Social worker training

Our experience of partnership working on a Scottish project on service user and carer involvement in social work education has been a deeply politicising one. First-hand encounters with power enacted at various sites of service user and carer involvement across national, institutional and local university levels have demonstrated to us that 'partnership working that pushes at the orthodox structures of power is difficult' (Barnes et al., 2006, p. 434).

Partnership work with service users and carers in social work education is a policy requirement, and it is also central to the anti-oppressive and rights-based values of social work. This paper reports research findings which are drawn from an educational context, but are also relevant to the wider field of health and social care. The research team undertook a systematic knowledge review using the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordinating Centre system, which had been used in health and education, but which had not previously been used in social care and social work.

The increasing focus on the involvement of people who use health and social care services and their carers in developing services and in social work education has the potential to bring significant change. This book examines the challenges in enabling people who are `experts by experience' to participate in an agenda which is largely dominated by 'top-down' managerial practices. Several themes run through the book.

In this chapter the author recounts her personal experiences of being a carer for her son and her interaction with social services in Scotland. The author's son is now over 30 years old and is on the autistic spectrum, has obsessive compulsive disorder and a learning disability. She recounts the early difficulties she had in dealing with health and educational professionals as she tried to achieve the best possible care for her son. Many of the professionals she encountered were unable to appreciate the importance of integrating her son into as many normal daily activities as possible.

Context: In 2003 the Department of Health introduced a new qualification for social workers. Previously a diploma, for the first time the social work qualification became a three-year degree course, a move which reflected the difficulty and professionalism of the job. Also for the first time, universities and colleges offering the degree were required to involve service users and carers in the design and delivery of the programme.