Around 3 million people in the UK work in the health and social care sector - the equivalent to one in every 10 people. The NHS alone accounts for 1.3 million of these workers in over 350 different roles. Demand for both health and social care is liable to continue to rise due to the ageing population and the rise in non-communicable diseases. Therefore, this sector will continue to play a very important role within the UK society.

The intention of BTEC Health and Social Care is to ensure that each student has the opportunity to understand the wide range of opportunities within the field, as well as preparing students for future employment. The Health and Social Care course is a vocational qualification which takes an engaging, practical and inspiring approach to learning and assessment. The course equips students with a specialist and realistic understanding of how to meet the needs of individuals using services and specialist equipment, whilst challenging stereotypes and discrimination. The study of care values is at the heart of Health and Social Care which develops skills such as empathy, compassion, commitment, tolerance and empowerment. This enables our students to become educated citizens and contribute to society in a positive way.

The curriculum within Health and Social Care supports the ethos within the school as the subject is broad, balanced and relevant to the needs of students and employers. The curriculum challenges students to think abstractly, work collaboratively and problem solve to develop curiosity and the desire for knowledge. The course is designed so that the units build upon each other as the students grow in confidence allowing the students to embed their knowledge whilst giving opportunities to put into practice what they learn. This ensures they develop their technical skills, which they can they apply to real life scenarios.

In Key Stage 4 the intent is to guide them through a BTEC course that allows for progression onto a higher level through Key Stage 5 and then further, should they wish to do so.

In Year 10, students will learn how people grow and develop over the course of their lives, starting at infancy through to later adulthood. The learning of this development involves PIES - the Physical, Intellectual, Emotional and Social factors and the role this plays within development. We then look into how different factors can affect this. These major life events may be seen as marriage or parenthood; what then is observed is how people can adapt to this change, the understanding of this being shown through assignment-based assessment.

Students then move on to gain an insight into the various groups who use or work in the health and social care industry. Looking at people who need care, making students aware that they are not always ill but may have disabilities or other difficulties like living day-to-day lives. The care values are then covered, showing the importance of providing good health and social care values, giving an understanding of the importance that care values play to people when using the care services. Pupils demonstrate their skills of the care values through roleplay, and their understanding shown through assignment assessment and roleplay assessment.

In Year 11, students focus on the synoptic component of the course which brings together the teaching from the two years; this component is assessed through an external examination. Within this unit students start by assessing what ‘healthy’ means, acknowledging the fact that how 'healthy' an individual is, is not just about illness they must consider the individual in a holistic manner. Students then move on to interpret the readings of lifestyle indicators such as BMI, blood pressure, blood sugars, peak flow and pulse rate. Once this information is understood students then learn how to support individuals’ improvements through designing a health and wellbeing plan.

As a department we pride ourselves in creating engaging and challenging lessons using variety of teaching strategies, as well as utilising the online curriculum, online text books revision guides and packages to support learning. The range of techniques allow for knowledge to become embedded within the long-term memory. Assessments are regular and frequent with recall tests at the beginning of lessons, end of topic tests and mock examinations to prepare students for formal assessment.

Ultimately the BTEC Health and Social Care curriculum has a positive impact on the outcomes for every student. Raising awareness of different needs and services available and promoting good health which will provide life-long benefits on themselves and their families. As a department we have a high success rate in terms of academic results and destinations of students with a consistently high number of students exceeding expectations but most importantly, students express their enjoyment and interest within the subject.