Involving child protection service users in social work education

This paper describes an attempt to incorporate the experiences of service user parents who had been involved in child protection services into the programme at a higher education provider in the London area. The aim was to explore their experiences and their perceptions of what social work contact had been positive or helpful. This is a difficult area of practice due to the sensitive and complex nature of social work intervention and engagement. The service users to participate were identified by a practitioner from the local authority. This paper presents an evaluation of this teaching session, and links this teaching tool with a range of current research in the area. Results showed that students reported benefits from being presented with the lived experience of these users. The links between theory and practice were also enhanced.