3.3 Duties, powers and responsibilities

There are key words in any statute that will help you to understand what social workers may do and what they must do. Two key words which will help you to interpret statutes are ‘duties’ and ‘powers’.

A duty is something that local authorities or, less commonly, social workers, are required by law to do. This means that they have to act in a particular way or that they must offer a certain service. There is no discretion. For example, every local authority must publish information about the services to children with disabilities in their area. (Children Act 1989, para 1(2) of sch 1 and Children (Scotland) Act 1995, s.20. The Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995.)

Powers on the other hand give more discretion, so they may be exercised in one authority routinely, as a result of local policy and practice, but not in another. Therefore, if members of a family live in different areas, the assistance they receive may differ, and the social worker would need to be aware of this when working with or advising families.

Duties and powers relating to social care are generally placed on the local authority, but it is normally the social work department that implements them. The decisions and choices social workers make in their everyday practice will be regulated by whether they are acting under a duty or a power. A social worker is accountable to their profession, their employer and to service users. In order to ensure that your practice is accountable, it is imperative that you understand when there is a power or a duty to act.

The words ‘must’ or ‘shall’ indicate that there is a duty imposed on the local authority to carry out certain functions. However, if the paragraph, in addition to these words, includes the phrase ‘as they [the local authority] consider appropriate’, this means that there is discretion built into the Act and that the local authority has a duty only so far as it considers that it is appropriate to have one.

It could be argued that what might be appropriate in a large city housing estate might not be so in a rural area, and thus the wording allows local authorities to be responsive to local needs. The counterargument, however, is that such discretion can allow the local authority to avoid its responsibilities by wording obligations so loosely that citizens do not know exactly what their rights are. It is difficult to argue that the provision of services is not adequate if the local authority can claim that, according to its assessment, such provision is appropriate for the area.