Ethics & Ethical Standards for Social Workers (Social Work England)
A 2.5-hour CPD course built around Social Work England's Professional Standards, genuine partnership recognising people as experts in their own lives, real trust and confidence, and safety, respect and professional integrity, in and outside work. Written for social workers across children's and adult services.
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Course Content
Is this you?
We wrote this for three kinds of Social Work England-registered professional. Most people reading this are at least one of them.
You want to hold genuine partnership and real risk together, not choose between them.
Recognising a person as an expert in their own life while a genuine risk exists is one of the hardest, most common tensions in the role. This course works through it directly, not as an abstract principle.
You want CPD that actually reflects how the standards are written.
Social Work England's standards are written in the first person, "as a social worker, I will." This course keeps that same register throughout, not a generic third-person paraphrase.
A genuine ethical dilemma or concern has tested you recently.
Whether it's a capacitous person's choice against family pressure, or a safeguarding concern surfacing mid-partnership, this course works through the real reasoning, not just the rule.
Social Work England sets six standards. This course covers the relational and ethical ones.
Ethics and our upcoming Professionalism course are designed as a pair, covering all six Professional Standards fully between them without repeating each other. Here's where this course sits.
Rights & Wellbeing
Genuine partnership, power used responsibly, and recognising disadvantage.
This courseTrust & Confidence
Confidentiality, role clarity, and genuine active listening.
This courseSafety & Integrity
Conduct in and outside work, honesty, and professional social media use.
This courseStanding Practice
Accountability, CPD, and raising concerns, covered in our Professionalism course.
What it covers, and why
Course description
A 2.5-hour CPD course on the relational and ethical reasoning side of Social Work England's Professional Standards, built for social workers across children's and adult services. It covers genuine partnership recognising people as experts in their own lives, real trust and confidence including confidentiality and role clarity, and safety, respect and professional integrity, both in and outside work.
Why it's relevant
Social Work England's standards are written distinctively, in the first person, and centre genuine partnership even where real risk is present. This course is built around that actual framing and that actual tension, not a generic professional-ethics course relabelled for social work.
How it improves your practice
You'll finish able to work in genuine partnership recognising people as experts in their own lives, establish real trust and confidence including genuine confidentiality, recognise what safety and professional integrity require in and outside work, and reason through genuine tensions between rights, risk, and protection using a structured method.
What it covers
The course runs across five modules:
- Rights, strengths, wellbeing, and genuine partnership
- Trust and confidence, confidentiality, and role clarity
- Safety, respect, and professional integrity, in and outside work
- Ethical reasoning when rights, risk, and protection genuinely pull apart
- Applying every standard together, with two complete worked cases
Who it's for
Any social worker registered with Social Work England, at any career stage, across children's services, adult services, and every practice setting. Part of the wider CrownEthics library of CPD courses for UK healthcare and social care professionals.
Related courses
This course stands on its own. This pairs naturally if your situation calls for it:
- You want to understand the wider fitness to practise process — add Fitness to Practise: What You Need to Know. Relevant across every UK regulator, not Social Work England-specific.
Every course above is standalone and priced individually.
Everything included
18 lessons across 5 modules, self-paced, around 2.5 hours
Four short knowledge checks, plus a final 15-question assessment (80% to pass, unlimited retakes)
Downloadable certificate of completion, permanent access
Reviewed by qualified professionals for accuracy
No expiry, revisit any time
Questions about this course
Does this course count as CPD?
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Is this course based on the actual Social Work England standards?
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Does the course cover both children's and adult services?
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Does this course discuss graphic safeguarding detail?
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Will this help if a concern has already been raised about me?
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How long does the course take, and is it self-paced?
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Is there an assessment, and what happens if I don't pass?
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Who reviewed this course for accuracy?
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Can my organisation enrol multiple staff at once?
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Still have a question? Email us and we'll get back to you.
