Social Work Now: Social workers can police their own boundaries, but guidance is vital

At the extreme, flagrant end, workers must not of course abuse or exploit service users or carers, as set out in the General Social Care Council (GSCC) code of practice. Moreover, they must not "form inappropriate personal relationships with service users", and should volunteer them as soon as possible if they do. But there is a multitude of other grey-area scenarios that social workers face. The GSCC has pledged to issue guidance later this year to help social workers "practice ethically" and negotiate their boundaries. Relationships are at the heart of practice; they are complex and multi-faceted and each child and family is different. So it is right that this guidance will aim to encourage practitioners to be more self-policing rather than prescribe a set of hard-and-fast rules. Many professional boundaries are not set in stone. For social workers, they should be a matter of negotiation and professional judgment.

The final report of the Munro review of child protection published last month was entitled, encouragingly, A Child-Centred System. This month we look at Enfield's child protection conference advocacy service, a great example of how a child-centred system can work in practice. The service ensures that children can have their say in child protection conferences and that their views and wishes feed into their plans. It is a set-up that should be emulated.

Elsewhere, Bob Reitemeier, chief executive of The Children's Society, warns that social workers should be prepared for how changes to the benefits system and the introduction of a universal credit might impact on families with disabled children; our multi-agency panel examines the case of an uncle attempting to gain parental responsibility for his niece and nephew; and a GSCC survey reveals that the vast majority of workers believe the social work degree does not adequately prepare them to work with people with mental health problems.

Finally, this is the last edition of Social Work Now. We hope you have found the magazine useful and informative and thanks to all who have provided enthusiastic feedback. You can continue to keep abreast of all developments in social work with children and families at cypow.co.uk/socialcare and sign up to receive weekly email news bulletins at cypnow.co.uk/go/email_bulletins.

Ravi Chandiramani, editor-in-chief, ravi.chandiramani@haymarket.com