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Unit 206

Understand the role of the social worker.

Understand working relationships in social care settings.

1.1 Explain how a working relationship is different from a personal relationship.

A working relationship is different from a personal relationship in a few ways, such as boundaries,
you could ask someone in your personal life any number of questions, but a working relationship
must be held as a professional one and thus boundaries must be put up, like not showing romantic
interests or feelings around the home for example, which is considered unprofessional. You don’t
share personal information as you would with friends; you have to meet the policies and procedures
of the place of work, such as calling family members by their name instead of mum or dad, having no
emotional attachment visible, and treat everyone with equality, regardless of your opinion. For
example if you disliked someone in your work place, you cannot ignore them or refuse to work with
them unless something violates the practice of the home. I guess anything that is not work related
should be kept for uninterrupted breaks and for time outside of work.

1.2 Describe different working relationships in social care settings.

There are many different roles within the social care setting and so that leads to many different
working relationships. The working relationships can differ from colleague, manager, visiting doctor
or nurse, senior and even taxi drivers and other public workers that as a support worker are easy to
encounter, not to forget the service users and their family and friends. Every one of these roles have
different working relationships and some are more formal than others, for example; though your
relationship with other carers and support workers may be professional it tends to be much less
formal that when dealing with a manager. Another example would be that the way you address a
visiting doctor would differ greatly from the way you approach and address a service user, although
all four roles are still dealt with in a professional manner they can differ greatly.

Understand the importance of working in ways that are agreed with the employer

2.1 Describe why it is important to adhere to the agreed scope of the job role.

It is important to adhere to the scope of the job role because when an employer first starts working
they have agreed to adhere to it, and thus would break any agreement made between you and the
manager, and is a legal responsibility to perform within your pre defined job role. With
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understanding the expectations and respecting the professional boundaries every member of staff
perform their role, and in turn creates an effective working environment, if for example you begin
cleaning the bins when it is your responsibility to care for an individual, the establishment would
cease up, and subsequently the service user may be in discomfort or even in risk of danger. You
must be accountable for your actions and respectful of others job roles, creating an effective
environment to work within.

2.2 Outline what is meant by agreed ways of working.

Agreed ways of working is referring to the staff following the policies and procedures, adhering to
each individuals care plans accordingly, as well as any risk assessments in place as well as reading
and following any codes of conduct. An agreed way of working is performing to the standard that
was agreed at the beginning of the employees contract, to work effectively in helping protect and
care for the vulnerable.

2.3 Explain the importance of full and up to date details of agreed ways of working.

The importance of full and up to date agreed ways of working starts right at the beginning before
anyone is put in a social care environment. Having the job description and reading it fully, as well as
understanding it means that you agree to follow the agreed ways of working by not only performing
to the policies and procedures standards, but by knowing you have the appropriate skills and
experience to apply for and take on the job in the first place. Its important to keep up to date with
care plans, risk assessments and company policies and procedures, signing them when read to show
the manager who has read them and who has not, as without up to date information the safety and
comfort of the service users are put at risk. If no agreed ways of working were in place it would be
impossible to know what was expected of the individual, and even harder to care for the vulnerable.

Understand the importance of working in partnership with others.

3.1 Explain why it is important to work in partnership with others.

Working in partnership with others enables you to perform tasks that would be impossible on your
own, such as hoisting a service user or performing checks on medication. Colleagues are not the only
people you can benefit from working in a partnership with however, the families of service users,
the service users themselves, doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, social workers and a
multitude of other healthcare workers and professionals. These people may be able to help give you
useful information and help you in your job, supporting you with any problems you might have, or
even just reinforcing your own capabilities. If there are difficulties in communicating with an
individual service user for example, talking to a family member or a friend and working with them in
tandem can help you by suggesting methods of communication, or even by communicating with the
individual themselves to help reach a solution. With the working partnership of anyone that’s
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accessible, it will be much easier to reach the level of work that you aim for, and care for the
individuals as fully as possible.

3.2 Identify ways of working that can help improve partnership working.

Improving partnership working can be done in many ways and there are many different methods of
doing it. One way could be to give honest and unbiased information and opinions to the people you
work with to help build a strong bond of trust and encourage people to act in the same manner
toward you as you do to them. Identifying strengths and weaknesses of individuals is also key to
improving partnerships, as it can create an opportunity for everyone to learn, and to provide the
best possible care for the service user. You can improve partnership working by attending training
sessions and knowing your own roles and responsibilities, and having everyone know the policies
and procedures. Also having good communication between everyone involved can make working
with a partner much easier and more efficient.

3.3 Identify skills and approaches needed for resolving conflicts.

Compromising with a difficult individual is very important, as if a conflict seems one sided it will only
anger or agitate the conflicted individuals further. Understanding each others roles can also help
diffuse tension by having individuals concentrate on their roles rather than the other person, as well
as trying to understand the individuals problems, it could be as simple as turning the channel over,
but even if it isn’t, identifying why a conflict has occurred is a very good step towards resolving it,
and understanding that problem helps create empathy, which is a very useful tool when consoling or
comforting someone. There are also systems in place to resolve conflicts, and risk assessments to
help avoid them all together.

3.4 Explain how and when to access support and advice about 1- Partnership working, 2- Resolving
conflicts.

You can access support and advice about partnership working and resolving conflicts from
colleagues, senior, manager, even other places like the internet and other social care bodies. Their
experience and knowledge, especially in reference to your senior in charge may prove invaluable in
offering advice and methods when dealing with conflicts or partnership working. The manager can
help you with the legal side of things, and offer the most professional resolutions to conflicts
between higher bodies such as social services or external agencies. In regards to partnership
working, any time you have an issue or a concern regarding it, speaking to any of the above entities
will resulting similar results as resolving conflict, for example the senior can offer you professional
advice and from experience may well be able to identify your concern in partnership working from
having felt a similar way in the past.