Introduction to social care

What you will study

Throughout this course, you’ll learn about the nature of care provided to adults and children with differing support needs, including people with physical and learning disabilities, mental health problems, and older people. Practical exercises will help you to apply your new knowledge, and the social learning approach will empower you to further enhance and reflect on your understanding by sharing your thoughts and opinions with co-learners.

Delivered over three easy-to-digest sections, you will cover:

1: What is social care?

• The purposes of social care and the services provided
• The underpinning principles of person-centred social care
• How the specific needs of the diverse range of social care service users are met by social care
• The diverse range of service providers
• The current challenges in providing good quality, person-centred care

2: Working in social care

• What do social care workers do?
• Who uses social care workers’ services?
• The essential communication skills for social care workers
• The practice of person-centred care
• The principles underpinning safeguarding and professional boundaries
• Career development opportunities in social care

3: Understanding informal care

• What informal care is and why do it
• The essential day-to-day activities supported by informal carers
• The diversity of the people who take on caring responsibilities and how these responsibilities shape their lives
• The importance of declaring caring status and why some carers remain ‘hidden’
• What support is available to informal carers and how is eligibility determined

Please note: the content in this course also features in courses created by The Open University, which are available on FutureLearn.

You will learn

By the end of this course, you’ll have the skills to:

• identify the guiding practices in professional care and their differences from the activities and experiences of unpaid carers
• reflect on the experiences of social care from your own and others’ perspectives
• apply underpinning principles and values used in social care to understand and critique practice situations
• discuss the relevance of person-centred values to the conduct required of professional care workers
• describe the context in which social care takes place.

Vocational relevance

Whether you aspire to work in social care or have a personal interest or responsibility for caring for others, this course can help you increase your knowledge, achieve your learning goals and make a difference.

The learning materials have been designed and created by leading academics and practitioners who have delivered world-class learning in this field for more than 30 years. The OU is one of the largest and most innovative learning providers in the health and social care sector, working with employers, including the National Health Service (NHS), social services, and the voluntary sector.

Teaching and assessment

Assessment

This online course is delivered via social learning and includes video, audio and written tutorials. You can learn at your own pace with complete flexibility. Throughout the course, you will be asked to respond to questions, reflect on your experiences and learning, and carry out short exercises to help you develop your understanding.

At the end of each section, you will be asked to answer a set of multiple-choice questions to test your knowledge. You can attempt these as often as you need to. It is important to complete them because they count towards your final score.

To receive a Certificate of Completion, you will need to complete every section and achieve at least 70% in all tests.

Regulations