Sociology Essay: Exploring Social Work Values and Practices in the UK

This sociology essay delves into the core values and practices of social work within the United Kingdom, examining crucial aspects such as trustworthiness, partnership, and the significance of diversity in addressing human identity. The essay explores the interplay between these values and beliefs, particularly concerning sensitive issues such as homosexuality in Islam and the impact of cultural beliefs on educational aspirations. Furthermore, it analyzes the importance of anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practices, emphasizing the need for social justice and economic well-being for all service users, especially those from marginalized communities. The essay also touches upon social discrimination, self-reflective practice, and the challenges of economic disadvantage, highlighting the role of social workers in promoting equality, empowerment, and positive social change. The author emphasizes the significance of cultural competency, the importance of ethical conduct, and the need for social workers to address societal barriers to ensure equal opportunities and uphold human rights.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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 Introduction
Social work is a very wide concept and the social work values have been interpreted by
many people in various ways. In this essay some of the most important issues for the social
issues would be discussed to understand the important dimensions of the social work in the
social work practices in United Kingdom (Gambrill 2012). The issues that would be discussed in
this essay are the relevance of the diversity in the social work in the course of human identity.
The issues of the anti-discriminatory practice and anti-oppressive practices would also be
discussed in the essay.
 Values and beliefs of social work practice
The two important social values to be included in the paper are trustworthiness and
partnership. The social work profession always promotes doing the common good for the
people. The social work profession is a value-based profession in which the social workers
will need to seek the ways by which they can do beneficial things for their service users
(DuBois and Miley 2013). Many scandals have taken place in the human services. This is
why the trustworthiness among the social workers and service users. The enhancement of
trustworthiness is all the service users seek from the social workers that can increase the
values of the professional purpose of social work. If we can trust the person with whom we
are working it becomes easier to communicate and reveal our problems and difficulties. The
social workers will then be able to take active steps to mitigate the issues based on the trust
(Healy, 2014).
As the decision making is an important characteristic for the social workers, the aspect of
partnership is indeed very significant. I think the social workers should always respect the

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values of privacy, reliability, confidentiality so that the service users can consider them as
their partners in the process of partnership (DuBois and Miley 2013) The professional
relationships should be based on the controlling power of the people on their own lives. The
social workers should always be able to communicate with the individuals and trust their
partners. This will create a good working environment for all the social workers. The
families, groups, communities and other agencies should all be included in the partnership
with the individuals. The social workers must also acknowledge and respect the overall
contribution of their colleagues who belong to the other disciplines (Sue, Rasheed and
Rasheed 2016).
The beliefs would be discussed in this section. The two beliefs to be discussed here are
homosexuality in Islam and the impact of Asian culture on my study. As per the first belief,
I have chosen the homosexuality in Islam. It seems that being a homosexual has been
revered as a sin in Islam. This is why the Muslim homosexual people are always deprived of
the several social privileges. The social work values always seem to provide the human rights
to all the people equally and serving them justice. The social workers should act by the PCF
4 of the BASW. The PCF 4 questions in favor of the rights, justice and economic well-being.
This scenario also means that the all the Muslims should be provided with their rights to be
homosexual irrespective of their religion. Some conflicts might arise in the religious context
but the social workers should adhere to the principles of PCF4 to promote the strengths of the
individuals. As per the PCF4, the Muslim people should not be oppressed by the conservative
religious leaders. The social workers can mitigate the conflicts based on the social values.
The social workers should inspire the hope among the Muslim people so no discrimination
policies should have a negative impact on them.

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The second issue would be the Asian cultural belief to finish off the education to a
degree standard after college. It has been observed in numerous studies that the Asian
parents are only contented with the degree standard education of their children. It is not right
because the students might have growing interest in higher studies and they can intend to
establish themselves in the professional fields (Healy, 2014). The desire to pursue the higher
studies should be respected by the families and social workers would have to take the active
parts in convincing the parents. Thus the effective results can be derived and I might get the
chance to go for higher studies.
 Diversity
In my opinion, diversity is one of the foremost things that the social workers have to
manage in the professional practices. I had to work with several service users who are quite
different from each other. The diversity comes from the cultural angle at the very first. This is
why I have to deal with the service users in different ways. I have found some service users who
belong to culturally backward classes and they are always afraid of mixing with the high society
people of the country. This is why I believe that the roots of this diversity in the human identity
lie in the cultural perspectives.
 Rights, justice and economic well-being
The social workers should have to be much competent when they would deal with the
social workers of the backward classes of the society (Ife 2012). The social justice is required for
the people who seek it. I think the social justice is very much needed so they can stand firm in
the society. The social workers must shift their focus on the culturally competent practices so the
focus can be shifted to the diversity in the human identity. The Professional Capabilities

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Framework would be a very important fact to resolve this issue in the best manner. If the social
workers engage in the culturally competent practices they might face some conflicts that they
would have to tackle properly.
 Anti-discriminatory practice and anti-oppressive practice
In my opinion, the anti-discriminatory practice and anti-oppressive practice are very
important factors for the social work practices. I have faced several concerns regarding this
practice. I have seen very closely the plight of the people who have been disadvantaged in the
society. They face the oppression by the ethnic majority people and they face several hazards
indeed. The categorizations have been done on the basis of their social class and their ethnicities
(Ife 2012). The educations will have to be given on the service users how they can cope up with
the several issues for the minority people within the society. There are several complexities
while the education will have to be given on the different approaches to the social work practice.
There are many theoretical perspectives of the issues like discrimination and oppression. As per
the anti-oppressive practice within the society I would have to identify the oppression that goes
within the communities, societies and the cultures.
The prior responsibility of social workers would be to determine the kind of oppression
being done on the minority people. I must consider the feelings they have when they suffer the
issues and are victimized. I believe the social barriers are crucial indeed to recognize how
effective they can be. The primary purpose of the anti-oppressive practice is to provide the most
suitable and perceptive ways to sort out the problems within the society. I have felt through that
social work practices that the oppression is practiced so the unequal status situation can be

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maintained. However, my attempt would always be to make some social work models that would
eradicate the differences between the majority and minority ethnic people.
 Social discrimination
The social discrimination is also one very important factor within the constraints of the
society. This social discrimination is done on the basis of the age, ethnicity, gender and sexual
preference of the people (Healy 2014). The facilities from the government should be given to all
the people in an equal manner. I believe that the ending this discrimination since the mental
health of the victimized discriminated people feel in much jeopardy. The mental health of the
service users should be assessed and proper steps should be taken to curb the issue.
I would like to pen down the relevance of the social justice within the constraints of the
social work. The code of ethics should be maintained by the experts so the service users should
not be deprived of the social justice that they deserve. The most prior thing in this section is to
ensure that all the people within the society get the equal opportunities. This is applicable for the
children as well as the adults as well. The people within the society should be given the
opportunities to participate in the decision making process (Healy 2014).
 Relevance of social justice
I always think that the social workers should promote the social justice among the social
workers. The social justice is one of the most useful facts for the profession of social work. The
decision making process must include the people who think themselves as inferior ones. Some of
the other main values of the social work are rights and economic well being of the people. All
the people should be considered as the members of the society. This is why they should be
treated as the same and provided with all sorts of facilities (Payne 2015). The social welfare of

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the children should be treated with the positive aspects for the development of these ethically
minor people. The rights of the human beings, doing justice to them and providing the means for
the economic well being of the people should be focused on properly.
 Several issues within social justice
The primary duty of social workers is to implement the social justice for the children and
adults but I have observed that the barriers to ethnicity and social barriers have been very much
problematic for me. Especially the group of ethnically minority people has been downtrodden for
a long time within the society. I suppose all the human beings should possess a standard of living
that should identify their social dignity. The social workers must ensure that the human beings
should be empowered to have their rights within the society. The personal values and
professional values do have a very close relationship (Cocker and Hafford-Letchfield 2014).
 Self reflective practice
The self-reflective practice is also a very crucial issue within the social work. It is indeed
very much crucial for the social care practice since the social workers would be able to know his
abilities of how he could be able to deal with the issues of the social workers. The process of
learning for the social workers has been assumed as a very important issue for the social
workers. This is why the social workers must be able to understand the issues and concerns of
their service users. The researches have been very much effective for the social work
practitioners to know that they must build a strong and effective relationship with the service
users so the outcome can be positive for all of them (Cocker and Hafford-Letchfield 2014).
 Economic well-being and economic disadvantage

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One of the most important purposes for being engaged in the social work practice is that
of removing poverty from the society. It has been observed by many critics that the impact of
poverty has been very detrimental for the growth of the society and the country as a whole as
well. I have personally felt that this is a very challenging task for the social workers to be
precise. I have gathered the experience from my field work in the social work practice that
numerous people in the society live below the poverty levels.
This is why I believe the intervention of the social work methods is really significant
(Knott and Scragg 2016). My personal opinion is it is indeed very much difficult for the social
workers to lift those unfortunate people out of the situation without the proper help of the
government. It can only improve with more industrialization in the country and the growth of
GDP. I have felt the need for the social workers to fight against this economic disadvantage
among some of the sections within the society because most of them have to learn this strategy
on the job. The social workers can seek the aid from the legal perspectives as well as they can
implement the BASW Code of Ethics in this regard as well.
 Conclusion
In the concluding section of this essay, I need to mention that the anti-discriminative and
anti-oppressive practices are really very problematic for the development of the society. The
society can never develop when one part of the society is facing the discrimination by the
ethnically majority of people. The social workers have a huge role to play in this regard. The
aspect of the social justice is very much relevant to the social work. The three facts rights, justice
and economic well-being are indeed effective to shape the society in a better manner. I have
learnt that I will have to be very much active in the process of providing the social justice to the

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needy people within the society. I must contribute my efforts to the different service-user groups.
There is a huge relevance of the reflective practice in the social work so the social workers
would be aware of their strengths and weaknesses.

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References and Bibliography
Banks, S. (2012). Ethics and values in social work. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire:
Palgrave Macmillan..
Broad, B. (2017). Anti-discriminatory practitioner social work research: some basic problems
and possible remedies. In Re-thinking Social Research, pp.164-184.
Cocker, C. and Hafford-Letchfield, T. (2014). Rethinking anti-discriminatory and anti-
oppressive theories for social work practice. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave
Macmillan.
DuBois, B. and Miley, K. (2013). Social work: An empowering profession.
Gambrill, E. (2013). Social work practice. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Greene, R. (2017). Human Behavior Theory and Professional Social Work Practice. In Human
Behavior Theory and Social Work Practice, pp.31-62.
Hammell, K. and Iwama, M. (2012). Well-being and occupational rights: An imperative for
critical occupational therapy. Scandinavian journal of occupational therapy, 19(5), pp.385-394.
Healy, K. (2014). Social work theories in context. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ife, J. (2014). Human rights and social work. Cambridge [u.a.]: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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practice. Pearson.

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Parrott, L., 2014. Values and ethics in social work practice. Learning Matters.
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