Health and Social Care BSc(Hons)

Start date

16 September 2024

Duration

3 years full-time

About the course

Reasons to study

You’ll gain real-world experience via a work placement in your third year; this potentially career-enhancing placement provides the opportunity to put your theoretical skills into practice.
You’ll be taught by a supportive and experienced teaching team, who have worked in a range of health and social care roles and will use their expertise to bring your Health and Social Care BSc(Hons) modules to life.
To enhance your learning, you’ll hear first-hand experiences and viewpoints from service users and carers who are part of the Public Partnership Group.

From exploring different aspects of Health and Social Care to looking at how to assess needs, our Health and Social Care BSc(Hons) degree will also introduce you to law, social policy, assessment and care planning. On the course, you’ll explore your own values in relation to working with diverse groups, and you’ll engage in becoming a reflective practitioner.

Why study Health and Social Care BSc(Hons)

Introducing you to a wealth of post-university career opportunities, this course gives you the chance to put your theoretical skills into practice by undertaking a work placement in your third year. Supporting and enhancing your learning and increasing your future employability prospects, the placement could give you the chance to make useful industry contacts, as well as give you the edge when applying for a relevant role. You’ll have the opportunity to progress to careers in diverse areas, including youth work, housing, domestic violence, social prescribing, and drug and alcohol support. Alternatively, you could pursue further, Master’s level study to enter fields such as nursing, social work, and occupational therapy.

On campus, you’ll be taught by a supportive and experienced teaching team, who have worked in a range of health and social care roles. Bringing their teaching to life with real-life case studies, they will be on hand to guide you throughout the course, with everything from on-campus work to placements. You’ll be taught a wide variety of aspects of health and social care, from health and community development to social policy, residential health, and more. You’ll have the best chance of success on this course, as you’ll learn from the best. Our staff rank in the top three in England for the proportion who hold doctorates, who have higher degrees, and hold teaching qualifications (HESA 2022).

Not quite ready to start Health and Social Care BSc(Hons)? Successful completion of our Health Foundation Pathway leading to a BSc(Hons) Degree will equip you with the foundation knowledge to study Health and Social Care.

Course detail

Year 1

Core modules:

Introduction to Law and Social Policy

The module will introduce you to relevant English legislation and social policy underpinning health and social care practice. You'll cover topics including economic and political context of law and social policy, legislation and policy that applies to health and social care practice, the criminal justice system, work with children and families (including risk and safeguarding issues), work with adults (including risk and safeguarding issues), human rights and the political impact and influence upon law and social policy. The application of law and policy to the practice context will also be explored.

Social Science and Professional Practice

This module introduces you to sociological and psychological theories that can help us to understand people’s lives and circumstances. You'll have the opportunity to develop your understanding of these approaches and consider the ways in which they impact upon professional practice in a range of social care settings.

Understanding Health and Social Care

This module helps you to develop the key skills required for undergraduate study, professional development and life-long learning. You‘ll have the opportunity to develop autonomy in planning, managing and evaluating your own learning through discussions and debates in seminars. You’ll be introduced to theories methods and techniques to enable you to develop your reflective practice and enable you to begin to examine your progress as a professional.

Working Together with Service Users and Carers

You’ll have the opportunity to develop an understanding of what it is like to be a service user or a carer in today’s society. Your understanding of particular groups will be supported through a series of sessions delivered by service users, service providers and carers.

Year 2

Core modules:

Assessing Community Needs and Developing Resources

This module introduces you to a number of the methods used to assess communities and their needs. You'll consider and appraise needs assessments, community audits and community profiles as methods of assessing community needs and assets. You’ll also consider ways in which a community can organise and participate in such assessments. There will also be consideration of the ethics of such assessment.

Leadership in Health and Community Settings

In this module you’ll explore issues related to defining and understanding leadership, theoretical approaches to leadership and the application of leadership theory to diverse community settings. You’ll explore the wider context of health and social care leadership, and gain an understanding of ethics, power, culture, diversity and values.

Research Methods and Skills

You'll be introduced to key issues in research, exploring a range of research designs and examining the concepts of reliability, validity, trustworthiness and ethics at different stages of the research process. This module will help you to develop the necessary skills to understand and undertake research projects, and to engage with, use and critique published research.

Social Care Interventions

In this module you'll examine human development across the life course and look at how professionals intervene in order to support people during these changes. This involves looking at some of the contemporary approaches that social work and social care professionals use that support individuals and families. You’ll be encouraged to critically consider how methods of intervention can be applied in practice. This module will help to prepare you for how you can work with people when you are on your placement.

Year 3

Core modules:

Assessment and Care Planning

You’ll be encouraged to critically explore the underpinning theory and methods of assessment, which will enable you to develop the ability to hypothesise, assess and analyse situations. You’ll also be supported to learn how to construct support plans and explore ways of assessing children, families and adults.

International Health and Social Development

This module introduces you to a critical understanding of health and social development from a global perspective. You’ll explore key concepts including globalisation, citizenship, social exclusion and inclusion and how they influence the health of individuals, groups and communities.

Work Placement and Reflection

This module provides you with the opportunity to gain suitable work experience in an industry placement of your choice and develop an understanding of the core purpose and management of your chosen organisation. You’ll be expected to identify, develop and maintain a role as a working member of the team, appreciating the rights and responsibilities of yourself and the organisation.

Choose one of the following optional modules:

Applied Law

This module will provide the opportunity for you to examine the complexity of the relationship between legislation, health and social care, and social work practice. You’ll have the chance to enhance your knowledge of a wide range of professional social work laws and examine how legislation sets the boundaries for social work practice.

Think Family and Strength Based Approaches

This module introduces two approaches that underpin much of current social care and social work policy and practice in the UK; Think Family and Strength Based approaches. You’ll be encouraged to develop your awareness, knowledge and understanding of the importance of practitioners taking account of the wider family circumstances, needs and responsibilities when working with an individual adult or child and when developing services within a community. You’ll be supported to develop a systematic understanding of the impact of issues such as mental health, domestic abuse, substance misuse, disability, illness and dementia on individuals, family members and communities. You’ll have the opportunity to develop your skills in formulating judgements and framing questions to achieve solutions.

Teaching and assessment

On average 14.3% of study time on this course is spent with your tutors (either face to face or online) in lectures, seminars, tutorials. You'll be taught by lecturers from a range of professional backgrounds, service users, carers and guest speakers from practice settings. Teaching is delivered through lectures, group work and seminars. Student-centred learning is used where appropriate and its role generally increases throughout the course. Modules are designed to embed transferable skills and to allow students to progressively increase their knowledge and confidence.

You'll be assessed through a wide range of methods including essays, presentations, poster presentations, workshops and portfolios. The nature of the assessment varies from module to module, and mirrors the modes of communication expected of graduates in this field, for example, report writing, presentations and essays. Your module specification/course handbook will provide full details of the assessment criteria applying to your course.

Feedback is normally provided on all coursework submissions within three term time weeks – unless the submission is made toward the end of the second semester in which case feedback will be available on request after the formal publication of results.

Further information

The teaching year normally starts in September with breaks at Christmas and Easter, finishing with a main examination/assessment period around May/June. Timetables are normally available one month before registration. As this is a full-time course, you may have to attend every day of the week, although every effort is made to group teaching together, to ensure fewer days per week on campus.

Your course is made up of modules and each module is worth either 20 or 40 credits. Each year you study modules to the value of 120 credits, adding up to 360 credits in total for a bachelor’s qualification. These credits can come from a combination of core, compulsory and optional modules but please note that optional modules may not run if we do not have enough students interested.

If you achieve 120 credits for the current stage you are at, you may progress to the next stage of your course, subject to any professional, statutory or regulatory body guidelines.

Teaching excellence

The University of Huddersfield has been rated Gold in all three aspects of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023. We were the only university in Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West to achieve Gold ratings in all three aspects of the TEF among those announced in September 2023. In fact only 13 Universities, out of the 96 that were announced in September 2023, were Gold in all three ratings.
Further proof of teaching excellence: our staff rank in the top three in England for the proportion who hold doctorates, who have higher degrees, and hold teaching qualifications (HESA 2024). So, you’ll learn from some of the best, helping you to be the best.
We are first in the country for National Teaching Fellowships, which mark the UK’s best lecturers in Higher Education, winning a total of 22 since 2008 (2023 data).
We won the first Global Teaching Excellence Award, recognising the University’s commitment to world-class teaching and its success in developing students as independent learners and critical thinkers (Higher Education Academy, 2017).

Global Professional Award

At Huddersfield, you'll study the Global Professional Award (GPA) alongside your degree* so that you gain valuable qualities and experiences that could help you to get the career you want, no matter what your field of study is. On completion of the Award, you'll receive a GPA certificate from the University of Huddersfield, alongside the specialist subject skills and knowledge you gain as part of your degree, which may help to set you apart from other graduates.

Giving students access to the Global Professional Award is one of the reasons the University won ‘Best University Employability Strategy’ award at the National Graduate Recruitment Awards 2021. Find out more on the Global Professional Award webpage.

*full-time, undergraduate first degrees with a minimum duration of three years. This does not include postgraduate, foundation, top-up, accelerated or apprenticeship degrees.

Entry requirements

To find out if you’re eligible to start this course in September 2024 and get more information on how to apply, please see our Clearing pages or call our Clearing Helpline on 0333 987 9000 01484 472777.

If you’re interested in studying this course in September 2025, please view the 2025-26 course information.

Placements

This course includes a compulsory 160 hour work placement in your third year in an appropriate environment, providing you the opportunity to relate theory to practice and develop skills in a real world context. In order to undertake your placement you'll need to have a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

You'll have the opportunity to choose from a wide range of existing and new placement providers for example, housing organisations, Women’s Aid, drug and alcohol services, community gardening projects and health promotion services. A successful placement experience may lead to further opportunities with the placement provider, such as volunteering or paid work.

For more information visit our placements page.

My placement enabled me to go into police custody suites and offer support to the detainees, I also shadowed several home visits and assessments of vulnerable adults and children. This was beneficial to my career, widening my experience and solidifying my wish of becoming a social worker.

Jade Nothers, graduated from Health and Social Care BSc(Hons) in 2022, now a Custody Worker at West Yorkshire Liaison and Diversion

Facilities

University Campus.

The library.

Inside the University's extensive library.

Student Central Building.

Your career

We know from previous experience that students will go onto a variety of careers, such as working in drug and alcohol services, housing agencies, domestic violence services, disability and wellbeing services, teaching, and relevant Master’s courses to pursue vocations such as Social Work and Nursing.

*Percentage of graduates from this subject area who were in work and/or further study within fifteen months after graduating (HESA Graduate Outcomes 2020/21, including both UK and non-UK domiciled, other activities excluded).

85% Graduates employed*

Career support

We know you’re coming to university to study your chosen subject, meet new people and broaden your horizons. However, we also help you to focus on life after you have graduated to ensure that your hard work pays off and you achieve your ambition.

So while you’re here (and even after you graduate) the Careers and Employability Service offers professional help, support and guidance, including industry-supported workshops, careers fairs and one-to-one guidance sessions. Find out more about the Service.

Further study

Progression to a postgraduate course is dependent on successful completion of your undergraduate studies, there may also be minimum qualification requirements such as a first class or higher second (2.1) degree. Please check the course details to confirm this.

We've got a huge range of postgraduate courses.

Inspiring Graduate

I completed two very different placements. One at the Women’s Centre where I developed my counselling skills and personal attributes, as well as contributed to a team and shared content ideas for sessions. This helped give me confidence in the ideas and knowledge that I had. I also worked with a social enterprise organisation, where a small team were given the opportunity to create a project with a budget to implement in the local community. Being able to create and implement a project I had worked on and to see it running was a great feeling. This gave me experience and skills in working towards tight deadlines and prioritising tasks.

My lecturers and tutors were so helpful, they went above and beyond to help. From guidance to having one-to-one support on coursework. One of my most memorable moments from my time at University was meeting new people and friends from different cultures and backgrounds.

Nazia Rahman - Choudhry, Health and Social Care graduate

Nazia Rahman-Choudhry, graduated Health and Social Care BSc(Hons) in 2021 and is now working at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

Career support

We've got a huge range of postgraduate courses.

I completed two very different placements. One at the Women’s Centre where I developed my counselling skills and personal attributes, as well as contributed to a team and shared content ideas for sessions. This helped give me confidence in the ideas and knowledge that I had. I also worked with a social enterprise organisation, where a small team were given the opportunity to create a project with a budget to implement in the local community. Being able to create and implement a project I had worked on and to see it running was a great feeling. This gave me experience and skills in working towards tight deadlines and prioritising tasks.

My lecturers and tutors were so helpful, they went above and beyond to help. From guidance to having one-to-one support on coursework. One of my most memorable moments from my time at University was meeting new people and friends from different cultures and backgrounds.

Nazia Rahman-Choudhry, graduated Health and Social Care BSc(Hons) in 2021 and is now working at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

Student support

At the University of Huddersfield, you'll find support networks and services to help you get ahead in your studies and social life. Whether you study at undergraduate or postgraduate level, you'll soon discover that you're never far away from our dedicated staff and resources to help you to navigate through your personal student journey. Find out more about all our support services.

A wide range of resources are also offered within the School of Human and Health Sciences, which provides you with support in a variety of areas. These include:

Student Hub: a one stop shop for students, studying within the School. Their services include offering advice on extenuating circumstances, extension requests, course progression, suspension and welfare support, organising appointments with academic staff and signposting to other support networks.

Academic Skills Development Team: support students to develop their academic skills and build their confidence in order to improve their grades. The team provide support with academic skills including essay writing, being critical, reflective writing, numeracy, research skills, presentations and group work skills; as well as personal development for example time management.

Learning Technology Support Unit: helps students with any problems they experience with the University’s Brightspace Learning System, including logging on or difficulties experienced when accessing and using modules, and with the PebblePad platform, which is used by students when they go out on placements.

Fees and Finance

Tuition Fees - full-time

The full-time undergraduate tuition fee for 2024/25 entry will be £9250.

Tuition fees will cover the cost of your study at the University as well as charges for registration, tuition, supervision and examinations. For more information about funding, fees and finance for UK students, including what your tuition fee covers, please see Fees and finance.

If you are an EU or international student coming to study at the University of Huddersfield, please visit the International Fees and Finance pages for full details of tuition fees and support available.

Please email the Student Finance Office or call 01484 472210 for more information about fees and finance.

Fees and Finance

Tuition Fees - full-time

The full-time undergraduate tuition fee for 2024/25 entry will be £9250.

Please email the Student Finance Office or call 01484 472210 for more information about fees and finance.

Important information

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

When you enrol as a student of the University, your study and time with us will be governed by our terms and conditions, Handbook of Regulations and associated policies. It is important that you familiarise yourself with these as you will be asked to agree to them when you join us as a student. You will find a guide to the key terms here, along with the Student Protection Plan.

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

Changes to a course you have applied for but are not yet enrolled on

If we propose to make a major change to a course that you are holding an offer for, then we will tell you as soon as possible so that you can decide whether to withdraw your application prior to enrolment. We may occasionally have to withdraw a course you have applied for or combine your programme with another programme if we consider this reasonably necessary to ensure a good student experience, for example if there are not enough applicants. Where this is the case we will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and we will discuss with you other suitable courses we can transfer your application to. If you do not wish to transfer to another course with us, you may cancel your application and we will refund you any deposits or fees you have paid to us.

Changes to your course after you enrol as a student

Changes to option modules:

Where your course allows you to choose modules from a range of options, we will review these each year and change them to reflect the expertise of our staff, current trends in research and as a result of student feedback or demand for certain modules. We will always ensure that you have an equivalent range of options to that advertised for the course. We will let you know in good time the options available for you to choose for the following year.

Major changes:

We will only make major changes to non-optional modules on a course if it is necessary for us to do so and provided such changes are reasonable. A major change is a change that substantially changes the outcomes, or a significant part of your course, such as the nature of the award or a substantial change to module content, teaching days (part time provision), type of delivery or assessment of the core curriculum. For example, it may be necessary to make a major change to reflect changes in the law or the requirements of the University’s regulators or a commissioning or accrediting body. We may also make changes to improve the course in response to student, examiners’ or other course evaluators’ feedback or to ensure you are being taught current best practice. Major changes may also be necessary because of circumstances outside our reasonable control, such as a key member of staff leaving the University or being unable to teach, where they have a particular specialism that can’t be adequately covered by other members of staff; or due to damage or interruption to buildings, facilities or equipment, or pandemics.

Major changes would usually be made with effect from the next academic year, but may happen sooner in an emergency. We will notify you as soon as possible should we need to make a major change and will carry out suitable consultation. If you reasonably believe that the proposed change will cause you detriment or hardship we will, if appropriate, work with you to try to reduce the adverse effect on you or find an appropriate solution. Where an appropriate solution cannot be found and you contact us in writing before the change takes effect you can cancel your registration and withdraw from the University without liability to the University for future tuition fees. We will provide reasonable support to assist you with transferring to another university if you wish to do so.

In exceptional circumstances, we may, for reasons outside of our control, be forced to discontinue or suspend your course. Where this is the case, a formal exit strategy will be followed in accordance with the student protection plan.

The Office for Students (OfS) is the principal regulator for the University.

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View more courses

Start date

Duration

About the course

Reasons to study

Why study Health and Social Care BSc(Hons)

Course detail

Introduction to Law and Social Policy

Social Science and Professional Practice

Understanding Health and Social Care

Working Together with Service Users and Carers

Assessing Community Needs and Developing Resources

Leadership in Health and Community Settings

Research Methods and Skills

Social Care Interventions

Assessment and Care Planning

International Health and Social Development

Work Placement and Reflection

Applied Law

Think Family and Strength Based Approaches

Entry requirements

Placements

Facilities

Your career

Career support

Student support

Fees and Finance

Fees and Finance

Important information

Changes to a course you have applied for but are not yet enrolled on

Changes to your course after you enrol as a student

Changes to option modules:

Major changes:

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