The task:

“A commitment to confidentiality means that the social worker is not permitted to divulge information which he or she has received in confidence unless there is just cause or excuse for doing so…”
(Rice, S. & Day, A., 2014. Social Work in the Shadow of the Law, p. 387).

The following scenario is based on a case reported in the Melbourne Age, 6/02/97, in which a social worker in the course of his employment came into possession of information in a serious criminal
matter. The case is referred to in Rice & Day (2014, p. 387).

In the course of a criminal investigation, a teenager suspected of murder admitted to a social worker that he had murdered someone, and that another boy had been charged with the murder and was
standing trial. The social worker did not disclose this to the police at the time. A year later, the matter came to light and the social worker was contacted by a defence lawyer. The social worker
then gave a statement to police, disclosing the teenager’s confession of murder. The social worker alleged that he had reported the teenager’s disclosure to his immediate supervisor at the time,
but had been directed not to breach the confidentiality of the teenager’s disclosure.

Taking this scenario as the context for your discussion, and considering it as a human services worker, critically discuss the following questions on the duty of confidentiality:

(1) What should the human services worker do, in this situation, when s/he receives information that would normally be confidential?

(2) What are the competing issues to be considered in this scenario?

(3) In the above scenario, the social worker did not disclose the information until the matter was investigated a year later. What other approaches could or should have been taken by a human
services worker in this scenario?

Support your arguments with reference to the literature and case materials on confidentiality, duty of care, and negligence.