Transcript kkkkkkk - University of the West of England

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
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.
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”
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
Hub and Spoke Approach
Practice
Learning
Programme
Management
Academic
Modules:
planning;
teaching
Research
HUB:
Partnership
Powerhouse
Recruitment
Assessment
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
• 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
• 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
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
• 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
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
• 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
• 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