Professional Regulation and Licensure: A Foundation for Client Advocacy

by Mary Jo Monahan, MSW, LCSW

     The 2018 theme for Social Work Month, “leaders, advocates, champions,” challenges social workers to expand the definition of their professional roles to include leadership, advocacy, and being champions on behalf of their clients and the greater good of society. As champions and advocates, social workers have a duty to advocate for their clients’ protection in keeping with the social work value of social justice. Professional regulation and licensure provide a foundation for that advocacy.

     Social workers hold a powerful position with the vulnerable populations with whom they work. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) developed the Code of Ethics to provide a framework for safe, competent, and ethical behavior. Written by the voluntary professional organization, the Code of Ethics serves as a form of voluntary self-regulation. Social workers agree to abide by it as an important part of their NASW membership. If an NASW member falls below these standards and is reported to NASW, then NASW is obligated to investigate and sanction that member. Sanctions may include a letter of concern, removal from NASW membership, and filing a report with the state regulatory board.

     Through professional regulation, the aspirational goals of the Code of Ethics become a legal obligation with enforceable accountability for public protection. Each state legislates regulation, thereby elevating voluntary ethical and practice standards to statutory requirements. Legal accountability to the profession, clients, and society is accomplished through licensure. Licensed social workers are held legally accountable to the public for their practice and conduct.

     Social justice, like the NASW Code of Ethics and professional regulation, is rooted in public protection. Social justice demands that if a client is harmed by a social worker, the client should have recourse to mitigate that harm. The legal regulation of social work provides clients this framework. Most licensed social workers hold themselves to high standards of safe, competent, and ethical practice, while embracing the responsibility to “do no harm.” If a social worker falls below standards, however, the state can impose sanctions that range from a letter of concern to required supervision, restitution, fines, and license suspension or removal.

     When state governments recognize the importance of the social work profession through regulating its practice, by extension they recognize the fundamental role that social justice plays in safe and competent practice. That social work has earned its place as one of the most important licensed helping professions is a statement to the power and value of the profession, and furthermore, about the values of social workers themselves.

     Social workers bring an ethical perspective that is magnified and enhanced through licensure, and licensure in turn strengthens the core values of the profession through public protection. If social work’s growth as a licensed profession is to continue, then social workers in training need to be educated about licensure as an integral component of their professional development, their duty to advocate for their clients’ protection, and their responsibility to uphold the social work value of social justice.

Mary Jo Monahan, MSW, LCSW, is Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB).