HSC06 Scheme of Work V1
A Level Health & Social Care/Schemes of work/Version 1.0
Unit Title HSC06: Practitioner Roles (Compulsory)
This unit aims to increase your understanding of the world of work in health, social care, children and young people and community justice
sectors. It also helps you to reflect on your own suitability for different job roles.
This unit is synoptic. It requires you to use the knowledge and understanding of life quality factors and caring skills gained in HSC01 and other
AS units.
Method of assessment – a portfolio of evidence
Topic
3.6.1
Employment
Sectors
Learning
objectives/understanding
Key
terms/definitions/notes
Suggested
activities
Resources
You should learn about the main
employment sectors in the four
sectors of health, social care,
children and young people and
community justice. These are:
 the statutory sector:
the NHS, local authority
provision including social
services and education
(including Early Years and
special education)
 the independent sector:
private, profit-making
providers of health and social
care; private not-for-profit
providers
Employment Sectors
Funding sources
How service is accessed.
Using the 4
sectors carry out
a mind map
exercise thinking
of as many
potential job roles
as possible.
Although some of the information is
now out of date a starting point is A2
Health & Social Care R Smithson.
Good sites for all this research are
www.prospects.ac.uk/
www.jobs4u.uk.com/
http://www.connexionsdirect.com/Jobs4u/
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HSC06 Scheme of Work V1

(e.g. housing associations
which provide residential
care)
voluntary organisations.
You should learn how these sectors
are funded, e.g.:
 local and national taxation
 charges for services
 via insurance
 lottery funding
 direct donations.

You should understand factors
which influence the availability of
these jobs, nationally and locally,
including demographic change and
the policies of the political party in
power.
Local and political
factors.
Encourage
students to look
up their area
website to find
type of area,
population etc.
Look up BBC
News to look at
issues associated
with chosen job
roles.
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HSC06 Scheme of Work V1
3.6.2
Roles and
Conditions
You should learn what is meant by
conditions of employment, e.g.:
 pay
 incremental pay increases
 overtime
 pension rights
 holidays
 working patterns (e.g. shift)
 job security.
Conditions of
employment :
 Pay
 Incremental pay
increases
 Overtime
 Pension rights
 Holidays
 Working patterns
 Job security
You should learn in outline the
 Qualifications
different levels of qualification
 Job satisfaction
required for the different job roles.
 Autonomy
You should learn what is meant by
 Level of reward
job satisfaction and understand the
 Team work
factors which might contribute to this
 Stressors/satisfiers
including:
 Level of
 autonomy
responsibility
 level of reward
 Client outcome
 working in a small, cohesive
 Status
team
 stressors and satisfiers
 level of responsibility.
You should understand that jobs in
the four sectors vary widely in job
outcome. For example, a nurse
working in ophthalmic outpatient
surgery will see most patients
completely cured or significantly
improved, while a care assistant in a
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Students should
work their way
through the
checklist finding
up to date
information to
meet the
Assessment
criteria.
HSC06 Scheme of Work V1
nursing home will see most
residents decline and die.
3.6.3
Meeting Individual
Needs
You should understand that some
job roles have a relatively high
social status, while others seem
undervalued or even disapproved of
by the general
public.
You should refer to the quality of life
factors and caring skills and
techniques listed in HSC01 Effective
Care and Communication and learn
how practitioners apply these to
meet the needs of clients.
Psychological Life Quality
Factors.
Caring Skills &
Techniques.
You should also refer to how the life
quality factors are met for the
practitioners in their job roles.
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R Smithson
AS Health & Social Care.
HSC06 Scheme of Work V1
3.6.4
Legislation
3.6.5
Quality Assurance
You should learn about the main
Legislation
provisions and effects of legislation
Safeguarding procedures
relevant to the job roles.
Safeguarding procedures relevant to
each job role should also be
examined, for example CRB checks.
www.legislation.gov.uk/
You should learn about ways in
which the client’s experience of
treatment provided by practitioners
can be assessed. These include the
measurement of service delivery
against performance indicators, e.g.
waiting times and clinical outcomes,
as well as the use of client
satisfaction questionnaires and
interviews.
Use websites to look the
organisations up and ask about QA.
Measurement of service
delivery
https://www.gov.uk/ - this has
replaced Direct Gov.
Employment places – schools
themselves etc
NHS
Care Quality Commission at
present.
Schools
www.ofsted.gov.uk/
You should be aware of local factors
influencing provision, e.g. difficulties
of access caused by remoteness
and/or lack of transport,
demographic factors such as a large
proportion of retired people or
children in the population, poverty
and level of resources for services.
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HSC06 Scheme of Work V1
3.6.6
Interview
Techniques
You should learn how to design an
interview schedule to measure
satisfaction in the job and confirm
your findings from section 3.6.1.
You should learn how to use a
combination of closed and open
questions, including rating scales,
where appropriate, to find out about
the job role and satisfaction for a
range of individual needs (life quality
factors). You should learn when to
follow up interviewee responses
with supplementary questions. You
should also learn how to record an
interviewee’s responses on the
schedule.
Students write
Interview one of the practitioners.
interview
questions – this is
not a
questionnaire so
they should
interview the
practitioner
ideally face to
face.
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HSC06 Scheme of Work V1
3.6.7
Ethical
Precautions
You should learn how to apply the
following ethical precautions when
interviewing respondents:
 avoid embarrassment and
distress
 recognise whether or not an
item might cause a
respondent embarrassment
or distress, and whether to
discontinue an interview to
avoid this
 the importance of telling the
interviewee that they can
choose not to answer
particular questions
 maintain confidentiality
 respondents’ names should
not be reported
 seek informed consent
 the initial request to the
respondent should outline
what will be required of them
during the interview, and
indicate how much time it will
take;. The respondent should
be specifically offered the
option not to take part
 give an explicit right to
withdraw from the interview
at any time.
Students can
write this
document using
the bullet points
as sub headings.
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HSC06 Scheme of Work V1
3.6.8 Assessment.
You need to produce a portfolio of evidence describing and evaluating two contrasting job roles from health, social care, children and young
people or community justice.
You should include in your work an evaluation and comparison of the two jobs as well as evaluating how practitioners support the safeguarding
and protection of the individuals they come into contact with.
It should also include an evaluation of your own suitability for these roles.
Your portfolio of evidence should not be a shared exercise or based on a whole-group topic, but wholly your own work.
Work which does not demonstrate independence cannot be awarded high marks.
Your work for assessment must include the following sections and subsections. Please use the checklist provided.
Section A Introduction
This should include a description of each job role with reference to all the points below which must all be referenced :
Full title and area it is from, e.g. adult nurse from health area Sector, including whether statutory or independent, funding sources and employer,
e.g.NHS, named local authority, how the client/s access the service/s provided by the chosen practitioners, role, including the main duties or
activities required, the extent to which the job role involves team working with others in different job roles, status, including level of public
approval, qualifications required, opportunities for career progression, local and political factors influencing job opportunities, conditions, including
whether part- or full-time, pay, overtime, hours/working patterns/shifts, holidays, pension rights, job security, evidence of anti-discriminatory
practice, relevant legislation/policy, safeguarding procedures for each job role, presence of stressors, job satisfaction potential including client
outcomes, level of responsibility, quality assurance regulator, life quality factors for the job role.
Section B Evidence
This should include two subsections as follows:
 B.1: Describe an investigation you carried out with a person who occupies one of the job roles you identified. You should
design and use materials for an interview to investigate the person’s perception of aspects of their job role, job
satisfaction and to confirm the accuracy of your research in section 3.6.1. The person you have interviewed must not
named in the portfolio of evidence.
 B.2: Describe evidence of your own aptitudes. This might refer to existing qualifications, relevant experience, preferences,
feedback from careers interviews and the results of vocational inventories.
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be
HSC06 Scheme of Work V1
Section C Evaluation
This should include two subsections as follows:

C.1:

C.2:
Compare and contrast the two job roles’ key factors with particular emphasis on how the two practitioners ensure that
safeguarding issues are met.
Evaluate your own suitability for the two job roles referring to the skills you have described in section B2.
Your evaluation should make use of information presented in the Introduction and Evidence sections.
Section D Appendix
This should include:
 copies or website screen shots of all materials accessed for section A
 copies of letters or e-mails sent and received by you and materials you used to collect evidence, which might include job
satisfaction inventories, records of interview responses, vocational preference inventory results and summary records of
achievement and experience (the latter could be in the form of a CV)
 references to the sources of information used.
Synoptic Assessment
When writing your portfolio of evidence, you should draw on your knowledge, understanding and skills gained when studying HSC01 and other
AS units. Particularly relevant to the Introduction and Evaluation sections of your portfolio of evidence is knowledge of life quality factors.
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