• University of Edinburgh
• School of Social and Political Studies

Social Work

• Quick Links
• Login
• Search

We believe that social work service users and their carers have an invaluable part to play in contributing to the training of the next generation of social workers.

Users and carers have a long history of influencing and contributing to the social work programmes here at The University of Edinburgh. Indeed, involving service users and carers in all aspects of our programmes has become a requirement under the Standards in Social Work Education, the framework against which social work programmes are approved by the Scottish Social Services Council. The contribution of users and carers to our programmes became more formalised in June 2008 with the first meeting of the Service User and Carer Forum, which has continued to meet regularly since then.

The remit of the forum is to contribute to:

• Curriculum development
• Teaching
• Recruitment, selection and assessment of social work students
• Preparation of students for practice
• Feedback on students’ readiness for practice

The forum meets bi-monthly and is attended by people who are able to draw from their own personal experiences of using social work services from a variety of perspectives. Over the last year or so the particular achievements of the forum have included:

• Production of a DVD giving service user and carer perspectives on their experiences of social work and what they would want from a good social worker
• Giving presentations at open days for prospective students
• A one-day induction event for new students establishing the importance of service user and carer perspectives from the outset of their training
• Direct teaching across all years of the programme
• Small group meetings with students to give feedback on student presentation
• Representation of the social work subject at JSWEC conferences

Over the coming year, the forum aims to build upon its current activity and to integrate its involvement even more fully at all levels of curriculum development and teaching and in the recruitment and selection of students.