Student social workers

This film is from a project which examines social work from the perspective of service users and carers across three countries, Northern Ireland, Slovenia and Spain. Social work students from Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and the University of Alicante, Spain interviewed service users and carers on film using seven questions developed to examine key areas of social work skills, knowledge and values.

Service users, carers and academics describe participation in the social work degree at Kingston University and St George's University London. 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.

Service users, carers and academics describe participation in the social work degree at Bucks New 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 video will be of interest to social worker educators, students on social work courses, people working more broadly in co-production/participation and service users and carers.

This paper addresses a number of issues concerning the future prospects for social work and mental health in England and the implications of these for social work education. In particular the significance of interprofessional practice and education will be examined and these will be located within the wider context of the social work contribution to mental health services. The experience of social work in promoting the interests and involvement of service users and carers and of working within a holistic model will also be recognised.

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.

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.

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 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.

This film details the requirements on universities teaching the social work degree to involve service user and carers in their courses. It also sets out the benefits that result from students working with service users and carers, with users and carers describing how this leads to improved practice and how students explaining the value of learning about the realities of people's lives. The film will be of interest to social worker educators, students on social work courses, people working more broadly in co-production/participation and service users and carers.