Grassroots networks: a model for promoting the influence of service users and carers in social work education

We examine a process for involving service users and carers in a social work programme in Scotland and include the perspective of a service user involved in the development. We note the extent of service user and carer involvement within Scottish social work education. The Dundee system involves a regulated process of academics liaising with service user and carer groups in the locality, so that the expertise of service users and carers informs and influences social work qualifying training. The model is built on current ideas surrounding communication networks that work in non-hierarchical ways. The paper emphasises the importance of basing a system on shared values and overcoming tokenistic approaches to involvement.