I'm sorry, you've made the wrong decision.
Here are some points that you need to consider. You should have included some of these in your reflective activity:
- You have made a mistake and it looks like you realise this. Placing all the blame onto Bob is not the correct action to take. You must now act in a way that is open and honest. Trying to resolve the situation this way might make matters worse.
- The best thing to do now would be to apologise to Diane, tell her about your employer’s complaints procedure and then contact your manager to explain what has happened.
- You need to revisit the SSSC Codes of Practice for Social Service Workers and make sure that you really understand them.
- It is essential to remember that all social service workers are expected to create and maintain the trust and confidence of people who use services and carers.
- An important part of upholding public trust and confidence in social services is ensuring that you do not abuse the trust of people who use services or carers, or the access you have to personal information about them.
- You must respect confidential information and know your employer’s policies on confidentiality. Service users have the right to expect that they will have their privacy and confidentiality upheld by social service workers.
- You need to recognise and use responsibly the power that comes from your work with service users and carers. You are expected to respect and maintain the dignity and privacy of service users. A breach of a service user’s confidentiality may put them at risk of harm.
- You must act in a way that demonstrates you are trustworthy and reliable. Through your actions you earn the trust of colleagues, service users and the public. A failure to follow guidelines on confidentiality constitutes a breach of trust.
- The mistakes you have made could call into question your suitability to be a registered social services worker. Diane, her family, or a member of the public could make a complaint about your actions.
When Bob began to talk about Diane outside of work, the correct action to take was to tell Bob right away that you should not discuss this further until you both returned to work. Click here to find out why this was the correct option.
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