The health and social care system offers a wide range of services across all sectors, including public, private, and voluntary. The services provided can be found in hospitals, children’s services, care homes, medical and dental services, emergency services and much more, and local authorities, care providers, health services, housing providers and the criminal justice system all contribute to the effectiveness of these services. The common focus, however, is always the individual; ensuring appropriate services are provided to the children and adults who need the care and support of the health and social care system.
You will be introduced to the key issues, terms, and legislation that you will be exposed to in health and social care and the wide range of roles that make up this sector. You will learn about concepts that are key to the industry, such as equality and diversity, and how your own views and life experiences can affect the way you practice.
The ability to communicate effectively is important in everyday life, as well as in most careers, but in health & social care, it is of paramount importance, as the impacts of poor communication can affect lives in severe ways. You will learn the communication barriers that are often faced in this career and how they can be overcome.
To ensure service users get the most effective and appropriate services applicable to their needs, it is important for you to understand the roles, responsibilities, aims and priorities of the other agencies that you will need to work with. This topic is discussed at length, along with how to treat the service users’ confidential information that is shared between agencies.
Although this is an industry that focuses on the wellbeing of others, it is also important to spend time on your own development. Through the Health and Social Care Diploma Course, you will explore reflective practice and continuing professional development and how working on these areas improves your capacity to fill your role.
Many of the roles within Health and Social Care, such as health visitors, nurses, childminders, social workers, and family support workers, work with children and families. It is therefore important for those in these roles to have a basic understanding of human growth and development so that they can identify when a child is not meeting specific milestones, which can be indicative of health and development problems. The Health and Social Care Diploma Course guides you through the key ages and how a child, between the ages 0-18 years should develop, and then goes on to discuss other important topics about child development.
Safeguarding is an important area for all those working in the health and social care system to understand, as you will often work with children and vulnerable adults. From the course, you will gain a sound basic knowledge on the issues of abuse and neglect, this includes: understanding the types and keys signs of abuse, what actions are expected of you in your role, and what the process is for reporting suspected abuse.
The course also includes a Glossary, should you need to refer to any terms that you do not understand.
