Kim Leadbeater MP (credit: House of Commons/Roger Harris)
Social workers are to be allowed to opt out of the proposed assisted dying process, the legislation’s sponsor has pledged.
Labour’s Kim Leadbeater has promised to work with fellow MPs to amend her Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill to ensure practitioners other than health professionals are allowed not to participate.
While social workers were originally not part of the bill’s process for assisted dying, they have been added to it through amendments made by Leadbeater during its recently-concluded committee stage.
Social workers to be involved in assisted dying panels
Under this, a panel comprising a senior lawyer, a psychiatrist and a social worker would consider requests for an assisted death that had been already signed off by two doctors, to check whether the statutory requirements had been met. These include that the person:
- has an inevitably progressive illness and is expected not to live beyond a further six months;
- has capacity to make the decision to end their life;
- has a clear, settled and informed wish to end their life;
- made the initial declaration that they wanted to end their life voluntarily and was not coerced or pressured into making it.
However, as the bill stands, only doctors and other health professionals have the right to not participate in helping a person to die and protection from detriment from their employer should they decide to opt out.
Lobbying from BASW
The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) had lobbied for social workers to be similarly covered and welcomed Leadbeater’s pledge, given last week, to introduce an amendment to that effect.
In a debate at the committee stage on 18 March, Conservative MP and prominent bill critic Danny Kruger put forward an amendment that would have extended the so-called opt-out provision to anyone potentially involved and in relation to any part of the assisted dying process.
He highlighted social workers’ current omission and quoted written evidence from BASW.
In response, Leadbeater said: “I would like to get it on the record that I agree with him: there should be no duty on any person to take part in the Bill’s provisions if they choose not to, for whatever reason. I will struggle to support his amendment because there are other issues with it, but on that principle I wholeheartedly agree, and I would be happy to work with him in sorting it out, before report, to that effect.”
This means she will devise an amendment to extend the so-called “conscience clause” more broadly to be considered at the next stage of the bill’s passage through the House of Commons, the so-called report stage.
‘A vital step towards parity between social workers and health professionals’
In response, a BASW spokesperson said: “BASW has engaged significantly with MPs on the assisted dying proposals since they were introduced to parliament, ensuring that social work’s role and voice is understood and represented throughout the process.
“Social workers not being included in the conscience clause in the initial drafting of the legislation was a serious omission that we have been raising with policy-makers since day one. It is paramount that all professionals potentially involved should be able to opt out of work relating to assisted dying without detriment.
“We were therefore pleased that MPs on the committee listened to our calls and gave their assurance that an amendment to this effect will now be brought forward. It is a vital step toward ensuring parity of legal protections between social workers, other non-healthcare professionals, and medical practitioners.”
