Guide 4: Involving service users and carers in social work education
Key messages for the future
The involvement of service users and carers
in the design and delivery of the social
work degree offers a major opportunity for
a new generation of social workers to gain
a thorough grounding in service users’ and
carers’ experiences and expectations from
the very start of their training and careers.
Many universities and colleges that are
offering the degree programme in England
in 2003, together with their allies in service
user and carer organisations, have made a
good start at working together but
progress is uneven across the country and
the specific aspects of the programmes.
In order that this initiative may fully realise
its potential to make a difference to social
work training, priority should be attached
to building up the capacity of both service
user and carer organisations and the
degree programme providers so that they
can work together in constructive and
purposive partnerships. There is a call for
continuing ring-fenced funding to facilitate
this development.
Training for service user and carer trainers is
high on the agenda of their organisations.
Different types and levels of training should
be offered. There is scope for service user
and carer organisations to develop their
own training and support systems, and for
national bodies to develop accredited
training leading to qualifications.
The payment of service users for their time
and expertise is proving to be a challenging
and complicated area. The benefits rules
may hinder the involvement of some
groups of service users. Practice is variable
across higher education and some
guidance is required.
Codes of practice on service user and carer
participation have been suggested as one
of the means to promote consistency, fair
treatment, and good quality processes and
outcomes for everyone involved.
As the arrangements for involvement are
not prescribed, a wide variety of
approaches to the same activities are
emerging. Each social work education
programme needs to have robust systems
in place for monitoring and evaluating their
arrangements for involvement.
Comparative studies are required to
evaluate their relative effectiveness in terms
of processes and outcomes.
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