Statement of Ethical Principles

1. Preface

Ethical awareness is a fundamental part of the professional practice of social workers. Their
ability and commitment to act ethically is an essential aspect of the quality of the service offered
to those who use social work services. The purpose of the work of IASSW and IFSW on ethics is
to promote ethical debate and reflection in the member organisations, among the providers of
social work in member countries, as well as in the schools of social work and among social work
students. Some ethical challenges and problems facing social workers are specific to particular
countries; others are common. By staying at the level of general principles, the joint IASSW and
IFSW statement aims to encourage social workers across the world to reflect on the challenges
and dilemmas that face them and make ethically informed decisions about how to act in each
particular case. Some of these problem areas include:

 The fact that the loyalty of social workers is often in the middle of conflicting interests.
 The fact that social workers function as both helpers and controllers.
 The conflicts between the duty of social workers to protect the interests of the people. with
whom they work and societal demands for efficiency and utility.
 The fact that resources in society are limited.

This document takes as its starting point the definition of social work adopted separately by the
IFSW and IASSW at their respective General Meetings in Montreal, Canada in July 2000 and
then agreed jointly in Copenhagen in May 2001 (section 2). This definition stresses principles of
human rights and social justice. The next section (3) makes reference to the various declarations
and conventions on human rights that are relevant to social work, followed by a statement of
general ethical principles under the two broad headings of human rights and dignity and social
justice (section 4). The final section introduces some basic guidance on ethical conduct in social
work, which it is expected will be elaborated by the ethical guidance and in various codes and
guidelines of the member organisations of IFSW and IASSW.

2. Definition of Social Work

The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and
the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilising theories of human
behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with
their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work.

3. International Conventions

International human rights declarations and conventions form common standards of

achievement, and recognise rights that are accepted by the global community. Documents
particularly relevant to social work practice and action are:
  Universal Declaration of Human Rights
 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
 The International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights
 The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination
 The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
 The Convention on the Rights of the Child
 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (ILO convention 169)

4. Principles

4.1. Human Rights and Human Dignity

Social work is based on respect for the inherent worth and dignity of all people, and the rights
that follow from this. Social workers should uphold and defend each person’s physical,
psychological, emotional and spiritual integrity and well-being. This means:

1. Respecting the right to self-determination – Social workers should respect and promote people’s
right to make their own choices and decisions, irrespective of their values and life choices,
provided this does not threaten the rights and legitimate interests of others.
2. Promoting the right to participation – Social workers should promote the full involvement and
participation of people using their services in ways that enable them to be empowered in all
aspects of decisions and actions affecting their lives.
3. Treating each person as a whole – Social workers should be concerned with the whole person,
within the family, community, societal and natural environments, and should seek to recognise
all aspects of a person’s life.
4. Identifying and developing strengths – Social workers should focus on the strengths of all
individuals, groups and communities and thus promote their empowerment.

4.2. Social Justice

Social workers have a responsibility to promote social justice, in relation to society generally,
and in relation to the people with whom they work. This means:

1. Challenging negative discrimination* – Social workers have a responsibility to challenge negative

discrimination on the basis of characteristics such as ability, age, culture, gender or sex, marital
status, socio-economic status, political opinions, skin colour, racial or other physical
characteristics, sexual orientation, or spiritual beliefs.*In some countries the term
“discrimination” would be used instead of “negative discrimination”. The word negative is used
here because in some countries the term “positive discrimination” is also used. Positive
discrimination is also known as “affirmative action”. Positive discrimination or affirmative action
means positive steps taken to redress the effects of historical discrimination against the groups
named in clause 4.2.1 above.
2. Recognising diversity – Social workers should recognise and respect the ethnic and cultural
diversity of the societies in which they practise, taking account of individual, family, group and
community differences.
3. Distributing resources equitably – Social workers should ensure that resources at their disposal
are distributed fairly, according to need.
 4. Challenging unjust policies and practices – Social workers have a duty to bring to the attention
of their employers, policy makers, politicians and the general public situations where resources
are inadequate or where distribution of resources, policies and practices are oppressive, unfair
or harmful.
5. Working in solidarity – Social workers have an obligation to challenge social conditions that
contribute to social exclusion, stigmatisation or subjugation, and to work towards an inclusive
society.

5. Professional conduct

It is the responsibility of the national organisations in membership of IFSW and IASSW to

develop and regularly update their own codes of ethics or ethical guidelines, to be consistent with
the IFSW/ IASSW statement. It is also the responsibility of national organisations to inform
social workers and schools of social work about these codes or guidelines. Social workers should
act in accordance with the ethical code or guidelines current in their country. These will
generally include more detailed guidance in ethical practice specific to the national context. The
following general guidelines on professional conduct apply:

1. Social workers are expected to develop and maintain the required skills and competence to do
their job.
2. Social workers should not allow their skills to be used for inhumane purposes, such as torture or
terrorism.
3. Social workers should act with integrity. This includes not abusing the relationship of trust with
the people using their services, recognising the boundaries between personal and professional
life, and not abusing their position for personal benefit or gain.
4. Social workers should act in relation to the people using their services with compassion,
empathy and care.
5. Social workers should not subordinate the needs or interests of people who use their services to
their own needs or interests.
6. Social workers have a duty to take necessary steps to care for themselves professionally and
personally in the workplace and in society, in order to ensure that they are able to provide
appropriate services.
7. Social workers should maintain confidentiality regarding information about people who use
their services. Exceptions to this may only be justified on the basis of a greater ethical
requirement (such as the preservation of life).
8. Social workers need to acknowledge that they are accountable for their actions to the users of
their services, the people they work with, their colleagues, their employers, the professional
association and to the law, and that these accountabilities may conflict.
9. Social workers should be willing to collaborate with the schools of social work in order to
support social work students to get practical training of good quality and up to date practical
knowledge
10. Social workers should foster and engage in ethical debate with their colleagues and employers
and take responsibility for making ethically informed decisions.
11. Social workers should be prepared to state the reasons for their decisions based on ethical
considerations, and be accountable for their choices and actions.
 12. Social workers should work to create conditions in employing agencies and in their countries
where the principles of this statement and those of their own national code (if applicable) are
discussed, evaluated and upheld.

Community development

The United Nations defines community development as "a process where community members come
together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems." [1] It is a broad term given
to the practices of civic leaders, activists, involved citizens and professionals to improve various aspects
of communities, typically aiming to build stronger and more resilient local communities.

Community development is also understood as a professional discipline, and is defined by the

International Association for Community Development (www.iacdglobal.org), the global network of
community development practitioners and scholars, as "a practice-based profession and an academic
discipline that promotes participative democracy, sustainable development, rights, economic opportunity,
equality and social justice, through the organisation, education and empowerment of people within their
communities, whether these be of locality, identity or interest, in urban and rural settings".

Community development seeks to empower individuals and groups of people with the skills they need to
effect change within their communities. These skills are often created through the formation of social
groups working for a common agenda. Community developers must understand both how to work with
individuals and how to affect communities' positions within the context of larger social institution.

Community Development Exchange and the Federation for Community Development Learning) defines
community development as:

A set of values and practices which plays a special role in overcoming poverty and disadvantage, knitting
society together at the grass roots and deepening democracy. There is a community development
profession, defined by national occupational standards and a body of theory and experience going back
the best part of a century. There are active citizens who use community development techniques on a
voluntary basis, and there are also other professions and agencies which use a community development
approach or some aspects of it.

Different approaches

There are numerous overlapping approaches to community development. Some focus on the processes,
some on the outcomes/ objectives. They include:

Women Self-help Group; focusing on the contribution of women in settlement groups.[5]

Community capacity building; focusing on helping communities obtain, strengthen, and maintain the
ability to set and achieve their own development objectives.

Large Group Capacitation; an adult education and social psychology approach grounded in the activity
of the individual and the social psychology of the large group focusing on large groups of unemployed or
semi-employed participants, many of whom with Lower Levels of Literacy (LLLs).

Social capital formation; focusing on benefits derived from the cooperation between individuals and
groups.
Nonviolent direct action; when a group of people take action to reveal an existing problem, highlight an
alternative, or demonstrate a possible solution to a social issue which is not being addressed through
traditional societal institutions (governments, religious organizations or established trade unions) are not
addressing to the satisfaction of the direct action participants.

Economic development, focusing on the "development" of developing countries as measured by their

economies, although it includes the processes and policies by which a nation improves the economic,
political, and social well-being of its people.

Community economic development (CED); an alternative to conventional economic development

which encourages using local resources in a way that enhances economic outcomes while improving
social conditions.

Sustainable development; which seeks to achieve, in a balanced manner, economic development, social
development and environmental protection outcomes.

Community-driven development (CDD), an economic development model which shifts overreliance on

central governments to local communities.

Asset-based community development (ABCD); is a methodology that seeks to uncover and use the
strengths within communities as a means for sustainable development.

Faith-based community development; which utilizes faith-based organizations to bring about

community development outcomes.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR); a partnership approach to research that equitably

involves, for example, community members, organizational representatives, and researchers in all aspects
of the research process and in which all partners contribute expertise and share decision making and
ownership, which aims to integrate this knowledge with community development outcomes.

Community organizing; a term used to describe an approach that generally assumes that social change
necessarily involves conflict and social struggle in order to generate collective power for the powerless.

Participatory planning including community-based planning (CBP); involving the entire community
in the strategic and management processes of urban planning; or, community-level planning processes,
urban or rural.

Language-based development; or Language revitalization focuses on the use of a language so that it

serves the needs of a community. This may involve the creation of books, films and other media in the
language. These actions help a small language community to preserve their language and culture.

Methodologies focusing on the educational component of community development, including the

community-wide empowerment that increased educational opportunity create.

Methodologies addressing the issues and challenges of the Digital divide, making affordable training
and access to computers and the Internet, addressing the marginalization of local communities that cannot
connect and participate in the global Online community.
Rural and Urban Social Work Development

As a result of the rapid urbanization of the 20th century, the gap between urban social work and rural
social work has grown considerably to reflect changes in the global, political, economic, and social forces
of these two geographic cultures.

Since social work is a dynamic field that must stress the unique needs of local communities and adjust its
focus to address the specific needs of a locality, many accredited social work degree programs are now
incorporating concentrations in urban and rural social work for specialized training.

In order to help you decide which social work practice area meets your professional goals, the following
will give an in-depth overview on the key differences between urban social work and rural social work as
well as the unique social problems that are experienced in each.

Urban Social Work Context

According to recent statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 50% of the world’s
population lives in an urban area, but this is predicted to grow to 70% by the year 2050. With such
densely populated areas, urban environments are more likely to experience large disparities in
socioeconomic status, higher rates of violent crimes, and increased presence of marginalized populations.
Urban communities are also associated with higher prevalence of psychological stressors that are the
direct result of increased density in cities.

Since there are a higher percentage of persons of lower socioeconomic status in urban areas, these
populations often face barriers to receiving quality social services due to a lack of health insurance and/or
undocumented citizenship. Even more worrisome, financial obstacles that prevent the basic access to
quality social services, healthcare, and education often perpetuate the vicious cycle of poverty from
generation to generation. While there are endless opportunities available in cities, vast population
disparities often lead to a two-tiered social service system where insured individuals have access while
marginalized populations lack needed care.

Rural Social Work Context

Due to the fact that rural communities are often detached from other geographic areas by rolling hills,
mountains, rivers, farms, and more, one of the most prominent problems in rural social work is a limited
amount of resources. Since there may not be an in-patient treatment center or psychologist within 100
miles, rural dwellers have considerably less variety with regard to social services available within their
reach. Furthermore, the social service professionals that do work in rural communities often have limited
education and a lack of outside referral resources to provide the care that is needed to clients.

With a considerably lower population scattered across a broad region, rural areas tend to have closer
communities in which everyone knows one another. Not only does this mean that tragedies can have a
harmful impact on the mental health of an entire community, but there may also be confidentiality
concerns since there is a high probability that people are acquaintances outside of a professional setting
too. Although approximately 18% to 22% of individuals in America are residing in a rural community,
the social work profession has historically focused more on urban environments despite the challenges
that exist.
Relavance of social work in the context of globalization

Globalisation has shaped the economic, political and cultural relationships between
people across the world. It has become an unstoppable force during the twenty first century and
has a profound impact on welfare provision . It is a complex process with both positive and
negative sides that affect the environment, culture, policies, economic development and human
well-being in societies around the world. Globalisation is often referred to as a process in world
economy, and certainly the effect that globalisation has on world economy is certainly the key in
shaping all other areas of human activity, including the fields of education and social work.
Globalisation imposes the rules and discipline of the global market on governments and nation
states and thus limits the effectiveness of developing countries' national policy. Therefore, it has
a tendency to increase inequalities between individuals and regions, forging imbalances among
different human needs because of its focus on material wealth over human and spiritual values,
resulting in violence, alienation and despair .Falk summarises the opinion of many others with
the statement that globalisation: ’is occurring within an international order that exhibits gross
inequalities of every variety, thereby concentrating the benefits of growth upon already
advantaged sectors within societies and worsening the relative and absolute condition of those
already most disadvantaged’. Globalisation has become a major challenge for every profession
which deals with disadvantaged, economically and politically excluded social groups. This
particularly refers to the profession of social work.
Because of such increasing differences, deep changes in people's lives and the world in general,
social work today may be facing the biggest challenge in helping economically and politically
excluded social groups that social work mainly deals with. Although there are debates as to
whether globalisation is a revolution or an evolution there is no doubt that global forces affect
social work, its education, practice, workers and service users. Social work, as Ferguson,
Lavalette & Whitmore claim, has lost its way in the era of globalisation. The proof for such
statement can be found in Payne and Askeland’s work from 2008, in which the authors bring
three (negative) trends within social work, developed as a consequence of globalisation
 UNIT -5
MEDICAL AND PSYCHITRIC SOCIAL WORK

Psychiatric social work is a specialized type of medical social work that involves supporting,
providing therapy to, and coordinating the care of individuals who are severely mentally ill and
who require hospitalization or other types of intensive psychiatric help. Psychiatric social
workers complete a variety of tasks when working with clients, including but not limited to
psychosocial and risk assessments, individualized and group psychotherapy, crisis intervention
and support, care coordination, and discharge planning services. Psychiatric social workers are
employed in a wide range of settings, ranging from intensive inpatient wards to outpatient
psychiatric clinics.

Psychiatric social work is a challenging and very demanding profession. Social workers in this
field must work closely with individuals suffering from complex and hard to manage conditions,
who are in deep emotional distress and/or who may be a danger to themselves or others.
Psychiatric social workers may also encounter difficulties in getting clients the resources and
support they need to fully address their problems. However, some individuals gravitate to this
work for its constant intellectual and professional challenges, and for the opportunity to help
deeply vulnerable populations.

Due to their intensive work with clients’ severe mental health and behavioral issues, psychiatric
social workers often need graduate-level training in clinical social work methods, including
psychotherapy, crisis interventions, group therapy, and developing sound treatment plans in
collaboration with mental health and medical staff. Therefore, individuals interested in this field
of work should strongly consider earning a Master’s in Social Work with a concentration in
clinical or psychiatric social work from a CSWE-accredited institution.

Types of Psychiatric Social Workers

In general, types of psychiatric social workers include inpatient psychiatric social workers,
emergency and crisis services psychiatric social workers, and outpatient psychiatric social
workers. Depending on their work setting and specific role, some psychiatric social workers may
fulfill tasks in all three areas–inpatient, outpatient, and emergency services.

Inpatient Psychiatric Social Workers

Inpatient psychiatric social workers work in the psychiatry departments of hospitals and medical
centers with patients who have been hospitalized for debilitating or dangerous psychological
and/or behavioral issues, such as severe substance abuse, psychosis, bipolar disorder,
schizophrenia, and other conditions. Psychiatric social workers in inpatient hospital settings
complete many different tasks to support patients, including conducting psychosocial
assessments to determine patients’ mental health status and needs; providing psychotherapy and
other clinical services to help clients address their emotional, behavioral, and mental health
challenges; communicating and coordinating with the larger treatment team to optimize clients’
physical and mental health care; connecting clients with relevant resources and services; and
facilitating clients’ transition to other care facilities or back to daily life through discharge
planning and follow-ups.

In hospital settings, inpatient psychiatric social workers play a very important role in identifying
and advocating for patients’ needs as part of a larger medical team. “In hospital settings
psychiatric social workers are an integral part of the multi-disciplinary team, making
recommendations for treatment, rehabilitation, and social service connections,” Lynsey Clark,
MSW, who works as a psychiatric social worker at San Francisco General Hospital, in their
Inpatient Psychiatric Unit, told OnlineMSWPrograms.com. “Within the hospital setting
psychiatric social workers can make an enormous difference in the patients’ material reality
through therapeutic interventions and by connecting them with valuable social services, which
has the potential to improve their circumstances. We are also advocates for the patient, pushing
for more time when needed and better placements.”

Psychiatric Emergency Services and Crisis Response Social Workers

For patients who are undergoing acute crises or are in danger of hurting themselves or others,
psychiatric social workers conduct psychiatric assessments, short term crisis support, and care
coordination as part of a crisis or emergency services team. Environments that employ crisis
service psychiatric social workers include emergency care teams that work as part of a larger
medical center and crisis services at public health departments.

Crisis and emergency services psychiatric social workers work with clients for a brief period of
time to assess their needs, help them obtain the intensive care they require, and possibly
recommend them for involuntary hospitalization. Crisis service environments tend to be more
short-term than inpatient hospital psychiatric settings, as patients are generally directed to
hospitals and/or intensive care facilities where they can receive longer-term and more
comprehensive care.

Hillary Paffenroth, LCSW, who works as a psychiatric social worker for Comprehensive Crisis
Services of the City and County of San Francisco, explained how one of her main responsibilities
is determining if patients need to be placed on a psychiatric hold, and how the types of clients
she serves tend to be severely ill and in need of immediate assistance and supervision.

“The reasons that an individual would be placed on a hold are that they are currently: a danger to
self, a danger to others, or gravely disabled,” Ms. Paffenroth explained, “The first two categories
are fairly straightforward, if someone is suicidal or homicidal, or if their actions are placing
themselves or others at significant risk of danger, they would meet criteria. The third category,
gravely disabled, means that an individual cannot take care of their most basic needs such as
eating, bathing, having a place to live, attending to a serious medical condition, etc.”

Outpatient Psychiatric Social Workers

Outpatient psychiatric social workers provide therapy and care coordination services to
individuals who do not require immediate hospitalization, but who still struggle with severe
mental illness and debilitating emotional and/or behavioral issues; oftentimes patients in
outpatient psychiatric settings are at risk of needing hospitalization, or have been recently
discharged from an inpatient setting.

Outpatient psychiatric social workers tend to work for a longer period of time with patients, and
can even follow them through multiple systems to help support them as they transition from
intensive care back home or to another facility.

In addition to her work in inpatient psychiatric settings, Ms. Clark worked for a period of time in
an outpatient psychiatric setting, and described her daily responsibilities to
OnlineMSWPrograms.com. “As an outpatient psychiatric social worker I provided individual
therapy for patients with a variety of mental health needs including depression, anxiety, and
PTSD,” she said, “At an outpatient psychiatric setting social workers are employed as therapists
and they perform the same duties as MFTs, PsyDs and PhDs. They conduct various groups
including Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Seeking Safety,
among others.”

Social Work Practice in Corrections

Few fields of practice are more suited to the skills of a social worker than that of corrections, a
field that is both challenging and rewarding.

The term “corrections” refers to the system response to individuals (women, men, and young
persons of both sexes) who have come into conflict with the law and have been convicted of a
crime. Individuals convicted of crimes may serve their sentences in correctional institutions or
under supervision in the community. In Canada, sentences of two years less a day are
administered by the provincial and territorial correctional systems, while sentences of two years
or more and long-term supervision orders are administered by the federal correctional system.
The correctional system is one component of the larger criminal justice system and is dedicated
to improving public safety by helping offenders to become law-abiding citizens, while exercising
secure and humane control.

Social workers believe that community safety can be best achieved in a system that places
emphasis on individual accountability through personal development and growth, as well as
equal emphasis on accountability of the system. Social workers within corrections have to
continually balance the needs and interests of the individual in conflict with the law, the mandate
and focus of the various correctional agencies and organizations, the perspective of victims, and
obligations to the community, with an overriding emphasis on both public and personal safety.

A social work ideal is to value the dignity and intrinsic worth of every individual and to be
respectful of diversity, while upholding an individual’s right to self-determination. Maintaining
this ideal can prove challenging within the field of corrections, which involves working with
individuals who have caused harm. Social workers believe that all individuals have the capacity
for self-improvement and that this can be facilitated within correctional systems.
The skills that social workers bring to the field of corrections are increasingly in demand due to
the greater focus on the mental and physical health care needs of individuals in conflict with the
law. The “person-in-environment” perspective that guides social work interventions, which
considers external influences, is unique and invaluable given that other professions in corrections
tend to focus primarily on the “individual”.

A social worker’s scope of practice within corrections is highly dynamic and includes intense
workloads, management of sensitive information, participation on interdisciplinary teams, and
building community partnerships, with opportunities to contribute to the advancement of
evidence-based best practices.

Social work positions within corrections encompass a wide range of skills and specialized
services, including discharge planning, case management, program delivery,
individual/family/group counselling, crisis intervention, negotiation and mediation, teaching,
community capacity building, and advocacy (individual and systemic). There is a tendency for
social workers within the field of corrections to set priorities for services to sub-populations that
require specialized care and consideration, including persons with physical or mental health
challenges, developmental disabilities, or other cognitive impairments, seniors, youth, women,
Aboriginal peoples, and offenders convicted of sexual or violent offences. Service delivery has
to consider the increasingly adversarial, challenging, and litigious nature of the field of
corrections. Services are often delivered in autonomous and isolated settings, without access to
practice-specific leadership.

Many employment opportunities exist for social workers within corrections, and these include:
custodial assignments; residential counsellors; case management, probation, parole, and program
officers; clinical positions; research and policy development; staff training and recruitment;
employee support networks (for example, Employee Assistance Programs and Critical Incident
Stress Management teams); administration and management.

Most social workers employed within corrections have diverse levels of academic training and
are not necessarily classified in “social work” positions. While the minimum requirement for
employment in a social work position is a Bachelor of Social Work degree, a Master of Social
Work degree is considered a strong asset. Registration with a provincial/territorial body is also
required to ensure accountability to Standards of Practice and a Code of Ethics.

School social workers

School social workers are one of the three professional pupil services groups that provide
counseling services to children and adolescents in schools. School social workers have worked in
schools for over 100 years and are recognized in North America and other several countries.
Learning is both an individual process and a relational process. School is conceptualized as a
community of families and school personnel engaged in the educational process. A School social
worker dons in roles as a mental health expert and leader of social and emotional development
within the school community. School social workers address student community issues by
working with parents and the community. They also work with crisis intervention, group
treatment, child neglect and abuse identification and reporting, integrating services to culturally
and economically diverse populations, and education policy issues. Most school social workers
hold a Master of Social Work degree and have specialized training in helping students within the
context of local schools.

Functions of a School Social Worker

A survey published in 1989 by school social work experts categorized five job functional
dimensions.[15]

 Relationships with and services to children and families.

 Relationships with and services to teachers and school staffs.
 Administrative and professional tasks.
 Services to other school personnel.
 Community services.

Further research on these roles revealed other important areas that are frequently addressed -
Consultation and teamwork; Needs assessment and Program Evaluation; Social work
interventions with systems; Developmental programs management. A role which school social
worker falls short is in the range of administering diagnostic psychological tests, when in need
services like IQ test, comprehensive personality tests students are referred to trained clinical or
neuro-psychologist. School Social Work association of America identifies general roles like
psycho-social assessment, developmental psycho-education, student and family counseling, early
intervention for risk behaviors, therapeutic behavioral intervention for academic success,
personality development, well-being oriented recreational therapies, yearly assessment and case
management for identifying students in need of help and to promote systematic change within a
school system (not to stratify students into groups, and thus stratify the students' opportunities
because of this, consultation for special issues, crisis intervention and conflict resolution. Social
workers constantly deal with stressful situations. Some situations might be more complex than
others since every family brings different problems

Industrial Social Work

Industrial social work is one of the area in which the social worker extend their skill and
expertness in helping personnel managers in the industry directly and organisational
development indirectly, by intervening the employee management.

Industrial organisation forms a secondary setting for the proactive of professional social work. It
is different from other secondary welfare setting due to its primary orientation to production and
profit rather than to the welfare needs of the workers. There is a growing recognition of the fact
that the human personality is influenced by and influences the organisation. Hence it is necessary
to have a basic understanding of organisational structure of the industry in relation to its
communication pattern and its system of authority. The workers and the problems can be better
perceived against the holistic background of his work place, his work family, and his
community. The industrial social worker whose work covers an intangible out put can work with
conviction and commitment in a profit oriented setting only if his/her functions are balanced with
the primary interest of the organisation. A clear understanding of the social workers role
responsibilities and status in relation to the concerned department of great relevance. Although it
was felt earlier that a personnel or welfare programmes need not have any connection with the
economic potentials of the industry. It is increasingly felt that "A well formulate Social Work
Practice," is as much as economic proposition as production or sales programme. It helps to
improve the attitude of employees towards their job. As in the ultimate analysis it is the attitude
of employees, which control the quality of production, quantity of the production and the
productivity. Improvement in the attitude improves productivity and there by increases profit.

Role of Industrial Social Worker

It is essential to understand the areas of responsibilities associated with each functionary, so as to

gain a clear perspective of role and status of the industrial social worker. The development of
the industrial social work in India is recent. It is primarily voluntary and is influenced by the
emphasis placed by the government on certain programmes in organized sector.

The place of social worker in an industrial organisation is within the administrative preview of
Personnel or Human Resource Management department. Occasionally is under the direct control
of the line managers. The workers are occasionally involved in the decision making in the
development of the welfare services. However, since he/she is enjoys autonomy in their day-to-
day functioning, they are in a position to build a purposeful relationship with the operative
employees. This will enable them to relate freely to the social worker with trust and confidence.

Child Welfare Worker

Now what of child welfare workers? A social worker in child welfare typically manages a
caseload of families and children. His/her job does include making visits and reporting on his/her
findings. However, his or her employer isn’t necessarily Child Protective Services. Families and
children don’t always come to the attention of child welfare workers because of reports of abuse.
Child welfare workers work for a variety of agencies: supporting foster families and kinship
care, providing education to teen parents, giving families resources.

What is required to manage a caseload of families in crisis or transition? It varies a good deal
from state to state. Child welfare services may be carried out by social workers and by
individuals without social work education. The job, and the level of service, are not always the
same, though it's not necessarily the professional who is to blame when things do fall apart.
Questions to ask: What are workers being asked to do -- and how much training and support are
they getting to help them?

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) conducted a survey of their Child Welfare
Specialty Practice Section in October of 2003. They compared their findings with then recent
data about the child welfare profession as a whole. Social workers within the child welfare
industry reported smaller caseloads, more training, and greater access to supervision and
consultation.

The social workers also tended to have higher salaries. When asked to report what was most
challenging about their job, the greatest number of respondents (28%) cited the issues that
actually faced families. 21% cited the caseload, 10% cited the salary, and only 5% cited the
working conditions.

A more recent survey of research literature, by the Southern Area Consortium of Human
Services, also found evidence that high levels of education, and adequate supervision (something
one is more likely to find in a licensed discipline), supported a child welfare workforce with less
turnover.