Carer Involvement

 
Linda Bruce, Lecturer in Social Work at The Robert Gordon University, reports on early developmental work undertaken at RGU to develop a Carer Involvement Network…

Social Work education in Scotland has recently undergone major change with the introduction of a new four year honours degree programme in September 2005. This new training programme is underpinned by The Framework for Social Work Education in Scotland (Scottish Executive 2003) which includes a set of national standards that are intended to encourage a “competent and confident” workforce for the future.

The Framework for Social Work Education in Scotland identifies a vision that includes people using services, carers and others working closely in partnership (Scottish Executive 2003). To achieve this vision all universities providing social work education in Scotland will be required to ensure that service users and carers are involved in a range of key areas such as, student selection, teaching, student assessment and course monitoring and evaluation. Universities will be aiming to “enable social work students to gain an understanding of the needs and conflicting interests of those who use services and carers who provide services” (Scottish Executive 2003, p24). ‘Carers’ in this context are defined as “people who provide informal, unpaid care to a member of their family or to another person” (Scottish Executive 2003, p24).

The following brief outline provides a summary of the early developmental work undertaken in The Robert Gordon University (RGU), Aberdeen, to develop a Carer Involvement Network that aims to facilitate the integration of the carers’ perspective into the student’s teaching and learning experiences.

Carer Involvement in The Robert Gordon University
Within RGU service user and care involvement was developed simultaneously but independently in an attempt to ensure students had the best opportunity to gain the skills and understanding of the needs and conflicting interests of these two groups. This approach was supported by Jill Manthorpe who argued that carers should be seen as offering a “different contribution” than service users. “If we don’t distinguish the difference in user and carer perspectives in training, this message will be continued into practice”. (Manthorpe 2000, p26)

The developmental process has taken a phased approach, with carers themselves setting the pace and designing a structure that they regarded as achievable. A review of literature, consultation with agency staff and links with existing carer networks has also informed the direction of work undertaken.{mospagebreak}

Developing the Carer Involvement Network (C I N)

Phase 1, March – June 2004
In the initial phase key personnel with experience of implementing carer involvement initiatives, such as the Local Authority, Health Board and University colleagues were consulted to learn from their experiences.

The Carer Centre in Aberdeen was approached for advice and to discuss their potential involvement in the university’s new carer network. This contact was significant as it provided access to a wide range of existing carer support groups which were then contacted directly and followed up by personal visits. These visits aimed to raise awareness of the changes to social work education and recruit volunteers to the RGU carer network. A priority during this phase was to ensure contact was made with a wide range of carer groups to assist the development of a representative core group of volunteers.

The recruitment of new volunteers will be a continuous process throughout the life of the Carer Involvement Network.

Phase 2, June – December 2004
Five volunteers formed the early core group. The group met every eight weeks and was supported by a member of staff from the university. Early discussions focused on group name, membership, carers’ expectations of the university and how to further develop representation from a range of carers.

Progress was achieved by the group agreeing a set of values and principles that would underpin the group’s function and practice. These discussions were informed by the work of the Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE) who advocated that “everyone benefits from working out and signing up to the values and principles of involvement as early as possible in the process of forging partnerships” (SCIE 2004, p10). Part of these agreed principles included carers’ expectations that the university would work towards developing systems that would provide participating carers with training, support, feedback, payment and respect for carer’s time.{mospagebreak}

To ensure a wide representation of carers’ experiences and take account of carers’ existing commitments and potential availability, a decision was made by the core group to develop a complementary system that would not make additional demands on carer’s time. This decision utilised time already allocated to existing support networks with a view to inviting groups of carers to be involved in particular areas of the social work degree, e.g. teaching content or presentations, that related to their own area of expertise or interest, thereby creating a set of clusters groups.

The newly developed C I N held bi-monthly meetings, with representatives from the core group of individual carers and each of the cluster groups. Minutes of this meeting would be widely circulated and open to comment by members of any of the ‘cluster’ groups.

The existing support groups who were initially approached responded positively to the notion of becoming a cluster group for the university network and further developmental work was undertaken to develop a range of specialist ‘clusters’. The ‘cluster’ groups agreed to nominate a contact person, who was usually a paid support worker, who would negotiate access to the group for a member of university staff, e.g. to discuss course issues such as teaching content or to distribute information.

Phase 3, January – June 2005
Having established a structure for the C I N the next phase was to begin the process of implementing the C I N within the university’s social work courses. Allam et al (2004) advised “service user and carer involvement needs a questioning and ‘can do’ approach to overcome the difficulties created by formal hierarchies, such as universities”. {mospagebreak}

Agreed goals had to be achievable and at a pace that would be comfortable for participants. Academic staff taking time to provide support, plan and debrief with carers was part of the process of building and sustaining working relationships with carers. “Don’t rush it” was good advice given by General Social Care Council (GSCC) and SCIE (GSCC 2004, p39).

The initial implementation of the C I N involved carers in meetings with admissions tutors, course leaders, providing personal accounts in seminars with students and involvement in a course management team. Carers have also contributed to the evolving debate on assessment of students in agency based practice learning and been involved in the consultation and development of a National user and carer network.

The Way Ahead
The C I N has already provided opportunities for students to develop their understanding of carer’s needs, affected change in questions asked in the student selection process and enhanced the delivery of specific teaching modules but there is much still to do.

The focus of ongoing work will be:

– To expand the number of carers who are involved in the network, particularly those who are not part of existing support groups

– To plan for carer involvement in each of the four social work programmes through discussions with course management teams

– To plan how best to prepare students for carer involvement in their education and training

– To secure financial systems within the university that facilitate easy payment of travel expenses, subsistence and replacement care costs

– To explore additional funding sources for the university to support carer involvement, including fair payment

RGU will build on these early achievements and continue to develop quality learning opportunities for our students and valued working relationships with carers.

References and Further Reading

– Allam et al (2004) cited in Consultation Networks: A grassroots method of involving service users and carers in social work education Ager, W., Dow, J. and Gee, M (2004)

– General Social Care Council & Social Care Institute for Excellence ‘Living and Learning Together, Conference Report (2004)

– Manthorpe. J. Developing carers’ contribution to social work training, Social Work Education Journal Vol 19 No 1 (2000)

– Social Care Institute for Excellence ‘Involving service users and carers in social work education’ Resource Guide No 2 (2004)

– The Framework for Social Work Education in Scotland, Scottish Executive 2003