GCSE Health and Social Care
Distance Learning Course

Note -The first opportunity to take the exam for this course will be June 2011

Specification
AQA – 4820 HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE GCSE

Course Overview
Health, social care, early years care and education (including Children’s Services) workers need to know about the different ways that people grow and develop during their lives. This unit will help candidates to find out about the process of human growth and development, the different factors that can affect an individual’s experience and how these experiences can impact on an individual intellectually, socially and emotionally.

Course Content
Candidates will learn about:

Unit 1: Understanding Personal Development and Relationships (48201)
Written Paper – 1 hour 15 mins – 70 marks – 40%        

Stages of physical growth and intellectual/social/emotional development

External examination
The stages and pattern of human growth and development:

Candidates should know that growth refers to an increase in physical size (mass and height) and that development is concerned with the emergence and increase in sophistication of skills, abilities and emotions. They should be able to describe the expected patterns of physical growth and change and the physical, social, intellectual and emotional developments that typically take place during each of the five main life stages. These are:

- Infancy (0 – 3) years

- Childhood (4 – 1 0) years

- Adolescence (11–18) years

- Adulthood (19 – 65) years

- Later adulthood (65 +) years

The different factors that can affect human growth and development Candidates should understand, and be able to give examples of, factors that cause individual differences in patterns of growth and development. These include:

Physical factors including genetic inheritance, diet, amount and type of physical activity, experience of illness or disease.

Social and emotional factors including, gender, family relationships, friendships, educational experiences, employment/unemployment, ethnicity and religion, life experiences such as birth, marriage, death and divorce.

Economic factors including income and material possessions.

Environmental factors including housing conditions, pollution, access to health and welfare services.

Candidates should understand how these factors can interrelate and how they can affect a person’s:

- Self-esteem

- Physical and mental health

- Employment prospects

- Level of education

The development of self-concept and personal relationships

Throughout their lives, people have many different sorts of relationship. These include:

- Family relationships (with parents, siblings and as parents, for example.)

- Friendships

- Intimate personal and sexual relationships

- working relationships (including teacher/student, employer/employee, peers, colleagues)

Candidates should know which relationships play a key part in an individual’s social and emotional development during each life stage. They should be able to identify how these relationships can have a positive or negative effect on personal development and will also need to identify what effect abuse, neglect and lack of support can have on personal development.

Self-concept -  major life changes and how people deal with them

Self-concept - all people have a view of themselves, known as their self-concept. This is based on the beliefs that they have about themselves as a person and also on what they believe others think about them. It includes self-esteem. Candidates should know how a person’s self-concept is affected by factors such as:

- Age

- Appearance

- Gender

- Culture

- Emotional development

- Education

- Relationships with others

- Sexual orientation

- Life experiences.

The role of relationships in personal development.

Life events are expected or unexpected experiences that can have a major impact on an individual’s personal development. These may include events that result in:

- Relationship changes (marriage, divorce, living with a partner, birth of a sibling or own child, death of a friend or relative)

- Physical changes (for example, puberty, accident or injury, menopause)

- Changes in life circumstances (for example, moving house, starting school, college or a job, retirement, redundancy or unemployment).

Candidates should be able to identify and describe the effects that such examples of expected and unexpected life events can have on individuals’ personal development. They should know how individuals adapt and use sources of support to cope with the effects of life events.  Sources of support may include:

- Partners, family and friends

- Professional carers and services.

- Voluntary and faith-based services

Unit 2: Health, Social Care and Early Years
Provision (48202)

Controlled internal assessment – 20 hours – 80 marks – 60%

Needs of client groups, access and barriers to provision, work roles

Candidates will learn about:

The range of care needs of major client groups

Candidates should understand how services are designed to meet the health, developmental, and social care needs of major client groups. They should understand that services are shaped to meet the needs of individual users.

Candidates should also be able to identify and describe the reasons why individuals, use health, social care and early years’ services.

The types of service that exist to meet client group needs and how they are developed and organised

Candidates will need to find out about organisations that deliver health care, social care and early years’ care and education services.  They will need to identify the main types of care services that are offered to different client groups.  Candidates must know who provides the services and where they are made available.  They should understand that there may be national and regional variations and should be able to identify local and national examples of partnership working which operate in the:

- Statutory care sector (including NHS Trusts and local authority services)

- Private care sector (including private companies and self-employed care workers)

- Voluntary care sector (including charities and local support groups using volunteers and not-for-profit organisations with paid employees).

Local and national partnership working to ensure the integration of services

 Health Care Services
 Social Care Services
 Early Years Care and

Education Services
 
Infancy
Primary health care, (including health Visitors), general hospital services.
Foster care, residential care, child protection, child and family support

Group services.
Child minders, playgroups and nursery education, family centres, crèches, toy libraries, child guidance, parent and Toddler support groups.
 
Childhood
Mental health care, speech therapy,

Dentistry.
Foster care, residential care, child protection, child and family support group

Services.
Child minders, pre-schools, playgroups, nursery education, family centres, voluntary groups, after school care, toy Libraries, child guidance.
 
Adolescence
School medical services, primary health care, general hospital services, dental services, mental health care, health promotion (smoking, sexual health, Drugs, alcohol).
Foster care, residential care, youth offending services, child protection,

Youth work, support group services.
 
Adulthood
Primary health care (including community provision of district and community mental health nursing), general hospital services, mental health care, family planning clinics, maternity services, health promotion (smoking, sexual health, drugs, alcohol), complementary

Therapies, hospices.
Housing/homelessness services, residential care, refuges, day centres, counselling support (e.g. Samaritans), information and advice services, social Work, support groups. Service user

Organisations.
 
Later adulthood
Primary health care (including district and community mental health nursing), occupational therapy, complementary therapies, dentistry, chiropody/podiatry, specialist hospital services (general and mental health), nursing homes, Hospices.
Sheltered/supported housing, residential care, domiciliary (home) care, day centres, lunch clubs, information and advice services, social work, support group services, service user Organisations.
 
Disabled people
 
Any of the above according to individual And local needs.

Additionally, specialist medical and nursing services, physiotherapy, psychology, occupational therapy, complementary therapies, specialist education and training services (work-related and rehabilitative

Training schemes, for example).
Any of the above according to individual And local needs.

Additionally, specialist support and provision through service user organisations, direct payment personal assistance, social education (life skills education and supported work Schemes, for example).
Any of the above according to individual And local needs.

Separate, specialist education provision and support services are provided in addition to integration within mainstream Provision.
 

The ways people can obtain care services and the barriers that can prevent people from gaining access to services

The ways that people gain access to care services are known as methods of referral. Candidates should know about the different methods of referral that exist. These are:

- Self-referral: choose to ask for or go to the services by themselves

- professional referral: being put in contact with a service by a care professional such as a GP, nurse, or social worker, for example

- Third-party referral: being put in contact with a service by a friend, neighbour, relative or another person who is not employed as a care Worker (for example, own employer or a teacher).

Candidates should also be able to identify barriers that might prevent people from making use of the services that they need including:

Physical barriers – for example, stairs, a lack of lifts and a lack of adapted toilet facilities can prevent access to premises by people with mobility problems.

Psychological barriers – for example, fear of losing independence, the stigma associated with some services and not wanting to be looked after can deter people from making use of care services. Mental health problems can also prevent those in need from accessing services.

Financial barriers – for example, charges and fees can deter and exclude people who have not got the money to pay for the services that they need.

Geographical barriers – for example, in rural areas the location of an organisation and practitioner may be a barrier to use if there is also a lack of public transport, or a long car journey is required to get there.

Cultural and language barriers – for example, cultural beliefs about who should provide care and how illness and social problems should be dealt with, as well as difficulties in using English, may deter members of some communities from using care services.

Resource barriers – for example, lack of staff, lack of information about services, lack of money to fund services or a large demand for services can prevent people from gaining access to services when they need or want them.

Candidates should be able to identify ways in which services and the individuals they serve might overcome these barriers.  They should also understand that poor integration of services, rationing and the ‘postcode lottery’ may affect availability of services in the local area.

The main work roles and skills of people who provide health, social care and early years care and education services

Candidates should be able to compare the main work roles of care workers and understand the similarities and differences in the work roles of health, social care and early years’ care and education workers. They should also know about the roles of practitioners who provide care and those whose work is not indirectly involved with the care of service users. Examples are:

Providers: nurse, GP, social worker, care assistant, early years practitioner (e.g. pediatrician, nursery nurse)

Support Staff: medical receptionist, cleaner, porter.

Candidates should understand why care workers need good interpersonal skills, how care workers use communication skills to develop care relationships, provide and receive information and to report on the work that they do with clients.  Candidates will need to know how effective communication can help support relationships with colleagues, clients and their families and how poor skills can reduce the effectiveness of care work or damage care relationships. They should particularly recognise the differing communication needs of client groups using care services.

The principles of care that underpin all care work with clients.

Services all aim to help people to develop or maintain their independence. Candidates should understand the balance that services have to achieve between getting involved in people’s lives or not, including the risks to both individuals and society associated with both action and inaction.

Candidates should understand the principles that are an essential feature of all care and understand that care practitioners use guidelines and codes of practice to empower clients by:

- promoting anti-discriminatory practice

- maintaining confidentiality of information

- promoting and supporting individuals’ rights to dignity, independence, health and safety

- acknowledging individuals’ personal beliefs and identity

- protecting individuals from abuse

- promoting effective communication and relationships

- providing individualised care.

Candidates should know how these values are reflected in the behaviour and attitudes of care workers and how these they are further incorporated into the codes of practice of different care professions and the policies, procedures and employment contracts of care organizations.

Unit 3 The Nature of Health and Well-Being
Candidates will learn about:

definitions of health and well-being

There are several different ways of thinking about health and well-being. Candidates should know that:

- health and well-being can be described as the absence of physical illness, disease and mental distress. This is a negative definition of health and well-being.

- health and well-being can be described as the achievement and maintenance of physical fitness and mental stability. This is a positive definition of health and well-being.

- health and well-being are the result of a combination of physical, social, intellectual and emotional factors. This is a holistic definition of health and well-being.

Candidates should also know that ideas about health and well-being change over time and vary between different cultures.

Common factors that effect health and well-being and the different effects they can have on individuals and groups across the lifespan

A person’s health and well-being is affected by a number of different factors. Candidates should know about factors that contribute positively to health and well-being such as:

- a balanced diet

- regular exercise

- supportive relationships

- adequate financial resources

- stimulating work, education and leisure activity

- use of health monitoring and illness prevention services (such as screening and vaccination)

- use of risk management to protect individuals and promote personal safety.

Candidates will learn about the importance of these factors to individuals throughout their lives.

Candidates should know about factors that put an individual’s health and well-being at risk. They should be able to identify the lifestyle factors over which people have control and also the genetic, social and economic factors which people may not be able to change. They will learn that health and well-being can be affected by:

- genetically-inherited diseases and conditions

- substance misuse (including misuse of legal and illegal drugs, solvents, tobacco and alcohol intake)

- an unbalanced, poor quality or inadequate diet

- too much stress

- lack of personal hygiene

- lack of regular physical exercise

- unprotected sex

- social isolation

- poverty

- inadequate housing

- unemployment

- environmental pollution

Unit 4 Promoting Health and Well-Being

Candidates will learn about:

Understanding health and well-being

There are several different ways of thinking about health and well-being. Candidates should know that:

- health and well-being can be described as the absence of physical illness, disease and mental distress. This is a negative definition of health and well-being.

- health and well-being can be described as the achievement and maintenance of physical fitness and mental stability. This is a positive definition of health and well-being.

- health and well-being are the result of a combination of physical, social, intellectual and emotional factors. This is a holistic definition of health and well-being.

Candidates should also know that ideas about health and well-being change over time and vary between different cultures.

Methods used to measure an individual’s physical health

Candidates will learn that some indicators of physical health can be measured. In addition, they will know how the measures listed below can be taken and are used to assess the state of an individual’s physical health:

- blood pressure

- peak flow

- Body Mass Index

- resting pulse and recovery after exercise.

They should know that a person’s age, sex and lifestyle have to be taken into account when interpreting the measurement

Factors positively and negatively influencing health and well-being

A person’s health and well-being is affected by a number of different factors. Candidates should know about factors that contribute positively to health and well-being such as:

- supportive relationships

- stimulating work, education and leisure activity

- use of health monitoring and illness prevention services (such as screening and vaccination)

- use of risk management to protect individuals and promote personal safety

Candidates should know about factors that put an individual’s health and well-being at risk. They should be able to identify the lifestyle factors over which people have control and also the social and economic factors which people may not be able to change. They will learn that health and well-being can be affected by:

- substance misuse (including misuse of legal and illegal drugs, solvents, tobacco and alcohol intake)

- an unbalanced, poor quality or inadequate diet

- too much stress

- lack of regular physical exercise

- social isolation

- poverty.

4) Ways of promoting and supporting health improvement for an individual or small group.

Candidates should know why physical health assessment and target setting should happen before a health improvement plan is produced for an individual. They will learn how realistic health improvement targets are established for others and understand how different health behaviours can help people achieve their targets.

They should also know about the different types of health promotion materials that are used to inform, motivate and support people to improve their health and well-being

Study Time
To complete this course it will take in the region of 100 study hours which can be spread over a 12 month period to suit the student.

Pre-requisites
No previous study is required to access any of our GCSE courses, but they do require basic literacy and numeracy skills.

Support and Benefits
Full tutor support is available via email by fully qualified professionals.

Exam Dates and Information
The first opportunity to take the exam for this course will be June 2011
Exams are in June of each year and the latest dates for enrolment is December.

If you start your course after December then it is unlikely you can take your exam in June unless your tutor agrees and you can find a centre, they will require late registration fees.

Further Reading and Book List
Recommended Texts:
AQA GCSE Health and Social Care: Textbook – A Lamb.

Publisher: Philip Allan (29 Jun 2007)

ISBN-10: 1844896196

ISBN-13: 978-1844896196

Qualifications
Learning at home offers a range of GCSEs and all the course materials map to the very latest criteria laid down by the awarding bodies.

When you have taken your exams you will be awarded a grade which ranges from A – G with G being the lowest.

You will need to take GCSEs to progress onto A Levels and employers look for Maths and English as a minimum requirement for most jobs.

Taking Exams
Learning at Home in conjunction with the awarding body will give whatever help we can with examination information and finding an exam centre, but entering examinations is entirely the responsibility of the student, and the contract for sitting examinations is between the student and the exam centre. We are not an exam centre so you must read all the information in your course pack carefully and be prepared to travel to a centre which is willing to accept external candidates.

Funding
Learnign at Home does not have access to any funding so if you require a subsidised course please contact your Learn Direct Centre.

Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Do your courses meet the latest syllabus changes?
A. yes, all our course materials meet any changes and will be updated free of charge if further changes are made.

Q. Why do I have to find a centre myself?
A. We have students all over the UK and Europe and it is impossible for us to arrange dates and times for individual students.

Q. What if I cannot find an examination centre?
A. If you wish to gain the qualification then be prepared to travel it is worth it!

Q. How much are exam fees?
A. These vary from centre to centre so you should check with them directly as we do not have access to the information.

Q. Are the courses paper based or on-line?
A. All our courses are paper based and come in attractive sturdy folders.

Q. How do I contact my tutor?
A. Tutors are all working Teachers or Lecturers so contact is by email only.

Q. Why can I not take my exams at when I have completed the course and have to wait?
A. Exams are taken at the same times as schools and colleges and are not flexible.

Q. I want to take my exams but there are only a few months to study, is this possible?
A. Depending on the time of year, it is sometimes impossible to complete your studies in a short space of time as your work has to be marked and checked. More importantly the examination boards have cut off times which are not flexible.