Ethical issues in professional practice

1. Ethical issues in professional practice 7th March, 2012 Jo Hutchinson Siobhan Neary Principal Research Fellows International Centre for Guidance Studies

2. Why does ethics matter to practice?

3. Ethical practice – the basics “One of the characteristics of contemporary society is the coexistence of different approaches to ethics” British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, 2009 “ethics…fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring and limiting life are evil” Albert Schweitzer, 1949

4. Ethics within professional practice • With all professions it is difficult to separate ethics from professionalism "The Challenge of working ethically means that practitioners will inevitably encounter situations where there are competing obligations...members... are committing themselves to engaging with the challenge of striving to be ethical, even when doing so involves making difficult decisions or acting courageously” BACP(2001, p.261)

5. Ethics in the helping professions Four principles of the helping professions (Mulvey, 2002): • Beneficence – doing good for the client, which may have a positive action on behalf of the clients such as advocacy • Non-malfeasance – the avoidance of harm • Autonomy – the client is facilitated to make decisions • Justice – issues of equality and equity

6. What do we mean by ethics? • Definitions of ethics predominantly focus on conforming to standards of behaviors or sets of moral principles • Ethics provide the common structure on which we base our professional practice within guidance • Most professions will have an ethical code – in some they may be more important than others such a medicine and research.

7. BACP Ethics framework Personal moral qualities Principles Values

8. Ethics and professional practice • Careers Profession Alliance • building a core code of professional ethics • (draft code available on ICG website) • register of practitioners • Organisations may have their own codes of conduct or professional standards.

9. Our research • Interviews with 7 practitioners across a range of UK settings • Asked them to talk through and then reflect on an ethical dilemma which had an equality and diversity angle • Agreed transcript with each practitioner

10. Key findings: time of change and competition • Organisational change driven by either contracts, competition for learners or policy change was a universal theme: • Example 1: immigration policy & student visas • Example 2: targets and action plans • Example 3: standing up to aggressive advice from teachers in a client review

11. Key findings: Values • Practitioners feel compromised when their values do not match those of their employer, or of their clients • Example 4: advising recently redundant managers on access to a training fund • Example 5: advising clients with fundamental views

12. Key issue: organisational support • Organisational infrastructure • Active and supportive line management • Availability of specialist advice • 360° communication • Training • Professional resilience

13. Key issue: codes of ethical practice • Relevance of ethical codes of practice • All were aware of them • Employer organisations had some codes and policies but they were more generic • Confidentiality was important • Dilemmas arose out of sense of compromising personal values – a gap in the codes? • Dilemmas arose out of a conflict between employer needs and professional ethics

14. CONTACT US! Jo Hutchinson 01332 591367 j.hutchinson@derby.ac.uk Siobhan Neary 01332 591580 s.neary@derby.ac.uk