HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE NVQS

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NVQs in Health and Social Care are the required qualifications for people who work with children, young people or adults in residential care settings. The NVQs we are offer are:

• Health and Social Care NVQ Level 2
  This is the course for people starting to work in residential care. You will usually be delivering care under the direction of a colleague.
• Health and Social Care NVQ Level 3
  This Level 3 course is suitable for people working in a residential care environment who have some responsibility for other care assistants. There are options for those working with adults or with children and young people.
• Leadership and Management NVQ Level 4
  This is a Level 4 designed for people who have a substantial amount of experience of working in residential care and who now are starting to take on management where they work. The Leadership and Management Course is a mix of care practice and management skills.

How you will learn and be assessed:

NVQs are about your skills and knowledge to do a job. You will be assessed whilst doing your job where you work. You will be supported by an experienced assessor. Your assessor will visit you regularly throughout your course. You will be assessed against a set of nationally agreed standards and need to show you are competent in a number of units (the number depends on the level of your NVQ). During the course you will gain greater knowledge of the work of being a carer through support from your assessor and from your colleagues where you work.

At great deal of the evidence for your portfolio will be assessed by observing you doing your job. This will be supported by a range of other types of evidence including your assessor asking your planned questions about your work. Your assessor will show you what you need to do to gather the evidence for your portfolio.

The benefits of doing an NVQ:

As an employee you will benefit from:

• A clearer understanding of your responsibility within the organisation
• The opportunity to develop new skills
• The recognition of existing skills

Employers will benefit from:

• Improved staff performance and motivation
• Improvements in the quality of service to clients
• The opportunity to ensure levels of care are to national standard

Time commitment:

You will need to make time each week for gathering evidence; your assessor will show you how to do this. Your assessment in the workplace will be agreed with you and your employer. It is difficult to be precise about how much time this will be, but it could be up to five hours a week. It is essential that you are able to commit time regularly. Most NVQs can be completed in 9 months from when you start meeting with your assessor. TheLeadership and ManagementNVQmay take a few months longer to complete.

Want to find out more?

The co-ordinator for Health and Social Care is Paula King. Contact Paula at the ACE Centre on 01962-886166 or email pking@psc.ac.uk to arrange an interview.