MASW DISCUSSION ON THE CODE OF ETHICS

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MASW DISCUSSION ON THE CODE OF ETHICS

• FOR THE SOCIAL WORK PROFESSION IN MALTA

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Ethics

• In our constant search for the meanings of
  demand and responsibility, our moral self will
  never ascertain what it is looking for. It is
  however only while searching for this moral
  certainty that the self can become and remain
  moral.
• (Bauman, 1996, translated from Norwegian)

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POINTS FOR REFLECTION refer to the full
version of the draft code of ethics

• How will this code impact on your professional
  discretion?
• Does this code promote complex ethical reflection
  and growth or is it over prescriptive?
• What other instruments may need to be in place?
  E.g. code for employers, complaints procedures,
  appeals procedures, representation, disciplinary
  procedures
• What are the implications of the application of
  this code?
• Do you feel that it reflects the
  local/organisational context you work in?
• Do you feel there is sufficient information about
  regulatory procedures and procedures for
  disciplinary action?

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Ethics, Morality and Philosophy

• Ethics is not limited to specific acts and
  defined moral codes, but encompasses the whole of
  moral ideals and behaviors, a person's philosophy
  of life
• Ethics
• a major branch of philosophy
• encompasses right conduct and good life
• Significantly broader than the common conception
  of analyzing right and wrong
• "the good life", the life worth living is held by
  many philosophers to be more important than moral
  conduct
• Morality
• Ethics and morals are respectively akin to theory
  and practice.
• Dual meaning - comprehension of and capacity to
  put morality into practice
• Amoral, indicates an inability to distinguish
  between right and wrong
• Personal ethics and social ethics

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IFSW IASSW Statement of Ethical Principles

• Lena Dominelli, Imelda Dodds and Tom Johannesen
  and Sarah Banks UK, Richard Hugman Au, Bente
  Morseng, Jorunn Vindegg and Arne Gronningsaeter
  No
• From rule oriented in 1976 to declaration in 1986
  to discourse in 2004
• From codes to values, from rules to individual
  responsibility, from one dimensional statements
  to complex understanding of ethical
  considerations and to strengthen awareness and
  keep ethical issues high on the agenda
• Ethical awareness, ability and commitment to act
  ethically
• Ethical debate and reflection
• Ethical challenges and problems are specific to
  particular countries
• Reflection on the challenges and dilemmas that we
  face and help to make ethically informed
  decisions about how to act in each particular
  case
• The loyalty of social workers is often in the
  middle of conflicting interests
• Social workers function as both helpers and
  controllers
• The conflicts between the interests of people and
  societal demands
• The fact that resources in society are limited

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Definition of Social Work

• The social work profession promotes social
  change, problem solving in human relationships
  and the empowerment 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.
• Human Rights and Human Dignity - the inherent
  worth and dignity of all people, and the rights
  that follow from this. Social workers uphold and
  defend each persons physical, psychological,
  emotional and spiritual integrity and well-being.
  
• Social Justice - responsibility to promote social
  justice, in relation to society generally, and in
  relation to people with whom we work.
• Professional conduct - It is the responsibility
  of the national organisations in membership of
  IFSW and IASSW to develop and regularly update
  their own codes of ethics or ethical guidelines,
  to be consistent with the IFSW/ IASSW statement.
  It is also the responsibility of national
  organisations to inform social workers and
  schools of social work about these codes or
  guidelines. Social workers should act in
  accordance with the ethical code or guidelines
  current in their country. These will generally
  include more detailed guidance in ethical
  practice specific to the national context.

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Professional Ethics

• Through studying codes of ethics for a range of
  professions, including architects, engineers,
  various health-related professions (Banks, 1998a)
  and social work from 20 different countries
  (Banks, 2001, pp. 91102)
• CONTENT
• Ethical principles
• Ethical rules
• Principles of professional practice
• Rules of professional practice
• Statements about the character/attributes of the
  professional
• PURPOSE
• Protection of clients
• Guidance to practitioners about ethical
  decision-making, through ethical awareness and
  reflection or explicit rules
• Enhancement of professional status, as one of its
  hallmarks
• Professional identity - core purpose, ethical
  principles, professional qualities and conduct
• Regulation through adherence and disciplinary
  purposes in cases of misconduct

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Codifying Ethical Behaviour

• VALUES OF THE PROFESSION IS OUR STARTING POINT
• these exist in a context
• A PROCESS OF ETHICAL DECISION MAKING
• involving a number of stakeholders
• PROFESSIONAL EXPERTISE AND DISCRETION
• this must operate within a system and in the
  organisational context

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Codes of ethics as codes of moral philosophy a
contradiction in terms?

• Ethics is basically an open-ended, reflective and
  critical intellectual activity. . . Ethical
  principles can be established only as a result of
  deliberation and argumentation. These principles
  are not the kind of thing that can be settled by
  authority. To assume that they can be is to
  confuse ethics with rulemaking, policy-making
• (Ladd, 1998, p. 211)

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Codes of ethics as unethical?

• Codes of ethics minimise the responsibility of
  the professional for his or her actions. . . .
  The professional is liable to follow
  pre-established rules rather than respond to the
  individual case and the individual client, and
  thereby become desensitised to the morally
  relevant factors in the particular circumstances
  (Dawson, 1994, p. 133).
• NB this criticism only applies to codes which
  contain many detailed rules and are used for
  regulation and disciplinary action.

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Codes of ethics as educational

• When BASW first introduced its code of ethics,
  Rice (1975, p. 381) stressed that the code should
  not be expected to give detailed guidance about
  how to act in every possible situation a social
  worker might encounter rather
• A code of ethics creates the spirit and standard
  of ethical reflection in that community of
  social workers . . .
• This was very much the motivation behind the
  recently drafted statement of principles for
  youth work in England
• Banks (2003), argues that a code can highlight
  areas of potential conflict in the work, and
  provide a framework and a vocabulary for thinking
  about and debating the ethics of certain
  attitudes, policies or courses of action.
• The IFSW code and the Norwegian social workers
  code she argues, are good examples of this,
  clearly raising potential areas of ethical
  conflict e.g. between accountability to service
  users, colleagues, agency or society. The
  purposes of the codes are less about enforcing
  behaviour in accordance with these rules, and
  more about raising professional awareness about
  the potential for ethical conflicts, the need
  constantly to debate and revise the statements in
  the code and for each practitioner to engage in
  ethical reflection on individual action.

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Codes as regulatory

• The American Code, has as one of its explicit
  purposes the following
• The Code articulates standards that the social
  work profession itself can use to assess whether
  social workers have engaged in unethical conduct.
  NASW has formal procedures to adjudicate ethics
  complaints filed against its members. In
  subscribing to this code, social workers are
  required to cooperate in its implementation,
  participate in NASW adjudication proceedings, and
  abide by any NASW disciplinary rulings or
  sanctions based on it (National Association of
  Social Workers, 1996, p. 2).
• For professional bodies to operate a disciplinary
  function, they must develop implicit and explicit
  case law, which may be based on the code, but
  goes beyond it and is located in the traditions
  of the profession as a whole (including the
  education and professional socialisation of
  practitioners). Codes are, in fact, as much a
  codification of existing good practice in a
  profession (Harris, 1994, p. 109), as they are
  means of enforcing externally defined standards.

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Initial conclusions

• Codes at the level of detail of the NASW document
  can justifiably be criticised as
  over-prescriptive and appearing to limit the role
  of professional judgement in making decisions
  according to the circumstances of particular
  cases
• They encourage a false sense of security that a
  code can tell a practitioner how to act, whereas,
  even if this were desirable, it is impossible to
  legislate for every eventuality
• Professionals need the capacity for ethical
  reflection and judgement just as much now as
  ever.
• There is the potential for codes of ethics to
  have negative consequences, if taken too
  literally.
• Codes of this level of detail are developing
  quickly now, as part of the attempt by
  professions to demonstrate that they are
  trustworthy and can engage effectively in
  self-regulation see, for example, Australian
  Association of Social Workers, 2000 and also,
  British Association of Social Workers (2001),
  which is highly derivative of the former.
• There is a limit to the specificity that can
  usefully be contained in codes, which need to
  apply to all members of a profession doing very
  different tasks in different settings such
  specificity should be more in the remit of
  practice and standards.

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New Trends

• It is interesting that the new statutory
  regulatory bodies which have a broad remit to
  cover social work and social care work in the UK
  and in Malta have produced relatively succinct
  documents (General Social Care Council - UK and
  Code Of Conduct for Social Care Workers - Malta)
• A mixture of ethical principles (such as
  respecting diversity), character traits (being
  honest and trustworthy) and ethical and practice
  rules (maintaining clear and accurate records).
  
• These codes of practice are accompanied by a code
  for employers. Reflecting the important role
  played by employers in promoting the code,
  supporting employees in following it and
  disciplining them when they breach it.
• This code comprises quite a number of practice
  rules, it is nevertheless quite brief and leaves
  employers to define the precise details of how
  the work should be pursued through their own
  procedures and policies. This is an example of a
  pair of codes designed to be used for
  disciplinary purposes, with elements of the
  rulebook format alongside the more traditional
  ethical principles.

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INITIAL RECOMMENDATIONS

• In order to preserve professional discretion,
  encourage complex understanding and ethical
  reflection, the detailed document should be
  retained as a Guidebook for Ethical
  Decision-making for practitioners to refer to
  when in doubt
• The actual Code of Ethics should serve the
  purpose of safeguarding the core identity, values
  and principles of the profession and its
  practice. This should be more succinct it is
  being suggested that the summary version be used
  for this purpose.
• Other instruments should be in place before the
  Code is enforced. These are
• parallel documentation for employers of social
  workers
• a procedure for complaints, regulation and
  disciplinary action including an
  appeal/advocacy/support mechanism for social
  workers under accusation

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INITIAL RECOMMENDATIONS cont

• The years of work carried out by the
  International Federation of Social Workers and
  International Association of the Schools of
  Social Work on the definition of social work and
  ethical principles should be somehow incorporated
  into and at least acknowledged by the local Code
  of Ethics
• The establishment of the Code of Ethics and the
  other accompanying instruments and procedures
  should then be followed by a drafting process for
  Standards of Social Work Practice involving all
  stakeholders
• Other recommendations regarding certain details
  of the code and adjustments to the local context
  and experience are being formulated as the
  discussion with members continues

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POINTS FOR DISCUSSION refer to the full
version of the draft code of ethics

• How will this code impact on your professional
  discretion?
• Does this code promote complex ethical reflection
  and growth or is it over prescriptive?
• What other instruments may need to be in place?
  E.g. code for employers, complaints procedures,
  appeals procedures, representation, disciplinary
  procedures
• What are the implications of the application of
  this code?
• Do you feel that it reflects the
  local/organisational context you work in?
• Do you feel there is sufficient information about
  regulatory procedures and procedures for
  disciplinary action?