service users’ rights: clienthood, citizenship, consumerism and activism
Introduction
Rights as valid claims
Human rights
Universal versus particular and absolute versus conditional rights
Relational rights and responsibilities
Balancing rights and responsibilities
The capabilities approach as supplementary to human rights
The importance of the concept and practice of human rights internationally
Service users as persons (in a relationship of clienthood)
Service users as fellow citizens and active citizens
Service users as consumers and customers
Service users as activists, experts, co-producers and allies
Democratic professionalism, consumerism or radicalism?
Involvement and participation of service users in decision-making
Empowerment of service users: individual and collective
Conclusions
Further resources
Chapter 6: Social workers’ responsibilities: policies, procedures and managerialism
Introduction
Duties
‘Relational duties’ or responsibilities
Social work as a ‘role-job’ with specific duties
Conflicting responsibilities
The professional is personal: vocation and commitment in social work
The professional is political: challenging injustices and ‘blowing the whistle’
The separation of personal, professional and agency values and life: issues of boundaries
Committed/radical, professional, technical-bureaucratic and quasi-business models of practice
1. Confidentiality
2. The primacy of service user self-determination and the service user’s interests
3. Distributive justice
The growth of managerialism, authoritarianism, marketization and digital governance: the case of the UK
Ethics in bureaucratic and quasi-business settings: defensive, reflective and reflexive practice
Conclusions
Further resources
CHAPTER 7: Ethical problems and dilemmas in practice
Introduction
Ethical judgements
Ethical judgements in context
Ethical decision-making frameworks and models
‘Ethics work’ in social work practice
Practitioners’ accounts of ethical difficulties
Developing the reflective and reflexive practitioner: case examples from student social workers
1. Low levels of confidence in status/position
2. Lack of power in relation to the supervisor/practice teacher during a fieldwork placement
3. Lack of clarity about role
4. Limited experience and knowledge in a new situation
5. Narrow focus on individual service user/one issue
6. The complexity of the situation is seen, but found to be overwhelming
When are blame and guilt justified? Case examples from experienced practitioners
1. Worker felt guilty about a bad outcome
2. Worker did not feel guilty about a bad outcome because she stuck to a deeply held principle
3. Worker felt guilty about compromising an ethical principle
4. Worker did not feel guilty because she clearly prioritized her values
Courage and commitment in multiprofessional working: analysing a team manager’s case
Ethical issues in this case
How the issues arose
Lines of argument
The decision
Conclusions
Further resources
References
INDEX