SCWK90055 Chap.1 Ethics, Law and Decision Making in Social Work
Ethics, Law and Decision Making in Social Work
The 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.
It also names the pressures that act on decisions without being acknowledged, from media coverage of child protection to the habit of consulting agency policy before the professional Code. The chapter then fixes the vocabulary the rest of the subject depends on: ethics as what we ought to do, morals as shared community norms, values as standards of good and bad, and principles as guides to action.
It explains why lawful conduct is not automatically ethical, and closes with Reamer's distinction between an ethical dilemma, ethical misconduct and an ethical lapse, the first label to choose when you meet a hard case. These distinctions return in every later chapter, because each legal duty studied afterwards also has an ethical side, and the ethics paper rewards students who keep the two visible at once.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Practice, legal and ethical decision domains
- 02
Influences such as media scrutiny and agency policy
- 03
Ethics, morals, values and principles defined
- 04
How law differs from ethics
- 05
Dilemma, misconduct and lapse
- 06
Legal questions inside ethical cases
Worked example · free
Spot the domains in a hospital discharge
- 1Practice or clinical domain: the psychosocial assessment of his needs and the supports available at home.
- 1Legal domain: duty of care to the patient and any obligations if abuse is suspected.
- 1Ethical domain: his wish to go home weighed against the risk of harm.
- 1Outside influence: pressure on beds, which should be named so it does not drive the decision.
Key terms
- Practice domain
- The practice domain is the part of decision making based on assessment, evidence, skills and professional judgement.
- Ethical lapse
- An ethical lapse is a careless act by a generally ethical worker that has serious ethical consequences.
- Ethical misconduct
- Ethical misconduct is conduct by a worker that may itself breach ethical or professional standards.
- Values
- Values are judgements about good and bad that set personal or professional standards of behaviour.
Ethics, Law and Decision Making in Social Work FAQ
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.
Is something ethical just because it is legal?
No. Law sets enforced minimum standards and is shaped by politics and social order, while ethics asks what ought to be done. A lawful act can still be unethical, and ethics often guides practice where the law is silent.
What are Reamer's three ethical challenges?
Ethical dilemmas, where duties or values conflict and no option is clearly right; ethical misconduct, where a worker's own conduct may breach standards; and ethical lapses, where a careful worker slips and causes serious consequences.
Why do outside influences matter in decision making?
Factors such as media attention or organisational policy can shape a decision without being stated. The module notes that workers facing a hard choice often consult agency policies before the Code, so naming those pressures keeps the reasoning honest.
Why does the first chapter matter for the ethics paper?
The paper asks you to separate the elements of an ethical decision and to identify legal issues. Naming the domains, defining your terms precisely and labelling the challenge correctly gives the essay a clear frame before the decision framework is applied.
Assessment move
Learn the five terms of this chapter until you can define each in one sentence and give a practice example: ethics, morals, values, principles and law. Then take three short scenarios from placement or the news and sort each fact into the practice, legal or ethical domain, listing any outside pressure separately.
Practise labelling each scenario as a dilemma, misconduct or lapse and say why, because that label decides which later tools apply. Finally, write a two-sentence answer to the question of why lawful conduct can still be unethical; it is a reliable short-answer item and a useful opening for the ethics paper.
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