Health and social care

In the UK, Health and Social Care (often abbreviated to HSC or H&SC) is a term that relates to services that are available from health and social care providers. This is a generic term used to refer to the whole of the healthcare provision infrastructure, public and private sector. The English national provider of information about health and social care is the Health and Social Care Information Centre HSCIC. It can also refer to a range of vocational and academic courses which can be taken at various academic and vocational levels from GNVQ, A-Level, S/NVQ, to degrees. In Canada and the United-States, health and social care is frequently referred to as "Human Services"

As a subject discipline, Health and Social Care (H&SC) combines elements of sociology, biology, nutrition, law, and ethics. Typically, students of Health and Social Care will have a work placement alongside their academic studies; such a placement may take place in a nursery, residential home, hospital, or other caring establishment. Others may take a health and social care course as a route to further qualifications hoping that it will lead to employment within the sector.

Depending on their qualification, students may start off as care assistants and develop care pathways to become doctors, nurses, social workers, physiotherapists, counsellors, psychotherapists, Paramedics or a range of other related occupations.

H&SC can be studied in schools and colleges from Key Stage 4/GCSE Level (age 14-16), Colleges and can also be studied in some universities.

The subject content of H&SC is vast, and will vary depending upon the level at which it is being studied, and the individual qualification. Most students of H&SC will cover areas such as:

The biological aspect of H&SC is vital: with many careers it will form the most important area of their knowledge. Students need to be aware of how people grow and develop physically, and they may also be required to study a range of illnesses and treatments.

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