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Curriculum
About 3 million people in the UK work in the health and social care sectors, which is equivalent to 1 in every 10 people. Demand for both health care and social care is likely to continue to rise due to the ageing population, so it is undisputable that it plays a key role in UK society.
The Health and Social Care department will nurture every student through their journey to develop their resilience, expression and independence, growing into well-rounded individuals to succeed in today’s diverse society. Complimenting other subjects and the wider school, students will experience and study a vast range of Health and Social Care topic areas, requiring them to demonstrate maturity and respect for others. Students will become confident and fully prepared to manage their emotions for the many challenges and opportunities they face in managing people’s health and well-being, preparing them for life and inspiring them to work in Modern Britain. Students will gain key competencies in the areas of research, essay writing and exam technique which will support them in further study and into their professional lives.
Health and Social Care is an option which students can select at KS4 and KS5. Our intent is to provide a fluid and dynamic knowledge rich curriculum, which gives learners access and opportunity to progress to KS5 and beyond. The course is coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively developing knowledge and competencies for future learning whilst building upon students’ knowledge from Personal Development during KS3.
Students will study the Tech Award at KS4 which is assessed through a combination of external exam and internal coursework. The research and essay writing competencies applied at KS4 develop learners for further study into KS5 and beyond. Students who choose to study the subject at KS5 have two pathway options. They can study the single A level equivalent or choose to study the Diploma which provides 2 outcomes at the end of Post 16. The increasing complexity of the subject knowledge enables learners to refine their research and essay writing competencies and mirror the study they would complete in higher education.
Component 1: Human Lifespan Development
Students will explore the different aspects of growth and physical, intellectual, emotional and social development across the life stages. Students will also build their knowledge on the factors that can affect development within different life stages and examine the impact that different lifestyles and choices can have upon individuals. In addition, students will explore the different life events that can occur within a lifetime, and the coping systems and mechanisms that are in place within society, the health sector and ourselves to help support and deal with both expected and unexpected changes that occur within life.
Component 2: Health & Social Care Services & Values
Students develop their understanding of the different health and social care services that exist and how people can gain access to them. In addition, the students will gain competencies, such as empathy, as they develop an understanding of different situations that might affect care and investigate a range of health needs and barriers to care. In addition, within this component students will learn about the fundamental care values within health and social care settings and how these care values help to ensure a high quality of care for the most vulnerable of service users.
Component 2: Health & Social Care Values
Component 2 continues into the final year of study (as outlined previously)
Component 3: Health & Wellbeing
Component 3 includes gaining knowledge and learning on how to be healthy. Students will explore the different meanings and definitions of health. Students will learn to evaluate different lifestyles and choices and how these impact upon physical, intellectual, emotional and social health. In addition, they will investigate health monitoring and how the health care sector can help people achieve a positive health.
Unit 1: Human Lifespan Development – externally assessed unit
This unit is taught to all students and develops their knowledge and understanding from component 1 at KS4. The unit focuses on how we develop through our life stages and the impact of a wide range of events on this development. In addition, a variety of theories are studied that link with A level Psychology and Sociology.
Unit 5: Meeting individual needs – coursework
This unit is taught to all students and as aspects that link with component 2 at KS4. The unit focuses on the care values and approaches that are needed to work with a variety of service users in health and social care settings.
Unit 19: Nutrition – coursework
This unit is taught to the Diploma students only and extends the work done for component 3 at KS4. Students study the impact of nutrition on overall health and wellbeing, and the competencies of planning nutrition for service users with a variety of needs.
Unit 7: Principles of Safe Practice in Health & Social Care – coursework
This unit is taught to the diploma students only. Students study the legislation, policies and procedures that are implemented in order to safeguard employers, employees and staff in health and social care settings.
Unit 2: Working in Health & Social Care – externally assessed
This unit is taught to all students. This unit requires students to study a wide range of career pathways within the health and social care sectors and examines the key roles and responsibilities they have in providing excellent care to service users. Students will study examples of good working practice and poor working practice and the implications these have had.
Unit 14: Physiological Disorders – coursework
This unit is taught to all students. Students will study 2 types of physiological disorder and investigate the causes and implications of this. They will consider appropriate care pathways and evaluate the impact that the disorders have on service users. Research will also take place into new treatments and their impact on patient recovery and quality of life.
Unit 8 : Promoting Public Health
This unit is taught to Diploma students only. The unit considers all aspects of public health and the history of the NHS. Students will study important health issues in current society such as poor lifestyle choices, mental health and developments in health protection and promotion. Students will carry out a wide range of statistical research to support their findings on the success of a variety of strategies that are implemented to improve public health.
Unit 4: Enquiries into current research in Health & Social Care – externally assessed
This unit is taught to Diploma student only. This unit requires students to combine the research competencies, which they have developed throughout KS4 and 5, to analyse a piece of current literature on a topic linked to an aspect of health or social care. Students then have to investigate secondary research and complete an exam paper on the reliability and validity or the research and the future implications this could have for the relevant sector.
The department has good links with the local universities and provides students with exposure to guest speakers, workshops and visits. Where possible, we have visits from NHS and social care professionals.
This subject provides pathways into a wide variety of career options including nursing, teaching and education, social care, and provides access to numerous apprenticeships and study options within the NHS.
