Engaging with Involuntary Service Users in Social Work Professor Viv Cree, September 2010

Involuntary service users Not a straightforward term Diversity A broad spectrum? Aren’t all service users in sw involuntary? Too general to be useful? But a term like this reflects the reality of everyday social work

Everyday social work Can be hard, lonely, and at times, scary Service users can be angry, upset, violent at times; drugs and alcohol may make things worse Social workers have to do things that are not welcomed – who is the ‘client’?? Impact of public attitudes to social work on service users – makes people reluctant to engage with sw Also on social workers – may make sws (at times) tentative, defensive, less willing to share assessment & plans

What can research offer? Not perfect answers, not simple solutions Involuntary service users are – unsurprisingly – difficult to research Social work research produces different kinds of knowledge to health research – is more messy Research offers a source of guidance, some pointers, some suggestions for principles, some examples of good and bad practice This project has provided some starting points for discussion, reflection and critical thinking about what user engagement is, and its place in social work Those involved have opened up opportunities for discussions around a challenging area of practice, and suggested some possible ways forward

Key themes for engagement with involuntary service users User engagement isn’t politically neutral; we need to think about why we are doing it and where the impetus comes from It requires trusting long-term relationships to be established with service users Communication and providing clear, accessible information to clients is essential to enabling user involvement Involuntary clients will most likely require some form of active support to express their views Engaging with involuntary service users is messy and compromised; what makes the difference is the persistence and creativity of individual workers in specific circumstances We need to affirm core social work values and skills again! We also need to reaffirm the importance of supervision

Thanks to Mike Gallagher, Heather Wilkinson and Mark Smith who led the ESLA project All the practitioners who gave their time and headed up research projects in their councils All the service users who took part in the research projects The six LAs which participated in the project The ESRC & Scottish Gov for its financial support The University of Edinburgh for hosting the project You all for coming and sharing our concern for this important topic