More than 'Involvement'. How Commissioning User Interviewers in the Research Process Begins to Change the Balance of Power

Abstract

Asking users for their views is not enough. While social work today is required to seek the views of users, more needs to be done to include them in all aspects of research, planning and the evaluation of social care. Rather than seeing user involvement as a box to tick, here is a real opportunity to engage users and do things differently in the future. The author undertook a small-scale research study to obtain the views of users, carers and social workers regarding their perceptions of change. He discusses how as part of the research design he worked with a voluntary organisation and commissioned users to interview other users. He examines the advantages of adopting such an approach, and how this experience changed his thinking about user involvement. He suggests that more efforts need to be made if user involvement is going to progress beyond the participation level. He argues that if real change is to take place, the balance of power has to be shifted, and it is only by agencies releasing some control that this will happen.