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Unit 206

Understand the role of the social worker.

Understand working relationships in social care settings.

1.1 Explain how a working relationship is different from a personal relationship.

A working relationship is different from a personal relationship in a few ways, such as boundaries, you could ask someone in your personal life any number of questions, but a working relationship must be held as a professional one and thus boundaries must be put up, like not showing romantic interests or feelings around the home for example, which is considered unprofessional. You don’t share personal information as you would with friends; you have to meet the policies and procedures of the place of work, such as calling family members by their name instead of mum or dad, having no emotional attachment visible, and treat everyone with equality, regardless of your opinion. For example if you disliked someone in your work place, you cannot ignore them or refuse to work with them unless something violates the practice of the home. I guess anything that is not work related should be kept for uninterrupted breaks and for time outside of work.

1.2 Describe different working relationships in social care settings.

There are many different roles within the social care setting and so that leads to many different working relationships. The working relationships can differ from colleague, manager, visiting doctor or nurse, senior and even taxi drivers and other public workers that as a support worker are easy to encounter, not to forget the service users and their family and friends. Every one of these roles have different working relationships and some are more formal than others, for example; though your relationship with other carers and support workers may be professional it tends to be much less formal that when dealing with a manager. Another example would be that the way you address a visiting doctor would differ greatly from the way you approach and address a service user, although all four roles are still dealt with in a professional manner they can differ greatly.

Understand the importance of working in ways that are agreed with the employer

2.1 Describe why it is important to adhere to the agreed scope of the job role.

It is important to adhere to the scope of the job role because when an employer first starts working they have agreed to adhere to it, and thus would break any agreement made between you and the manager, and is a legal responsibility to perform within your pre defined job role. With

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understanding the expectations and respecting the professional boundaries every member of staff perform their role, and in turn creates an effective working environment, if for example you begin cleaning the bins when it is your responsibility to care for an individual, the establishment would cease up, and subsequently the service user may be in discomfort or even in risk of danger. You must be accountable for your actions and respectful of others job roles, creating an effective environment to work within.

2.2 Outline what is meant by agreed ways of working.

Agreed ways of working is referring to the staff following the policies and procedures, adhering to each individuals care plans accordingly, as well as any risk assessments in place as well as reading and following any codes of conduct. An agreed way of working is performing to the standard that was agreed at the beginning of the employees contract, to work effectively in helping protect and care for the vulnerable.

2.3 Explain the importance of full and up to date details of agreed ways of working.

The importance of full and up to date agreed ways of working starts right at the beginning before anyone is put in a social care environment. Having the job description and reading it fully, as well as understanding it means that you agree to follow the agreed ways of working by not only performing to the policies and procedures standards, but by knowing you have the appropriate skills and experience to apply for and take on the job in the first place. Its important to keep up to date with care plans, risk assessments and company policies and procedures, signing them when read to show the manager who has read them and who has not, as without up to date information the safety and comfort of the service users are put at risk. If no agreed ways of working were in place it would be impossible to know what was expected of the individual, and even harder to care for the vulnerable.

Understand the importance of working in partnership with others.

3.1 Explain why it is important to work in partnership with others.

Working in partnership with others enables you to perform tasks that would be impossible on your own, such as hoisting a service user or performing checks on medication. Colleagues are not the only people you can benefit from working in a partnership with however, the families of service users, the service users themselves, doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, social workers and a multitude of other healthcare workers and professionals. These people may be able to help give you useful information and help you in your job, supporting you with any problems you might have, or even just reinforcing your own capabilities. If there are difficulties in communicating with an individual service user for example, talking to a family member or a friend and working with them in tandem can help you by suggesting methods of communication, or even by communicating with the individual themselves to help reach a solution. With the working partnership of anyone that’s

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accessible, it will be much easier to reach the level of work that you aim for, and care for the individuals as fully as possible.

3.2 Identify ways of working that can help improve partnership working.

Improving partnership working can be done in many ways and there are many different methods of doing it. One way could be to give honest and unbiased information and opinions to the people you work with to help build a strong bond of trust and encourage people to act in the same manner toward you as you do to them. Identifying strengths and weaknesses of individuals is also key to improving partnerships, as it can create an opportunity for everyone to learn, and to provide the best possible care for the service user. You can improve partnership working by attending training sessions and knowing your own roles and responsibilities, and having everyone know the policies and procedures. Also having good communication between everyone involved can make working with a partner much easier and more efficient.

3.3 Identify skills and approaches needed for resolving conflicts.

Compromising with a difficult individual is very important, as if a conflict seems one sided it will only anger or agitate the conflicted individuals further. Understanding each others roles can also help diffuse tension by having individuals concentrate on their roles rather than the other person, as well as trying to understand the individuals problems, it could be as simple as turning the channel over, but even if it isn’t, identifying why a conflict has occurred is a very good step towards resolving it, and understanding that problem helps create empathy, which is a very useful tool when consoling or comforting someone. There are also systems in place to resolve conflicts, and risk assessments to help avoid them all together.

3.4 Explain how and when to access support and advice about 1- Partnership working, 2- Resolving conflicts.

You can access support and advice about partnership working and resolving conflicts from colleagues, senior, manager, even other places like the internet and other social care bodies. Their experience and knowledge, especially in reference to your senior in charge may prove invaluable in offering advice and methods when dealing with conflicts or partnership working. The manager can help you with the legal side of things, and offer the most professional resolutions to conflicts between higher bodies such as social services or external agencies. In regards to partnership working, any time you have an issue or a concern regarding it, speaking to any of the above entities will resulting similar results as resolving conflict, for example the senior can offer you professional advice and from experience may well be able to identify your concern in partnership working from having felt a similar way in the past.