Introducing the Social Work HUB Group ‘Experts by experience’

1. Introducing the Social Work HUB Group ‘Experts by experience’ Service users and carers working as critical friends with BSc (Hons) Social Work students and teaching staff at the University of the West of England

2. The HUB Group • The HUB group consists of service users and carers who work with staff from the social work teaching team. The aim of the group is to support the development of service user and carer perspectives and enrich the learning experience for students on the Social Work Degree and Post Qualifying programmes.

3. Background The Social Work Programme is committed to service user involvement in the Social Work Degree. To uphold this the HUB group was started in 2003 and has developed into a core part of the teaching of social work at UWE. After experiencing a lecture with HUB involvement a Level 1Social Work student said, “This made me realise why I wanted to do social work in the beginning” A HUB Group member said, “I see the HUB as somewhere I can bring my experiences”

4. Members of the HUB Group are involved in: Selection – HUB members are part of the interview panel that decides whether or not a student is offered a place and on staff selection panels. Assessment of skills and learning – HUB members work along side teaching staff to assess how well students are progressing. Practice Panel – HUB members are part of the team who read the students portfolios of work about their practice Module planning and teaching -HUB members take part in teaching using their knowledge and expertise in various areas of practice to promote understanding about a range of service user and carers’ perspectives Planning the new degree for 2013 – Social Work Reform Board. Awarding the Will Brown Memorial Prize – mental health

5. Hub and Spoke Approach

6. Terms of Reference for the HUB Group The HUB group is valued by the staff group as a critical friend and expert by experience that gives feedback and contributes to the development of the programme  This involves: • Meeting as a HUB group three times a year. • Meeting with members of the social work teaching team three times a year

7. Meeting with module teams to develop particular pieces of work such as co-teaching, learning resources, curriculum design, service user and carer perspectives on student’s assessed work, monitoring and evaluation • Participating in action learning sets to improve the effectiveness of their own individual contributions • Taking shared responsibility for the maintenance and development of the group • Contributing to the wider work of the programmes

8. Maintain contact with outside organisations • Share perceptions of students’ understanding of service user and carer perspectives • Evaluate the effectiveness of service user and carer involvement in social work programmes • Publicise the lessons learned from the work of the HUB group

9. Social Work Teaching Team Commitment to Support the HUB Group The HUB group consists of service users and carers who have demonstrated a commitment to working with the social work teaching team at UWE. The staff team will therefore: • Provide service users and carers with an induction process before becoming involved • Make sure service users and carers are properly supported during their contact with the programme

10. Provide appropriate development opportunities • Give feedback to HUB group members on individual contributions to the programmes • Discuss and work on access issues • Try to maintain a broad representation of different service user and carer groups • Publicise the lessons learned from work with HUB group members

11. Top tips from our experience • Dedicated administrator in contact with users and carers • Planned and facilitated peer support for users and carers (pre meeting / action learning sets) • Evaluation - students’ immediate responses • impact on student’s understanding • impact on student’s practice

12. Selecting appropriate people • Connected to user-led organisations • Open to discussing their own experiences • Open to learn about other peoples’ different experiences • Covering a range of experiences • Motivated to improve health and social care • Planning a budget • Fair pay (and expenses) • Targeted budget for maximum impact • Use evaluation to review spending & plan

13. User and carer involvement across the programme (levels 1 – 3) • Opportunities for people to contribute in a variety of ways • Working with larger groups/meetings • 1-1 or small groups • Quality Assurance • Developing learning resources • DVDs • Audio resources • Case studies