Introduction

Personal values can be considered to entail strong opinions as well as beliefs which a specific individual considers in being worthy and important as part of one’s life. Values shall in addition be seen at times for being problematic on account of them changing over course of time. To take an example, personal values can encompass justice, equality, positivity, honesty, respect, and others. The values of this nature shall be formed in an individual after they start understanding differences in-between good vs bad / right vs wrong. It is also crucial to note here that understanding something to be right or else wrong is a highly subjective aspect and hence the same forms the reason for personal values of people differing from one to other. In essence, personal values shall encompass moral, cultural, political, traditional, or else religious values. The personal values as well as its meanings shall be unique to each individual as well as that they shall differ in a vast manner between individuals. In actual, personal values could differ even amongst the individuals working in same profession (Healy & Thomas, 2020).

In this context, the aim of this report is to present an exploration of relationship in-between personal as well as professional values, ethics and legislative framework with respect to a social work. In this report, link and relationships shall be established between each all of the components.

Personal Values & Professional Values in Social Work

The personal values of a social worker could affect the ways in which the social worker makes decisions, carries himself, and makes choices in the professional practice. Hence, it shall be crucial for a social worker in being aware of these values, their relevance as well as their foundations. In case of many individuals, the rationale with respect to their choice to pursue a career in social work is chiefly on account of these value, and to a certain extent the personal values being aligned with values pertaining to social work. However, there shall be times and instances in the career of social workers wherein they shall find themselves being exposed to conflicts between their personal values and the professional values (Healy & Thomas, 2020).

Professional values refer to principles which are established for guiding individuals on the ways of acting and behaving in the context of their professional practice. In essence, professional values specify the ways in which each practitioner need to treat their respective clients. Even in case, HCPC code for conduct establishes clear guidelines over the ways in which each social worker needs to undertake actions as part of the practice, professional values shall be distinct as against those that are established by way of legislations as well as polices (Adams et al., 2017). Professional values refer to the values which shall be held commonly within a specific profession, irrespective of the same having a formal documented foundation or else an informal understanding. In addition, every organisation in the social work domain need to possess their respective values. Some of the examples of professional value in social work domain include: a commitment for attaining social change for the purposes of meeting a need that is socially recognised, offering critical importance on most vulnerable set of individuals in a society, ensuring respect to differences within individuals/ groups, and other such values (Adams et al., 2017).

Values, Ethics & Legislative Framework: Relationship, Conflicts & Links

It shall be essential for social workers in creating an optimal balance in-between their personal values as well as domain’s professional values. Herein, it shall be crucially common amongst social workers for experiencing conflicts in-between their personal as well as professional values all through the practice. The stated conflict represents a crucial issue to social workers (Reamer & Reamer, 2018). This issue takes place not just with respect to the stated conflict, but in addition in case where personal as well as professional values have a conflict with respect to the needs concerning diverse set of service users. Despite the same, it has to be noted that professional values shall effectively determine the way in which social workers need to perform in their respective professional practice. Hence with respect to every situation, prior to deciding, concerned social worker shall be required for questioning their personal values for assessing its compatibility with professional values. Most importantly, when there is a clear contradiction, professional values shall at all times dominate personal values on account of the rationale that a social worker is expected to put aside personal values for the purposes of conducting themselves in the manner that is professionally appropriate (Reamer & Reamer, 2018).

Conclusion

The issues discussed shall have impacts in instances of conflicts and contradictions in varied different ways as the personal values of social workers shall drive them in looking down on different path with respect to a specific circumstance, and professional values shall often bring them to right path, therein reminding them on expected professional standards which has to be maintained at all times. To take an example, consider an issue where a social worker has to help a family where both parents are unfortunately unemployed and said family be sustaining on low income, and also seeking housing as well as other benefits. A social worker from a vary contrasting background could possess personal values which may make the said social worker for being prejudiced against this lower income family, and that their situation is on account of the fact that the parents are uneducated and / or lazy, and failed in making adequate efforts to seek job and grow. In this context, it shall be crucial for the concerned social worker to identify the conflict and understand that the conflict between personal as well as professional values. This will guide the social worker to choose the professional values over the personal value therein ensuring best possible aid is offered to all the users of service without discriminate, prejudice or other issues. In summary, the professional value shall always take precedence over the personal values in social work context, and most crucially, the concerned social worker needs to be trained to habitually confront on the personal values before acting on the same without suitable comparison with professional standards and then act in a professional manner. In addition, the adherence to legislative framework shall take precedence and the alignment to the same shall also be crucial. However, most often professional standards usually take in consideration the legislative mandates in advance. Yet, a social worker needs to be aware of the changes in the legislations and the current mandates and compliances to ensure their actions and decisions are at all times ethical, professional, and aligned to the applicable legislations. All of these factors take precedence over the personal values of the specific social worker.

This report, thus, presented the outcomes of the assessment and discussion on the relationship in-between personal as well as professional values, ethics and legislative framework with respect to a social work. In this manner, the clear link as well as relationship has be clearly established in-between all of these key components.

References

Adams, R., Dominelli, L., & Payne, M. (Eds.). (2017). Social work: Themes, issues and critical debates. Macmillan Education UK.

Healy, L. M., & Thomas, R. L. (2020). International social work: Professional action in an interdependent world. Oxford University Press.

Reamer, F., & Reamer, F. G. (2018). Social work values and ethics. Columbia University Press.