Health and Social Care - BSc (Hons)

This module aims to introduce you to contemporary contexts of healthcare and social care while investigating the current understanding of health and wellbeing and its application to the organisation and delivery of health and social care.

On successful completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Understand different health and social care approaches and provisions
• Identify health and social care issues within a specific population
• Describe selected health and social care policies
• Identify the social determinants of health and the relationship to health inequalities

This module considers issues of culture, society, and ethics and their implications for professional contexts in health and social care. Current policy, professional frameworks, and legislation relating to identity, diversity, rights, and inequality will be examined. The professional role in challenging inequalities and implementing ethical and anti-oppressive practice will be explored. You will reflect on your own identity and experiences and keep a reflective journal throughout the module.

This module seeks to provide you with opportunities for development and reflection over key skills and issues in effective practice. It applies a combination of student engagement and active learning with theoretical concepts, principles, and case studies to enable you to critically evaluate communication and practice skills in the context of health and social care.

This module aims to:

• Develop the ability to communicate effectively and professionally
• Develop key skills in teamwork and problem solving
• Promote understanding of key values and ethical principles in health and social care
• Develop self-awareness and self-reflection in relation to key issues in health and social care
• Develop ability for evaluation, analysis, and critical thinking using case studies and problem-based learning

This module begins by asking “what do we mean by knowledge” in the context of health and social care and goes on to explore answers to this question. A key purpose of the module is to help you locate the concepts of evidence and research within a broader understanding of the importance of evidence-based practice but also to introduce you to the contested and contentious nature of what we mean by knowledge.

This module aims to:

• Develop your personal and professional development skills and competencies for effective interpersonal and professional relationships
• Develop your knowledge and skills for effective interpersonal and professional communication
• Enable you to develop self-awareness and emotional intelligence for effective practice with service users and carers
• Develop the knowledge and skills for effective reflective practitioners
• Develop your ability to use reflective techniques in relation to work with individuals and groups in the health and social care settings

This module is an academic skills module, which serves to develop key academic skills in first-year students. Its main focus is developing your skills in identifying, understanding, and presenting literature, data, and information.

This module aims to:

• Develop key skills essential to all years of higher education, including researching, reading, writing, referencing, and critical thinking
• Develop the ability to effectively read and comprehend academic literature
• Develop the ability to present academic literature, both written and verbally
• Develop an understanding of the quality and validity of different sources of information
• Provide opportunities for self-development and reflection

This module aims to:

• Develop an understanding of the Public Health discipline
• Develop an understanding and knowledge of population health data and skills to interpret this data
• Provide a social science-based contextual and critical understanding of the impact of the social determinants of health on population health outcomes
• Develop an understanding and knowledge of population health issues and how to take an evidence-based approach to tackle these issues

On completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Explain and discuss the three pillars of Public Health, which are Health Protection, Healthcare Public Health, and Health Promotion
• Understand and discuss the determinants of health
• Interpret and explain population health data
• Take an evidence-based approach to public health decisions
• Think critically about contemporary issues in public health

This module introduces you to both ethics and research through an exploration of principles, theories, and practices that inform decision-making in professional contexts. It is taught in two interconnected parts.

In Part One, you will study ethics using sector-specific professional codes of ethical conduct and examine underlying normative ethical theories as they are represented within such codes. Current ethical debates for professional practice will be considered, providing opportunities for the critical application of different ethical perspectives to a range of contemporary moral issues and situations in professional contexts.

In Part Two, you will be introduced to ethical research processes and research knowledge and skills relevant to professional and academic development. These research principles will provide a foundation for understanding approaches to social research and evidence-based practice and research design.

This module aims to enable you to:

• Apply prior knowledge and relate specific knowledge and skills to real-life situations in a work environment
• Develop new capabilities and skills relating to employment
• Engage in career development planning
• Undertake a work-based placement

The module is structured in two distinct stages to enhance your employability. During the Autumn semester, you will engage with a number of activities, both in seminars and individually, designed to help clarify career goals and identify personal and professional developmental needs associated with these goals.

Following on from this, you will be expected to undertake a placement, during which you will be able to focus on specific learning needs identified through the learning activities from the seminars.

This module introduces sociological perspectives of health, illness, and society, often referred to as medical sociology. A sociological perspective provides a number of challenges to straightforward bio-medical approaches to health and illness. It asks questions about how health and illness conditions are defined, measured, and treated in society as well as the implications for society and individuals. It also explores the wider power structures that are implicated in health and illness, which forms the basis for applied learning and problem-solving in areas that you will confront as a social professional.

This module aims to:

• Explore a social science approach to health, illness, and society
• Examine contrasting perspectives on health and illness experiences, such as professional and service-user/lay perspectives
• Consider the role of social factors in the distribution of illness
• Develop critical thinking and analysis on contemporary health issues

This module aims to enable you to:

• Apply prior knowledge and relate specific knowledge and skills to situations in relevant work environments
• Develop new capabilities and skills relating to teamwork
• Engage in personal and professional development planning

This module builds on knowledge and skills acquired in the first year of the course and specifically on the intra- and inter-personal skills acquired in Personal and Professional Development: Self-management.

In this, the second of three PPD modules on this undergraduate degree, you will expand your understanding of yourself to encompass your role in teams within the health and social care workforce and the importance of appropriate communication in this context. Throughout the module, emphasis will be placed on service users and carers as key members of any team.

As well as examining theoretical aspects of teamwork, you will draw on your own experience of teamwork (for example, in your learning syndicates) to consider the stages of team development and how conflict and disagreement can be resolved within teams.

In preparation for the final PPD module in the third year, you will begin to explore the role of followership within teams and its relationship to leadership.

This module builds on knowledge and skills acquired in the first year of this undergraduate programme and specifically on the academic skills acquired in Academic Skills and Literacy: Finding and Presenting the Information.

In this, the second of three academic skills and literacy modules, you will extend your academic literacy and skills to encompass obtaining increasingly specialised sources, identifying key aspects of information, establishing validity, and processing information to create an argument.

On successful completion of the module, you will be able to:

• Undertake research to provide new information and detailed knowledge of well-established theories and concepts
• Utilise a range of approaches to analyse information collected
• Utilise a range of approaches to evaluate the relevance and significance of information collected
• Collect and synthesise information to inform a choice of solutions to problems
• Demonstrate an awareness of the contested nature of knowledge within health and social care

This module builds on work done previously in the first year in Introduction to Health and Social Care: Concepts of Health and Wellbeing and during the second year as part of Advancing the Health of the Population: Understanding Public Health.

This module aims to enable you to use and build on the knowledge and understanding gained in these modules to analyse and critically evaluate current and emerging responses to key challenges facing the health and social care sector.

This module aims to:

• Provide a critical understanding of the emerging issues in contemporary health and social care at both policy and practice levels
• Consider the relationship between the social determinants of health and policy and practice responses to health and social care issues
• Critically examine implicit theoretical perspectives underpinning key approaches to tackling health inequalities
• Develop an understanding of a range of theoretical perspectives related to health creation and initiatives to tackle health inequalities; social prescribing, asset-based approaches, and community development
• Consider the practical and ethical implications for the health and social workforce of current and emerging responses to a range of issues

This module draws together strands from a number of modules you will have previously undertaken and are concurrently studying. Principally, this builds on your understanding of the nature of knowledge and evidence in health and social care contexts derived from Introduction to Knowledge and Inquiry in Health and Social Care in the first year and on the more specific focus on research in Ethical Research and Practice in the second year.

The specific focus of work carried out as part of this module will also be informed by your broader examination of health and social care issues in other modules across the course as a whole.

This module focuses on your personal and professional development in preparation for graduation from the BSc (Hons) Health and Social Care. There is particular emphasis on the development of graduate skills and competencies, with a focus on the management and leadership of others. Emergent graduate skills are developed to prepare you for professional practice and/or further studies.

This module aims to enable you to further apply prior knowledge and relate specific knowledge and skills to continuing development of academic literacy and skills.

This module builds on knowledge and skills acquired in the first and second years of the course and specifically on the academic skills acquired in Academic Skills and Literacy: Finding and Presenting Information and Academic Skills and Literacy: Developing Critical Thinking.

In this, the last of three academic skills and literacy modules on the degree, you will extend your academic literacy and skills to enable you to produce work appropriate to this academic level, with specific emphasis on the standard of work required by the Health Project.

This module examines the history of housing policy in the UK, focussing in particular on the shift to neo-liberal housing policies from the 1980s. Key contemporary housing issues and the key causes of the current housing crisis in London and the UK are examined.

This module provides opportunities for you to develop your understanding of key issues in mental health practice and policy, as well as critically discuss relevant theoretical and conceptual issues relating to mental health.

This module aims to:

• Develop an understanding of key concepts in mental health and well-being
• Develop awareness of mental health diagnoses and implications of these to the individual, health services, and wider society
• Develop knowledge of key policy and practice issues in mental health
• Provide opportunities to critically evaluate and reflect upon models and theories of mental health and well-being

This module aims to give you an opportunity to critically study the interconnectedness of key challenges of human development and human health and healthcare across nations within a global context. It will provide content that will help you understand the key global challenges that affect human health and healthcare and cause health inequalities and inequities across nations.

This module will also provide an opportunity to study key global actors and global interventions to improve human health of all people across nations and promote health equities. This will require you to critique global co-operation and partnership in fighting key challenges of global human health and healthcare.

This module aims to:

• Develop and produce graduates with global citizenship attributes by embedding the notion of “think globally and act locally” (think globally for local actions) in its curriculum
• Develop a critical knowledge base of concepts, principles, measurements, and theories of global health and healthcare based on the notion of “global health crisis”
• Build a critical understanding of the key challenges of the growing global interconnectedness on global human health and healthcare
• Identify and critique the determinants and evidence of global health inequalities and inequities
• Examine the influence and contribution of health systems in improving human health around the world
• Consider complexities in solving global health and healthcare problems found in past and contemporary case-studies and draw implications from them for future research, policy, and practice in global health

This module examines the history of housing policy in the UK, focussing in particular on the shift to neo-liberal housing policies from the 1980s. Key contemporary housing issues and the key causes of the current housing crisis in London and the UK are examined.

This module aims to:

• Place changes in housing management in the context of wider social, economic, and organisational changes
• Introduce the key practical issues facing housing professionals, and good practice in addressing these issues
• Identify ways in which housing service users and community workers can challenge poor performance and get involved in service improvement
• Examine the benefits and challenges of partnership working in dealing with housing issues
• Explain current discussions on the balance of rights and responsibilities for social housing tenants and other local residents