Analysing the impact of service user and carer involvement on the practice of newly qualified social workers?

Description

This pilot study in the qualifying social work programmes at the University of Birmingham and Queen’s University, Belfast attempted to address this gap in the research evidence and ask the question, ‘What impact does service user and carer involvement have on the practice of newly qualified social workers?’ This question was addressed by examining newly qualified social workers’ perceptions of the impact that exposure to service user and carer perspectives and experiences in their social work education has had on their knowledge, skills and values as they move into practice. Both Universities have a long standing commitment to the involvement of service user and carer involvement in their programmes which they would regard as well established.
I was lead researcher for the Northern Ireland part of this research and the findings were published in 2017 in the British Journal of Social Work ‘Making it real’: evaluating the impact of service user and carer involvement in social work education' which has been selected as one of Editors' Choice papers in the British Journal of Social work special 50th anniversary edition forthcoming in June 2021.
This research was supported by funding from the Northern Ireland Social Care Council and service user researchers had a key role in supporting and advising on the research implementation.

Period	2012
Work for	Northern Ireland Social Care Council, United Kingdom
Degree of Recognition	International