Critical Approaches to Ethics in Social Work: Kaleidoscope Not Bleach 1

IntroductionIn the current neoliberal environment for most of the Euro-Western world, the values of the marketplace have become the sine qua non not just in the private sector, but for non-profit organisations as well (Clarke 2004: 128; Banks 2011: 11). The bottom line and efficiencies have trumped concerns about social inequality and the needs of the most vulnerable. This dominant orientation is antithetical to many of social work's values, which put the wellbeing of service users as a primary principle informing the profession. For critical social workers, the dissonance in values is even more pronounced. Critical social work is grounded in a worldview (Campbell and Baikie 2012) that starts from the premise that our current society is unjust, that all practice is political, and therefore practitioners must incorporate action to critique and transform society to bring greater equity towards the marginalised (Finn and Jacobson 2003: 58).Resource inadequacies, standardised work practices, and extensive documentation of neoliberalism leave professionals struggling with how to behave competently and ethically for their clients. The traditional perspective on ethics focuses on linear processes, using codes of ethics and decision-making models; assuming that universal principles and clear thinking can avoid ethical lapses. But a critical approach posits that being ethical is not about 'eliminating moral uncertainty' (Kendall and Hugman 2013: 315). It is about trying to make the best choice amongst an array of options that may fail to avoid unintended harms (Weinberg and Campbell 2014). It is a process rather than an end point; requiring broadening what should be part of ethical consideration, querying the taken-for-granted, taking into account multiple perspectives, recognising the centrality of power and the potential of social work to be oppressive.Despite the challenges to practising ethically in this environment, research indicates that resistance is possible (e.g. Wallace and Pease 2011: 139). We will look at the practice of Celeste (a pseudonym), a senior social worker in the health field in Canada, who was a participant in a research study on ethics in practice. Her work illustrates both her perception of the difficulties in the present climate and her attempts to conduct herself ethically from a critical framework.ChallengesThe underlying primary value of neoliberalism is profit. However, according to Celeste, while 'we might be efficient ... I don't think we're being as effective'. In part that is because the emphasis is on working faster, seeing more clients for shorter periods of time, and with an emphasis on assessment and plugging people into prepackaged programs (Harlow 2003: 33). On-going help has been attenuated to a residual model of welfare that provides support only as a last resort (Chappell 2014: 22) while resources have been severely cut.Concomitant with that ideology is a focus on managerialism, namely, that better management will occur by bringing in the methods and procedures of the for-profit sector into non-profit organisations (Clarke 2004: 117). Social workers are more subject to controls, with performance indicators and excessive documentation. As a consequence, workers may become technicians with limited autonomy whose functions non-professionals can perform (Rogowski 2011: 159). According to Celeste this trend 'deskills the social workers' away from being 'autonomous agents'. According to her, it is the 'bleaching' of social work. Instead of an emphasis on social justice and the needed transformation of society, social work's voice has been 'diminished' due to the 'willingness to play ball with ... the big funders, [which has] compromised [the profession] ... And that in turn compromises families, individuals, communities'.Additionally, there is an emphasis on individualised accountability; what Celeste described as the system 'not taking the responsibility of the burden'. …

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