The Guidelines are an updated version of Codes of Ethics adopted by the Irish Association of Social Care Workers (IASCW) in 1988 and revised in 1996 and 2006.  These guidelines are in accordance with best practice, professional performance and accountability.  They are framed to reflect the principles and declarations of the United Nations, which calls for respect, and protection of freedom, equality, dignity and autonomy of all human beings. 
Social Care Workers, in maintaining the highest professional standards, conscientiously perform their duties without prejudice to age, nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, culture or individual ability.
Implicit in social care work practice are ethical principles, which prescribe the responsibility of those who carry it out.  The primary objective of these guidelines is to make these principles explicit in the best interests of those with and for whom Social Care Workers carry out their professional duties.

Terminology
Service User:  in these guidelines broadly refers to individuals or groups with whom Social Care Workers have contact in their professional capacity.  The term does not specifically denote child or adult.

Social Care Worker:  in these guidelines refers to those holding an approved qualification in social care and, in accordance with the Health & Social Care Professionals Act 2005 satisfies the Social Care Workers Registration Board that he or she “is a fit and proper person to engage in the practice of the profession.”

The Social Care Worker
Must contribute to the physical, intellectual, emotional, social and moral welfare of service users in a context where every effort is made to ensure that the nature and purpose of any care and treatment given is understood by the service user.

• Must respect each person as an individual by ensuring that the dignity, privacy and rights of service users are safeguarded.
• Must be honest, trustworthy, reliable and ependable while giving precedence to professional responsibility over personal interest in the discharge of duty.
• Must present themselves for duty in a fit state mentally and physically.
• Must respect the rights of service users while ensuring, in as far as possible, that their actions or behaviour does not harm themselves or others.
• Must always promote the best interests of service users by following established policies and procedures to challenge and report behaviour or practices, which are abusive, dangerous, discriminatory or exploitative.
• Must make known to service users in a clear, understandable and unequivocal manner the process of making a complaint in respect of service provision or abuse.
• Must ensure that accurate, objective and confidential records are kept in respect of service users.
• Must recognise and accept that information received in a professional capacity should not be used for other purposes.
• Must understand and accept that exemption from professional confidentiality can only be justified in terms of higher priority in the interests of the service user or in a Court of Law.
• Must uphold the dignity of the Social Care profession and not engage in any activity, personally or socially, which may bring the profession into disrepute.