Health & Social Care

Level 2 Tech Award

Why study Health and Social Care?

This course will suit students who wish to study how to work with people within Health and Social Care settings. The course will prepare learners for careers within the Health and Social Care sector, providing a broad educational base for further education or training.

The course is very practical and involves lots of active learning in the classroom. BTEC qualifications are recognised by employers and educational institutions and will provide a good progression route to more advanced qualifications, e.g. BTEC Nationals or A-levels.

Health and Social Care is a vital career area that the NHS and educational sectors are keen to recruit for. The course will help learners to develop confidence, practical communication and problem solving skills. It is a large industry full of challenge, high demands and change but it is highly rewarding and provides excellent career development and progression. This course will provide an opportunity for learners to develop a range of skills and techniques, personal qualities and attitudes, essential for working successfully in Health and Social Care settings.

What will students study?

Learners will have the opportunity to explore a range of different units during the course, these consist of:

Component 1: Human Lifespan Development
Assessment: A range of coursework tasks

In this component, you will study how people grow and develop over the course of their life, from infancy to old age, this includes physical, intellectual, emotional and social development, and the different factors that may affect them. An individual’s development can be affected by major life events, such as marriage, parenthood or moving house, and you will learn about how people adapt to these changes, as well as the types and sources of support that can help them.

Component 2: Health and Social Care Services and Values
Assessment: A range of coursework tasks

This component will give you an understanding of Health and Social Care services and will help you develop skills in applying care values that are common across the sector (some of which are transferable to other sectors that involve interactions with clients or customers). Providing good Health and Social Care services is very important and a set of ‘care values’ exists to ensure that this happens. Care values are important because they enable people who use Health and Social Care services to get the care they need and to be protected from different sorts of harm.

Component 3: Health and Wellbeing
Assessment: Externally set and marked controlled assessment

In this component, you look at the factors that can have a positive or negative influence on a person’s health and wellbeing. You will learn to interpret physiological and lifestyle indicators, and what they mean for someone’s state of health. You will learn how to use this information to design an appropriate plan for improving someone’s health and wellbeing, including short and long-term targets. Additionally, you will explore the difficulties an individual may face when trying to make these changes.

All units will be assessed using grading criteria at Pass, Merit and Distinction. The grades from the external assessment and portfolio of evidence will be combined in order to calculate the overall qualification grade. To achieve the BTEC Level 2 Tech Award, students are required to achieve at least a Pass for each component, in order to achieve a grade for the overall qualification.

The Level 3 BTEC in Health and Social Care provides much of the underpinning knowledge for the National Occupational Standards in Health and Social Care/Health and consequently act as a robust introduction to both sectors. The Level 3 programme of study prepares students for employment in the Health Care Industry or for Higher Education. 

Students benefit from studying a number of mandatory units as well as a wide range of specialist units. As part of the Diploma and the Extended Diploma students also benefit from gaining valuable work experience within the industry - a key feature of this is the opportunity throughout the duration of these programmes for students to produce a personal and professional development portfolio.

Edexcel BTEC Health and Social Care – Level 3: Subsidiary Diploma (Single Award)

Year 12

Unit 10: Caring for Children and Young People
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This unit will enable learners to consider the types of care provided for children who may need to be looked after. It aims to develop an understanding of the risks to children and young people of abusive and exploitative behaviour and the strategies used to safeguard them from this behaviour.

Unit 2: Equality, Diversity and Rights
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This unit will develop an understanding of concepts related to equality, diversity and rights in Health and Social Care. Learners will gain knowledge of discriminatory practice and means of challenging this. Learners will develop an understanding of national initiatives that promote anti-discriminatory practice in Health and Social Care settings.

Unit 1: Developing Effective Communication in Health & Social Care
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This unit will enable learners to understand effective communication, the barriers that may exist and ways to overcome them. This unit will provide the opportunity to gain the interpersonal skills needed to embark on a career within the health or social care sectors.

Unit 21: Nutrition for Health & Social Care
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This unit provide an understanding of current thinking on nutritional health - particularly relating to users of Health and Social Care services. Learners will apply this understanding and be able to make recommendations to improve the nutritional health of an individual.

Year 13

Unit 3: Health, Safety and Security in Health & Social Care
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This will enable learners to understand the health, safety and security of individuals in a health and social care context. It will explore legislation, policies and procedures and gain an understanding of the purpose of risk analysis. Learners will also gain an understanding of how to deal with incidents and emergencies in a Health and Social Care environment.

Unit 14: Physiological Disorders
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This unit develops an understanding of the nature of physiological disorders. Learners will gain knowledge about the diagnosis and treatment of these disorders, and learn how to produce care pathways which include an understanding of strategies to support individuals with particular disorders.

Edexcel BTEC Health and Social Care – Level 3: Diploma (Double Award)

Includes: all of the Subsidiary Diploma (Single Award) units identified above and the following:

Year 12

Unit 5: Anatomy and Physiology for Health & Social Care
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This unit will enable learners to understand aspects of the anatomy and physiology of human body systems. Learners gain an overview of the organisation of the human body and look at how body systems work together to provide energy for the body.

Unit 8: Psychological Perspectives in Health & Social Care
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This unit will enable learners to understand the different psychological approaches that can be used, and in particular how these can be used to study Health and Social Care.

Unit 30: Health Psychology
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This unit provides an understanding of the application of the principles of psychology by gaining knowledge of health-related behaviours. It offers an understanding of the factors affecting those behaviours, models of stress and the role of psychology in dealing with chronic illness.

Unit 6: Personal and Professional Development in Health & Social Care
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This unit will allow learners to understand the learning process and will provide the skills that learners need to: plan for, monitor and reflect on your own professional development. Learners will be able to investigate and gain an understanding of Health or Social Care provision. Learners must complete 100 hours work experience as a requirement of this unit.

Unit 11: Safeguarding Adults and Promoting Security
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
Learners will become aware of different types of abuse and will understand why this may happen. It will develop knowledge of work to safeguard adults, and how the rights, independence and the wellbeing of adults are promoted via a person-centred, multi-agency approach.

Unit 7: Sociological Perspectives in Health & Social Care
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This unit will provide an understanding of the different sociological approaches that can be used when studying and how these approaches can be used to study Health and Social Care.

Year 13

Unit 4: Development Through the Life Stages
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This unit develops a knowledge and understanding of the different stages throughout the human lifespan. It will also develop an understanding of both the physical and psychological changes of ageing and learners will be able to apply theories of ageing to Health and Social Care provision.

Unit 9: Values and Planning in Health & Social Care
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This unit provides a knowledge and understanding of holistic and proactive support which meets the needs of individuals who use social care provision. It examines the principles & processes of planning for individuals and the legislation which relates to this practice.

Edexcel BTEC Health and Social Care – Level 3: Extended Diploma (Triple Award)

Includes: all of the Subsidiary Diploma (Single Award) and Diploma (Double Award) units identified above and the following:

Year 12

Unit 24: Introduction to Counselling in Health & Social Care Settings
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This will introduce the principles and practice of being a ‘skilled helper’ so that learners can develop the ability to manage and extend the supportive scope of a helping relationship using counselling skills.

Unit 27: Dealing with Challenging Behaviour
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This unit will provide knowledge of challenging behaviour and an understanding of the associated legislation and guidance. Learners will consider how to deal with challenging behaviour if they were working in a Health or Social Care setting

Unit 23: Complementary Therapies for Health & Social Care
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
Learners will investigate the use of complementary therapies in Health and Social Care settings. Learners will be able to explore the role of complementary therapies in maintaining health and wellbeing and compare these to orthodox treatments.

Unit 47: Social Policy for Health & Social Care
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This unit will allow learners to understand social policy as related to Health and Social Care. It will investigate the structure of government and the policy-making process and also how the government responds to tackling social inequalities.

Year 13

Unit 40: Dementia Care
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This unit will develop knowledge of the effects of different forms of dementia on an individual’s wellbeing, as well as an understanding of current legislation and policies and understanding of a person-centred approach, when caring and supporting people with dementia and their families.

Unit 28: Caring for Older People
Assessment = Internal (Portfolio)
This unit will enable the development of an understanding of the ageing process and how the Health and Social Care sectors work in partnership to promote and maintain the independence and wellbeing of older people.

Assessment:

100% of the course will be internally assessed through portfolio based work.  Each of the respective units will be assessed using grading criteria at Pass, Merit and Distinction level. The grades from the portfolio of evidence will be combined in order to calculate the overall qualification grade - it is a requirement that all units in the portfolio and the result of the external examination have to be achieved at least to a pass level.  The Level 3 BTEC in Health and Social Care can be taken as a Subsidiary Diploma (Single), Diploma (Double) or Extended Diploma (Triple) award.