Law for social work - Essay Example

unity care involves providing respite care, day services, accommodations, home help and carer and family support for persons with learning disabilities. The same kind of help is also available under community care for persons with physical disabilities and the elderly together with their carers. The latter groups are provided with additional means of support. For instances persons with physical disabilities are provided with direct payments, employment assistance, ‘self-management living schemes’ and equipment such as wheel chairs.

The elderly are provided with ‘home care services, delivered meals, day care and lunch clubs.’ Similar services are provided for individuals with mental disabilities.2 Under children and family’s social work, social workers undertake a large variety of responsibilities. They provide childcare services and are involved in the education and social development of the child. Social workers are actively involved in the adoption process and make provision for protective services for children in danger.

3 The social worker’s duties in respect of the Criminal Justice system are multifaceted and can be onerous. The social worker is involved in an exhaustive list of tasks from the sentencing and probation of offenders to ‘supervision and support for released prisoners.’4 The variety of roles required of the social worker and the importance of their relationship with the community at large requires the imposition of a professional duty of care. As such, the social worker is not only required to be familiar with the law, they are also required to uphold the law in an appropriate case.

This paper looks at the legal obligations of the social worker and the importance of the law in the context of the various duties and obligations already mentioned. Social work is regulated in the United Kingdom by a professional organization known as the British Association of Social Workers. The Association is charged with the duty of