Professional Boundaries in Social Work

Effective understanding and application of professional and personal boundaries underpin all work in the social care sector. The long term effectiveness of the organisation rests entirely on the personal and professional boundaries of the staff.

Most of the staff will have some understanding of the issues but often people lack a coherent and comprehensive look at the issue. Good boundaries also require good teamwork, an issue that is highlighted within our training sessions.

Boundaries are not just the rules that we enforce with clients but are rooted in an understanding of self and how we interact with others. Our advanced boundaries training takes time to get your staff to examine their own personality types and how this impacts on their work.

To sample some of our work and to check your own boundaries, try our self test multiple choice Professional Boundaries Quiz.

Basic Boundaries
Suitable for trainees, volunteers or inexperienced staff. Covers basic theory and practice: Why we need boundaries, basic boundary categories, effects of not keeping boundaries, teamwork, practical application in day to day work.

Advanced Boundaries
Suitable for experienced staff with an existing understanding of boundaries: Covers: working in a diverse team, dealing with necessary / unavoidable boundary crossings, how our personal issues impact on our boundary keeping, working in unstructured settings, re-enforcing boundaries and building boundaries into your systems.

Boundaries for a Team
The advanced boundaries sessions tailored for a specific team. The second half on the day is a carefully facilitated look at specific boundary issues that are ‘live’ for that team. This session can be delivered, with or without management present.