Interim Community Guidelines
This interim policy applies until our first steering group reviews and adopts a final policy. Once Fair Go for Social Work is incorporated, the committee will review the policy every 12 months.
Fair Go for Social Work is a space to celebrate the social work profession and speak up for it. These guidelines keep it safe for everyone who contributes, and for the people social workers support. They apply to stories, comments, survey answers, event chats and anything else shared with us.
1. Never identify a client
Never share anything that could identify a client or service user. That includes names, places, dates, photos, case details, or a combination of details that points to one person. Changing a name isn't always enough in a small town or a specialist service. When in doubt, leave it out.
2. Respect your employer and your professional obligations
- Check your employer's media and social media policy before you share.
- Don't share confidential information about your workplace, colleagues or cases.
- Follow your professional code of ethics.
- You can stay anonymous if that makes it safer to share.
3. Respect colleagues and organisations
Disagree with ideas, not people. You're welcome to discuss sector debates, but quote published sources rather than making claims about individuals or specific workplaces. We welcome every social worker: AASW members and non-members, every field and every region.
4. Speak with respect about the people we support
Use strengths-based, person-first language, or the language people choose for themselves. Stories should uphold the dignity of the people social workers work with.
5. Be inclusive and culturally safe
Social work stands for social justice and human rights. This is a space where everyone is treated with dignity.
First Nations peoples: respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, cultures and knowledge, and the right to self-determination. Content about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples may be reviewed with our First Nations advisory group.
Everyone else we serve and work alongside, including:
- people with disability, and neurodivergent people
- LGBTIQA+ people
- culturally and linguistically diverse communities, refugees and people seeking asylum
- people experiencing poverty, homelessness or housing stress
- people living with mental ill-health or using alcohol and other drug services
- people in contact with the child protection or justice systems
- older people, children and young people
- women and gender-diverse people, including people affected by family and domestic violence
- people of all faiths and none
- people in rural and remote communities
What this means in practice:
- We don't publish content that is racist, ableist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic or discriminatory in any other way. We don't publish content that stereotypes or mocks any group.
- Use the language people and communities choose for themselves, and ask if you're unsure.
- Don't speak for a community you're not part of. Share your experience and let people tell their own stories.
- We welcome stories from social workers who belong to these communities, and from people with lived experience of social work services.
6. No personal attacks
We don't publish content that attacks, harasses or names people in a harmful way.
7. How moderation works
Every story is reviewed before it is published. We may ask you to change details to protect privacy, or decline to publish. See our story consent and moderation policy.
8. Appeals
If we decline or remove your content and you disagree, tell us through the contact form. A different reviewer will look at it.