SCWK90055 Legal and Ethical Contexts of Practice
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · AUG 2026SCWK90055 Overview
- Semester 2 2026
- Master of Social Work subject
- 12.5 credit points
- No final examination
- Attendance hurdle
SCWK90055 Legal and Ethical Contexts of Practice is a Semester 2 subject in the first year of the University of Melbourne’s Master of Social Work, worth 12.5 credit points and taught by the Department of Social Work.
- Assessed by Two written papers, two short in-class tests and tutorial participation.
- Central challenge Applying ethical frameworks and Victorian law to realistic practice scenarios.
- How to prepare Learn each framework's steps, then rehearse them on new cases in writing.
How SCWK90055 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Written paper (2000 words): ethical decision making | 40% | Individual; due 11:59pm Thursday 24 September 2026; work an ethical dilemma through a decision framework, with the modified Reamer framework recommended; no generative AI |
| 2 short tests (multiple choice and short answers) | 20% | Test 1 and Test 2 at 10% each, in class on Canvas in the Week 5 and Week 8 tutorials (5 and 26 October 2026); 20 minutes each in the subject outline, 30 minutes each on the handbook page; not open book |
| Written paper (1,500 words): legal context of practice | 30% | Individual; due 11:59pm Wednesday 18 November 2026; legislation, drivers of reform and impact for one practice area; AI may be used for ideas with a declaration |
| Class participation in tutorials | 10% | Contributions to class discussion and breakout groups, plus overall attendance, marked by the tutor by the final tutorial on 26 October 2026 |
| Hurdle requirement: attendance at 50% of tutorial classes and week 4 lecture · hurdle | Carries no marks but must be met to pass; the Week 4 workshop, in person or online, counts towards it |
The four graded weights total 100% and match the University of Melbourne 2026 handbook record for the subject. The attendance hurdle carries no marks, but to pass you must be present for at least 50% of the tutorials and for the Week 4 workshop. The subject outline gives each short test 20 minutes, while the handbook page lists 30 minutes per test, so follow the time your tutor announces. Late submission and work over the word limit attract 10% deductions under the MSW Manual. Confirm current dates and test arrangements on the subject Canvas page.
Current SCWK90055 dates
| Date | Item | Control |
|---|---|---|
| 24 September 2026 | Written paper (2000 words) | Ethical decision making; due 11:59pm. |
| 5 October 2026 | Short test 1 | In the Week 5 tutorial; Weeks 1 to 4. |
| 26 October 2026 | Short test 2 | In the Week 8 tutorial; Weeks 5 to 8; participation also closes. |
| 18 November 2026 | Written paper (1,500 words) | Legal context of practice; due 11:59pm. |
Dates are as published in the Semester 2 2026 subject outline. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.
What SCWK90055 covers
The chapters follow the weekly modules: ethics and the decision framework first, then human rights and international law, the Australian legal system and the legal duties of practitioners, the court process, and finally protection under the law in guardianship, elder abuse and mental health.
Ethics, Law and Decision Making in Social Work
Practice, legal and ethical decision domains; outside influences such as media and agency policy; ethics, morals, values and principles; how law and ethics differ; ethical dilemmas, misconduct and lapsesThe subject opens by asking what actually drives a social worker's decisions. This chapter sets out the three domains the first module uses, practice or clinical, legal and ethical, and shows why the hardest cases sit where all three overlap.
- Practice, legal and ethical decision domains
- Influences such as media scrutiny and agency policy
- Ethics, morals, values and principles defined
- How law differs from ethics
- Dilemma, misconduct and lapse
- Legal questions inside ethical cases
Ethical Theories for Social Work Practice
Metaethics, normative and applied ethics; deontology, consequentialism and virtue ethics compared; the ethics of care; absolutism, relativism and ethical pluralism; the four principles of Beauchamp and ChildressEthical literacy, in this subject, means knowing enough theory to look at a dilemma from more than one side.
- Metaethics, normative and applied ethics
- Deontology and duty
- Consequentialism and outcomes
- Virtue ethics and character
- Ethics of care and other traditions
- Pluralism and the four principles
The AASW Code of Ethics and Its Limitations
Why the Code carries weight without statutory registration; respect for persons, social justice and professional integrity; areas of concern; complaints; five limitations of codes; deciding whether conduct breaches the CodeThe 2020 AASW Code of Ethics is the main professional guide for Australian social workers, and it matters more because social work is not a statutory registered profession.
- Why the Code carries weight
- Respect for persons, social justice, professional integrity
- Areas of concern the Code covers
- Complaints and the AASW
- Five limitations of codes
- Breach, section and usefulness
Ethical Dilemmas and Reamer's Decision Framework
Ethical issues, problems and dilemmas; process, reflective, cultural and integrated models; the seven steps of the adapted Reamer framework with guiding questions; consultation and documentation; the ethics paperThis is the chapter behind the ethics paper, worth 40% of the grade. It starts by separating ethical issues, which are everyday, from ethical problems, which have a clear answer, and ethical dilemmas, which force a choice between conflicting duties.
- Ethical issues, problems and dilemmas
- Four families of decision models
- The seven Reamer steps
- Weighing options in step four
- Consultation and documentation
- What the ethics paper must show
Human Rights and the Three Generations
Universal, inalienable and indivisible rights; natural law to the Universal Declaration; critiques of human rights; civil and political, economic and social, and collective rights; social work roles for each generationHuman rights are often treated as the domain of lawyers, but the module argues that they have a social construction as well as a legal one, and that social workers have a central role in the social side.
- Universal, inalienable and indivisible rights
- Natural law to the 1948 Declaration
- Critiques of human rights frameworks
- Negative and positive rights
- The three generations and their lead professions
- Social work roles by generation
International Law and the Victorian Charter
Declarations versus treaties; derogation; the ICCPR and ICESCR; constitutional rights, discrimination Acts and state human rights Acts; the Victorian Charter's rights, public authorities and justified limitsThis chapter follows human rights from international instruments into Victorian practice.
- Declarations versus treaties
- Derogation and non-derogable rights
- The ICCPR and ICESCR
- Four places rights live in Australian law
- The Victorian Charter and public authorities
- Advocacy and compliance with the Charter
The Australian Legal System and Access to Justice
Legislation and case law; criminal and civil law; Commonwealth and state powers; the Victorian and federal court hierarchies; lawyers' duties compared with social work; Legal Aid, specialist courts and court supportSocial workers need a working map of the legal system because it shapes both their clients' lives and their own obligations.
- Legislation and case law
- Commonwealth and state powers
- Criminal and civil law
- The Victorian and federal court hierarchies
- Lawyers' duties and social work practice
- Access to justice and its safeguards
Duty of Care, Duty to Warn and Confidentiality
The five duty of care principles and the standard of care; warning clients and third parties under the Tarasoff principles; statutes that protect or override confidentiality; mandatory reporting; privilege defencesTwo common law duties follow social workers into every setting: the duty of care, and the separate duty to warn.
- The five duty of care principles
- Risk and the standard of care
- Warning clients about intervention risks
- Tarasoff and warning third parties
- Statutes that protect or override confidentiality
- Mandatory reporting and privilege
Subpoenas, Giving Evidence and Cross-Examination
Subpoenas and summonses; complying and objecting; letters of support; witness roles; affidavits; examination in chief, cross-examination and re-examination; rules of evidence; case notes and protected confidencesThe Week 4 workshop turned to the moments when practice meets the court directly.
- Subpoenas and summonses
- Objecting and producing only what is asked
- Witness roles in court
- Affidavits and the three stages of questioning
- Rules of evidence and hearsay
- Case notes and cross-examination strategies
Guardianship, Capacity and Supported Decision Making
Legal and decision-making capacity; the influence of the disability rights convention; the decision-making continuum; guardians, administrators and supportive roles; enduring powers of attorney; VCAT and the Public AdvocateGuardianship law protects people with disability while trying not to take their decisions away.
- Legal capacity and decision-making capacity
- The presumption of capacity and four abilities
- The decision-making continuum
- Supported and substitute decision making
- Guardians, administrators and supportive roles
- VCAT, the Public Advocate and social work
Elder Abuse: Recognition and Responses
Definition and five types of elder abuse; national prevalence findings; risk factors; family violence links; mandatory reporting debates; Victoria's empowerment approach; legal, health and advocacy responses; reformElder abuse brings together the human rights, guardianship and family violence themes of earlier chapters.
- Definition and relationships of trust
- Five types of elder abuse
- Prevalence: WHO and the national study
- Risk factors and family violence links
- Mandatory reporting debate
- Empowerment and response options
Mental Health Law, Compulsory Treatment and Safeguards
Foundations of compulsory treatment; the Mental Health and Wellbeing Act principles; the treatment criteria; assessment, temporary and treatment orders; community treatment orders; second opinions, advance statements and oversight bodiesMental health law is built around a hard question: when may the State treat someone against their will?
- Police powers and parens patriae
- From asylums to the 2022 Act
- Definition of mental illness and exclusions
- The four compulsory treatment criteria
- Assessment, temporary and treatment orders
- Supported decision making and oversight
It gives an overview of social work ethics and of the Australian and Victorian legal systems, explores the values and principles on which human services law and social work ethics rest, and examines legal issues that practitioners meet in child protection, family law, domestic violence, mental health, guardianship and work with refugees.
The subject is taught as a flipped classroom.
Each week an online knowledge module on Canvas, roughly the length of a lecture, is completed before an on-campus tutorial, and in Week 4 a three-hour workshop on working in the legal context replaces both.
The weekly sequence moves from ethics and ethical decision making, through international law and human rights, to the Australian legal system and legal principles such as duty of care and duty to warn, and then to the court process.
The second half turns to protection under the law: guardianship and administration with elder abuse, mental health, children and families, and crime, victims and the criminal justice system.
This guide covers the first six weeks in twelve chapters.
Its first block equips you for the 2,000-word ethics paper, which asks you to work a typical dilemma through a decision framework, and its later chapters prepare you for the short tests and for the 1,500-word paper on the legal context of an area of practice.
The recommended text is the 2026 edition of the collection edited by Rice, Day, Briskman and Jamieson, and the expected level of legal knowledge is that of The Law Handbook 2026.
Beyond the graded tasks there is one pass condition.
Attendance is a hurdle requirement: you must be present for at least 50% of the tutorials and for the Week 4 workshop, and a student who misses the hurdle cannot pass the subject even with good marks. Attendance is recorded by your tutor, so check your record and any changes to the arrangements on the subject Canvas page.
Worked example · free
Testing a negligence claim after a hospital discharge
- 1Special relationship: the worker planned his discharge as a professional offering expert help, so a duty of care was owed to him.
- 1Harm caused: a night on the floor after a fall, with likely injury and distress, is actual harm.
- 1Foreseeable: a frail man just home after a hip fracture, with no carer arriving, could plainly fall without help.
- 1Risk not remote: judged for this patient, alone and recently injured, the chance of harm was high, not fanciful.
- 1Standard of care: comparable hospital social workers would confirm that a service has accepted the referral before discharge, so the conduct fell short.
Key terms
- Ethical dilemma
- An ethical dilemma is a choice between courses of action that may all have undesirable outcomes because ethical duties or values conflict.
- Deontology
- Deontology is the duty-based family of ethical theories, associated with Kant, that judges an act by universal moral principles regardless of its consequences.
- Consequentialism
- Consequentialism is the family of ethical theories, associated with Bentham and Mill, that judges an act by its outcomes for the people affected.
- Virtue ethics
- Virtue ethics is the tradition from Aristotle that judges conduct by the character and motives of the person acting.
- Ethical pluralism
- Ethical pluralism is the position that several ethical theories can each help to understand a single dilemma.
- AASW Code of Ethics
- The 2020 AASW Code of Ethics is the main professional guide for Australian social workers, resting on respect for persons, social justice and professional integrity.
- Reamer framework
- The Reamer framework is the seven-step process for ethical decision making that this subject adapts and recommends for the ethics paper.
- Second generation rights
- Second generation rights are economic, social and cultural rights, such as housing and education, that the State must actively provide.
- Public authority
- A public authority, under the Victorian Charter, is a government body or an organisation acting for government that must act compatibly with human rights.
- Common law
- Common law is law made by judges through precedent rather than by a parliament, and it is the source of the duty of care.
- Duty of care
- The duty of care is the judge-made legal duty to avoid conduct that injures other people, breached only when all five negligence principles are met.
- Duty to warn
- The duty to warn is the obligation to warn clients of intervention risks and to warn an identifiable third party of a client's threat.
- Subpoena
- A subpoena is a court order requiring a person to produce documents, attend court to give evidence, or both.
- Supported decision making
- Supported decision making is practice that helps a person with impaired capacity make and express their own decisions rather than having them made for them.
SCWK90055 FAQ
Is there a final examination in this subject?
No. The handbook and subject outline list four graded tasks: a 2,000-word ethics paper worth 40%, two short in-class tests worth 10% each, a 1,500-word legal context paper worth 30% and tutorial participation worth 10%. The final paper is due on 18 November 2026, after teaching ends, but it is a written assignment rather than an examination.
What is the hurdle requirement?
To pass you must be present for at least 50% of the tutorials and for the Week 4 workshop; the hurdle carries no marks of its own. The workshop could be attended in person or online, and either mode was recorded. Check your attendance record and any updates on the subject Canvas page.
What do the short tests involve?
Each test is done on Canvas during your tutorial and covers four weeks of content, Weeks 1 to 4 and then Weeks 5 to 8. Test 1 paired ten multiple-choice items at half a mark with two short answers at 2.5 marks. It was not open book, and the outline allows 20 minutes while the handbook page states 30.
How hard is the subject?
The difficulty is breadth and application rather than technical depth. Seventy per cent of the grade comes from two papers that require you to apply frameworks and Victorian law to a practice scenario, the tests are short and not open book, and the expected legal knowledge is set at the level of The Law Handbook. Students without legal study can use the optional Week 0 reading.
Which framework should I use for the ethics paper?
The subject outline recommends the modified version of Reamer's framework used in tutorials, and the module sets out its seven steps with guiding questions. The paper must show that you can separate the elements of a decision, use theory and the AASW Code, identify legal issues, distinguish personal from professional values and justify your choice.
Can I use AI tools for the assessments?
Generative AI is not allowed for any part of the ethics paper or the short tests. For the legal context paper it may be used to generate ideas, with a declaration explaining how. Limited use of grammar checkers or translation apps for basic editing is allowed under departmental policy, but it also has to be declared.
What does the legal context paper ask for?
You choose an area of practice with a significant legal context, such as mental health, disability, elder abuse, child protection or family violence. The paper must show knowledge of the relevant legislation, identify the drivers of change and likely reforms, and explain the impact of the law on social workers and on the people they work with.
Questions students ask in each SCWK90055 chapter
- How does the module define ethics?
- It translates ethics as what we ought to do, from Greek words about living well. Applied to practice, it asks how a good practitioner would act here and which option is the right one to take. Chapter 01 · Ethics, Law and Decision Making in Social Work
- Do I have to choose one ethical theory?
- No. The module says theory is used to examine a dilemma from different perspectives, not as a single creed to adopt. Ethical pluralism, using several lenses on one problem, is recommended for complex social work dilemmas. Chapter 02 · Ethical Theories for Social Work Practice
- Why is the AASW Code so important for social workers?
- Social work is not a statutory registered profession, so there is no AHPRA registration standard. The Code therefore does much of the work of guiding conduct and is the first place to look when an ethical question arises. Chapter 03 · The AASW Code of Ethics and Its Limitations
- When should I use a full decision framework?
- When you face a true dilemma, meaning a choice between options that may all have undesirable outcomes because ethical duties conflict. Everyday ethical issues and problems with a clear answer do not need the full process. Chapter 04 · Ethical Dilemmas and Reamer's Decision Framework
- Why does the AASW Code mention the Universal Declaration?
- Section 1.1 commits the profession to the ideals and goals of the Declaration, of the conventions built on it and of treaties Australia has joined. Social workers are therefore expected to work towards human rights within those instruments. Chapter 05 · Human Rights and the Three Generations
- Is the Universal Declaration legally binding on Australia?
- No. It is a declaration, a statement of principles states agree to work towards. Australia is bound by treaties it has joined, including the ICCPR and the ICESCR, its covenants on civil and political rights and on economic, social and cultural rights. Chapter 06 · International Law and the Victorian Charter
- What is the difference between criminal and civil law?
- Criminal law is the State regulating behaviour, with penalties that can include custody. Civil law regulates dealings between individuals, such as tenancy, small claims, guardianship and negligence, and its remedies are compensation or orders to act rather than imprisonment. Chapter 07 · The Australian Legal System and Access to Justice
- What must be shown for a social worker to be negligent?
- All five duty of care principles: a special relationship, actual harm, harm that was foreseeable, a risk more than remote for that person, and conduct below the standard of a reasonable body of comparable professionals. If any one fails, there is no breach. Chapter 08 · Duty of Care, Duty to Warn and Confidentiality
- Do I need my client's permission to comply with a subpoena?
- No. A subpoena is a court order and must be complied with whether or not the client agrees. It is good practice to tell the client their records have been subpoenaed, and clients should learn about this limit to confidentiality at the start. Chapter 09 · Subpoenas, Giving Evidence and Cross-Examination
- What changed with the 2019 Guardianship and Administration Act?
- It took effect on 1 March 2020, made supported decision-making principles inform all decisions, added supportive guardians and supportive administrators, and shifted the focus from a person's best interests to their will and preferences. Chapter 10 · Guardianship, Capacity and Supported Decision Making
- How common is elder abuse in Australia?
- Australia's first national prevalence study, NEAPS, asked 7,000 people aged 65 or older and found that one in six, 15%, had experienced elder abuse in the previous 12 months. The WHO had estimated 2% to 14% for comparable countries. Chapter 11 · Elder Abuse: Recognition and Responses
- What are the compulsory treatment criteria?
- Under section 143 the person must have mental illness; because of it, need immediate treatment to prevent serious deterioration or serious harm; the treatment must actually be provided under the order; and there must be no less restrictive means reasonably available. All four must be met. Chapter 12 · Mental Health Law, Compulsory Treatment and Safeguards
How to prepare for the assessments
Work in the order the subject builds. Start with the vocabulary of Chapter 1, because the ethics paper and the tests both reward precise use of terms such as dilemma, lapse, value and principle. Learn the three theory families as lenses you can switch between, then practise reading short scenarios through each lens and through the four principles.
Next, rehearse the seven Reamer steps on two or three dilemmas of your own until the headings feel natural, writing at least one paragraph for every element of step four.
For the legal chapters, build one-page summaries: the court ladder, the five duty of care principles, the three Tarasoff questions, the laws that protect or override confidentiality, the stages of giving evidence, the guardianship roles and the treatment order pathway. Test yourself with ten-minute sets of multiple choice and five-minute short answers, because that is the pace the tests set.
Finally, choose your legal context topic early, list its legislation and reform drivers, and plan the impact section before drafting.
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