I'm sorry, you've made the wrong decision.
In your reflective activity, you should have covered all of these points:
- You have not yet realised that you have made a mistake. Talking to your supervisor, apologising for your mistake and returning the gift would have been the best thing to do, although your behaviour up to this point could still call into question your suitability to be a social service worker.
- By finding out you accepted a high value gift from a person who uses your service, both Mrs McTaggart’s family and your supervisor might wonder whether you have accepted other gifts in the past. By denying it when questioned earlier, it looks as though you have something to hide. The family may ask for an investigation.
- You should read your employer’s policy on accepting gifts. It is your responsibility to know your employer’s policies and to act on them. Policies on accepting gifts are there to protect both staff and people who use services.
- You should communicate more openly with your colleagues in future. The SSSC Code of Practice for Social Service Workers says that the effectiveness of a team is built on trust, respect and open communication.
- Your decision making shows that you should look again at the SSSC Code of Practice for Social Service Workers, which says that you must be honest and trustworthy. The Code also says that you must comply with your employer’s policies on accepting gifts.
- You should have a better awareness of professional boundaries and how to maintain these. These boundaries are in place to protect residents and to protect you. Becoming more of a friend to a resident makes it difficult for you to continue to have a professional relationship.
- When you accepted the gift and did not declare it, you were not meeting the standards expected of a social service worker. You should speak to your supervisor about what has happened. Your supervisor will help you to put things right.
When Mrs McTaggart offered to buy you the earrings the best thing to do would have been to politely explain that you cannot accept gifts. You can find out more about why this was the right thing to do here.
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