Social Work - Professional Practice: Values, Skills, and Theory

This report provides a comprehensive overview of social work professional practice, addressing key aspects such as personal beliefs, values, and principles, including confidentiality, voluntary participation, and continuous professional development. It explores the importance of cultural knowledge and sensitivity in interacting with diverse populations, emphasizing the development of cultural competencies. The report outlines the essential professional practice skills, including organizational skills, empathy, and boundary setting, and highlights the skills needed for future development, such as social perceptiveness and coordination. It also delves into professional knowledge, referencing the AASW code of ethics, and discusses strategic priorities to improve service delivery and respect human rights. The report then examines relevant theories underpinning social work practice, like system theory, interaction theory, and social learning theory, and emphasizes the significance of evidence-based practice. Finally, it addresses the organizational context and the application of the AASW code of ethics in practice, focusing on building trusting relationships, utilizing evidence-based practice, and empowering clients to achieve greater life satisfaction.

Social work - professional
practice (Part-B)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Personal beliefs, values and principles...................................................................................1
Cultural knowledge and beliefs..............................................................................................2
Professional practice skills.....................................................................................................2
Professional knowledge..........................................................................................................3
Theory and research...............................................................................................................4
Organisational context............................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Personal beliefs, values and principles
As a practitioner, social work requires specified qualification, as it determined that
without this, an individual cannot call himself as a social worker. Further, according to Beckett,
Maynard & Jordan (2017) the ethical foundation is provided by values that in turn informs
professional principles & practice. I have learned that applying positivity and anti-oppressive
value will have a number of implications for my work practice. Moreover, principles and values
that underpinned my framework are confidentiality, voluntary participation, continuous
professional development and responsibility.
Throughout my experience as a social worker in PG community, I have learned that these
above-mentioned principles, practice and values are central as a professional social worker. As
per the views of Greene (2017), every practitioner has their values and principles that enhance
their behaviour and understanding of the community. So, it is important for me to reflect on these
values as my future decision will directly affect my services. For example, during my placement
in human service organisation after I have experienced an incident through which I realised that I
should have helped her without any discrimination. This because, she was from South side of
Brisbane and our organisation used to give priority only to the local people. Based on these
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Principles: - To assist people in need and to solve social problems,
respect the inherent dignity of them and to behave in trust worthy way.
Practice: - To establish the core values on which my profession is based,
keep high standards of personal conduct
Values: - Effective service, social justice, value the individual

principles and values and my role as a social worker and so far, based on my experience, I
learned that I have to fight for the rights of others & work to acquire needed resources. Also, as a
social worker it is my responsibility to concern for those who are in need or are incapable to
stand for themselves.
Cultural knowledge and beliefs
In my opinion, culture in social work practice is an ability to communicate, understand
effective interact which persons across culture. Further, I applied this to inbuilt pattern of
individual's behaviour that includes actions, customs, values, belief, ideas & institution of
religious or social group. I have learned that, cultural competencies enable social workers to
become more adjusted with & sensitive towards individuals, groups or families. As Payne,
(2015) stated that, this leads to provide services & support that are more culturally competent. I
will develop my cultural sensitivity by:
 I will understand culture & its functions in society and further, identify the strengths that
are available in all cultures.
 I will make sure to have knowledge base of my client's cultures & be able to express
ability in the delivering of services that are sensitive to their cultures.
 Lastly, I will acquire an understanding of social diversity & oppression in relation to
national origin, colour, ethnicity, status, etc.
These competencies are considered important as a social worker, as this will allow me to obtain
my own perspectives regarding my own cultural identity, also how people view us. According to
Kluegel & Smith, (2017), by having these understandings and sensitivity of other's culture will
also help people to know about different views. My future aim is to promote social justice and to
end discrimination or bias. For example, as mentioned earlier about one of my worst experience
that happen during my placement which was also based on discrimination and inequality.
Therefore, for my future the most important goal is to become the voice of my clients (AASW/
Australian Association of Socials Workers/ Practice Standards. 2013).
Professional practice skills
Professional practice skills, refer to those skills which a social worker needs to develop in
order to provide effective service to vulnerable people. Further, Sue, D. W., Rasheed, M. N., &
Rasheed, J. M. (2015) discovered some key skills that are developed internally, also some skills
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are learned through professional training which are also considered extremely important. Skills
that I have developed till now are: -
 Organisational skills: - I think, being well organised is very essential as I can be asked in
future to perform various tasks. These skills allow me to schedule my work that which
work is need to be done first.
 Empathy: - this quality refers to an ability to experience client's situation by keep own-
self in their shoe. This allow me to easily understand & solve their problem as it is a
cognitive and emotional process.
 Boundary setting: - during my placement I have learned that setting boundaries for work
is important. This allows me to accept the limits of what can be finished during a given
time period (3 Principles for Effective Social Work Case Management, 2016).
Skills that I need to develop for future:
 Social perceptiveness: - I have learned that, to receive verbal information, I have to be
sensitive towards my body language, implications, & cultural patterns of behaviour. This
is because, I have seen that many clients state their needs clearly but there are also some
clients that find it difficult to express themselves.
 Co-ordinations: - this is ability to co-ordinate communication among various parties as it
will help me to connect clients with services.
This is with reference to the AASW code of ethics which states that the act of social work is
based on some key values of respecting persons, combating for social justice and maintaining
professional integrity.
Professional knowledge
In accordance to the AASW code of ethics, there exists some vital components of practice
namely values and ethics and a sense of professionalism. This also necessitates to be culturally
responsive and includes knowledge for practice and an inclusive practice for applying the
knowledge to practice. Also, it is required that I must possess effective skills of communication
as well as interpersonal skills with a key idea of recording and sharing the information. Lastly, it
necessitates that I must undertake constant professional development as well as supervision. At
this stage of my career and based on my past experience in human service organisation, the
professional knowledge is consisting of that work of social practitioner is to empower people's
rights and promote their well-being. My strategic priorities are:
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 To understand & meet the priorities of the government.
 Make the service delivery & governing functions as effective as possible, at the time of
providing effective & government & client outcomes.
 Look for opportunities to promote efficiencies & increase my service effectiveness by
partnering with non-profit organisations.
 Moreover, I have learned that I need to respect the human rights as demonstrated in
international conventions derived from declaration of human rights.
 My profession is committed to maximise the well-being of individuals, society and
communities. I take into consideration that, individual, society & community well-being
are derived by socially comprehensive communities that emphasis principles of social
justice.
I will continue to develop this by acquiring training in different fields of social works and in
different organisations. I will discuss, analyse and consider ethical problems in collaboration
with colleagues or experts to enhance my knowledge. Continuous review on my practice will
serve as a motivation for social work action.
Theory and research
This is in regard to specify the way in which the framework of AASW informs my practice
of social worker. It is assistive in building an emergent practitioner like me who needs to work
upon some principal areas of practice that includes working with individuals, families, groups,
communities, etc. Likewise, it together specifies the social policy practice with some other
related aspects of management, leadership and administration to educate, research, get trained
and enable the approach of evaluation.
Research is considered as an important process through which formal knowledge is
developed. According to Epstein, (2018) it is helpful in both positive & negative ways; in the
sense of positive new knowledge is obtained through research activity. Also, in this, social
worker practice can be benefit from the fresh understandings gained. Whereas in negative sense,
it can help us to move ahead by revealing false presumptions. Therefore, they stated that research
is considered as a valuable part in assisting to promote an informed approach to human service
practice.
Theories that underpin my framework are:
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 System theory: - this theory demonstrates human behaviour as the intersection of the
influences of various interrelated systems. There is an inbuilt involvement of individual
issues, organisations, families, societies and other systems. Based on this theory, Padgett
(2016) stated that all systems are interconnected parts & each system affects other parts
of the whole.
 Interaction theory: - It refers to an approach on how one clearly understands another
person. This theory helps me to know and understand client's mind through our embodied
interactive relations.
 Social Learning theory: - According to Greene (2017), as a social worker I will face
challenge in every field that occur due to, trying to understand client's behaviour. This
theory, therefore, allows me to observe and experience new behaviours of other people.
In my opinion, evidence-based practice is a procedure in which the practitioner joints well
researched interventions with ethics, client's needs and culture, in order to guide the service
delivery.
Organisational context
AASW with its specified code of ethics has depicted to be a guide to perform ethically. It
is with a special context of my role as a social worker who can follow these standards to operate
responsibly at the workplace. As per the views of Fook, (2016), when the social worker functions
both as helper & controller, the issue that arises is that, the link between these two opposite
aspects of social work demands a clarification based on an explicit choice of values so that
mixing up of motives can be avoided. Further, the responsibility of social worker practitioner is
to protect the client's interests, that will easily come into conflict with demand for efficiency and
also this issue is becoming crucial with the establishment of information technology, within the
social work organisation.
The above mention theories, principles, values & beliefs will help me to solve these issues.
Further, strategies that will help me to deal with this are:
 Building trusting relationship: - as per National Association of Social Workers, the link
between client and social worker plays a key role in case management. This is because,
making this kind of relationship will help me to engage them effectively. Therefore, I will
build trustworthy relationship with my clients in the future.
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 Making use of evidence-based practice: - this strategy is considered as an important
approach for social workers, and is a process that I will use to guide the delivery of my
service. Hence, applying this strategy will assist me in my future practice.
 Empowering my client: - this strategy focuses on recognising social worker's relationship
with their clients as a partnership rather than only helpers. Therefore, this will empower
them to meet higher level of life satisfaction.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Beckett, C., Maynard, A., & Jordan, P. (2017). Values and ethics in social work. Sage.
Epstein, M. J. (2018). Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring
corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge.
Fook, J. (2016). Social work: A critical approach to practice. Sage.
Greene, R. R. (2017). Human Behavior Theory and Professional Social Work Practice. In Human
Behavior Theory and Social Work Practice (pp. 31-62). Routledge.
Greene, R. R. (2017). Human Behavior Theory and Professional Social Work Practice. In Human
Behavior Theory and Social Work Practice (pp. 31-62). Routledge.
Kluegel, J. R., & Smith, E. R. (2017). Beliefs about inequality: Americans' views of what is and
what ought to be. Routledge.
Padgett, D. K. (2016). Qualitative methods in social work research (Vol. 36). Sage Publications.
Payne, M. (2015). Modern social work theory. Oxford University Press.
Sue, D. W., Rasheed, M. N., & Rasheed, J. M. (2015). Multicultural social work practice: A
competency-based approach to diversity and social justice. John Wiley & Sons.
Online
3 Principles for Effective Social Work Case Management. 2016. [Online]. Available on:
<https://bitfocus.com/case-management/effective-social-work-case-management-
principles/>
AASW/ Australian Association of Socials Workers/ Practice Standards. 2013. [PDF]. Available
on: <https://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/4551>
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