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BJSW Advance Access published online on July 2, 2008
British Journal of Social Work, doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcn099
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved

Critical Commentary: Social Work Ethics

Sarah Banks

Sarah Banks is Professor in the School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University, UK. She writes and researches on ethical issues relating to the social professions, and has just completed a book with Ann Gallagher on Ethics in Professional Life: Virtues for Health and Social Care, to be published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Correspondence to Professor Sarah Banks, School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University, Elvet Riverside 2, New Elvet, Durham DH1 3JT, UK. Email: s.j.banks{at}durham.ac.uk


  Abstract

This short article explores the expanding and contested terrain of social work ethics, considering the form and content of future areas for development. It charts the broadening of the field beyond a focus on professional codes of ethics, principle-based theories, difficult cases and decision-making models towards more embedded and situated approaches to ethics in professional life. The potential for further empirical research into ethical issues in social work, including how practitioners conceptualize and handle ethical difficulties, is noted, alongside the scope for focused studies and monographs drawing on moral, political and religious philosophy to examine particular theoretical approaches (such as virtue ethics or the ethics of care) or to develop new ways of approaching ethics in social work, drawing on its radical, critical and transformatory traditions.

Keywords: Social work ethics, professional ethics, moral philosophy


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