Background to the Social Work Education Participation (SWEP) website

In March 2004 SCIE published a resource guide ‘Involving service users and carers in social work education’ by Enid Levin that focussed on how service users, carers and providers of social work education and training could work together on the social work degree programmes. The guide covered the principles, practicalities and range of approaches to building and sustaining these partnerships.

This is followed by ‘Common Aims – a strategy to support service user involvement in social work education’ by Fran Branfield, Peter Beresford and Enid Levin published by SCIE in February 2007. One of the recommendations in this position paper was that a national network of services users in social education should be set up.

This website is one outcome of that work – aiming to bring together user and carer led organisations, higher education institutions, practice educators, students and others involved in social work education.

The website has been developed by a partnership of SCIE, Shaping our Lives, the University of Sussex and a steering group made of services users and carers, with experience in a variety of roles. The project is funded by the Department of Health.

Members of the steering group

• Peter Atkins (University of Bournemouth)
• Peter Beresford (Shaping Our Lives)
• Andy Cheng (Sussex University)
• Mike Bush (University of Bradford)
• Steve Carey (Anglia Ruskin University and Essex Coalition of Disabled People)
• Dorothy Carter (Forum of Carers and Users of Services – FOCUS, Merseyside)
  
• Mary Collett (Worcestershire Association of Service Users)
• Ron Critcher (Surrey County Council)
  
• Nigel Haydon (Carers in Partnership West Midlands)
• Makayla Lewis (Action Disability Kensington and Chelsea)
  
• Eileen Mulhall (Worcestershire Association of Service Users)
• Kate Pieroudis (Action Disability Kensington and Chelsea)
• Kay Malko (Lifestyle Support Services, Swindon)
• Ann Nutt (Essex Coalition of Disabled People)
• June Sadd (Shaping Our Lives)
  
• Jill Scholl (University of Sussex / Brighton)