Lay or/and professional: Those who are affected by the issue from the public

3.1. CONTEXT

There is a quasi-legal expectation in Ireland that social work educators involve service users in programmes, as stated by the profession's Irish state regulator (CORU):

The curriculum must be guided by evidence-informed professional knowledge relevant to current practice and the philosophy and core values associated with the profession, with evidence of input from all relevant stakeholders, including service users and employers (Social Work Education Board, 2019, p8).

The context for the partnership stemmed from the acknowledgement that women who have drug use issues or are in recovery from addiction are often overrepresented in child welfare and protection processes. Hence, there was a need to take a more trauma-informed approach to how social work students learn about this intersection.