General Social Care Council
Protecting the public by requiring high standards of professional education, conduct and practice of all social workers
Conduct
Professional Boundaries - guidance for social workers
The guidance
Professional Boundaries - guidance for social workers
(PDF 570KB)
We have developed professional boundaries guidance that is of practical use to social workers and social work students. This guidance is based around actual case examples where misconduct has been proved. The case examples are used as starting points for reflection around professional boundaries issues.
Professional Boundaries - online self-assessment tool
This is an interactive resource for social workers and students which complements the guidance by providing hypothetical examples of possible professional boundaries dilemmas. Rather than giving a prescriptive “right” answer, you are given the opportunity to compare your answers with those of your peers and are directed to appropriate parts of the GSCC’s codes of practice for further guidance.
Background to the guidance
- Professional Boundaries research report (PDF 274KB)
- Professional Boundaries: A qualitative study (PDF 325KB)
Blogs
Read a blog from our Chief Executive Penny Thompson, announcing the launch of our Professional Boundaries guidance and why we developed it. You can also share your thoughts by posting a comment on the blog
GSCC Council Board member Robin Currie blogs about professional boundaries guidance on the Guardian website.
Media
Read our press release on the launch of the guidance
Read the Guardian's coverage of our professional boundaries guidance
Read Community Care's coverage of our professional boundaries guidance
Read eGovmonitor's coverage of our professional boundaries guidance
Have your say
You may want to talk about your own experiences of professional boundary issues on our forum exclusively for social workers
Comments
Show4 comments so far
Frankie Heywood
7 Jan 2012 at 7:48pm
I think this guidance is extremely well written and is a useful and timely tool for practitioners. I regularly read GSCC Conduct Hearings: the examples given in this guide are not infrequent and I find myself stunned and appalled at the kinds of intimate and totally unprofessional relationships which some social workers get themselved into. I suspect that many social work degree courses don't pay enough attention to what constitutes professional behaviour.
emma
8 Dec 2011 at 11:23am
I found this tool a good conversation starter with colleagues and a good consciousness-raising tool.
I really appreciate these scenarios as they are not straight forward.
Bill Garnett
22 Nov 2011 at 1:59pm
this is a thoughtful and engaging approach...the scenarios are not too challenging, but they do raise a number of issues likely to be faced.....and being able to locate a response amongst the wider peer group is interesting in showing up the range of views that exist
Give us feedback
We want to know what you think!
Rate and comment on articles or get in contact with us so we can improve our service for you
Lesley Reilly
9 Mar 2012 at 8:45pm
Useful reminder, to the point, and helpful in encouraging us to continue to be aware of boundaries.