Codes of Practice for Social Care Workers
The Code of Practice for Social Care Workers is a list of statements that describe the standards of professional conduct and practice required of social care workers as they go about their daily work.
Protect the rights & promote the interests of service users and carers
• This includes treating each person as an individual.
• Respecting and, where appropriate, promoting the individual views and wishes of both service users and carers.
• Supporting them with the rights to control their lives & make informed Choices about the services they receive.
• Respecting & maintaining the dignity & privacy of service users.
• Promoting equal opportunities.
• Respecting diversity & different cultures & values.
Strive to establish & maintain the trust & confidence of service users & carers
• This includes being honest & trustworthy.
• Communicating in an appropriate, open, accurate & straight forward way.
• Respecting confidential information.
• Being reliable & dependable.
• Declaring issues that might create conflicts of interest.
• Adhering to polices & procedures about accepting gifts & money from service users.
Promote the independence of service users while protecting them as far as possible from danger or harm
• This includes promoting independence & assisting them to understand their rights.
• Using processes & procedures designed to keep you & other people safe from violent & abusive behaviour at work.
• Complying with employers health and safety policies.
• Helping service users & carers to make complaints, taking complaints seriously & responding to them of passing them to the appropriate person.
• Recognising & using responsibly the power that comes from your work with service users & carers.
Respect the rights of service users whilst seeking to ensure that their behaviour does not harm themselves or other people
• This includes recognising that service users have the right to take risks & helping them to identify & manage potential & actual risks to themselves & others.
• Following risk assessment policies & procedures to assess whether the behaviour of the service user presents a risk of harm.
• Taking necessary steps to minimise the risks of the service users from doing actual or potential harm to themselves or others.
• Ensuring that relevant colleagues & agencies are informed about the outcomes & implications of risk assessments.
Uphold public trust & confidence in social care services
• In particular you must not abuse, neglect or harm service users, carers or colleagues.
• Exploit service users, carers or colleagues.
• Abuse the trust of service users or the access you have to personal information about them or their property.
• Form inappropriate personal relationships with service users.
• Put yourself or other people at unnecessary risk.
• Behave in a way, in work or outside work, which would call into question your suitability to work in social care services.
Be accountable for the quality of their work & take responsibility for maintaining & improving their knowledge &
