A group of social service users is involved in both selecting students for social work courses in Portsmouth University and in teaching them. The Portsmouth Trainers Group was set up by a group of people who felt social workers were often unaware of the needs of the recipients of their services.
Ms Diane Bracken came into contact with social services when her 14-year-old daughter became pregnant. "A lot of social workers still can't get their heads around what is a common problem," she said. "We wanted to create something out of what was quite a difficult situation. My daughter wanted to finish her education, and we needed help. We got a lot of moralising from social workers." Eventually they did sort things out, and her daughter is about to take her A levels.
Mr Adie Hamm suffered from depression and made numerous suicide attempts. He has been using drugs for 10 or 12 years, starting with prescribed drugs, and developed an addiction to sleeping tablets. He later used street drugs as well.
"I was between mental health and drug teams all the time. I was not seen as a whole person," he said. He had intermittent contact with social workers, and was told he could have a cooker and fridge in his council accommodation. But this was contradicted by a psychiatric nurse who said he would sell them for drugs, so he was without these facilities for two years.
Ms Rose Taylor had a good experience of the social services. She came into contact with the mental health and housing departments when, as a trainee psychiatric nurse, she was violently attacked in the nurses' home and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder afterwards. She now teaches in Portsmouth University and in a nursing college.
However, she finds that she is expected not to talk about her experiences as a recipient of the services. "Sometimes other staff find it quite difficult. If you have these problems, you're expected to keep quiet about it."
Ms Annette Rimmer, a tutor in the university and co-ordinator of the group, said the feedback from students was extremely positive. "Some students say that the talks they get from members of the group are the best thing they have in the whole course." She said she felt all social work courses should draw on the experience of similar groups.
According to Ms Bracken, they have also been gratified to find that, following their discussions with applicants for the course, their views on those who are most suitable are usually in agreement with those of the tutors who interview them.