The law has a vital role in the regulation of professional practice, and such regulation is important to social workers, as it provides clear boundaries for their practice. Boundaries also provide the public with confidence in the profession. It is important for service users to know that a legal framework exists and that remedies are available when professionals act outside the legal framework. In this course you will learn about definitions of law and where legislation comes from. You will then apply this to social work and consider how social work is regulated across the UK specifically.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course K271 Social work law.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• understand what professional regulation is and how social work is regulated
• explain the differences in social work's regulatory and legal frameworks across the four UK nations
• understand the interrelationship between duties, powers, rights and responsibilities, as these relate to social work practice.