Values and Ethical Practice - Level 10

By this stage, students should be able to assess and intervene appropriately in complex situations where they identify that a child may be in need or at risk. This means that they can prioritise the needs of a child irrespective of who their primary client is.

Students need to demonstrate that they are aware of their own personal values in relation to child care and protection and if necessary can separate these from their practice to ensure they respond professionally.

Students need to demonstrate that where there is a conflict between their personal and professional values, they can use supervision effectively to address this.

Students need to be aware that their professional assessment of a child's needs may be in conflict with that of the agency providing their practice learning opportunity. They need to demonstrate an ability to challenge appropriately to ensure that they discharge their professional responsibility. For example, where students believe the agency's overall assessment is based on resource rather than need, they have a professional responsibility to confront this using appropriate channels.

While discharging their authority, students may encounter aggression or abuse from service users. For example, parents may be angry where the student has acted on a concern for a vulnerable child. Students need to demonstrate that they can seek appropriate supervision to ensure that their professional assessment and intervention is not compromised.

Students need to be clear that it is not acceptable to carry out their duties in an unsafe environment and they need to be clear of the agency's responsibility to put in place reasonable safeguards to protect them. Notwithstanding this, the needs of any children should be paramount. For example, if a student decides it is not safe to visit a child at home because s/he hears a violent argument as s/he approaches, the student should seek immediate guidance about the needs of children in the house. This might involve a referral to other professionals (e.g. police).

MacDonald and Winkley state:

"Every child has the right to expect that professionals intervening in their lives will do so on the basis of the best available knowledge" (2000, 1). Students need to be clear that in order to practice in an ethical manner their methods should be based on the best evidence of what works for children and that they are responsive to new ideas from research.

Students should be aware of the outcomes of their intervention including unintended outcomes. For example, while it may support parents with learning difficulties to provide extensive home care from a range of professionals, this may have the unintended outcome of increasing their child’s vulnerability and attachment difficulties.