A Code of Ethics for social work and social care research

This Critical Commentary is the final product of the Economic and Social Research Council sponsored seminar series, Theorising Social Work Research to appear in the BJSW. The special edition of the British Journal of Social Work published in August 2000 carried several key papers arising from the seminar series as well as reports of some of the events themselves. The responsibility for drafting the Code of Ethics for Social Work and Social Care Research fell to me and although discussed at the Luton Seminar and at the final conference in Manchester, the text presented here is much as it first appeared. This is simply to reaffirm that it has no particular status and is reproduced in the Journal as a prompt to further discussion, precisely the purpose it was to serve for the seminar series. Before reproducing the Code, it might be helpful to revisit some of the main points which were raised in the paper presented at the Luton Seminar which set the context for the Code (Butler, 2000).