Systematic Review of Service User and Carer Involvement in Qualifying Social Work Education: A Decade in Retrospect

Service user and carer involvement in social work education is well established in the UK and other countries. There has however been limited research on the outcomes of this for social work practice and its subsequent impact on service users and carers. This has been noted in a previous systematic review involving one of the current authors. The current review aimed to synthesise literature from the previous decade (2011-2020) and follows on from the earlier review. PRISMA scoping review guidelines were followed and twenty-eight papers met the inclusion criteria that were framed. Data were extracted and tabulated according to the framework for the evaluation of educational programmes used in the previous review and analysed using narrative synthesis. A ten-item critical appraisal checklist was used to assess the rigour of all papers. The findings were similar to the earlier review. Most studies were from the UK and few evaluated change in students' skills or subsequent practice; none evaluated subsequent outcomes for service users and carers. All stakeholders were positive about the perceived benefits of service user and care involvement. Future research needs to use more robust evaluation methodologies and evaluate skills development for students and outcomes for service users and carers. Service user and carer involvement in social work education and training is well established in the UK and elsewhere. This article is based on a systematic review based on literature from the last decade (2011-2020) to look at service user involvement in qualifying social work education programmes. Twenty-eight papers met the inclusion criteria for the review and data were extracted from them and posted in a table according to the framework for the evaluation of educational programmes used in a similar review previously. A score was assigned independently by two researchers for each paper based on a ten-item checklist. The findings were similar to an earlier review undertaken by one of the current authors. Most studies were from the UK and few evaluated changes in students' skills or influence on subsequent practice. None of the papers evaluated subsequent outcomes for service users and carers. However, all stakeholders held positive views about the perceived benefits of service user and care involvement. Our review indicates that future research in this area needs to use more robust evaluation methodologies and evaluate the development of skills for students as well as demonstrate measurable outcomes for service users and carers who social workers work with following their training.