Outcomes focused user involvement in social work education: applying knowledge to practice

Abstract

This paper discusses an innovative approach connecting service user and carer involvement (SUCI) in social work education to social work practice. The research team, comprised of service users, carers, social work students and module leader, worked collaboratively democratising the research process. At the University of Dundee a core social work module facilitates for students to spend 15 hours with a service user and/or carer (host) gaining a unique insight into their everyday lives. During this time hosts and students discuss two policy practice questions, responses to these questions are generating annual qualitative data, with study findings being disseminated at local and national level. The experiential learning students acquire from spending time with their host becomes the site of knowledge creation through involvement that is applied to practice. This paper reports on the narratives emerging from the longitudinal data (2012-15, n = 90) on the changing landscape of social care in Scotland and the dissemination of project findings. We explore the intersection where the voices of service users and carers, student learning and social work practice coalesce. A model of outcomes focused SUCI is introduced as a template for meaningful, sustainable and outcomes focused SUCI in social work education.

Does training in co-production lead to any real change in practice? Reflections from practitioners in Northern Ireland

“…Participants were representative of all sectors and a geographical spread of N. Ireland and held senior management roles. Frequent reading of the interview transcripts and analysing qualitative data through a manual iterative process assisted in better ownership of data (Farrow, 2014; Levy et al , 2016; Saldaña, 2015). As the author was concerned with addressing specific research questions, the data were analysed through a theoretical thematic analysis using an open coding process, which identified key descriptor words relevant to the study questions.…”

‘Inspiring Conversations’: A Comparative Analysis of the Involvement of Experts by Experience in Italian and Scottish Social Work Education

“…Historically, the genesis of user involvement is located in the UK. As Duffy et al, (2017:126) note, 'what was a peculiarly UK initiative is now an international one', with a growing international evidence base (Hughes, 2017;Morin and Lambert, 2017;Levy et al, 2016a;Tanner, et al, 2015;Cabiati and Raineri, 2016;Kristiansen and Heule, 2016;Robinson and Webber, 2013). This paper offers an original contribution to this literature by contributing to filling a lacuna on comparative perspectives on the involvement of EBE in social work education.…”

“…In both contexts, service users and informal carers, as EBE, along with lecturers have worked collaboratively in the education and learning experiences of future social workers. The Italian "Relational Model" is rooted in relational social work (Donati, 2011;Folgheraiter, 2004) as is the Scottish model, which is also framed by an "Outcomes Focused Model" (Levy, et al, 2016a), that facilitates for students' learning from time spent with EBE, to impact on practice. At the Catholic University of Milan, the involvement of EBE has been driven by the personal initiative of academics, whilst this holds true for the University of Dundee, in the Scottish context the inclusion of EBE in social work education has been a mandatory requirement for all Scottish universities providing social work education for over 15 years.…”

Service User Involvement and COVID-19—An Afterthought?

“…Much has also been achieved in positively elevating the contribution of lived and experiential knowledge to important debates in social work education, in particular (see, e.g. Zavir sek, 2009; Robinson and Webber, 2013;Levy et al, 2018;Raikes and Balen, 2018;Videm sek, 2018). New texts (Beresford et al, 2021;Williams et al, 2021) exploring coproduction in the context of COVID-19, drawing on the experience of service users and carers in the UK and beyond, highlight their perception that the pandemic was seen by many policymakers as too urgent and too much of an emergency to allow for the ordinary operation of public and patient involvement.…”