The Code of Professional Practice for social care workers in Wales was created by the Care Council for Wales (CCW, 2016) to govern and give practical guidance to anyone who chooses …show more content…
These values will act as a guidance to social workers on how to remain professional when working with individuals. Banks defines values as beliefs about what is worth or valuable to people. However, when it comes to professional practice, ‘belief’ indicates that values go further than just preferences or opinions. Banks associates professional values with ethical principles and suggest that professional values are shared by all professionals, whereas personal values can be seen as an individual’s beliefs. Furthermore, she raise an argument that ethical principles provide legislation and guidance on how individuals should be treated. Standards for Social workers and relevant legislation including the Human Rights Act 1998 which is incorporated in the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) (Commission, 2000). Article 2 till 14, excluding 13, of the Act promotes a right to life. It protects and respects family life and freedom of degrading treatment while the Social Services and Well-being Act (Wales) 2016 provides the legal framework for improving the well-being of individuals and their carers and transform social service in Wales (CCW, 2016). Furthermore, Section 62 of The Care Standards Act 2000 also state that the Welsh Council is required to produce codes of good practice for social care workers and for employers of such staff. (Legislation, …show more content…
According to (CCW, 2016), social workers should have a desire to improve lives, understand the needs of individuals and support them to the best ability by following strict guidelines set by The Care Council for Wales. The CoPP also provides a value base for social care workers to utilise safeguarding measures to protect vulnerable individuals from harm and abuse and maintain confidentiality of personal information under The Data and Protection Act (1998). Furthermore, the CoPP helps in making professional judgements and make it easy for social workers to justify their decision-making and additionally provides a clear information to service users to know what to expect from social care workers. The positive aspects of the Code include, the influence to a professional identity and providing a guideline in promoting human rights (CCW, 2016). Although the CoPP provides guidelines on what social care workers must do to promote good professional practice, it fails to explain what social care workers cannot do. Furthermore, it does not include guidelines for service users on how to participate in matters affecting their care. Additionally, the Articles 3 and 4 of the CoPP appear to contradict each other. This can create dilemmas for social care workers as it can be argued that the CoPP does not explain individuals’ participation and places social workers