4.3. Benefits and Areas of Support

A range of personal and wider benefits were identified for service user and carer involvement in social work education, alongside areas of support for the service user and organisations. Benefits

“Mentally challenging, maintaining communication and personal skills and making a positive contribution.” (Service User F) “It’s nice interviewing future students and getting an insight into their lives and thinking they would or wouldn’t make a good social worker and would I like them involved in my life.” (Service User E)

“Providing structure to my time.” (Service User A) Service user participants had gained a lot from their involvement in social work education, where they shared a range of personal benefits about their role. For example, one participant found that being involved provided them with structure and routine throughout their day, whilst others found satisfaction in how their role could help others. This sense of ‘giving back and helping’ or reciprocal action associated with co-production, was a recurring theme in service user participant feedback. Having a say, being included in decision making and being listened to can all have therapeutic benefits of increasing self-esteem and confidence with many service users sharing notions of feeling empowered. When asked about the positives of being involved in social work education, service user participants were able to identify that their role also offered the opportunity to interact with others, improve relationships and develop skills. “Interface with lecturers and students.” (Service User D)

“I would like to help the students.” (Service User B)

“I am happy as it is.” (Service User C) It was clear from the feedback that service users felt valued and listened to within the University of Suffolk, where they contributed to developing student’s skills and attitudes shaping and improving future practitioners. However, more can still be done as one of the wider benefits of service user involvement is the creation of services that are more tailored and responsive to the needs of their recipients. As such, this highlights the vital aspect that service user and carer involvement in social work education plays in accountability and service improvement. Needs

“I wouldn’t like it to get too technical. I am just a stay at home mum who gave up my life to look after my daughter. I am a service user in the true sense of here and now.” (Service User E)

“Easier wheelchair access to meeting venues.” (Service User D) It was clear from service user and carer participant responses that personal and access needs must always be considered sensitively when working with a diverse group of people to ensure that unintentional discrimination is not occurring, and that people are included without breaching confidentiality. Service user participants highlighted the importance of having information relating to involvement supplied in an accessible format to prevent the creation of barriers to involvement. Amongst the service user participants there was also an appetite for additional training with all identifying at least one area that they would like additional support and many identifying multiple areas. Training is important for building the service users skill set and providing additional benefits to their involvement, alongside payment. Service user participants seemed particularly keen to access training on Equality and Diversity, and Research Methods. In addition, service users and carers also identified that they would like access to resources that could help them feel valued, develop their skills and forge stronger connections to organisations. This would fit with the Teaching Partnership, University of Suffolk, Suffolk County Council and social work’s commitment to life-long education where learning can be embedded into all aspects of service user involvement in social work education.

“Consolidation of group within and as part of access to the library University.” (Service User F)

“Access to library facilities, journals, research and other learning facilities.” (Service User F)

The aim of this report was to identify the current landscape of service user and carer involvement in social work education at the University of Suffolk and Suffolk County Council through the voices of a range of stakeholders. This report has highlighted the importance of structure and organisation with clear, visible and fair processes to aid effective service user and carer involvement. It has also demonstrated the benefits of connectivity and valuing the voice of the service user or carer, making clear that service users do feel that they are contributing meaningfully by influencing social work education and practice. Areas for development include the creation of formal feedback processes and many respondents highlighted the need for a role dedicated to service user involvement. This has been achieved through the employment of a Citizen Involvement Co-ordinator. However, as this is a temporary post consideration will need to be given to sustainability beyond the fixed term. Increasing the diversity of the service user and carer group is also a priority allowing a different as feedback to service users as well as training and benefits and making reasonable adjustments to enable access to events, library facilities and research development. This is important, so that the value of service user involvement is recognised, forging a stronger relationship between partner organisations, students and service users, whilst building individual service user skills. different service user and carer groups.

Hearing people’s different experiences will enrich student learning and allow for unheard voices to be heard. range of perspectives to be brought into social work education, challenging the stereotypes and assumptions that students and staff might hold. It is also necessary to ensure that any developments ensure reasonable adjustments are made to support personal and access needs. Many of these findings would seem to be consistent with the wider literature on service user and carer involvement in social work education. One final area will be to consider forging stronger processes within Suffolk County Council, to ensure wider representative feedback in the future research project. We are hopeful this report and the findings within it will help to progress service user and carer involvement across the University of Suffolk and Suffolk County Council embedding a true process of co-production. We aim to lead the way on innovative and creative ways of involving a diverse range of service users and carers in a wide range of activities. This report will be repeated in two years in order to investigate the developments

6. RECOMMENDATIONS

i.

ii. To improve structures and processes, such

To create more diverse representation across that have occurred during this time. iii.

iv. To strengthen service user involvement in social work education across the Teaching Partnership particularly throughout processes within Suffolk County Council.

To co-produce this research project in 2021/22 with service users and carers, using the language of citizens.