School: Arts and Humanities

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

Please note that there may be some modifications to the assessment schedule promoted in Handbook for Semester 1 2023 Units. All assessment changes will be published by 20th February 2023. All students are reminded to check the handbook at the beginning of semester to ensure they have the correct outline.

  • Unit Title

    Legal and Ethical Practice
  • Unit Code

    SWK4110
  • Year

    2023
  • Enrolment Period

    1
  • Version

    2
  • Credit Points

    15
  • Full Year Unit

    N
  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus
    Online
  • Unit Coordinator

    A/Prof Janine JOYCE

Description

This unit explores the legal, professional and ethical opportunities and constraints of social work practice. Students will consider the tensions and dilemmas of socio-legal practice through an examination of social work interventions in selected settings in contemporary Australia. This unit will also examine the relationship between the law and ethical practice. Students will critically analyse ethical and legal issues in social work professional practice.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Analyse the role of power dynamics, resource access and difference in the exercise of professional obligations.
  2. Assess the philosophical and ethical underpinnings shaping the formation of the law and their relationship to the ethical principles of the Australian Association of Social Workers.
  3. Apply the concepts around negligence, conflicts of interests, limits of expertise, and confidentiality to social work practice.
  4. Develop original analyses and practice responses to ethical dilemmas in professional practice.
  5. Identify the major Commonwealth and State legal structures and their respective jurisdictions.

Unit Content

  1. Codes of Ethics.
  2. Conflicts of interest.
  3. Ethics and power in the professional relationships.
  4. Exploring challenges to ethical choices in practice.
  5. Guidelines for ethical decision-making.
  6. Legal and ethical issues in contemporary fields of practice.
  7. Negligence, issues of confidentiality and informed consent.
  8. Overview of the legal aid system in Australia.

Learning Experience

Students will engage in learning experiences via ECU’s LMS as well as additional ECU learning technologies

Additional Learning Experience Information

Off campus: Online lectures and activities On campus: Lectures and tutorials

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
ParticipationCollaborative Learning Project40%
ReportCase study60%
ONLINE
TypeDescriptionValue
ParticipationCollaborative Learning Project40%
ReportCase Study60%

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

Plagiarism

Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).

Unauthorised collaboration (collusion)

Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).

Contract cheating

Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.

Cheating in an exam

Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

SWK4110|2|1

School: Arts and Humanities

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Legal and Ethical Practice
  • Unit Code

    SWK4110
  • Year

    2023
  • Enrolment Period

    2
  • Version

    2
  • Credit Points

    15
  • Full Year Unit

    N
  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus
    Online
  • Unit Coordinator

    A/Prof Janine JOYCE

Description

This unit explores the legal, professional and ethical opportunities and constraints of social work practice. Students will consider the tensions and dilemmas of socio-legal practice through an examination of social work interventions in selected settings in contemporary Australia. This unit will also examine the relationship between the law and ethical practice. Students will critically analyse ethical and legal issues in social work professional practice.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Analyse the role of power dynamics, resource access and difference in the exercise of professional obligations.
  2. Assess the philosophical and ethical underpinnings shaping the formation of the law and their relationship to the ethical principles of the Australian Association of Social Workers.
  3. Apply the concepts around negligence, conflicts of interests, limits of expertise, and confidentiality to social work practice.
  4. Develop original analyses and practice responses to ethical dilemmas in professional practice.
  5. Identify the major Commonwealth and State legal structures and their respective jurisdictions.

Unit Content

  1. Codes of Ethics.
  2. Conflicts of interest.
  3. Ethics and power in the professional relationships.
  4. Exploring challenges to ethical choices in practice.
  5. Guidelines for ethical decision-making.
  6. Legal and ethical issues in contemporary fields of practice.
  7. Negligence, issues of confidentiality and informed consent.
  8. Overview of the legal aid system in Australia.

Learning Experience

Students will engage in learning experiences via ECU’s LMS as well as additional ECU learning technologies

Additional Learning Experience Information

Off campus: Online lectures and activities On campus: Lectures and tutorials

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
ParticipationCollaborative Learning Project40%
ReportCase study60%
ONLINE
TypeDescriptionValue
ParticipationCollaborative Learning Project40%
ReportCase Study60%

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

Plagiarism

Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).

Unauthorised collaboration (collusion)

Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).

Contract cheating

Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.

Cheating in an exam

Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

SWK4110|2|2