Structure of the Course
Welcome to the A Level Health and Social Care course!
The AS Health and Social Care course is split into three units:
1. Promoting quality care
2. Communication
3. Promoting good health
Each module is given equal weighting (33% each). The promoting quality care module is exam assessed; the
other modules are assessed through coursework. Each module is worth one hundred marks (those
Unit
Promoting Quality Care
Communication
Promoting Good Health
AS Total
Format
Exam
Coursework
Coursework
Marks Available
100
100
100
300
The following tasks are designed to get you thinking about the issues we will be covering
and to give you prior knowledge which will help you to fully understand the topics we will
examine at AS.
Grade
Boundaries
Modules
A - 80
B - 70
C - 60
D – 50
E – 40
AS
A - 240
B - 210
C - 180
D – 150
E – 120
A Level
A - 480
B - 420
C - 360
D – 300
E – 240
UNIT 1: Promoting Quality Care
This unit is exam assessed.
In this unit we will cover:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Attitudes and prejudices
Rights and responsibilities of services users and providers
Facilitation of access to services
Care values
Safe working.
1. Attitudes and Prejudices
Individuals who need health, social care or early-years services can be highly vulnerable because
they are dependent on others for their care. This means that practitioner’s attitudes and
prejudices can affect the care people who use services experience.
Prejudice - To hold an opinion of a person or group that leads to discriminatory behaviour.
List all the different forms of prejudice:
 E.g. Racism
 _________________
 _________________
 _________________
 _________________
 _________________
 _________________
No one is born with prejudice of whatever type!!!
So why in society do we still have sexism, racism, homophobia, ageism, religious hatred and
discrimination against those with disabilities? The only answer there can be is that these prejudicial
attitudes must be learned - but how?
The answer is through the process of SOCIALISATION. This is how we learn the norms and values
that make up our culture.
Research the definitions of the following:
A VALUE is ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….......................
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Give an example of a value: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
A NORM is ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….......................
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Give an example of a norm: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
But what if during the process of socialisation we learn values that are prejudiced? Or norms that
lead to the unfair treatment of others? This will then lead to discrimination.
You need to know how attitudes and prejudices are learnt, which for testing purposes will be
limited to the following agencies:
 primary socialisation – early in life – e.g. the influence of the family;
 secondary socialisation – later in life – e.g. education, media, work, peers.
You also need to understand the possible effects of attitudes and prejudices on people who use
services, which for testing purposes will be limited to:
 health and well-being;
 self-esteem and sense of empowerment;
 unfair treatment – direct and indirect discrimination.
Give examples of three values you may learn that would lead to prejudicial behaviour.
1…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
2. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
3. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Give three examples of norms that we may learn that would lead to prejudice.
1. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
2. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
3. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The process of socialisation happens through a number of agencies of socialisation - these are
organisations that we learn from, they include the family, the media, peer group, education,
religion etc.
It also takes place in two stages:
Primary socialisation - this is the earliest learning from your family and carries on throughout your
life.
Secondary socialisation - this is the learning from all the other institutions such as the media, your
peer group (friends) your education, religion, and workplace.
During this process people may learn discriminatory behaviour or prejudicial ideas that may lead
them to discriminate against others.
TASK: Give examples of how each agency of socialisation may lead a person to discriminate in the
future.
Agency of
Socialisation
Family
Media
Education
Peer Group
Work colleagues
Religion
How may lead a person to discriminate against other person?
UNIT 2: Communication in Health and Social Care
Scenario – The trainee Nursery Nurses need to be given a reference chart so that than can clearly understand how to meet the needs of service users
who have a form of disability with their communication. You need to fill in the grid below in order to produce the reference chart that can be
studied and used as a refresher for when they are working with a client with such needs.
Client
Need
Partially
Blind
Method to aid
communication
Large Print Text
Totally
Blind
Braille
Recorded
Information on
audio device
Description of how
it is used
Positives
Negatives
Partially
Deaf
Hearing Aid
Hearing
Induction Loop
Totally
Deaf
Sign Language
Learning
Disability
Makaton
Not
speaking
English
Language
Translators
UNIT 3: Promoting good health
IMPORTANT NOTICE: For this unit we would like you to order a ‘smokefree’ pack from the NHS Website and bring it to your first Health and Social Care lesson.
You can order it from http://www.nhs.uk/smokefree. Please show this notice to your parents so that they are aware that the smoke free pack is for
educational purposes. Thank you.
TASK: Match the concepts of heath with the definitions of health.
An illness or a sickness that has recognisable symptoms.
Cultural explanations of health
This suggests that the basis of disease, including mental illness, is physical in origin.
Social action approaches
Intellectual, Emotional, and Social Health
Material/structural explanations
The amount of physical and mental ill-health in a community which is not reported
and known about.
Bio-medical model of illness.
Disability
Disease
Health
Illness
Illness iceberg
Well-being
A physical or mental inability to do something that most other people would
consider normal.
Physical Health
These explanations link health to peoples’ behavioural patterns and life styles.
Lack of a sense of health and well-being.
These explanations link health to peoples’ income, working and housing conditions
and access to health care.
These explanations link health to the way society views and reacts to certain
conditions.
Factors affecting Health and Well-being:
I.
II.
Lifestyle choices - e.g. diet, substance abuse, exercise, recreational activities.
Social factors - e.g. family, social class, culture
Factors
Diet
Substance abuse
Exercise
Recreational activities
Family
Social Class
Culture
Describe how this factor would influence your Health (physically) and Well-being (intellectually, emotionally, and socially)
E.g. Your diet will affect you physically by gaining/losing weight. Your diet may also influence you to get diseases such as diabetes
or heart disease if you have a diet which is high in salt/sugar. Your diet can also affect you emotionally because if you put on
weight due to an unbalanced diet you might develop low-self-esteem.