Over the last year, the UK Government have introduced a scheme to allow prospective social workers to take Higher Education qualifications prior to starting their new role. This work is in conjunction with the Children’s Workforce Development Council.
As part of the course, some practical elements involve working with young people. This is to give the students an opportunity to experience some of the responsibilities they’ll have in the field and prepare them to face the issues brought forward by people in need of support.
Harry and the team of Associate Research Assistants at De Montfort University’s Centre for Social Action will be part of an evaluation team looking at the involvement of young people in this process. They will be tasked with determining whether or not the programme is beneficial and if the young people’s participation is truly worthwhile.
Harry commented “I’m incredibly passionate about getting young people involved in programmes that they may, one day, need to use. I’m even more ambitious to get those working with young people trained appropiately to tackle the diverse range of issues brought to them. The nature of a social worker’s responsibility means experience is key. Getting young people involved in the training, adding to that experience, should therefore be authentic not tokenistic. It is often the case that service-user involvement goes some way to improving the service being assessed.”
