Good Practice or Bad Judgement by the Social Worker

Kayla Manninen

Assignment # 1: Good practice or bad judgement by the social worker?

February 15, 2011

SCENARIO # 1- Principle IV: The Social Work and Social Service Record: 4.2.3 and 4.2.4

The principle involved in scenario 1 is, "Principle IV: The Social Work and Social Service Record." I believe that this scenario involves the above principle because it involves the storing of clients files. I believe there is an obvious infraction present in this case.

Subsection 4.2.3 states: "College members ensure that each client record is stored and preserved in a secure location for at least seven years from the date of the last entry, or, if the client was less than eighteen years of age at the date of the last entry, at least seven years from the day the client became or would have become eighteen. Different periods of storage time may be required by law. Longer periods of storage time may be defined by the policies of a member's employing organization or by the policies of a self-employed member or a member who is responsible for complying with privacy legislation. Such policies should be developed with a view to the potential future need of the record."

In this scenario, subsection 4.2.3 has been violated by this social worker through the failure to store his clients' records for eight years. This is apparent because it states that he will be shredding them in a couple of weeks. Also, it is not possible that he has had them for at least eight years prior because the scenario states that he has only been counselling for four years.

Subsection 4.2.4 states, "Self-employed College members, and College members

who are responsible for complying with privacy legislation, who cease practice may: (i) maintain their client records in accordance with Interpretation 4.2.3, or (ii) make arrangements to transfer the records to another College member and make reasonable efforts to give notice to their clients of the future location of their records, unless they are required, under any applicable privacy or other legislation, to obtain their clients' consent to such transfer, in which case they obtain their clients' consent. College members comply with the requirements regarding transfer of records set out in any applicable privacy and other legislation. The College member to whom such records have been transferred complies with the principles regarding retention, storage, preservation and security with respect to the transferred records." This subsection has also been violated in this scenario because the social worker did not maintain his records in accordance with 4.2.3 nor did he make arrangements to transfer the records to another college member.

In order for the social worker in scenario 1 to demonstrate