A Quality Improvement Plan to Widen the Involvement of Service Users and Carers in the NI Degree in Social Work 2018-2021

In adherence with the NISCC ‘Rules for Approval for the Degree in Social Work (2003), the NISCC Standards for Practice Learning in the Degree in Social Work (March 2018) and the NISCC Five Year Review of the Degree in Social Work (2014) recommendations, it is, therefore, timely to reflect on the value and effectiveness of service user and carer involvement in the NI Degree in Social Work.

To ensure a robust and evidence informed basis to this work, this report will reflect on the legislative, policy and research contexts in regard to user involvement more broadly. The report will also highlight the key messages emerging from the one day conference ‘Learning through Listening: Service User and Carer Involvement in Social Work Education Conference (May 2018) which was co-produced by service user educators and researchers, academic representatives and the NIDSWP. A Quality Improvement Plan to identify actions for development and plans for sustainability will thus be developed based on these aforementioned aspects.