The purpose of the NASW Code of Ethics is to set forth the values, principles and standards that guide a social worker’s conduct. It’s important to note that this code is relevant to all social workers, including students. Regardless of their professional functions, the setting of their work, or the populations they serve – the NASW Code of Ethics applies to them. The six purposes of the Code of Ethics are as follows:

1. The Code identifies core values on which social work's mission is based.
2. The Code summarizes broad ethical principles that reflect the profession's core values and establishes a set of specific ethical standards that should be used to guide social work practice.
3. The Code is designed to help social workers identify relevant considerations when professional obligations conflict or ethical uncertainties arise.
4. The Code provides ethical standards to which the general public can hold the social work profession accountable.
5. The Code socializes practitioners new to the field to social work's mission, values, ethical principles, and ethical standards.
6. The Code articulates standards that the social work profession itself can use to assess whether social workers have engaged in unethical conduct. NASW has formal procedures to adjudicate ethics complaints filed against its members.* In subscribing to this Code, social workers are required to cooperate in its implementation, participate in NASW adjudication proceedings, and abide by any NASW disciplinary rulings or sanctions based on it.

The NASW encourages social workers to consider other sources of information to guide their ethical thinking and to consider ethical theory and principles in a general manner. Social work theory, research, laws, regulations and agency policies can all be guiding forces for continuing an ethical approach to their work. That said, among the code of ethics, social workers should prioritize the NASW Code of Ethics as their primary source.

The NASW also outlines social workers’ ethical responsibilities to their clients, their colleagues, in practice settings, ethical responsibilities as professionals and to the broader society. The standards laid out by the organization are comprehensive, outlining many possible incidents and outcomes. The current Code of Ethics is 27 pages long – the third version since the NASW was created in 1955 (Social Work Today, June 2014).

The committee worked to keep it as succinct as possible, but as time has progressed, ethics-related risk management has become an increasingly important topic in social work training. There are also new challenges brought on by the growth of technology and a focus on the digital world.

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