The American Social Worker’s Code of Ethics

Social Worker Continuing Education is vital to ongoing responsible professional clinical practice. This includes but is not limited to LCSW Continuing Education, ASW Continuing Education, and LSW Continuing Education.
The social work profession established roots within a set of core values. These core values, embraced by social workers throughout the profession’s history, are the foundation of social work’s unique purpose and perspective:
• service
• social justice
• dignity and worth of the person
• importance of human relationships
• integrity
• competence
NASW Code of Ethics
Professional ethics are integral to the practice of social work. Social Workers have a responsibility to articulate core values and ethics. The NASW Code of Ethics was designed to help define these values and ethics. The Code of Ethics impacts all social workers and social work students in guiding their professional conduct.
The NASW Code of Ethics has several purposes including:
The Code identifies core values on which social work’s mission is based.
The Code summarizes broad ethical principles that reflect the profession’s core values and establishes a set of specific ethical standards that should be used to guide social work practice.
The Code is designed to help social workers identify relevant considerations when professional obligations conflict or ethical uncertainties arise.
The Code provides ethical standards to which the general public can hold the social work profession accountable.
The Code socializes practitioners new to the field to social work’s mission, values, ethical principles, and ethical standards.
The Code articulates standards that the social work profession itself can use to assess whether social workers have engaged in unethical conduct. NASW has formal procedures to adjudicate ethics complaints filed against its members.* In subscribing to this Code, social workers are required to cooperate in its implementation, participate in NASW adjudication proceedings, and abide by any NASW disciplinary rulings or sanctions based on it.
Code of Ethics Summary
1. The Social Worker's Conduct as a Social Worker
• Propriety. The social worker maintains high standards of conduct in the capacity or role as a social worker.
• Competence and Professional Development. The social worker should strive to remain proficient in professional practice and professional functions.
• Service. The social worker should regard as primary the service obligation of the social work profession.
• Integrity. The social worker should act in accordance with the highest standards of professional integrity.
• Scholarship and Research. The social worker engaged in study and research should be guided by the conventions of scholarly inquiry.
2. The Social Worker's Ethical Responsibility to Clients
• Primacy of Clients' Interests. The social worker's primary responsibility is to clients.
• Rights and Prerogatives of Clients. The social worker should make every effort to foster maximum self-determination on the part of clients.
• Confidentiality and Privacy. The social worker should respect the privacy of clients and hold in confidence all information obtained in the course of professional service.
• Fees. When settling fees, the social worker should ensure that they are fair, reasonable, considerate and commensurate with the service performed and with due regard for the clients' ability to pay.
3. The Social Worker's Ethical Responsibility to Colleagues
• Respect, Fairness, and Courtesy. The social worker should treat colleagues with respect, courtesy, fairness, and good faith.
• Dealing with Colleagues' Clients. The social worker has the responsibility to relate to the clients of colleagues with full professional consideration.
4. The Social Worker's Ethical Responsibility to Employers and Employing Organizations
• Commitments to Employing Organizations. The social worker should adhere to commitments made to the employing organizations.
5. The Social Worker's Ethical Responsibility to the Social Work Profession
• Maintaining the Integrity of the Profession. The social worker should uphold and advance the values, ethics, knowledge, and mission of the profession.
• Community Service. The Social Worker should assist the profession in making social services available to the general public.
• Development of Knowledge. The social worker should take responsibility for identifying, developing, and fully utilizing knowledge for professional practice.
6. The Social Worker's Ethical Responsibility to Society
• Promoting the General Welfare. The social worker should promote the general welfare of society.
For more information on Social Work Ethics, visit Social Worker Continuing Education

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