NEWI’s Social Work degree wins national accolade

25 June 2007

In a glittering ceremony, held in Cardiff City Hall, NEWI (North East Wales Institute of Higher Education) was announced as the joint winner of a Social Care Accolade in the category ‘being a learning organisation.’  

The Social Care Accolades recognise outstanding work in all areas of Social Work and Care and NEWI was nominated for its work in involving service users and carers in the various aspects of the honours degree in social work.  The project entitled ‘Outside In’ aims to ensure that people who have experience of social work services or are likely to benefit from services in the future have an input into the content of the degree course, how the students are taught and even the recruitment process. 

Seven individuals have been involved in the group which has met regularly and offered advice and opinions on what they think is important in training the Social Workers of the future.  Judges from the Social Care Accolades visited NEWI and talked to members of the group about the input they’d had in the project.

Liz Lefroy who lectures in Social Work at NEWI but is also the Service User and Carer Co-ordinator was thrilled that they won the award.  She said, “It was fantastic to win such a prestigious award.  The service users and carers who have been involved have been so committed, essentially it has been a voluntary project so it was great to see their efforts acknowledged in this way.”  She added, “It is also great news for the students, they have been very supportive of the project and see the involvement of the service user group as making an extremely positive contribution to their course.”