Why have supervision in Social Work?

Social workers operate within the guidelines of a code of ethics - at least this is what is expected by people who hire them and who rely on their services.

For the most part this is true.

Alas, it is also true that social workers who are eligible for membership of the Australian Association of Social Workers and who are hired by various employers, but are not members of the Association, are not bound by that code of ethics and are not able to be held accountable for their actions under that code of ethics unless they actually become a member of the Association.

In other words the Association cannot deal with people who are not part of their membership.

This has been a sore point for many people who are supervisors across many organisations that employ social workers.

All that supervisors really have available to them to manage the behaviour and practice of their social workers are the normal industrial relations codes that exist and any rules that are put in place within the place of employment the breach of which can lead to action being taken against the employee for such a breach.

Should the professional practice of all social workers be governed by adherence to the guidelines that are enshrined in the code of ethics? I believe so.

So what can be done?

Over the next few weeks I would welcome views from others, but will spend some time and effort to put some suggestions forward about what can be done both from within organisations that employ social workers and also from the perspective of government.

I say government because I am of the view that since most social workers are employed by government it has a special responsibility to ensure that the quality of the service provided by their staff is at the highest possible level.

I would also like to discuss the responsibility of individual workers who do not get professional supervision within the agency that employs them to seek and obtain such supervision for their practice in order to safeguard their clients and at the same time to ensure that their own competence is assessed and enhanced.