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A social worker's ultimate accountability is to...?
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The Data Protection Act 1998:
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The findings of complaints procedures:
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Which of the following does not require local authorities to establish advocacy services:
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Equality strategies are not required in relation to:
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Partnership with parents is required by and defined in:
- GSCC Code of Conduct
- Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and Their Families (Department of Health, Department for Education and Employment, Home Office, 2000)
- The Children Act 1989
- Working Together to Safeguard Children (Department of Health, Home Office, Department for Education and Employment, 1999)
- Back to Question 5
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When is a local authority not liable for the actions of its employed social workers?
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When can a local authority not take resources into account?
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In relation to individuals already receiving services the local authority:
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When asked for information by the police, social workers must ...?
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The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998...?
- Allows employees to talk to the press if they become concerned about standards of practice in their workplace
- Allows employees to share information on malpractice outside their organisation if they conclude it is not possible to discuss their concerns in their workplace
- Requires employees to contact the regulatory Care Council
- Requires employees to discuss their concerns with their line managers
- Back to Question 10
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In child protection investigations, the local authority owes a duty of care to:
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The correct answer is B: Their code of conduct
Social workers must be registered with a care council in order to practise, a process initiated by the Care Standards Act 2000. Upon registration social workers are committed to upholding the code of conduct and can be struck off the register if they are found to have breached it. Professional associations and trade unions may have advice and representation services and may have codes of ethics to which members subscribe but social workers do not have to belong to either. Employers cannot require social workers to act unlawfully or in contravention of the knowledge, values and skills that are required for the post held.
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The correct answer is C: Allows service users access to data on them that the local authority decides does not fall within the exclusion criteria
The person who is subject of the data has rights of access to the information that is held about them, subject to exemptions. Exemptions include: data held for the prevention or detection of crime; data held for the purposes of social work, where disclosure to the data subject is likely to prejudice the carrying out of social work, by causing serious harm to the physical or mental health of the subject, or another person; disclosure of information about physical or mental health without first consulting an appropriate health professional; where other enactments prevent disclosure (e.g. adoption). Detailed guidance is available under LASSL (2000)2.
The Data Protection Act 1998 originally covered access to personal data held in health, education and social services records. The Freedom of Information Act extends the rights of access to all data held by public authorities.
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The correct answer is D: Should only be departed from with good reason by the local authority
Cases such as R v North Yorkshire County Council, ex parte Hargreaves [1997] 1 CCLR 104 have established that local authorities must pay due regard to the findings of complaints procedures. The findings may be departed from but only with good reason, clearly set out. The same is also true of recommendations by the Local Commissioner for Administration (Ombudsman). All these processes may identify standards for good practice but in essence they are designed to enable an investigation of how authority has been used in an individual case and to prove a form of redress in an individual case.
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The correct answer is C: Disabled Persons Act 1986
Various sections of the Disabled Persons Act 1986 create a role for an authorised representative to refer an individual for an assessment and to support an individual in their negotiations with a local authority. These sections have not been implemented. The Adoption and Children Act 2002 has amended section 26 of the Children Act 1989 to place a duty on local authorities to make arrangements for assistance to looked after children and young people leaving care who make or intend to make complaints. The Mental Capacity Act has also created an independent mental capacity advocate service, whilst Valuing People requires each local authority to make available advocates for learning disabled people.
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The correct answer is D: All three
The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 and the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 require public bodies to counteract discrimination and promote equality of opportunity, requiring, amongst other initiatives, that public bodies have equality strategies in respect of staffing and service provision.. The Equalities Act 2006 adds a requirement for gender equality.
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The correct answer is D: Working Together to Safeguard Children (Department of Health, Home Office, Department for Education and Employment, 1999)
15 principles of partnership may be found in Working Together, which is policy guidance and therefore to be followed by those to whom it is addressed. The Children Act 1989 does not refer explicitly to partnership with parents although it can be inferred from the welfare checklist, for example. Partnership would also be regarded as a key social work value, and therefore to be upheld by those registered with a care council or undertaking assessments of young people and their families.
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The correct answer is A: When a social worker is acting as an 'AMHP' (Approved Mental Health Professional)
Approved mental health professionals are assigned legal functions as individual practitioners. They are designated, once approved in accordance with Section 114 of the Mental Health Act 1983, with the necessary powers and duties to carry out certain functions under that Act. More usual in other statutes is the placing of legal powers and duties upon the social services authority itself. This authority is then delegated to employees who must adhere to the legal rules and the local authority's guidance.
Thus social workers acting as appropriate adults and in other roles are performing functions delegated to them, whereas approved mental health professionals act on their own designated authority. Under s.139 of the Mental Health Act 1983they are protected from legal proceedings provided they act in good faith and with reasonable care.
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The correct answer is C: When responding to legal rules
When legal rules, such as section 2, Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970, list services for which local authorities must make arrangements, all such services must be offered where a need exists. When legal rules offer choice, such as policy guidance on choice of residential care (LAC(92)27), authorities cannot refuse on grounds of resources to provide accommodation chosen by an individual that they are already providing to others. When an authority has decided that services should be provided to meet an assessed need, this cannot be delayed because of lack of resources in a particular part of the authority. Budget allocations within an authority must be seen as indicative only, with money being transferred from one cost centre to another to meet demand. Equally, to be lawful, the intervention offered must have a reasonable chance of meeting the needs identified (R v Birmingham CC, ex parte Killigrew [2000] 3 CCLR 109).
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The correct answer is D: May change the care package following reassessment if need can be met in a different way
This requirement is laid out in policy guidance issued by the Department of Health (1990) – Community Care in the Next Decade and Beyond. Any care package, to be lawful, must have a reasonable chance of meeting the needs identified. Thus, resources may influence which care package is proposed only so long as what is offered will address the needs identified in a (re)assessment. Thus, residential care rather than domiciliary care could become the recommended provision following a reassessment.
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The correct answer is C: Provide it if it seems reasonable to do so
There is a general duty in common law to safeguard the confidentiality of personal information and the general principle is that information should not be disclosed without consent. However, guidance for Social Services Departments on confidentiality under the Data Protection Act 1998 lists circumstances in which social services may disclose information without the consent of the subject. These include disclosure to staff involved in the case, and their managers; to another agency caring for a service user for the purpose of care; to other departments and agencies; to students and trainees; to police, courts, tribunals, statutory enquiries and others with power to require disclosure.
Disclosure of information without consent could give rise to a complaint that it breaches Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. However, the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence, may be qualified when necessary in the interests of public safety, prevention of disorder and crime, or protection of health or morals, or protection of the rights and freedoms of others. In these circumstances, disclosure should be proportionate – i.e. only to the extent necessary to achieve the legitimate purpose.
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The correct answer is B: Allows employees to share information on malpractice outside their organisation if they conclude it is not possible to discuss their concerns in their workplace
The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 protects employees from victimisation (such as dismissal) when they have disclosed information about actions of others within their workplace which they believe to be a criminal offence, failure to comply with legal obligation, miscarriage of justice, danger to the health and safety of individuals or damage to the environment. To be protected, disclosure would normally be made internally through the employer’s whistle-blowing procedure, but in certain circumstances external disclosure ‘to an appropriate body’ would also be protected, if the individual believed their concern would not be properly dealt with internally or they would suffer detriment. There is no requirement to contact the regulatory Care Council, although this could be an appropriate body to which an employee could make a disclosure.
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The correct answer is A: The child
This has been established by the House of Lords in Re JD (2005). By a majority decision they ruled that a duty of care was owed to the child. Social workers, however, are used to negotiating multiple accountabilities. Providing that practitioners and managers are clear that the welfare of the child is paramount, owing a duty of care to others for how child protection cases are handled should not prove difficult.