Experiences of a service user advisor to a post-qualifying social work course: a personal account

ABSTRACT In this co-produced paper, we write about a collaboration that developed over more than a decade between a service user advisor and a social work educator within a higher education context. Starting with how we came to work together, the paper outlines early apprehensions about service user involvement, both as we experienced them and as expressed by colleagues, students, and managers. The paper discusses such themes as confidentiality, professional boundaries, and power imbalance. As authors w identify principles that have underpinned our relationship as well as obstacles faced and understandings reached. We emphasise possibilities discovered from this project which may have application for other courses and settings for the service user advisor role. As we write, we are confronting a new challenge as one of us continues in the work and one of us retires from it.