Working Together for Better Social Work Education

This article looks at the development of user involvement in social work education at national policy level. It is written by a group of service users who are involved in Shaping Our Lives, the national independent user controlled organisation and network. The article looks at the background of user involvement in social work education and the work that Shaping Our Lives has done in the past. The new social work qualification requires user involvement in all its aspects and stages. The results so far have been patchy. Service users have made it increasingly clear that they want to be more directly involved in developing this policy alongside other stakeholders. They are particularly keen that some of the funding available goes to user controlled organisations to help develop service users' capacity to get involved and to ensure diverse involvement. The article looks at problems there have been in taking this goal forward and a positive initiative that has developed to help make it happen, led by service users, working collaboratively with other stakeholders.