Professional boundaries are an important factor in the relationship between any professional and the people they support.
People tend to use the term “professional boundaries” to apply to a range of situations. And it’s true that we need to think about professional boundaries whenever we encounter any situation with a potential power imbalance: Whether you work as a therapist, a coach, in a sport and activity organisation, or in a drama school.
But it’s important to be as specific as possible when thinking about professional boundaries. It means setting clear guidelines for what behaviour is and is not allowed when people interact in your organisation. These guidelines need to cover the workers and the people they support, but they must also apply to the people who work together in your organisation.
Professional boundaries can bring a sense of fairness, clarity, consistency, and transparency to professional relationships. When professional boundaries are properly understood and fairly applied, everyone in an organisation can expect the same experience without bias or favouritism. Professional boundaries also provide a safe framework for the relationship between the worker and the person they’re supporting, in which all limits and expectations are clear from the start.
Finding the Right Balance
Safeguarding adults is everyone’s business. We all have a role to play in keeping each other safe. For example, your role might be to support an adult in planning their care, or in finding a way to move on from a difficult situation. To fulfil this role, you will need to show empathy and build trust in the working relationship. This will mean working closely with the adult, which means it will be necessary to set some professional boundaries.
Yet it’s all too easy for professional boundaries to blur when you’re working in isolation. We’re all human, and we’re all susceptible to working outside of our professional scope. It’s important to reflect on this, and to stay connected with your peers and your line managers or supervisors. We should all check in with each other from time to time, so we can explore complex pieces of work together, and assess whether we’re acting with professional curiosity in our roles.
It’s possible to be authentic and caring in your work while still maintaining clear professional boundaries. Having balanced boundaries means using your authority appropriately. You’re aware of your position of power, so you take care to neither exploit your clients’ vulnerabilities nor infringe on their rights. You use professional judgment and self-reflection skills in your assessments, and you make decisions that are professionally responsible while remaining accountable to other professionals.
Professional Boundaries vs. Professional Barriers
Professional boundaries provide a safe space for communication to flourish. When we put healthy professional boundaries in place, we can establish a way of working that allows for empathy and involvement, without overstepping any lines.
This is where professional boundaries differ from professional barriers. While boundaries can encourage healthy interaction, a barrier can cut-off effective communication, making it clear to the other person that you’re not on the same team.
When you fully understand your role and responsibilities, you’ll know how to encourage effective communication while working within a healthy set of professional boundaries.
For example, if the adult you’re supporting doesn’t know much about your organisation, they may have certain expectations that are not within your remit. Trying to enforce a boundary after it’s been crossed can be confusing for the person receiving support – particularly if they’ve previously had their own boundaries violated. Yet if you discuss exactly what support you’re offering right at the start of the working relationship, you can avoid any misunderstandings or blurred boundaries further down the line.
Personal vs. Professional
Professional relationships can provide a grounding, and a sense of belonging, in our work.
The underlying principles of personal and professional relationships are broadly similar: They’re each built on trust, respect, and the ability to resolve conflict. But beyond this, we should treat our personal and our professional relationships as two completely different things.
While looking to build trust in our professional relationships, we may look for shared interests, or other commonalities, as conversation starters. But we should take care to avoid blurring the lines between the personal and the professional. It’s important to apply professional boundaries in a way that provides assurance and stability to the working relationship.
Professional Boundaries In The Workplace
A key difference between professional and personal relationships is the starting point. Professional relationships arise through work. They may change as your career progresses and new opportunities arise. This can create some difficulties if you become senior to one of your workplace friends.
Making friends at work is a bonus. You should not expect everyone you work with to be your friend, and it should not be a requirement for fitting in. Nobody in the workplace should feel pressured, intimidated, or excluded by any working relationship.
Setting clear expectations – and clear boundaries – will help people in your organisation understand how they should behave towards one another. This is a key part of building a safer culture in your organisation.
Minimising Risk
Organisations need to have a clear understanding of what constitutes ethical and professional behaviour. You also need to understand the organisational and individual factors that could compromise professional boundaries.
It’s important to ensure everyone in your organisation can access and understand your organisational policies on professional boundaries. This can involve regularly discussing codes of conduct, while making sure that everyone in your organisation feels safe in raising any concerns. At the same time, you should encourage individuals across your organisation to reflect on their behaviour, and how it might be perceived by others. This can involve staying aware of any potential or actual conflicts of interest.
Working with adults who have support needs can take an emotional toll, and if support workers get too emotionally involved in their work, it can compromise professional boundaries. Supervisors should encourage individual workers to recognise when things are getting too much, and signpost them to the support they need.
We each have a responsibility to recognise the power we have in our roles, and to use it responsibility. And we should recognise that there might be a power imbalance between staff members, as well as between workers and the people they support.
Above all, you should encourage your staff to be their true and authentic selves. In this way they’ll feel comfortable speaking out, safe in the knowledge that you will listen to any concerns and take appropriate action. They’ll feel empowered to work within the expectations of their role, but they won’t be afraid to ask for help when they need it.
An Essential Introduction to Safeguarding From The Ann Craft Trust
Our Introduction to Safeguarding eLearning course is perfect for people who are new to safeguarding or working with adults, as well as anyone looking to assess their safeguarding knowledge.
It covers the essential information you need to know relating to safeguarding adults. This includes how to recognise abuse, and how to respond and report appropriately to concerns.
Learn More About Our Introduction to Safeguarding Adults eLearning Course