Service user involvement in social work education: a scoping review

ABSTRACT

Service user involvement in social work education is well-established in some regions and a new developing approach in others. For instance, since policy reform in 2002, it has been customary for service users and carers to be involved in critical aspects of professional social work education in the UK. Yet, expansion in North American contexts has been limited. The scope and extensiveness of service user involvement are increasingly varied, regardless of mandatory or voluntary educational standards. This scoping review mapped and synthesized literature from 2010 to 2018 on service user and carer involvement in social work education to identify innovative approaches and their effectiveness in practice. We used a scoping review protocol to select 35 studies and assessed the studies using a framework for the evaluation of educational programmes. Although most studies were published in the UK, there was greater representation from other regions than previously reported. The findings suggest that social work programs are adopting various approaches to integrate service users in social work education and innovative research methodologies for evaluation. The implications for social work education and practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Scoping review
• service user and carer involvement
• social work education
• experts by experience
• ladder of citizen participation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto.

Notes on contributors

Keith Adamson

Keith Adamson is an assistant professor, teaching stream, in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada.

Ami Goulden

Ami Goulden is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada.

Judith Logan

Judith Logan is the assistant head of user services at the Robarts Library at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada.

Jean Hammond

Jean Hammond is a family partnerships specialist on the Client and Family Integrated Care (CFIC) team at the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Ontario, Canada.