
Rights, Justice and Economic Wellbeing
Advance human rights and promote social justice and economic well-being.
Social workers recognise the fundamental principles of human rights and equality, and that these are protected in national and international law, conventions and policies. They ensure these principles underpin their practice. Social workers understand the importance of using and contributing to case law and applying these rights in their own practice. They understand the effects of oppression, discrimination and poverty.
Practitioners at this level should:
- Routinely integrate the principles of and entitlements to social justice, social inclusion and equality, and with support, consider how and when challenge may be needed.
- Routinely apply the law to protect and advance people's rights and entitlements, identifying and highlighting situations where interpretations of the law are neither proportionate nor fair to promote autonomy and self-determination.
- Apply the principles and entitlements of human and civil rights to analyse, evaluate and challenge interventions that are unlawful and / or disproportionate.
- Analyse differing needs, perspectives and competing rights and apply to practice.
- Enable and support people to consider and pursue a range of options that may enhance economic status (through access to education, work, housing, health services and welfare benefits).
- Where appropriate, set up and/or enable access to effective independent advocacy.
Evidencing your capabilities:
An understanding of human rights and equality law is critical in order to demonstrate this domain. You will need to show how you apply your understanding in practice through the use of one or more case examples. As this domain includes social justice, it is also worth considering whether current rights and entitlements are sufficient to meet broader requirements for justice, since the question of 'what is socially just?' is a moral one. The other element in this domain is economic wellbeing and you may want to consider cases where you have helped service users to improve their economic wellbeing, or perhaps where you have provided users with independent advocacy.
You should draw on sources of evidence which concern the law or human rights. Case examples which required you to apply the law would be useful, as would examples where you have had to exercise some judgement about rights or entitlement. As noted above, the other feature in this domain is focused around social justice, and so examples which involve social rights rather than legal entitlements would also be helpful.