Discuss about the International social work values and ethics.

 International Social Work Values and Ethics: The International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) has worked on ethical guidance since its founding in 1958 at the International Conference on Social Welfare in Munich. In 1976, it provided the first document, The Ethics of Social Work: Principles and Standards. It promoted ethical debate and reflection among organizations and providers in member countries.

The objectives are to prepare basic principles that could be adapted across settings, identify ethical dilemmas in social work practice and making recommendations for dealing with them. In 1994, it declared that social work has universal application because it originates from humanitarian, religious and democratic ideals.  In 2004, this document was replaced by the Ethics in Social Work, Statement of Principles. It was prepare after a joint conference with the International Association of Schools of Social Work held in Adelaide, Australia.

The new statement retains the goals mentioned in the earlier document and added that “some ethical challenges and problems facing social workers are specific to particular countries; others are common.” The IFSW/IASSW statement of principles identified the key problem areas.

These included:

(i) Social worker’s loyalty often faces conflicting interests.

(ii) Social worker functions as both helpers and controllers.

(iii) Social workers face conflicting situation while protecting the interests of the people with whom they work and societal demands.

(iv) Resources are limited. 

(v) Human Rights and Human Dignity: Social workers have to respect the right to self-determination, promote the right to participation, treat each person as a whole, and identify and develop strengths.

(vi) Social Justice: Social workers have to challengenegativediscrimination, recognizediversity, distribute resources equitably,challenge unjust policies and practices and work in solidarity.

The Statement is a guidance on professional conduct. It encourages behaviour consistent with the IFSW/IASSW statement and the ethical code of the specific countries. In the beginning there were no formal values and ethics that social workers had to follow. In the late 1800s and early 1900s in the US, charity and social movements started.

During this period the urban areas faced the problems of poverty, child maltreatment and delinquency, poor working conditions of immigrants, former slaves and people of colour. The inhumane conditions such as poor houses, mental hospitals and jails were highlighted by activists like Dorothea Dix. Charitable organizations were set up to deal with these social problems.  People who were working for these organizations were not trained and worked as per their own beliefs.

The need for teaching social workers scientific principles arose when anecdotes about charity workers judging and acting insensitively towards clients started to trouble agency administrators. The social work curricula included the purpose and objectives of social work based on the values of respect, equality and social justice. The Delegate Conference of the American Association of Social Workers adopted a formal code of ethics in 1947. It was revised in 1999. Later this was adopted by nations across the world.

Social work’s identity has been commonly characterized as ambiguous-Its role in the promotion of social justice questioned and its effectiveness lacking evidence. At the same time, there are others who argue that social work is a victim of an inhuman political and economical system which systematically structures an unjust society to undermine human rights.  Ironically, social work as a part of the political mechanism is obligated to contribute to securing these. Ethical awareness, as a professional and/or personal skill, is thought to enable social workers to appropriately answer the question “who receives the benefit of social work practice” as a mechanism to evaluate practice, and defend social work’s humanitarian character.

In addition, people who need social work services are often among some of the most vulnerable in society. This is one of the main reasons that social workers must be sensitive to the ways that they provide their services. Social workers’ decisions often have far-reaching consequences for people’s lives. Therefore, social work practice must be guided by transparent, understandable principles.

In this sense, social work education should be approached in an ethical, reflective and value based manner so as to ensure that people are not exploited, manipulated or made more widerable by social workers actions. Consequently, social workers must be able to develop a competence in value based and ethical practice that includes values as a core element of their practice.

However, multiple ethical barriers or obligations create dilemmas in social workers efforts to pursue their professional purposes. Ethical dilemmas reflect the complexity of the social work profession in terms of several factors such as its purposes and the multiple loyalties of social workers.

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