Health and Social Care

Health & Social Care*

Aims of the Health and Social Care A-level
Advanced Subsidiary (AS) and Advanced (A2) Health and Social Care

Aims of the course

• to develop and sustain an interest in health, early years care and education, social care and issues affecting the care sector
• to aquire knowledge and understanding in health, early years and social care sectors
• to develop skills including research, evaluation and problem-solving in a work related context

What will the course involve?
Health and Social Care is different from other AS courses offered at Greenhead because the emphasis is just as much about developing your skills as it is about your gaining knowledge. Understanding how to communicate with and care for patients, clients or children is vitally important to those working in a caring profession and this will be an important part of your course.

You will study topics from a variety of subject areas, including biology, sociology and psychology. Another of the main differences is that Health and Social Care is mainly assessed by portfolio work: two out of the three units in the single AS are assessed this way. Bear in mind that this does not make it an easy option - there is a lot of work involved!

What are the courses offered in Health and Social Care?
You can study Health and Social Care as a single AS subject which can be continued into the A2 year to obtain a full A-level. If you study single award Health and Social Care, you will choose three other AS subjects.

What units will I study?
The single award consists of the following three units:

1. Effective Caring
In this unit, you will learn about a range of issues which are important for anyone working in Health and Social Care. There are many factors which are required for a good quality of life. These are both physical and psychological. Everyone needs to feel valued and feel they are making the choices that affect their lives. We all also need physical factors such as exercise, a healthy diet and a clean, warm place to live. There are ethical and practical reasons for treating people well, partly because then they will behave agreeably and cooperate with the things we want them to do. People suffer from violence, bullying, prejudice and discrimination. Those working in a Health and Social Care environment need to be able to recognize a person's needs and create trust with their clients. You will learn about the wide range of Health and Social Care services, including the NHS, early years and those for the elderly. This unit is examined.

2. Effective Communication
Those who work in Health and Social Care must have good communication skills. In this unit, you will prepare a talk, which lasts about 5 - 10 minutes, about good practice in communicating with one type of client in one care setting. You will give this talk to the other members of your class. For example, you could explain to a group of parents how best to communicate with an autisitc child. Another good example would be the special communication skills needed by those working with very young children. You will design a questionnaire to gain feedback about the effectiveness of your talk, eg Was there an appropriate amount of eye contact? How well did you understand it? Was it interesting? Did I seem nervous? You will then analyse the responses to your questionnairs. The talk and the report you produce will form the portfolio on which you will be assessed.

3. Health, Illness and Disease
You will learn about how vaccines work and why vaccines are important for babies and those travelling to remote countries. You will discuss the reasons why parents may refuse to have their children vaccinated and whether it would be ethical to enforce it. You will investigate why people native to developing countries may not be vaccinated for a serious infectious disease whereas travellers always are. You will learn about screening procedures in pregnancy, babies and adults and discuss the value of screening. You will learn why some patients are screened for a disease but others are not, for example only women over 50 are screened for breast cancer but many younger women are affected by this disease. You will investigate the attitude of a group of people of your choice to health issues, such as alcohol, diet, obesity and smoking by means of a questionnaire and evaluate the results.

What qualifications will I need to do this course?
You must meet the college entry requirements of 5 grade C passes including English.

What other subjects go well with health and Social Care?
Our current students study a wide variety of subjects, including Psychology and Sociology, PE, Business Studies and English. Applied Science is a good choice if you are interested in nursing or another medically - related profession, because it follows the same coursework - based approach. If you want to be a teacher, you should do another National Curriculum Subject as well as, such as English, Applied Science or PE.

Will I enjoy a portfolio-based subject?
Ask yourself these questions:

• How do you learn best? Do you enjoy researching information for yourself and organising it into a really good piece of coursework/
• Do you find examinations very challenging and find that they don't allow you to show what you can really do?
• Are you well organised and good at meeting deadlines?

If these things apply to you, Health and Social Care may well be a good choice for you.

What careers could Health and Social Care lead to?
All of last year's students went on to university, to study for careers in areas such as nursing, primary teaching, occupational therapy and social work. Students also went on to do degrees in Business Studies and Psychology.

Abby is going to study Psychology. Georgina is going to study Mental Health Nursing. Vicki is going to study Social Work.