Innovation
Our Award winning Service User and Carer Group (SUCG) deliver a ‘Communication Skills Laboratory’ and provide formative and summative assessment of Level 4 student’s communication and interpersonal skills in safety and readiness for supervised practice placements at Level 5.
The SUCG have been instrumental in the design and delivery of this important and fundamental practitioner skills module including the formation of module descriptors, curriculum content, case scenarios and workshops and then the delivery of the Skills Laboratorys.
The Skills Laboratory involve the service users and carers simulating a practise scenario so the student can practice and develop key interviewing and assessment skills that draw upon the development of communication and interpersonal skills in social work. The student is provided with two x 30 min individual formative assessment opportunities, with which the service users provide personalised direct feedback regarding the students key communication skills.
This formative assessment builds into a summative assessment of key communication skills that have been taught throughout the module during classroom lectures. The service users and carers deliver the Skills Laboratory on a rota basis over a period of 3 months to 85 students.
What prompted innovation?
To increase the depth and breadth of service user involvement across the module and Level 4 student curriculum, which was prompted by both changes in Social Work education and the needs of the students.
What makes innovation different?
The service users and carers are involved in the direct delivery of summative assessment and their perspectives and expertise fed directly into the summative grade students obtain in this module.
Another unique feature is the depth and breadth of involvement in this module including representation at a recent validation panel meeting to working directly with students, in groups and individually, throughout the course of this module, that starts at Freshers Welcome Week and expands across two semesters at Level 4, providing direct summative assessment feedback for the development and formation of key practitioner skills.
Changes in practice
- Students report feeling better prepared for direct work and service user intervention.
- Service users and carer retention across the Award.
- Improved and enhanced partnership working with service users and carers who report feeling part of a team of educators. Wider involvement of service users and carers across other modules.
Impact
- Positive comments from students about the value of service user and carer feedback:
“[Service user and carer feedback] gave me the confidence I needed for my practice placement and working directly with service users because they gave me honest feedback about my communication skills, how I was coming across and where I needed to improve”
- Positive commendations regarding service user and carer involvement from a recent validation panel, including external verifiers and social work educators.
- Positive and encouraging student module evaluations.
Dissemination
- Throughout the validation of the 2013 social work degree.
- Academics, lecturers and social work educators from other Universities across the UK and outside of the UK have visited our University to observe and discuss the skills lab’s in more detail as part of their own service user and carer development.
- The service users and carers are preparing to present at a forthcoming summit/conference.
- Service users and carers are more involved in the delivery of post graduate modules and the model and approach we have taken in the delivery of the skills labs and service user involvement has been replicated at post graduate level and written into post graduate module descriptors and curriculum design.