Preparing social work students for practice by involving young people with profound and multiple learning disabilities in teaching and learning

Service user engagement has been promoted in England by policy and legislation since the 2001 Valuing People Paper and is a fundamental requirement in social work education in England, as well as internationally (Ward et al. 2016). There are some good examples of engagement of service users with lived experiences in social work education and practice which involve those with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) (ibid.); it is, however, limited. This paper focuses on the partnership between the RIX Research Centre at the University of East London (UEL) and the Charlton Park Academy (CPA), a special secondary school in south-east London. We present our model of an Advocacy Pathway as part of social work readiness for practice. The engagement of young people with lived experience of PMLD helps social work students to consider their attitudes and assumptions, while learning new communication skills from the young people.