Course summary

The Cert HE Professional Practice in Health and Social Care is the first year (level 4) of the Foundation Degree course offered at Doncaster College and University Centre. The course is designed to develop your skills and competencies for a wide range of roles across the health, social or community care sectors. The programme combines work based learning through either existing employment or work placements with health and social care education to develop your skills and competencies for a wide range of roles across the health, social or community care sectors. The course is delivered in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University and the qualification is awarded by Sheffield Hallam University. The course provides pathways to professional qualifications including: BSc (Honours) Nursing (Adult) BA (Honours) Social Work BSc (Honours) Physiotherapy BSc (Honours) Diagnostic Radiography BSc (Honours) Occupational Therapy BSc (Honours) Paramedic Science This course is a work based learning award which combines health and social care education with either existing employment or work placements to develop your skills and competencies for a wide range of roles across the health, social or community care sectors. For those in employment, the course provides you with your continuing personal and professional development and, depending on your employer, would allow you to undertake a Band 4 Associate/Assistant role. For those who are not in employment, you will undertake a placement in a suitable health, social or community care role, which will allow you to develop the necessary skills and competencies alongside your academic studies to complete the course. The course has been designed in response to rapidly changing workforce demands and policy initiatives aimed at modernising services and improving quality, productivity and efficiency (Department of Health, 2016, Skills for Health 2015; Centre for Workforce Intelligence, 2015; Willis, 2015; Francis, 2013). Key drivers include: staff shortages, requirements to enhance capacity and cost-efficiency, technological developments, integration of services and reconfiguration in provision including a shift from secondary care to primary, community-based services. Consequently, Assistant Practitioners need to be educated to be empowered workers with ‘time to care’. In principle the tasks that are delegated to Assistant Practitioners are those that can be performed safely with training, under protocol and with supervision. Assistant Practitioner roles are locally designed to work either within single professions such as nursing, physiotherapy or speech and language therapy or where the Assistant Practitioner will have competence to work across professional boundaries.