Values and Ethics in Social Work Practice

Lester Parrott

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781446293874
• eBook ISBN: 9781473907201
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

Applying values and ethics to social work practice is taught widely across the qualifying degree programme, on both Masters and BA courses. This book is a clear introduction to this subject and will help students develop their understanding by showing social work students how ethics can have positive impacts on the lives of vulnerable people. There are chapters on how social workers can make good ethical and value-based decisions when working with risk, and how the role of the social worker as professional can impact on service users. Above all the book is a timely and clear introduction to the subject, with an emphasis on advocacy and empowerment and how the beginning social worker can start to apply these concepts.

Chapter 1

The context of social work practice

A C H I E V I N G A S O C I A L W O R K D E G R E E

This chapter will help you meet the following capabilities, to the appropriate level, from the Professional Capabilities Framework:

• Values and ethics: Apply social work ethical principles and values to guide professional practice.

• Contexts and organisations: Engage with, inform and adapt to changing contexts that shape practice.

It will also introduce you to the following academic standards as set out in the social work subject benchmark statement:

5.1.3 Values and ethics, which include:

• the nature, historical evolution and application of social work values.

Social work has been subject to much criticism by the media, successive governments and service user groups. In response to a succession of scandals involving the abuse of adults, for example, at Winterbourne View, and a number of child deaths, such as Daniel Pelka, social work and social work education have been perceived as failing to respond appropriately to the needs of service users and failing to prepare social work students adequately for the practical realities of social work. There has been a plethora of government-sponsored reports scanning both the previous Labour and the current Coalition government and commentaries from professional bodies, such as the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), suggesting a range of remedies to solve such seemingly intractable problems. Examples of recent reports include:

• All Party Parliamentary Group on Social Work (2013) Inquiry into the state of social work. http://cdn.basw.co.uk/upload/basw_90352-5.pdf

• British Association of Social Workers (2012) The state of social work survey. www.basw.co.uk/resource

• British Association of Social Workers (2012) Voices from the frontline. www.basw.co.uk/resource/?id=499

• Croisdale-Appleby, D (2014) Re-visioning social work education: An independent review. www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/285788/DCA_Accessible.pdf

• Macalister, J (2012) Frontline: Improving the children’s social work profession. www.ippr.org/publication/55/9705/frontline-improving-the-childrens-social-work-profession

• Munro, E (2011) The Munro review of child protection: Final report, a child-centred system. London: The Stationery Office.

• Nairey, M (2014) Making the education of social workers consistently effective. London: Department for Education.

• Social Work Reform Board (2010) Building a safe and confident future: One year on. London: Department for Education.

This blizzard of reports shows just how concerned government and sections of wider society are about the nature of social work. It also asks us as practitioners and students to think clearly about the role and purpose of social work. In particular, in the light of such criticism it requires us to be very clear as to what principles should inform our practice. It therefore involves a very serious consideration of the ethical principles which underpin the work that we do. In essence, social workers who are very skilled and knowledgeable will not be successful in helping people who use social work services unless they have a clear idea as to what the purpose of their intervention should be. An appreciation of the ethical and values implications of social work intervention will enable us to know why we are intervening in the way that we are and on what basis we are deploying our knowledge to achieve a satisfactory outcome for the people we are employed to help. Michael Gove, former Minister for Education, whilst arguably being ‘appreciative’ of the role of social workers and what some social workers achieve, is also highly critical of the state of social work practice and education. In a speech to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children he had this to say on the subject:

In too many cases, social work training involves idealistic students being told that the individuals with whom they will work have been disempowered by society. They will be encouraged to see these individuals as victims of social injustice whose fate is overwhelmingly decreed by the economic forces and inherent inequalities which scar our society.

This analysis is, sadly, as widespread as it is pernicious. It robs individuals of the power of agency and breaks the link between an individual’s actions and the consequences. It risks explaining away substance abuse, domestic violence and personal irresponsibility, rather than doing away with them.

Social workers overly influenced by this analysis not only rob families of a proper sense of responsibility, they also abdicate their own. They see their job as securing the family’s access to services provided by others, rather than helping them to change their own approach to life. Instead of working with individuals to get them to recognise harmful patterns of behaviour, and improve their own lives, some social workers acquiesce in or make excuses for these wrong choices.

(Gove, 2013)

A BASW survey (2012) of just over 1000 social workers found that social workers were being stretched to breaking point, with 77 per cent reporting unmanageable caseloads as demand for services escalates. In addition, pressures on services for adults were reflected in 69 per cent of social workers reporting that their local authority had further limited the criteria for receiving services at home, resulting in a revolving door of admission and readmission to NHS care.

The impression given by Gove suggests some social workers are gullible fools operating with too many abstract ideas about the nature of service users’ problems which deny any responsibility to service users for the problems they experience. It is one thing to suggest that service users are at the complete mercy of social forces outside their control, which for many (despite Gove’s assertions) is the case; to deny that people should take responsibility for their own actions is something completely different. In essence, it would appear that Gove moves in the opposite direction, assuming that social factors should not be accounted for in cases such as drug misuse, child neglect and so on. His approach is informed by an individualistic ethos which, in particular, accepts that the nature of people’s problems and the amelioration of such problems rest solely with individuals themselves. An example of this approach comes from Gove’s statements regarding the use of foodbanks: he has suggested that the pressures faced by families having recourse to foodbanks were often the result of decisions that they have taken which mean they are not best able to manage their finances (House of Commons, 2014).

REFLECTION POINT

How far do you feel people are the authors of their own circumstances?

This is a very complex question and social philosophers have argued constantly about the precise relationship between the choices individuals make and the conditions which may influence the choices they make. In the social sciences this is usually described as the relationship between social structure, that is, the recurrent patterned arrangements which influence or limit the choices and opportunities available, and our agency as human beings, that is, the opportunity and capability of persons to act independently to make their own free choices. As you develop your understanding of social issues you may change your understanding of this relationship. It is interesting to note that research presented to the House of Commons (2014) lists a number of factors outside individual choice that influence foodbank use. Some of these factors are as follows.

Food prices

Food prices in the UK (including non-alcoholic drinks) rose by 11 per cent in real terms between 2007 and 2013.

Reductions in earnings from work

The economic downturn has also had a significant impact on those in work. Average UK weekly earnings increased by 1 per cent in the period December 2012 to February 2013, compared to the same period a year previously. This equates to an earnings cut in real terms as inflation (as measured by the Consumer Prices Index) was 2.8 per cent from February 2012 to February 2013.

Benefit conditionality and sanctions

Benefit claimants deemed not to be satisfying the conditions for entitlement to benefit may find that their benefit payment is temporarily suspended or reduced, or their claim ‘disallowed’. Figures published by the Department for Work and Pensions (2014) on 15 May 2013 show that the number of Jobseeker’s Allowance sanctions and disallowances increased from 279,840 in 2001 to 684,030 in 2010, with the main increase happening after 2006.

Impact of incorrect sanctioning

Under the current regime, in 2012 as many as 68,000 people on Jobseeker’s Allowance had their benefits taken away by mistake and faced unnecessary hardship as a result (House of Commons, 2014). In addition, some examples of how claimants will lose money as a result of reform to the social security system, including the introduction of Universal Credit, are given below.

Parents of disabled children who formerly received Disability Living Allowance get a ‘disability element’ top-up to their Child Tax Credit of £53.62 per week for each disabled child. This money is used to pay for the additional costs involved in bringing up a disabled child, like wear and tear to clothes and equipment. Within Universal Credit, the equivalent ‘disability addition’ will fall to £26.75 per week.

Changes to Housing Benefit Bedroom Tax

Working-age claimants who are deemed to have a spare bedroom in their council or housing association home are faced with a reduction in their housing benefit. Those affected persons claiming housing benefit faced these reductions from 1 April 2013. The government hopes this will force tenants to move to a smaller property to free up larger properties for families. The government’s own impact assessment describes that affected households will lose between £13 and £14 per week, with some 40,000 households losing all their entitlement to housing benefit.

Impact of Universal Credit

Brewer et al. (2012) have produced a preliminary analysis of the likely winners and losers as a result of the introduction of the Universal Credit scheme. From the analysis not everyone on low incomes will benefit from these changes. The analysis assumes full take-up of benefits under the old regime and under Universal Credit. Overall, out of some 6.4 million families, 1.4 million families will lose out.

(All examples from Parrott, 2014)

Given these examples (and more could be provided), it is clear that, irrespective of individuals’ ability to affect their own circumstances, changes in social security policy far beyond the influence of individuals to alter will result in claimants receiving less money to live on than previously. It is not surprising that the leading foodbank charity, the Trussell Trust, in its report for 2014 observed:

Trussell Trust foodbanks gave emergency food to 346,992 people nationwide in 2012–13 financial year, 170 per cent more than the previous year – the biggest increase since the charity began. One third of those helped were children – 76 per cent increase in numbers of foodbanks launched in past year. In the last 12 months alone we have launched over 150 foodbanks nationwide. The exceptional need, a growing awareness of foodbanks and our highly effective social franchising model has enabled the Trussell Trust to launch three new foodbanks per week, compared to two per week in the previous year. We currently have almost 350 foodbanks launched nationwide.

(Trussell Trust, 2014)

The weight of evidence using the example of food poverty suggests that forces beyond the immediate influence of individuals are clearly placing more and more people into food poverty. Nonetheless, an individualistic philosophy argues that society has less responsibility for the problems people face and that we as citizens owe little to one another. This has the effect of weakening the social ties and social support that we all rely upon in certain stages of our lives. Within the welfare sector, services which were previously provided on a social basis through the provision of state and local authority services, social work and social care services are increasingly put out to tender to the private and voluntary sectors. The ‘social’ element of ‘social work’ is therefore subject to a concerted assault, which undermines the collective provision of services which individuals in general are unable to provide for themselves. As society is increasingly atomised, then the nature of social problems is seen as emanating from a lack of responsibility of individuals rather than the retreat of the social, understood here as the retreat of the state from protecting citizens against such social harms as unemployment, poor health and homelessness (Kwong Kam, 2012).

These developments present challenges to social workers, whose professional vocation is to work towards soci...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• About the Author
• Introduction
• 1 The Context of Social Work practice
• 2 Anti-Oppressive Practice
• 3 Principles and Consequences
• 4 Being Accountable
• 5 Managing Risk
• 6 Advocacy and Social Work
• 7 The Ethics of Partnership Working
• 8 Ethics in Social Work Organisations
• 9 Globalisation: Cultures, values and Relativism
• Appendix 1: Professional Capabilities Framework
• References
• Index