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In memory of Anne Liebingwhose passion for international work on ethics

inspired many students and teachers“I feel that I have become a rich woman now. When I come home,

I shall still have this group inside my head. After this I shall not act immediately, when I meet a difficult situation or an ethical dilemma in my practice. Instead I shall discuss the situation with my group inside my head. I shall say to myself: What would the Finnish student say or do in this situation? And what would be the point of view of the Belgian student? How would the Danish student react to this problem, and what would the German student consider important? In this way I would be able to think of many important aspects and many different alternatives, before I decide how to act in practice”. (Portuguese student)

(Liebing and Møller, 2003, ‘Teaching ethics in an international context’, p. 156)

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Social work as ‘ethics work’

SARAH BANKSs.j.banks@durham.ac.uk

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Ethics work

The effort people put in to seeing ethically salient aspects of situations, developing themselves as good practitioners, working out the right course of action and justifying who they are and what they have done.Banks, S. (2012) ‘Negotiating personal engagement and professional accountability: professional wisdom and ethics work’, European Journal of Social Work, DOI: 10.1080/13691457.2012.732931

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Professional ethics Traditional textbook accounts:

Ethics as decision-making – resolving dilemmas through rational argument.

Ethics as regulation – following rules of right conduct.

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Ethics in professional lifeExpanding the account of the work professional practitioners do in being ethical and acting ethically beyond rational decision-making and following rules:

Everyday ethics – ethics as embedded in practice and embodied by practitioners; professionals’ attitudes, characters, motivations, ways of working, relationships; organisational ethos.

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Using cases from ‘Practising Social Work Ethics Around the World’

Ethics work

1.Ethical framing work2.Ethical role work3.Ethical emotion work4.Ethical identity work5.Ethical reason work6.Ethical performance work

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Case 1 – Written by a social worker who works for a government health insurance office in Peru. The office deals with standards and difficult cases in relation to claims for health insurance. Only those in poverty and who are not covered by any other form of health care insurance are eligible for assistance. She is faced with a claim from a woman whose child is sick and needs (non-urgent) medical care. However, her estranged husband has health care insurance, so her claim has been turned down as she is not eligible. The social worker gives an account of her reasoning, decision and actions in relation to making a case to her boss for this woman to be given assistance for her child’s health care. She presents herself as working to improve and change policies and practices that affect many families adversely and acting in accordance with social work values and principles (particularly a child’s right to health). (from Banks, S. and Nøhr, K. eds (2012) Practising social work ethics around the world, Routledge)

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Case 2 – Is an account given by the head of a child protection department in Bulgaria about a nine-year girl with whose family the department has worked for five years. The girl is now living in a child protection village as first her mother and then her grandmother were unable to look after her. The social workers put in much effort to support the family in staying together, valuing the loving relationship between mother and daughter. Latterly they visit the girl regularly, bringing gifts, going on walks and also taking up a legal case relating to the ownership of her grandmother’s flat. The head of the child protection department says that she has written the account to highlight the ‘heart’ of the department, rather than the laws and official requirements that also form part of their work. (From Banks, S. (2012) Ethics and Values in Social Work, 4th edition, Palgrave)

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Ethics work1. Ethical framing work – identifying and focusing on the ethically

salient ethical features of a situation; placing oneself and the situations encountered in political and social contexts.

2. Ethical role work – playing a role in relation to others (advocate, carer, critic); taking a position (partial/impartial; close/distant).

3. Ethical emotion work – being caring, compassionate, empathic; managing emotions.

4. Ethical identity work – working on one’s ethical self; creating an identity as an ethically good professional; maintaining professional integrity.

5. Ethical reason work – making moral judgements and decisions; justifying judgments and decisions.

6. Ethical performance work – making visible aspects of this work to others; demonstrating oneself at work (accountability work).

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Question

What are the conditions for ethically good social work practice?