Supporting HEI academics: the strategic role of service user and carer involvement in teaching and learning

Abstract

Service User and Carer Involvement (SUCI) in Health and Social Care education is increasingly recognised as a core component in health professional education. Numerous UK Professional Statutory Regulatory Bodies (PSRB) mandate that SUCI should be central to health professional education but there is no agreed framework for HEI academics to develop and establish their SUCI strategy to meet local institutional needs. Consequently, embedding meaningful engagement remains challenging for many Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). A series of ongoing webinars, designed to equip academic staff with the knowledge, confidence and tools to incorporate SUCI voices into their teaching practice is ongoing as a national webinar series. The webinars have proved to be instrumental in promoting an expanding culture of collaboration and engagement across multiple HEIs. The session aims to address the challenges faced by HEIs in embedding meaningful SUCI in health and social care education. Recognising SUCI as a crucial element. It will explore a collaborative initiative among three HEIs that are sharing and learning from best practices to integrate authentic SUCI involvement into their educational strategies. The goal is to ensure that students have meaningful learning opportunities that incorporate the voices and experiences of service users and carers. It will offer practical insights into designing flexible frameworks and standards to promote meaningful engagement, enhancing the educational experience for students and making it more relevant to realworld health and social care scenarios. This development aligns with the priorities in The Vancouver Statement 2015 (Towle et al 2016)The conference is international and interprofessional in scope. Interested professions will include: medicine, nursing, midwifery, physical therapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy, kinesiology, social work, dietetics, audiology, speech-language pathology, and other health disciplines. Participants and presenters will include: Educators Practitioners Patients/clients Service users/carers Community Organizations Researchers Policy makers Student