Social work education

The imperative for participation in social work education has led to consideration of the ways in which service users’ and carers’ voices can best be heard by students. At Glyndŵr University, this debate has resulted in the development of a service user and carer-led module which will introduce students to a variety of creative approaches as a way of telling narratives of experience. In preparation for the module, a pilot project was run to assess the particular benefits of using animation for this purpose.

Purpose – It is generally agreed that carers in mental health care play a vital role in helping people to maintain their place in the community and reducing the time clients spend in hospital or residential settings. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual approach to involving carers in higher education by acknowledging their contribution to improving practice and identify the impact upon student learning in mental health and social care professions. 

Including informal carers within social work training programmes is generally regarded positively. Such approval is aligned with the view that users of welfare services possess valuable, even unique perspectives relevant to professional education and training. This article identifies three models incorporating the experience of carers into social work training and draws attention to aspects of good practice.

Service users, carers and academics describe participation in the social work degree at Anglia Ruskin University. It looks at the different ways that users and carers are involved in the course, the importance of the university providing appropriate training and support, the benefits students get from contact with users and carers and what users and carers gain from the experience. The film will be of interest to social work educators, social work students, service users and carers.

Emphasis on support for informal carers focuses on those who provide, in the words of the Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995, 'substantial' and 'regular' care. Following research and policy, professional education has also developed interest in those who live with the people they support, such as co-resident spouses and children of all ages. This article considers those who probably do not define themselves as carers and are usually referred to as 'relatives' or 'family', living at a distance from an older relative.

Service user and carer involvement in social work education is now well established since its inception as a compulsory requirement in the social work curriculum in the United Kingdom in 2003. Since then, there have been many examples of how such involvement has been approached by education providers. Nevertheless, one of the key obstacles and challenges in this field continues to centre on the need to achieve non-tokenistic user involvement which cements the engagement of service users and carers at the heart of social work education.

Service users, carers and academics describe participation in the social work degree at Leeds University. It looks at the different ways that users and carers are involved in the course, including teaching, role-playing activities, marking students' work and the selection process for students applying to on the course. It also looks at the importance of the university providing appropriate training and support, the benefits students get from contact with users and carers and what users and carers gain from the experience.

This video looks at the practical arrangements that need to be made around accessibility, support and payments to ensure that users and carers can participate in social work education and be rewarded for their input. The film will be useful for social work students, lecturers, tutors, social worker educators, people working more broadly in co-production/participation and service users and carers.

This article will reflect on the experience of undertaking a participatory action research influenced study within a module of a social work degree programme. In doing so it will touch on some of the literature associated with student, service user and carer involvement in qualifying programmes, and in particular on research and module design. It will outline the history of service user and carer involvement in respect of a specific module within a singular degree course.

Reports on a study which investigates how universities have engaged with carers and carer organisations in developing the new social work degree. The research was commissioned by the department of Health through Carers UK and City and Guilds Affinity.