Ethical Framework for Professions in Psychology

One of the most important parts of therapy is adhering to an ethical framework to make sure there is a safe and stable environment created to protect both the client and clinician.

Their ethical framework is made up of:

Commitment to clients – provides a summary of working to professional standards and building an ethical relationship

Ethics – specifies the values, principles and personal moral qualities that inform their work and underpin supervision

Good practice – considers the application of their commitments to clients and ethics to their practice

 

Commitment

To show commitment to their clients they should:

• make their clients the focus during sessions and provide service that is up to standard
• work within their competence which they widen by keeping their skills and knowledge up to date
• frequently collaborate with colleagues to improve the quality of therapy
• make sure their own wellbeing is well looked after to provide consistently good quality of work
• create and keep accurate records of therapy sessions

When working counsellors must show respect in several ways, such as valuing each client as a unique person, protecting their confidentiality and privacy, coming to an agreement of how they will work together in a partnership.

To build an appropriate relationship with a client they should also clearly communicate what clients have the right to expect, including benefits, costs and commitments. Furthermore, they should listen to their client’s experience and respect any boundaries they set between their work together and what is outside. And most importantly they must not abuse or exploit their clients.

To maintain integrity in their work, counsellors must be honest and communicate about their work, experience, qualifications and working methods accurately. They must also work ethically, carefully considering their legal obligations.

During their work they must demonstrate accountability and candour by to discussing with clients openly and honestly any known risks involved in the work and how best to work towards their clients’ desired outcomes by communicating any benefits, costs and commitments that clients may reasonably expect. Counsellors must also ensure that clients are promptly informed about anything that places the client at risk of harm or causes harm in their work together, whether clients are aware of it, and quickly taking action to limit or repair any harm as far as possible. After their work together, counsellors must review it under supervision and monitor how clients experience their work together and the effects of their work with them throughout.

 

Ethics

When talking about ethics, they need to talk about values, they are a useful way of expressing general ethical commitments that underpin the purpose and goals of a Counsellors actions.

Some specific values that they should adhere to are:

• respecting human rights and dignity
• alleviating symptoms of personal distress and suffering
• enhancing people’s wellbeing and capabilities
• improving the quality of relationships between people
• increasing personal resilience and effectiveness
• facilitating a sense of self that is meaningful to the person(s) concerned within their personal and cultural context
• appreciating the variety of human experience and culture
• protecting the safety of clients
• ensuring the integrity of practitioner-client relationships
• enhancing the quality of professional knowledge and its application
• striving for the fair and adequate provision of services

 

Now, to define those values into actions they need to talk about relevant principles they are associated with.

 

Principles

Counsellor’s core principles are:

• Being trustworthy: honouring the trust placed in the practitioner
• Autonomy: respect for the client’s right to be self-governing
• Beneficence: a commitment to promoting the client’s wellbeing
• Non-maleficence: a commitment to avoiding harm to the client
• Justice: the fair and impartial treatment of all clients and the provision of adequate services
• Self-respect: fostering the practitioner’s self-knowledge, integrity and care for self

To decide whether an ethical decision during counselling is well-founded, it must be strongly supported by one or to of the previously mentioned principals without contradicting any of the others.

However, in a situation where a practitioner encounters circumstances in which it is impossible to reconcile all the applicable principles, this may require choosing which principles to prioritise. A decision or course of action does not necessarily become unethical merely because it is controversial or because other practitioners would have reached different conclusions in similar circumstances. A practitioner’s obligation is to consider all the relevant circumstances with as much care as possible and to be appropriately accountable for decisions made.

 

Personal moral qualities

Personal moral qualities are internalised values that shape how they relate to others and their environment. They represent a moral energy or drive that may operate unconsciously and unexamined. This moral energy or drive is ethically more beneficial when consciously examined from time to time and used to motivate their ethical development or shape how they work towards a good society.

They are of the utmost importance as their perceived presence or absence will have a strong influence on how relationships with clients and colleagues develop and whether they are of sufficient quality and resilience to support the work.

This also means that high levels of compatibility between personal and professional moral qualities will usually enhance the integrity and resilience of any relationship.

Of these moral qualities to which members and registrants are strongly encouraged to aspire include:

• Candour: openness with clients about anything that places them at risk of harm or causes actual harm
• Care: benevolent, responsible and competent attentiveness to someone’s needs, wellbeing and personal agency
• Courage: the capacity to act despite known fears, risks and uncertainty
• Diligence: the conscientious deployment of the skills and knowledge needed to achieve a beneficial outcome
• Empathy: the ability to communicate understanding of another person’s experience from that person’s perspective
• Fairness: impartial and principled in decisions and actions concerning others in ways that promote equality of opportunity and maximise the capability of the people concerned
• Humility: the ability to assess accurately and acknowledge one’s own strengths and weaknesses
• Identity: sense of self in relationship to others that forms the basis of responsibility, resilience and motivation
• Integrity: commitment to being moral in dealings with others, including personal straightforwardness, honesty and coherence
• Resilience: the capacity to work with the client’s concerns without being personally diminished
• Respect: showing appropriate esteem for people and their understanding of themselves
• Sincerity: a personal commitment to consistency between what is professed and what is done
• Wisdom: possession of sound judgement that informs practice

The challenge of working ethically means that practitioners will inevitably encounter situations that require responses to unexpected issues, resolution of dilemmas, and solutions to problems. A good understanding of the ethics that underpin their work is a valuable resource which is helpful in making significant decisions. The use of an ethical problem-solving model and discussion about ethics are essential to good practice.

This Ethical Framework is intended to assist practitioners by directing attention to the variety of ethical factors that may need to be taken into consideration and to identify alternative ways of approaching ethics that may prove more useful.

No statement of ethics can eliminate the difficulty of making professional judgements in circumstances that may be constantly changing and full of uncertainties. By accepting this statement of ethics, members and registrants of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy are committing themselves to engaging with the challenge of striving to be ethical, even when doing so involves making difficult decisions or acting courageously.

 

Good practice

Within the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) they are committed to sustaining and advancing good practice.

This section of the Ethical Framework looks behind their commitment to clients and Ethics to consider their implications for good practice in more detail.

It sets out what can be expected of all members and registrants of BACP as practitioners providing therapeutically informed services, particularly coaching, counselling, pastoral care, psychotherapy and using counselling skills. This includes being a supervisor, trainer, educator of practitioners, or researcher of any aspect of the counselling professions. Trainees will fulfil all the commitments to clients within the Ethical Framework when working with members of the public as their clients.

Registrants of BACP, will have committed themselves to the principles and values set out in this Ethical Framework and recognise that their membership or registration may be at risk if they fail to fulfil their commitments.

Their responsibilities are set out as full or qualified obligations. They are fully and unconditionally committed to fulfilling a specific requirement of Good practice where they state, ‘they will…’ or ‘they must…’. Where they consider a requirement may need to be varied for good ethical reasons, they state that ‘they will usually…’.

They are committing themselves to being openly accountable and willing to explain how the BACP have implemented any of these obligations to people with a valid interest in their work.

 

Putting clients first

They will make each client the primary focus of their attention and their work during their sessions together.

Any professional or personal interests that conflict with putting a client’s interests first will be carefully considered in consultation with a supervisor, an independent experienced colleague or, when appropriate, discussed with the client affected before services are offered.

They will give careful consideration to how they manage situations when protecting clients or others from serious harm or when compliance with the law may require overriding a client’s explicit wishes or breaching their confidentiality.

In exceptional circumstances, the need to safeguard their clients or others from serious harm may require us to override their commitment to making their client’s wishes and confidentiality their primary concern. They may need to act in ways that will support any investigations or actions necessary to prevent serious harm to their clients or others. In such circumstances, they will do their best to respect the parts of their client’s wishes or confidences that do not need to be overridden in order to prevent serious harm.

They share a responsibility with all other members of their professions for the safety and wellbeing of all clients and their protection from exploitation or unsafe practice. They will take action to prevent harm caused by practitioners to any client.

They will do everything they can to develop and protect their clients’ trust.

 

Working to professional standards

9 (13). They must be competent to deliver the services being offered to at least fundamental professional standards or better. When they consider satisfying professional standards requires consulting others with relevant expertise, seeking second opinions, or making referrals, they will do so in ways that meet their commitments and obligations for client confidentiality and data protection.

They will keep their skills and knowledge up to date by:

1. reading professional journals, books and/or reliable electronic resources
2. keeping themselves informed of any relevant research and evidence-based guidance
3. discussions with colleagues working with similar issues
4. reviewing their knowledge and skills in supervision or discussion with experienced practitioners
5. regular continuing professional development to update knowledge and skills
6. keeping up to date with the law, regulations and any other requirements, including guidance from the BACP Association, relevant to their work.

They will keep accurate records that:

• are adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the type of service being provided
• comply with the applicable data protection requirements – see Information Commissioner’s Office website (www.ico.org.uk)

They will collaborate with colleagues over their work with specific clients where this is consistent with client consent and will enhance services to the client.

They will work collaboratively with colleagues to improve services and offer mutual support.

They will maintain their own physical and psychological health at a level that enables us to work effectively with their clients.

They will be covered by adequate insurance when providing services directly or indirectly to the public.

They will fulfil the ethical principles and values set out in this Ethical Framework regardless of whether working online, face-to-face or using any other methods of communication. The technical and practical knowledge may vary according to how services are delivered but all their services will be delivered to at least fundamental professional standards or better.

 

Respect

They will respect their clients’ privacy and dignity.

They will respect their clients as people by providing services that:

• endeavour to demonstrate equality, value diversity and ensure inclusion for all clients
• avoid unfairly discriminating against clients or colleagues
• accept they are all vulnerable to prejudice and recognise the importance of self-inquiry, personal feedback and professional development
• work with issues of identity in open-minded ways that respect the client’s autonomy and be sensitive to whether this is viewed as individual or relational autonomy
• challenge assumptions that any sexual orientation or gender identity is inherently preferable to any other and will not attempt to bring about a change of sexual orientation or gender identity or seek to suppress an individual’s expression of sexual orientation or gender identity
• make adjustments to overcome barriers to accessibility, so far as is reasonably possible, for clients of any ability wishing to engage with a service
• recognise when their knowledge of key aspects of their client’s background, identity or lifestyle is inadequate and take steps to inform themselves from other sources where available and appropriate, rather than expecting the client to teach us
• are open-minded with clients who appear similar to themselves or possess familiar characteristics so that they do not suppress or neglect what is distinctive in their lives

They will take the law concerning equality, diversity and inclusion into careful consideration and strive for a higher standard than the legal minimum.

They will challenge colleagues or others involved in delivering related services whose views appear to be unfairly discriminatory and take action to protect clients, if necessary.

They will do all that they reasonably can to ensure that their clients are participating on a voluntary basis. Hesitant clients or clients who feel under pressure from other people or agencies to work with us will have their reservations acknowledged and taken into account in how services are offered.

They will work with their clients on the basis of their informed consent and agreement. They recognise that exceptional situations may arise where they may need to prioritise the safety of the client or others over their client’s wishes and confidentiality.

Careful consideration will be given to working with children and young people that:

1. takes account of their capacity to give informed consent, considering whether it is appropriate to seek the consent of others who have parental responsibility for the young person, and their best interests
2. demonstrates knowledge and skills about ways of working that are appropriate to the young person’s development and how relationships are formed
3. demonstrates a sound knowledge of the law relevant to working with children and young people and their human rights
4. is informed about the current culture and customs that affect parenting/care giving and how children and young people interact with each other and other significant people in their lives.

They will give careful consideration to obtaining and respecting the consent of vulnerable adult clients, wherever they have the capacity to give consent, or involving anyone who provides care for these clients when appropriate.

Their work with clients will be based on professional partnerships with them that aim to increase their wellbeing, capability and/or performance.

 

Building an appropriate relationship

They will usually provide clients with the information they ought to know in advance in order to make an informed decision about the services they want to receive, how these services will be delivered and how information or data about them will be protected. Where the urgency or seriousness of the situation requires us to intervene before providing such information, they will do so at the first appropriate opportunity

They will give careful consideration to how they reach agreement with clients and will contract with them about the terms on which their services will be provided. Attention will be given to:

1. reaching an agreement or contract that takes account of each client’s expressed needs and choices so far as possible
2. communicating terms and conditions of the agreement or contract in ways easily understood by the client and appropriate to their context
3. stating clearly how a client’s confidentiality and privacy will be protected and any circumstances in which confidential or private information will be communicated to others
4. providing the client with a record or easy access to a record of what has been agreed
5. keeping a record of what has been agreed and of any changes or clarifications when they occur
6. being watchful for any potential contractual incompatibilities between agreements with their clients and any other contractual agreements applicable to the work being undertaken and proactively strive to avoid these wherever possible or promptly alert the people with the power or responsibility to resolve these contradictions.

They will periodically review each client’s progress and, when practicable, seek their client’s views on how they are working together.

They will establish and maintain appropriate professional and personal boundaries in their relationships with clients by ensuring that:

1. these boundaries are consistent with the aims of working together and beneficial to the client
2. any dual or multiple relationships will be avoided where the risks of harm to the client outweigh any benefits to the client
3. reasonable care is taken to separate and maintain a distinction between their personal and professional presence on social media where this could result in harmful dual relationships with clients
4. the impact of any dual or multiple relationships will be periodically reviewed in supervision and discussed with clients when appropriate. They may also be discussed with any colleagues or managers to enhance the integrity of the work being undertaken.

They will not have sexual relationships with or behave sexually towards their clients, supervisees or trainees.

They will not exploit or abuse their clients in any way: financially, emotionally, physically, sexually or spiritually.

They will avoid having sexual relationships with or behaving sexually towards people whom they know to be close to their clients in order to avoid undermining their clients’ trust in us or damaging the therapeutic relationship.

They will avoid continuing or resuming any relationships with former clients that could harm the client or damage any benefits from the therapeutic work undertaken. They recognise that conflicts of interest and issues of power or dependence may continue after their working relationship with a client, supervisee or trainee has formally ended. Therefore:

1. they will exercise caution before entering into personal or business relationships with former clients
2. they will avoid sexual or intimate relationships with former clients or people close to them. Exceptionally, such a relationship will only be permissible following careful consideration in supervision and, whenever possible, following discussion with experienced colleagues or others concerned about the integrity of the counselling professions, when:

• enough time has elapsed or the circumstances of the people concerned have sufficiently changed to establish a distinction between the former and proposed new relationship
• any therapeutic dynamics from the former relationship have been sufficiently resolved to enable beginning a different type of relationship. (This may not be possible with some clients or inappropriate to some therapeutic ways of working.)
• an equivalent service to the one provided by the practitioner is available to the former client, should this be wanted in future
• the practitioner has taken demonstrable care in ensuring that the new relationship has integrity and is not exploitative

1. they will be professionally accountable if the relationship becomes detrimental to the former client or damages the standing of the profession

 

Breaks and endings

They will inform clients about any fixed limits to the duration or number of sessions as part of the contracting process.

They will endeavour to inform clients well in advance of approaching endings and be sensitive to their client’s expectations and concerns when they are approaching the end of their work together.

They will inform clients in advance of any planned breaks in working together, for example, holidays or medical treatments, and give as much notice as possible.

Any unplanned breaks due to illness or other causes will be managed in ways to minimise inconveniencing clients and, for extended breaks, may include offering to put clients in touch with other practitioners.

In the event of death or illness of sufficient severity to prevent the practitioner communicating directly with clients, they will have appointed someone to communicate with clients and support them in making alternative arrangements where this is desired. The person undertaking this work will be bound by the confidentiality agreed between the practitioner and client, and will usually be a trusted colleague, a specially appointed trustee or a supervisor.

 

Integrity

They will maintain high standards of honesty and probity in all aspects of their work.

They will be as open and as communicative with their clients, colleagues and others as is consistent with the purpose, methods and confidentiality of the service.

Whenever they communicate their qualifications, professional experience and working methods, they will do so accurately and honestly. All reasonable requests for this information will be answered promptly.

They will give conscientious consideration to the law and how they fulfil any legal requirements concerning their work.

They will promptly notify this Association about any criminal charges or disciplinary procedures brought against us. They will also notify this Association of civil claims arising from work in the counselling professions, or if they have been declared bankrupt.

They will avoid any actions that will bring their profession into disrepute.

They will encourage clients to raise any concerns about their work with them at the earliest possible opportunity, give any concerns careful consideration and, when appropriate, attempt to resolve them. Clients will be informed of any applicable complaints processes open to them including the Professional Conduct Procedures of this Association.

 

Accountability and candour

They will take responsibility for how they offer their clients opportunities to work towards their desired outcomes and the safety of the services they provide or have responsibility for overseeing.

They will discuss with clients how best to work towards their desired outcomes and any known risks involved in the work.

They will ensure candour by being open and honest about anything going wrong and promptly inform their clients of anything in their work that places clients at risk of harm, or has caused them harm, whether or not the client(s) affected are aware of what has occurred by:

1. taking immediate action to prevent or limit any harm
2. repairing any harm caused, so far as possible
3. offering an apology when this is appropriate
4. notifying and discussing with their supervisor and/or manager what has occurred
5. investigating and take action to avoid whatever has gone wrong being repeated

They will consider carefully in supervision how they work with clients.

They will monitor how clients experience their work together and the effects of the work with them in ways appropriate to the type of service being offered.

 

Confidentiality

They will protect the confidentiality and privacy of clients by:

1. actvely protecting information about clients from unauthorised access or disclosure
2. informing clients about how the use of personal data and information that they share with us will be used and who is within the circle of confidentiality, particularly with access to personally identifiable information
3. requiring that all recipients of personally identifiable information have agreed to treat such information as confidential in accordance with any legal requirements and what has been agreed with the client at the time of disclosure
4. informing clients about any reasonably foreseeable limitations of privacy or confidentiality in advance of their work together, for example, communications to ensure or enhance the quality of work in supervision or training, to protect a client or others from serious harm including safeguarding commitments, and when legally required or authorised to disclose
5. taking care that all contractual requirements concerning the management and communication of client information are mutually compatible
6. ensuring that disclosure of personally identifiable information about clients is authorised by client consent or that there is a legally and ethically recognised justification
7. using thoroughly anonymised information about clients where this provides a practical alternative to sharing identifiable information

 

Working with colleagues and in teams

Professional relationships will be conducted in a spirit of mutual respect. They will endeavour to build good working relationships and systems of communication that enhance services to clients.

Practitioners will treat colleagues fairly and foster their capability and equality of opportunity.

Practitioners will not undermine any colleague’s relationship with clients by making unjustifiable or ill-judged comments.

All communications between colleagues about clients should be on a professional basis and thus purposeful, respectful and consistent with the management of confidences agreed with clients.

 

Supervision

Supervision is essential to how practitioners sustain good practice throughout their working life. Supervision provides practitioners with regular and ongoing opportunities to reflect in depth about all aspects of their practice in order to work as effectively, safely and ethically as possible. Supervision also sustains the personal resourcefulness required to undertake the work.

Good supervision is much more than case management. It includes working in depth on the relationship between practitioner and client in order to work towards desired outcomes and positive effects. This requires adequate levels of privacy, safety and containment for the supervisee to undertake this work. Therefore, a substantial part or preferably all of supervision needs to be independent of line management.

Supervision requires additional skills and knowledge to those used for providing services directly to clients. Therefore, supervisors require adequate levels of expertise acquired through training and/or experience. Supervisors will also ensure that they work with appropriate professional support and their own supervision.

All supervisors will model high levels of good practice for the work they supervise, particularly with regard to expected levels of competence and professionalism, relationship building, the management of personal boundaries, any dual relationships, conflicts of interest and avoiding exploitation.

All communications concerning clients made in the context of supervision will be consistent with confidentiality agreements with the clients concerned and compatible with any applicable agency policy.

Careful consideration will be given to the undertaking of key responsibilities for clients and how these responsibilities are allocated between the supervisor, supervisee and any line manager or others with responsibilities for the service provided. Consideration needs to be given to how any of these arrangements and responsibilities will be communicated to clients in ways that are supportive of and appropriate to the work being undertaken. These arrangements will usually be reviewed at least once a year, or more frequently if required.

Trainee supervision will require the supervisor to collaborate with training and placement providers in order to ensure that the trainee’s work with clients satisfies professional standards. The arrangements for collaboration will usually be agreed and discussed with the trainee in advance of working with clients.

When supervising qualified and/or experienced practitioners, the weight of responsibility for ensuring that the supervisee’s work meets professional standards will primarily rest with the supervisee.

Supervisors and supervisees will periodically consider how responsibility for work with clients is implemented in practice and how any difficulties or concerns are being addressed.

The application of this Ethical Framework to the work with clients will be discussed in supervision regularly and not less than once a year.

Supervisors will conscientiously consider the application of the law concerning supervision to their role and responsibilities.

Supervisors will keep accurate records of key points discussed in supervision.

Supervisees have a responsibility to be open and honest in supervision and to draw attention to any significant difficulties or challenges that they may be facing in their work with clients. Supervisors are responsible for providing opportunities for their supervisees to discuss any of their practice-related difficulties without blame or unjustified criticism and, when appropriate, to support their supervisees in taking positive actions to resolve difficulties.

Supervision is recommended to anyone working in roles that require regularly giving or receiving emotionally challenging communications, or engaging in relationally complex and challenging roles.

 

Training and education

All trainers will have the skills, attitudes and knowledge required to be competent teachers and facilitators of learning for what is being provided.

Any information about the teaching, education or learning opportunities being provided will be accurate and enable potential students to make an informed choice.

Any selection of students will be fair, respectful and transparent to candidates and use procedures designed to select suitable students.

Any assessments of students will be fair, respectful and provide reasoned explanations for the outcome to the students.

Care will be taken when using examples of work with clients for teaching purposes that the client information is used with the consent of the person or sufficiently anonymised so that the person concerned cannot be identified by any means reasonably likely to be used.

Trainers and educators will model high levels of good practice in their work, particularly with regard to expected levels of competence and professionalism, relationship building, the management of personal boundaries, any dual relationships, conflicts of interest and avoiding exploitation.

Trainers and educators will encourage trainees to raise any concerns at the earliest opportunity and have processes and policies for addressing any trainee’s concerns. Trainers and educators are responsible for providing opportunities for trainees to discuss any of their practice-related difficulties without blame or unjustified criticism and, when appropriate, to support trainees in taking positive actions to resolve difficulties.

 

Trainees

Trainees working with each other will:

1. relate respectfully to others and endeavour to support each others’ learning
2. follow good ethical practice when working with each other, for example when practising skills or in personal development

 

In the interests of openness and honesty with clients:

1. trainees on a practitioner-qualifying course working with clients will inform clients (or ensure that clients have been informed) that they are trainees
2. trainees who are undertaking post-qualification CPD or further training will be guided by any applicable training requirements when using their professional and ethical judgement about whether to inform clients that they are in training

 

All trainees will:

1. seek their clients’ permission to use any information from work with them for training purposes, for example, in presentations, case studies or as assessed practice. Alternatively, any report of work undertaken will be so thoroughly anonymised that the identity of the person concerned cannot be identified by any means reasonably likely to be used. Consent is required if anonymity cannot be assured or when required by the training provider’s instructions or regulations.
2. ensure that they deliver services that satisfy the minimum professional standards when working as practitioners with members of the public. This standard may be achieved with the assistance of appropriate professional support.
3. collaborate with their trainers, placement providers, supervisors and other professional advisers to provide services to their clients that satisfy professional standards by being undertaken with reasonable care and skill
4. be watchful for any incompatibilities between contractual requirements that have implications for work with clients, for example, between agreements with clients, training providers and placements, and seek appropriate support in order to ensure that all contractual requirements are compatible
5. be open and honest with trainers, placement providers and supervisors about all issues relevant to their selection, training, supervision and professional practice

 

Research

They value research and systematic inquiry by practitioners as enhancing their professional knowledge and providing an evidence-base for practice in ways that benefit their clients.

They will usually support and provide opportunities for research if it is compatible with the services they provide.

When undertaking research they will be rigorously attentive to the quality and integrity of the research process, the knowledge claims arising from the research and how the results are disseminated.

All research that they undertake will be guided by the BACP Ethical Guidelines for Research in the Counselling Professions.

All participants in research will do so on the basis of explicit informed consent.

All research will be reviewed in advance to ensure that the rights and interests of participants have been considered independently of the researcher.

The research methods used will comply with standards of good practice in any services being delivered and will not adversely affect clients.

 

Care of self as a practitioner

They will take responsibility for their own wellbeing as essential to sustaining good practice with their clients by:

1. taking precautions to protect their own physical safety
2. monitoring and maintaining their own psychological and physical health, particularly that they are sufficiently resilient and resourceful to undertake their work in ways that satisfy professional standards
3. seeking professional support and services as the need arises
4. keeping a healthy balance between their work and other aspects of life
5. responding to ethical dilemmas and issues

They recognise that professional and ethical issues, problems and dilemmas will arise from time to time and are an unavoidable part of their practice.

They will use their supervision and any other available professional resources to support and challenge how they respond to such situations. They will give careful consideration to the best approaches to ethical problem-solving.

They will take responsibility for considering how best to act in such situations and will be ready to explain why they decided to respond in the way they did.

 

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