Ethics and Law for Social Workers

Before moving into social work education, Robert Johns worked for a number of years in a range of social work roles, predominantly in the public sector. His specialisms were youth justice and court-work, representing the interests of children involved in care proceedings. Academically, his major abiding interest has been social work law but he has also taught social policy and social work values and ethics, hence his latest book, Ethics and Law for Social Workers. Currently, he teaches  at the University of East London, where has been Head of Social Work and programme leader for the qualifying MA offered in conjunction with the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. He is the author of Using the Law in Social Work, now in its sixth edition, Social Work, Social Policy and Older People and, most recently,  Capacity and Autonomy.

This book offers a stimulating range of ethical theories and thought-provoking cases. Robert Johns writes with clarity and careful attention to what it all means in practice, for real social workers doing the real job. It will stretch and support readers to reflect thoughtfully and practically about their work and its wider contexts.

• Introduction - But I want to be a social worker, not a philosopher!Judging actions or people?Social workers, social justice and the lawAccountability, ethics and the lawProtecting children or supporting parents?Whose future? The ethics of compulsory adoption lawYouth justiceCommunity care and the ethics of resource allocationMaking decisions on behalf of other people: promoting the best interests of vulnerable adultsActing legally, acting ethically