Okuzeka
Social Work vocabulary · Ethics and Confidentiality

Conflict of interest

Meaning in social work, with examples

nounCommon term

In social work, conflict of interest means: A situation in which a worker's personal interests or relationships could affect, or seem to affect, their professional judgement.

In Turkish: çıkar çatışması

How it is used

Examples include being asked to assess a neighbour or relative, or having a financial link to a care provider. Workers declare a conflict of interest to their manager, and the case is usually reallocated to someone else.

Example sentences

  1. I declared a conflict of interest because I know the family from my children's school.

  2. To avoid a conflict of interest, the case was given to another team.

Common collocations

  • declare a conflict of interest
  • potential conflict of interest
  • avoid a conflict of interest
  • conflict of interest policy
  • professional boundariesThe limits that keep the relationship between a worker and a client professional, for example around gifts, personal contact, social media and sharing personal information.
  • code of ethicsA written set of values and principles that guides how members of a profession should behave and make decisions.
  • duty of careThe legal and ethical responsibility to act in a way that keeps people in your care safe and does not cause them avoidable harm.
  • supervisionRegular protected meetings in which a social worker discusses cases, decisions, workload, learning and wellbeing with a more experienced manager or colleague.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Ethics and Confidentiality

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