The Centre for Development of Social Care Practice represents a unique approach to the training of social work students and their development after qualification.

The idea of combining developmental work at pre and post qualifying levels in one centre arose from the "blue skies" thinking of Jo Cleary, the then Director of Luton's Housing and Community Living Department and Professor Michael Preston-Shoot, Dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences at the University of Bedfordshire.

The Centre is a partnership between the local authority and the University offering benefits to each in equal measure. It was officially opened in 2006.

The local authority is assisted in meeting its obligations towards the provision of Learning Opportunities and enjoys advantages in both recruitment and retention while the University is able to ensure that its students receive high quality learning opportunities "and by becoming a service provider an HEI is making a distinctive additional contribution to its local community" (Michael Preston-Shoot).

The Centre's vision is to extend the range of work undertaken enabling the provision of longer term professional development opportunities and to contribute to the social care workforce by producing generations of competent research-minded social workers.