What is the Service User and Carer Group at The Open University?

The Service User and Carer group @ The Open University has been in existence for several years. During COVID-19, it was decided to refresh the group and use Zoom to continue to meet online. This was particularly important as some of our members have compromised immunity and needed to self-isolate. In addition, our membership covers England and not everyone can get easy access to Milton Keynes. In 2021 the group obtained a grant from the Open University to set up this web page. The aim of this is to provide information, feedback from our monthly meetings, share good practices in service user and carer involvement and news about events, workshops, conferences etc. which are of interest to service users and carers involved in delivering social work education. There is active and equal involvement in writing course materials, updating modules and contributing to research at the Open University.

Meetings continued monthly and developed a regular pattern for ease of scheduling. There were, on average, ten attendees, who participated in the two-hour meetings and were paid an agreed rate per hour out of a dedicated budget. We had several guest speakers in topics of interest. We were invited to collaborate on several pieces of work, including involvement in Practice Educator Briefings, Practice Assessment Reports (PAR), and End Point assessment module for Social Work Degree Apprenticeship, as well as participating in the virtual introduction to the Post Graduate Diploma residential event in February 2022 and in-person involvement at the same event in 2023.

The group was interviewed by Social Work England as part of its re-accreditation role in relation to the social work programmes at the Open University. The work and activity were commended as examples of good practice.  The group has continued its longstanding involvement in interviewing prospective Social Work students. In 2023, there were over 200 applicants and members of the service user and carers’ group were involved in interviewing all those who met the criteria for shortlisting, involving over 50 interview panels (with up to 4 students in each panel). This sets the expectation of inclusion in the social work curriculum from the start of each student’s journey.

We meet regularly with our counterparts in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to discuss our induction processes and cross-nations working. There are differences in legislation, funding and regulation but an equal commitment to achieving a clear and shared definition of co-production. This is a particular interest of the new Associate Head of School, Dr Helen Casey who has an international profile regarding co-production with people sharing their lived experience.

For further information about the group please contact Jackie.king-owen@open.ac.uk