1. Codes of Conduct Ethics

3. Provide a highly valued service to people and society Defined role and task Sense of “vocation”, value commitment Work and training involves a substantial intellectual component Extensive education, ownership and mastery of a specific body of knowledge and skills, qualification as entry to profession

4. Significant autonomy in practice Position of explicit and implicit trust Collective organisation and self-regulation Ethical standards determined by the profession Discuss:  What do we mean by ethics?  Why is ethics important? Legal registration, may confirm monopoly over service offered

5. The fact that the loyalty of social workers is often in the middle of conflicting interests. The fact that social workers function as both helpers and controllers. The conflicts between the duty of social workers to protect the interests of the people with whom they work and societal demands for efficiency and utility. The fact that resources in society are limited (International Federation of Social Workers, 2012, Statement of Ethical Principles)

6. Social workers need to acknowledge that they are accountable for their actions to the users of their services, the people they work with, their colleagues, their employers, the professional association and to the law, and that these accountabilities may conflict. (IFSW, 2012)

8. Employers Job description Employment contract Code of Conduct Service users Complaints to employing organisations and professional bodies Code of Health and Disability Services Consumer’s Rights Health and Disability Commissioner Member of Parliament Minister Media Social Workers Registration Board Statutory Crown Agency registers social workers Code of Conduct Complaints process Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers Professional association Code of Ethics Complaints process International Federation of Social Workers Global umbrella body of social work associations International Definition of Social Work Statement of Ethical Principles

9. Statutory Agencies Non Government Organisations (NGOs) District Health Boards

10. Particular focus on legal roles and responsibilities Child Youth and Family administers the Children, Young Persons and their Families Act, 1989 Role of the public service in a democracy to ensure that policies decided by the government of the day are professionally developed, implemented, and assessed (Citizenship Education) Little if any scope for activism role Strict limits on talking to the media

11. Responsible for provision of public health services, including hospitals, within specific geographical area Governance body, the Board, mixture of Ministerial appointees and locally elected members Contracted and primarily funded through Ministry of Health Some local autonomy

12. Not for profit, voluntary sector May be small and local, or large and global Part of civil society Social or health service Charitable trust, or incorporated society, governed by a board Autonomous from government But.... May be dependent on government contracts Constrained in public advocacy role??

13. Why should Govt pay a group to be critical of it? Pay them to help but don’t pay them to bag the hand that feeds them (@tauhenare, Twitter 21 March 2014)

14. July 2013 The Guardian reported on UK government plans to privatise services for vulnerable children including foster care One firm named as a potential bidder was Serco Serco’s other services include: Managing Mt Eden and Wiri prisons Australian immigration detention centres Managing UK nuclear weapons systems

15. Professional association, independent of Government and employers Promotes high standards of competent professional practice Publishes Code of Ethics (most recent 2008) Ethical ideals of the profession Derived from IFSW Statement of Ethical Principles Ethics committee, complaints and discipline processes, apply only to members

16. 1. Responsibility for Te Tiriti o Waitangi based society Maori as tangata whenua Tino rangatiratanga Relinquishing mono-cultural control 2. Responsibility to the wider community Promotion of services Public advocacy, private troubles/public issues 3. Responsibility to clients Clients’ interests and welfare Autonomy, self determination Privacy/confidentiality Safety

17. 4. Responsibility to agencies and organisations Good employee Use of resources 5. Responsibility to colleagues Collegiality Challenging unprofessional behaviour 6. Responsibility in supervisory relationships 7. Responsibility for self Self care Professional development 8. Responsibility for research and publications

18. Competency assessment process, required for full membership 10 Standards of Practice ANZASW competency is recognised by the Social Work Registration Board Benefits for members Professional indemnity insurance Ongoing professional development and education, publication of Social Work Review Current consideration of union role Engages in advocacy on social justice and human rights issues

19. External, legal regulation rather than internal self-regulation of a profession Discussion and debate about registration in NZASW since at least as early as 1976 – hotly debated More recently ANZASW has tended to advocate for registration

20. Established by Social Workers Registration Act, 2003 Purpose to protect the safety of members of the public, by prescribing or providing for mechanisms to ensure that social workers are— (i) competent to practise; and (ii) accountable for the way in which they practise (s3(a))

21. Appointed by the Minister of Social Development Six registered social workers and four other people (s106(1)) Must prioritise aims and aspirations of Maori and ensure it has Maori advice available (s100)

22. Social workers can be registered, eligibility criteria: Recognised qualification Competence assessed (renewed every five years) Fit and proper Competent to practise with Maori and other cultures Enough practical experience (2000 hours) (s6) Registration is currently statutory but not mandatory (but likely to become so) Register is publicly available on website

23. Code of Conduct The Board must issue and maintain a code of conduct covering the minimum standards of integrity and conduct that— (a)are to apply to registered social workers; and (b)should apply generally in the social work profession (s105(1)) Annual Practising Certificate (s25) Complaints and disciplinary procedures Bodies, processes appeal rights (Parts 4 and 5) Tribunal decisions published on website Only apply to registered social workers

24. 1. To uphold high standards of personal conduct and act with integrity 2. To provide services at a competent level of professional practice a. Competence b. Professional Development c. Balance of Responsibilities Between Employers and Social Workers d. Other Social Workers’ Practice, whether registered or non-registered

25. 3. To respect and uphold the civil, legal and human rights of clients a. Self Determination b. Right to Privacy c. Confidentiality and Use of Information d. Informed Consent e. Termination of Relationship f. Research

26. Other relevant legislation The Treaty of Waitangi International standards and conventions including the International Federation of Social Workers Code of Ethics The Code of Ethics which includes the Bicultural Code of Practice published by the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers The Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights Other professional and employer codes of ethics practice and conduct

27. The Social Workers Registration Board recognises that no code can prescribe, in detail, every behaviour expected of a professional social worker. In addition to interpreting the Code in the wider context noted above, this Code must be interpreted taking account of the balance of responsibilities between employers and their professional staff. The Code must also be interpreted in the context of an individual circumstance. ‘Client’ may refer to an individual adult or child, a family, whanau or aiga, a group, an organisation or part of an organisation.

28. ANZASW Independent professional association Promotes ethical and competent practice, has complaints and discipline process Independent voice for profession Benefits for members Provisions only apply to members Legal body, established by law Purpose to protect the public Registration currently statutory but not mandatory, this may change Complaints and discipline process Applies only to registered social workers Social Workers Registration Board

29. Situations where you don’t know what is the right thing to do Moral/ethical dimension, not just a technical question Tension between moral/cultural values and professional Tension between expectations of/responsibilities to different stakeholders Tension between different ethical principles Tensions between different parts of the Code

30. Tension between your personal values and ethics, and the ethics of social work and/or agency policy Tensions between organisation policies and social work ethics Issues of professional roles and boundaries within the organisation Communications Issues regarding Te Tiriti and the rights of Tangata Whenua Other cultural issues and practices Professional relationships with clients and boundaries

31. Perceptions of adequate or inadequate service to clients, personal or organisation limitations Clients’ interests and welfare and self determination Privacy and confidentiality vs professional need to share information eg for safety Ethical vs legal requirements Client self determination vs coercive statutory intervention Relationships with colleagues in the organisation Use of organisations’ funds and resources Advocacy for clients Broader advocacy and/or political issues

32. Reflect What actually is the dilemma? What are your options? What could the consequences of each of the options be? Refer back to the Code of Ethics What specific sections apply? What do they say? Discuss with colleagues, team Supervision Don’t make decision alone

33. Can I justify this action if I was interviewed on Campbell Live? to my partner? to my children? to my spiritual mentor?

34. New Zealand Association of Social Workers formed 1964 Inaugural conference aim to increase the self-conscious awareness of [social workers] as professional people and as members of a profession (McCreary, as cited by Nash, 2007, p.3) Increasing recognition of social work as a unified profession despite different fields of practice, cf earlier periods more dominated by specific frameworks of various agencies Major emphasis on advocating for professional education and other forms of training for social workers

35. Development of a code of ethics regarded as significant milestone in the development and identification of a profession NZASW Code of Ethics and Bicultural Code of Practice published 1993 New edition 2008, revised and incorporated both into one document, bilingual

36. Increase public confidence in social services Protect vulnerable clients who may not be able to assess practitioner’s qualifications and competence Address limitations and problems of self regulation Establish uniform code of conduct Provide redress for aggrieved service users through complaints and disciplinary mechanisms (Lonne & Duke, 2009, p.381)

37. Governments haven’t been that enthusiastic to establish registration for social workers, cf medicine and other helping professions Only 16 countries in 2004 had social work registration Registration could be unnecessarily restrictive, privilege one qualification over others in human services Regulatory regimes are bureaucratic and expensive Is it enhancing status of the profession, creating an elite, rather than serving interests of clients (Lonne & Duke, 2009, p.381: Chenoweth & McAuliffe, 2008, pp.86-88) However, in New Zealand registration has won

38. ANZASW Code of EthicsCode of Ethics Social Workers Registration Board Code of ConductCode of Conduct ANZASW Social Workers Registration Board

39. International Federation of Social Workers, 2012, Statement of Ethical Principles. Retrieved from http://ifsw.org/policies/statement-of-ethical- principles/ http://ifsw.org/policies/statement-of-ethical- principles/