Calling All Service Users And Carers Across Scotland!

Would you like the opportunity to attend a conference which looks at how social workers are trained? The Scottish Executive has agreed to pay for some service users and carers from across Scotland to attend this years Joint Social Work Education conference (JSWEC).

The conference will take place at the University of Swansea in Wales from the 11th to 13th July and the money will allow the voice of service users and carers to be heard at this important social work academic conference.

Service users and carers have been attending this annual conference for a number of years and in recent years there has been strong representation from Scotland. This has allowed the Scottish perspective to be heard and for good practice from this side of the border to be shared with colleagues from other parts of the UK.

Scotland has a lot to be proud of and in the area of social work education much has been achieved through the hard work, dedication and persistence of service users and carers who continue to work towards great improvements in how and what social workers learn.

The Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education (Institute) is delighted to be able to promote this event and is doing so in partnership with Scottish Voices – a national network of service users and carers influencing social work education.

If you would like to apply to go to this conference, please fill in the attached form and get it to us by 23rd April. The form will ask you to give some simple details about who you are and what support you would need to attend the conference for example carer costs, how you would prefer to travel, etc.

The form will also ask you to say why you want to go to the conference, what you might get out of it and what you think you might add to such an event, for example:

• being part of a group of service users and carers who could talk about their experiences of positively influencing social work education in Scotland
• being able to listen to new perspectives and bring some new ideas back to Scotland about service user and carer involvement in social work education.

The funding we have will allow between 4-6 people to be fully funded to go to the conference and will cover attendance, travel, subsistence and carer costs (if required). However, if some service users and carers have already gained part funding to attend the conference, this funding could be used to ‘top up’ these expenses. Our main objective will be to allow as many service users and carers from across Scotland to attend this event as possible.

If we receive more applications than we have funds for, a panel of people from Scottish Voices, the universities, Learning Networks and the Institute will read your application to help them decide who should attend.

If you want to find out more about the conference you can visit their website. Once the panel has decided who can attend the conference, a member of staff from the Institute will help with booking the conference and any accommodation or travel requirements.

If you have any questions please contact Stacey MacDonald