Managing care
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| 6 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) | |
| Examination | No residential school |
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This course is available for study in the countries shown. Fees may vary by country.
Summary
Managing care is for people who have – or would like to learn about – frontline management roles in a wide range of health and social care settings. It provides the knowledge, skills and analytical tools needed to become an effective manager who is able to use evidence-based strategies for good outcomes for service users. The course provides an overview of the organisational, legal and policy contexts within which managers are operating, and examines in particular the impact of working with partners in order to integrate health and social care provision, exploring the implications for managers. You are encouraged throughout the course to apply your learning to your own experience.
Course content
“The course provided room for creative thinking. The topics covered especially those that dealt with leadership, vision, protection, mistakes and challenges, highlighted issues usually taken for granted.”
Comment from a K303 student
There are many challenges for managers in the current contexts of changing and expanding provision, governmental requirements for integrated partnership working that cross traditional health and social care organisational boundaries, and emphasis on best value and quality. This course will help you to get to grips with this changing world, to improve your knowledge and skills and to understand what makes an effective manager. It will help managers when they are using electronic records and other information technology.
In Scotland, successful completion of K303, together with a relevant professional qualification, such as nursing, social work, childcare or education, will help you to meet registration requirements for managers in residential care (adults or children and young people) or day care (adults or early years). See the Scottish Social Services Council website for registration requirements. In England and Wales, registration requirements can be met through successful completion of Leadership and Management for Care NVQ Level 4, together with a relevant professional qualification or NVQ Level 4 in Health and Social Care. K303 provides very relevant underpinning knowledge for the NVQ awards, which require separate registration.
Successful completion of this course will enable you to:
- appreciate the importance of the views of service users and carers in all aspects of health and social care management
- understand and critically discuss key values that underpin the activity of the frontline manager in different contexts of care
- have an overview of current legal, policy and organisational contexts
- critically appraise key theories and research relevant to the management of organisations, staff teams, practice and individuals
- reflect on and critically discuss how managers might be more effective and show leadership for change
- explore strategies for working in partnership across agency boundaries for the benefit of service users
- develop skills in key areas of management such as effective communications, supporting evidence-based practice, integrated service provision, information, budgeting, preparing reports, team building, managing transitions and loss, protection, safeguarding welfare and promoting others’ professional development.
The teaching is through two learning guides, revised in 2008, that introduce readings from two main textbooks and a course reader. Skills are developed through activities using audio CDs, a DVD and a CD-ROM, the latter presenting a case study and interactive exercises. As you work through the course, you will develop information technology skills in handling and analysing data using web resources and CD-ROMs. There are opportunities to discuss your learning with other students via online forums and tutorials.
The course is in two equal parts that correspond to the two textbooks and their associated materials and activities.
Learning Guide 1 examines how policy, practice and organisational contexts affect managers. It explores the diversity and complexity of the management task, and the role of the manager in providing ethical care grounded in good practice. There are three blocks of study:
Practice, policy and the law explores what managing to care and to promote social inclusion involves. It reviews what service users say about services, and the manager’s role in consulting users and incorporating views into acceptable outcomes. The effect on managers of a changing social policy environment and ‘managerialism’ is examined, and we introduce key legal concepts that affect the management task.
The contexts of care looks at the manager and the organisation, and how managers can work with different organisational structures and cultures. We explore relationships between people, the places where care takes place, quality, and professional and managerial identity.
People in social care draws on theories of understanding people, and examines ethical managerial practice and dilemmas. We debate the role of the manager in achieving good outcomes for individuals, services and the public; the block ends by considering the relevance of trends in the management of care over the last century for today’s manager, and prospects for the future.
Learning Guide 2 helps managers to define the knowledge and build the skills for managing people and resources to meet the challenges of organising effective care provision. There are three blocks of study:
Managing with knowledge and a vision looks at building on practice skills in the move to a management role, and the challenges of managing the team. What is leadership, and how do you introduce and respond to change?
Managing services for people argues that managers need to base their decisions on evidence and to encourage ‘research-mindedness’ in their teams. It explores working across agency and professional boundaries. Managers have to use and share information ethically, and to make good use of budgets in their control.
Managing learning and development in the team looks at the manager’s role in protection and managing risk, while promoting well-being. This leads on to dealing with, and learning from, mistakes and complaints. We review the effects of loss and life events on those who work with vulnerable people, together with the role of managers in providing effective supervision and helping individuals with their professional development.
Entry
This is a Level 3 course. Level 3 courses build on study skills and subject knowledge acquired from studies at Levels 1 and 2. They are intended only for students who have recent experience of higher education in a related subject, preferably with the OU. If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
Preparatory work
You will receive guidance on how to get started online in your first course mailing. This will provide you with information on using your computer for OU study and working with the Computing Guide. For example, it explains how to access and use your course website and online discussion forums. If you have time before the course starts, you can work through this and explore all the online services available to you.
Qualifications
We can award a Certificate in Managing Care (C42) on completion.
K303 is an optional course in our
- BA/BSc (Honours) Health and Social Care (B18)
- Shortened BA/BSc (Honours) Health and Social Care (B22)
- BA/BSc (Honours) Health Studies (B17)
- BA (Honours) Social Work (England) (B32)
- BA (Honours) Social Work (Scotland) (B41)
- BA (Honours) Social Work (Wales) (B42)
- BA/BSc (Honours) Social Sciences (B06)
- BA (Honours) Childhood and Youth Studies (B23) *
- BA/BSc (Honours) Nursing Studies (B47)
- BA (Honours) Social Work (Scotland) (B50) (graduate entry route)
- BA (Honours) Social Work Studies (B59)
* Please note that you can count K303 to the BA (Hons) Childhood and Youth Studies (B23) as a Level 3 option towards this degree provided you complete by 31 December 2010. After 2010 this course can only be counted as the 60-point free course choice.
It can also count towards most of our other degrees at bachelors level, where it is equally appropriate to a BA or BSc. We advise you to refer to the relevant qualification descriptions for information on the circumstances in which this course can count towards these qualifications because from time to time the structure and requirements may change.
Excluded combinations
Sometimes you will not be able to count a course towards a qualification if you have already taken another course with similar content. To check any excluded combinations relating to this course, visit our excluded combination finder or check with our Student Registration & Enquiry Service before registering.
If you have a disability or additional requirement
Written transcripts of any audio components and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) versions of printed material are available. Some Adobe PDF components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader. Large print versions of the course materials can be provided on request. Other alternative formats of the course materials may be available in the future. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.
If you are a new student, or new to courses using a computer or the internet, you will need to inform us of your particular needs as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Details of how to do this and our range of support services are described in our booklet Meeting Your Needs which you can download or request from our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
You can also find information about accessible course materials, financial support and the Disabled Students' Allowance, equipment and other services, on our Services for disabled students website. It also includes our contact details for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.
Course materials
What's included
Course books, other printed materials, audio CDs, DVD and CD-ROM. You will have access to a course website through which teaching and library resources are available. Electronic versions of most of the printed course materials are provided on the course website.
You will need
A DVD player and a CD player.
The audio-visual components of this course are delivered on a DVD that will play on a standard DVD player and television. If you want to view this on a computer, it will need a DVD-ROM drive and software for viewing DVDs. The CD-ROM can only be viewed on a PC.
Computing requirements
This course includes online computer activities – you can access these using a web browser that can play Flash and Shockwave. Some of your course software will be provided on disk.
You will need internet access and a computer. If you have purchased a new Windows computer since 2002 it should meet your course computing requirements. Check our Technical Requirements section if your computer is older than this or is otherwise unusual. Please note that you can use an Apple Mac or Linux computer if you can run Windows using Boot Camp or similar.
Materials to buy
Set books
- Reynolds, J (ed) The Managing Care Reader, Routledge £24.99 - ISBN 9780415297899
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
You will have a tutor who will help you with the course material and mark and comment on your written work, and whom you can ask for advice and guidance. You will be able to discuss the course via an online forum. We may also be able to offer group tutorials or day schools that you are encouraged to attend. Where your tutorials are held will depend on the distribution of students taking the course. Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.
Assessment
The assessment details for this course can be found in the facts box above.
You can choose whether to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) on paper or online through the eTMA system. You may want to use the eTMA system for some of your assignments but submit on paper for others. This is entirely your choice.
Assessment is an essential part of the teaching, so you are expected to complete it all. But if you unavoidably miss or do badly in an assignment, some courses allow you a ‘substitution score’. You will be given more detailed information when you begin the course.
Students also studied
Students who studied this course also studied at some time:
Future availability
The details given here are for the course that starts in October 2009 and February 2010. We expect it to be available twice a year in February and October.
How to register
To register a place on this course return to the top of the page and use the Click to register button. For more information and advice about registration see OU Study Explained.
About this page
An undergraduate course in Health and Social Care.
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Student Reviews
The course material was good and comprehensive. This course requires a lot of reading and some practical skills too. I ...
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I found this course really challenging. The TMAs were quite challenging and very indepth but very concurrent to what the ...
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