Professional Standards in Social Work

Demonstrating the knowledge and understanding of the requirements to practice as a professional social worker including discussion of Professional Standards, Codes of conduct, legislation and policy underpinning social work practice

What is Social Work

Social work is basically a practice-based profession which promotes the causes of social change, development, cohesion and also the empowerment of people around and communities of society. As opined by Allan (2020) the social work practice mainly involves the understanding of human development, behaviour and the social, economic and cultural institutions and interactions. It is an academic discipline which is a practice-based profession that concerns about individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole pouring efforts to meet all basic needs which will enhance social functioning, self-determination, collective responsibility, optimal health, and overall well-being (Salsberg et al. 2017). The main mission of social work profession is to give enhance to human well-being and help meet their basic and complex needs with their particular focus on those people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in a poverty situation. Taylor (2017) suggested that social workers are groomed with well-education and training to make them able to address whatever social injustices and barriers comes in the client’s overall wellbeing. Some of these include which are very eminent such as poverty, unemployment, discrimination and lack of housing. Social workers also support such clients and communities who live with disabilities, substance abuse issues, or experience domestic conflicts on daily basis (Ferguson et al. 2018).

Knowledge and understanding required to be a professional social worker

The developed and applicable relevant knowledge & information for being a practiced social worker requires information that are researched, knowledge of social sciences, law, other professionally relevant field knowledge and from these people gather experience of whom to provide the social work services on the emergency needs. Kaushik and Walsh (2019) discussed that all practicing social workers give their contribution in the creation as well as utilisation of all the professional understanding & knowledge. The basic understanding and knowledge comes from social work practices, theory, law, research, expertise by experience and from different relevant fields and disciplines. Being a unified social work professional, a person must have developed core knowledge directly or indirectly relating to the purpose, values and ethics of being socially being working and practicing. There are some relevant & distinctive knowledge & understanding which complements other disciplines also to provide effective services which can be noted as:

To have a consolidated knowledge and understanding of identifying the opportunities and risks of using new technologies, digital resources, online communications, virtual environments and social media in social work practice To give value and take account of expertise of the service users, carers and other related professionals by seeking their feedback on the practicing (Ohlinet al. 2019) To recognise the contributions and research work of other evidences also to develop the practice To demonstrate a critical perception of what social welfare policy is, its evolution, implementation and impact on people & other professions and inter-agency working on it To elaborate the knowledge of wide range of theories and models of social work intervention with different individuals, families, groups and communities and all various methods derived from working with them (Ahmed et al. 2019) To acknowledge forms of harming and their impacts on people, their implications in practice, drawing divergent concepts of strength, resilience, vulnerability, risk and resistance, and applying them to practice To recognise the centrality of relationships among people and key concepts of attachment, separation, loss and change To know the value of systemic approaches of social work and how they can be adapted for understanding and working with the person in their environment, social context and relationships As per Parker (2020) to exhibit comprehensive knowledge, understanding & usage of information relating to social work practice including critical awareness of current issues and new evidence-informed practice research

There are some other concepts also which needs to be focused on relevant with the practice of social work profession.

Professional Standards

The standards which can be held as the threshold standards, necessary for maintain safety and effectiveness in practice. After engaging in working with thousands of other social work professionals, these standards reflect the values and diversity of social work practicing with positive impacts on the society. The professional standards of social work are those specialists which apply all registered social workers in various roles and settings (Ricciardelli et al. 2020). Some professional standards are like promoting the rights, strengths and wellbeing of people, families and communities, to act safely, respectfully with professional integrity, to promote ethical practice, report concerns etc.

Codes of conduct

The Code that summarises broad aspects of ethical principles by reflecting the profession's deep core values with establishing the set of specific ethical standards which must be used to guide social work practices. Banks (2020) stated that this Code provides ethical standards for the general public to hold the social work profession as accountable. The social workers must give respect, uphold and defend each person's physical, psychological, emotional, mental and spiritual integrity along with their well-being. They need to work for promoting the best interests of each and every individual and different groups of society and must also avoid the harmful things.

Legislation

Social work practice legislation is generally used by professional & experienced social workers like a tool for facilitating social advocacy, empowerment of basic human rights, dignity and a conducive environment to the people (Martinelliet al. 2017). These legislations work as tools for social reform, social welfare, development and change. Some of the legislations related with the social work practicing are: Building the National Care Service – White paper (2010): Shaping the future of care together – Green paper (2009), Human Rights Act 1998, The Health and Social Care Bill 2011, Health Act 2009 Chapter 3 Direct Payments etc.

Policy

Social work policy are those which helps in understanding every single social problem that exists in society with its causes affecting every individual and identifying the governmental implementation of policies to resolve such social problems. The key purpose of social work policy is mainly giving support and protecting those people who are considered vulnerable among others in society. Garrett (2017) revealed that policies are important for social workers because they help to make the clients’ lives a better place to live. It protects them from discrimination, racism, or bullying making their lives more productive by supplementing their income, providing health care & by obtaining all needed medical facilities.

What knowledge, values and ethics are necessary when working in partnership with service users, carers and other professionals as a social worker?

In simple language, the social service and facility users always want that social workers needs to be physically and emotionally available, being supportive, encouraging, reassuring, respectful, patient, attentive, committed towards the independence of that individual, punctual, trustworthy, reliable, friendly but not frightened to tell people how they see things, empathic and lastly warmth. Mantell and Scragg (2018) stated their opinion that service users and carers of the social workers also gets attached for the great importance to the quality of their relationship with that specific individual social workers with time to develop such a relationship and to maintain consistency with continuity in their contacts. All the broad ethical principles of social work which are based on social work's deep core values of giving proper service, maintaining social justice, providing dignity with worth of that individual, increasing the importance of human relationships, integrity & competence. All these principles are set forth as ideals to which all the social workers need to aspire to follow. Social workers consistently value the dignity and worth of each and every person, they deal with. According to the comment of Kam (2020) each time they treat all of their clients in a very compassionate and respectful manner which is mindful for the individual differences, variant cultural norms and ethnic diversity. They try to promote their clients' socially responsible self-determination based on their own individual values. The most significant core values of the social work profession are listed as: Service – Serving people those who are in need along with this always work for addressing & trying to handle & resolve various social issues & challenges Social justice – Handling challenging social injustices further working for social change on behalf of all the vulnerable and socially oppressed people Dignity and worth of the person – Always being respectful to every person and fulfilled with mindful of cultural and ethnic diversity Importance of human relationships – As per Collén (2019) to recognise and value the importance of human relationships and keep working to strengthen these kind of relationships in order to give enhancement regarding the well-being of individuals and communities of society Integrity – Being trustworthy and upholding this profession's each and every mission, values, ethical principles and ethical standards and trying to follow them every time serving people Competence – Ethical principle: Practice within areas of competence, continuously develop professional knowledge and expertise, and contribute to the knowledge of the profession.

The Code of Ethics is offering a set of values, principles, and standards for guiding in the decision making process with conduct whenever any ethical issues will arise. As per the statement mentioned by Weerman and Abma (2019) though this does not provide a set of any fixed rules which will prescribe that how social workers should act in distinct situations. All the professional ethics present are the core of social work & this profession besides has an obligation to articulate all of its basic values, ethical principles, and ethical standards. The Social Work Code of Ethics sets forth all these values, principles, and standards to facilitate guidance to social workers’ conduct. This Code is directly related to all the working social workers and social work students, regardless of what their professional functions are, the settings in which they work and the populations where they serve their duty. This Code of Ethics of Social Work serves six core purposes which include:

2. Collins (2018) said that this Code collectively summarises all broad ethical principles which reflects this profession’s core values and establishes a set of significant specific ethical standards which must be used to guide social work practicing.

3. This Code is specially designed for providing help to social workers for identifying relevant considerations whenever any such professional obligations, issues, conflicts or ethical uncertainties arise.

4. Collins (2018) said that the Code of Ethics provides those ethical standards upon which the general public can give value the social work profession much accountable as compared to previous time.

5. The Code also socialises the new practitioners in the field of social work’s mission, values, ethical principles and ethical standards along with continuous encouraging all social workers to be engage in self-care to, having on-going education and all other activities for ensuring that their commitment must be fulfilled to those having core features of the profession.

6. According to the comment of Kam (2020) the Code of Ethics articulates such standards which the social work profession itself can utilise to assess that whether every social worker is engaged in any unethical conduct or not. This Code of Ethics has its formal procedures to make the ethics complaints adjudicate for being filed against it.

Due to the variant type of situations, every social worker encounters and have to deal with are challenging. They also needs to explore each and every personal aspects regarding their value base and must be aware too of how their values are affecting their work which they do. In this manner, the social workers’ professional identity and the standards of professional integrity should inform all the complex and difficult situations with which they deal with. As per the statement mentioned by Weerman and Abma (2019) social work practicing values are not always considered like a mechanistic adherence towards the rules and regulations. But this will make involvement of all the detailed exploration of personal value base and motivations for working with other people who seems to be vulnerable or disadvantaged in some or the other way. The knowledge of social work practice needs to attain considerations which can be:

The commitment with a set of values containing contents which are relating to what it really means to be a ‘properly good person in a professional role’ or being a ‘good professional’.

Mantell and Scragg (2018) stated their opinion that this knowledge gives awareness that all values are interrelated to each other forming a much coherent and whole interrelationship which is what constitutes the overarching objectives or purpose of the profession.

This knowledge has the capacity to make correct sense of professional values along with their relationships with the practitioner’s own personally constructed and held values.

As per Collén (2019) this knowledge besides other things facilitates the ability to give such a coherent account of beliefs and actions.

Apart from all these, the knowledge of social work gives strength of being purposeful and the boosts the ability to implement all such values.

Select one social work theory and explain how it could be used to inform social work practice. You should address the advantages and disadvantages of the theory you have chosen;

• Attachment theory

• Systems theory

• Feminist theory

• Social Learning theory

• Task Centred theory

There is a long list of theories of social work which all of which suits differently and can be applied in various methods, amongst them one of such social work theory is the Attachment Theory. In this Attachment theory, there is focus on the relationships and bonds between people in society, particularly those which are long-term relationships, including those also which is between a parent & their child and the relation between romantic partners too. According to Johnson (2019) a British psychologist named John Bowlby was the first attachment theorist who described that attachment is a "lasting psychological connectedness between human beings". Bowlby, initially grew pretty much interest in understanding and gaining knowledge about the separation anxiety and distress that children often experience when they get separated from their primary caregivers like parents or some specific family members & sometimes with nannies too who takes care of them starting from right after their birth. Van IJzendoorn and Bakermans-Kranenburg (2021) suggests that children easily get used to with these people around them since they develop a habit of being around them and not getting separated for a minute and if this happens they start crying as a symbol of getting detached form their care givers. In this regard, some of the earliest behavioural theories have also suggested that the feeling of attachment was simply a learned behaviour by people. These theories also proposed that the attachment emotion was merely due to the result of a long term feeding relationship between the child and the parents or caregivers this is also because the caregivers feed the child and provide them nourishment so the child becomes attached to them. In other words, the central theme of this Attachment theory furnishes the facts that the primary caregivers who are always available and responsive to an infant's needs and demands, allows the child to develop a sense of security around them. These infants knew that their caregiver is dependable, which ultimately creates a sense of secure base for the child then to explore the world freely (Smith et al. 2017). A huge number of studies since a long time ago have given support to the theories of Ainsworth's attachment styles and have also given indication that these attachment styles have an impact on human behaviours later in life. Based on all those responses and after the observations of the researchers, it is found that Ainsworth has described three major styles of attachment: secure attachment, ambivalent-insecure attachment, and avoidant-insecure attachment. Later on, researchers have added a fourth attachment style which is called the disorganised-insecure attachment that is primarily based on their own researches. Children those who feel securely attached as infants mostly tend to develop a stronger self-esteem and a better self-reliance as they grow older with time (Søberg Bjerre et al. 2021). These types of children also tend to be more independent & perform better in their schools having successful social relationships and experience less depression and anxiety being in society.

The advantages and disadvantages of this attachment theory consists –

Advantages

One of the advantages of the attachment theory is that by this the children gain attachment with their prime care giver & it can help the practitioners also to support the child’s demands and meet their needs in every setting (Thompson et al. 2021).

This theory gives the child confidence to explore own environment and grow a good sense of self-esteem. This will provide help the children grow up to being a happy and functioning adult in future.

All the children were observed through a one-way mirror in this theory and the researchers also note each child’s reactions within the range of different circumstances (Moullin et al. 2018).

Disadvantages

Attachment styles are not only rigid, when initially proposed, but it also continues to develop with time and experience which becomes harder to change later on (Thompson et al. 2021).

Attachment styles sometimes might be a strong factor for influencing behaviour traits in close relationships but they are not the only factors doing that.

A serious disadvantage of Attachment theory is its failure to recognise all the profound influences of societal behavioural traits such as social class, gender, ethnicity and culture on personality development of children. And these factors can be as significant as the quality of the early stage of attachment among children (Moullin et al. 2018).

Application of the Attachment Theory in Social Work practice

The application of this Attachment theory holds such an analysis which says that the emotional and interpersonal developments of an individual throughout his/her life can be simply understood by this and tis can be ultimately shaped by and rooted in a systematic way of attachment behaviours included in the theory which is they formed and internalised during the critical period in their early life (Meehan et al. 2017). Attachment theory, when applied, has its roots in an ethnocentric complex form of ideas which is under the rubric of the term of “intensive mothering” or “intensive care giving” Among all these various types of related approaches and programs, the attachment theory has had its application in an inordinate and wide-ranging influence on a wide range of professions which are directly or partially concerned with children or child intensive care through multiple things like family therapy, education, the legal system & public policy, the medical profession, etc. when this theory is applied, it provides the basic ground for brewing the developmental understanding of each and every individuals on their own. As per the opinion of Holmes and Slade (2017), this theory cats as a huge applicable tool for all social workers being bounded by changing nature of the governmental authority regulations and legalities. For each children living in their secured residential homes, this theory can enable opportunities of having an acute understanding of all of their developments in any unmatchable & unique situations, as well as it will furnish all the helpful guidelines for parents also to be able to foster a healthy development of their children (Smith et al. 2017). Application of the Attachment theory enables a much reliable assessment of whether a child may be in danger or maybe not, whether the parental practices are skilfully contributing to the continuing maladjustment of their child or not and lastly whether it will be appropriate to leave them in their current care status or not.

Conclusion

The conclusion summarises all the three parts in a shrinked summary which says that the professional ethics present are the core of social work & this profession besides has an obligation to articulate all of its basic values, ethical principles, and ethical standards. Social work practicing values are not always considered like a mechanistic adherence towards the rules and regulations. Lastly it can be summarised that among all these various types of related approaches and programs, the attachment theory has had its application in an inordinate and wide-ranging influence on a wide range of professions which are directly or partially concerned with children or child intensive care through multiple things like family therapy, education, the legal system & public policy, the medical profession, etc.

References

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Van IJzendoorn, M.H. and Bakermans-Kranenburg, M.J., 2021. Replication crisis lost in translation? On translational caution and premature applications of attachment theory. Attachment & Human Development, pp.1-16.