Social worker holding a clipboard and speaking with a client.

Year of study

2025

Key details

Start date(s)
September 2025
Location
Main Campus (Horsforth)
School
Sport and Wellbeing
UCAS tariff points
48
Study Mode
Full-time (4 years)
Study abroad
Yes

Would you like a professional career in health and social care, working to tackle health inequalities and advocate good health outcomes for users of health-related services?

This contemporary and exciting Health and Social Care degree explores the inherent links between health and wellbeing as well as the issues shaping the healthcare agenda nationally and globally.

On this course, you’ll study key themes including psychological interventions and alternative therapies, social prescribing for diverse community groups, multi-agency working, managing long-term conditions and developing leadership and enterprise in healthcare settings.

This four-year course includes an initial full-time Foundation Year and offers an alternative route into university and gaining a degree.

This route is for you if you do not have the necessary qualifications or don’t yet feel ready to begin degree-level study, or are returning to education and would like some support to get up to speed with learning in a university setting.

The Foundation Year in Health will allow you to develop your academic skills and confidence as well as introduce you to key concepts, debates and skills that will support and inform your subsequent years of undergraduate study.

Following successful completion of your Foundation Year, you’ll progress onto Year 1 of our Health and Social Care BSc (Hons) degree.

The Student Contract

About this course

During your Foundation Year, you will undertake modules to enable you to enhance your academic skills and equip you with the tools you’ll need to study with confidence. You’ll carry out a personal project so you can study an area of interest related to your chosen future subject specialisation.

You'll explore the concept of holistic care and how the study of human biology, psychology and sociology contribute to understanding how individuals, families and communities can achieve wellness. You'll investigate the role exercise plays in health from a multi-disciplinary perspective, exploring theories including health and wellbeing, behaviour change and working with clients.

Following successful completion of the Foundation Year, you’ll progress onto the first year of our Health and Social Care BSc (Hons) degree.

You’ll examine health and social care from national and global perspectives considering cultural values and beliefs, enabling you to deliver compassionate, high quality and inclusive care and services for individuals, families and communities. 

Your lecturers will use their up-to-date practitioner and research experience to help you develop a high level of theoretical knowledge and practical know how.  

Subject specific skills and the importance of cultural competence, social justice, adherence to relevant legislation and professional standards will be evident throughout all levels of your study. 

Professional work placements, which form an integral part of your degree, will give you the chance to gain experience in multiple health and social care settings and there are opportunities to study, work or volunteer overseas during your course.  

You’ll be encouraged to deepen your knowledge with additional qualifications and training to gain recognition for professional competencies such as social prescribing, addiction recovery support, disability support, safeguarding children and adults, and cultural competency awareness. We will support you to undertake professional work placements in these areas to ensure you are confident in embedding these skills in your own practice in preparation for your future career.

The applied nature of this degree means you’ll graduate with the knowledge, skills and experience needed for professional practice and that employers in this growing sector are looking for. 

Why study with us?

  • Build your self-confidence, academic skills and core subject knowledge in preparation for progression onto degree-level study.
  • Learn and be assessed on the key practice-based skills required for graduate employment in health and social care.  
  • Gain extensive professional experience by completing professional work placements in settings that reflect new and exciting roles in the sector.
  • Develop the theoretical knowledge and practical skills needed by employers in order to deliver safe, dignified, compassionate and person-centred care.
  • Opportunities to gain recognised training in core competencies embedded across the programme to help prepare you for practice in health and community care settings.
Two students using phone.

Course modules

You will study a variety of modules across your programme of study. The module details given below are subject to change and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

Foundation Year

During your Foundation Year, you'll study four core modules.

Academic Skills and Studying with Confidence - Core

We'll help you develop core academic skills such as using electronic resources, planning and note-taking, communication skills related to essay and report writing and delivering presentations.

You'll learn to manage your time, prioritise tasks and manage stress, and become more confident in engaging with collaborative learning, debates, discussions and critical reflection.

Project - Core

Study areas of interest related to your chosen future academic specialisation in this highly personalised module.

You'll have 25 hours of workshop tuition to explore how you will be assessed and the form your project could take, which could be a written report, a presentation, a film or a series of blog posts.

You'll also explore topics your project could focus on, and get peer assessment of your ideas.

In the first semester, you'll get support through personal tutoring and learning hub liaison.

You'll also explore careers and employability pathways in sport and health with the Graduate Recruitment Team and the School of Health, Sport and Life Sciences.

In the second semester, you'll produce your negotiated assessment, focussing on existing academic literature and other secondary sources.

You won't undertake primary empirical research.

Introduction to Health and Social Care Practice - Core

You'll be introduced to the concept of holistic care and how the study of human biology, psychology and sociology contributes to understanding how individuals, families and communities can achieve wellbeing and how barriers such as inequality and social injustic can affect positive health outcomes.

Examine your own professional identity and the professional characteristics and values set out in codes of conduct, developing an understanding of key concepts such as duty of care, accountability and ethical implications.

You'll study the importance of interventions including safeguarding, personalised care, equality and diversity and effective communication will be applied through case study examples to promote an appreciation of how inclusive practice is delivered in health and social care.

Promoting Exercise, Physical Activity and Health - Core

Study multi-disciplinary perspectives of the role of exercise and physical activity with the context of health. You'll gain knowledge on the basic key theories such as health and wellbeing, behaviour change, health and safety, intervention design and working with clients through a range of activities.

You'll build your knowledge through a combination of interactive lectures and workshops as well as in practical settings which may include lab sessions, field-based activities and practical workshops.

Year 1

During your first year, you'll study four core modules.

Psychological Perspectives on Health and Wellbeing - Core

Get an introduction to psychological factors that influence health and wellbeing, such as lifestyle, personality, mental health, motivation and risk-taking.

You'll make links between major psychological theories, concepts and models, applying these to health promotion, prevention and treatment of disease and illness.

You'll develop knowledge and understanding of how people react to, cope with, and recover from illness.

You'll look at cognitive processes, behavioural insights, behaviour change and self-management.

You'll also consider the importance of health literacy, digital health technology and personalised care on self-management of health and wellbeing.

Social Influences on Health and Wellbeing - Core

Explore social determinants of health and influencing factors, such as gender, culture, education, poverty, and employment.

You'll investigate the causes and effects of inequalities in health and social care for minority groups, vulnerable adults and ageing populations, including how this may change across the lifespan and within communities.

You'll examine national and international policy responses to address social injustice and how health data can inform our understanding.

You'll consider how sociological theories and concepts such as social conflict theory, feminism, symbolic interactionism and functionalism influence the wider determinants of health within individuals and communities.

Supporting People with Long-term Conditions - Core

You'll look at long-term conditions (LTC) including stroke, heart disease, kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia and respiratory disease.

We'll cover the body systems of the main conditions, aetiology, pathology, risk factors/lifestyle, treatment, and self-management strategies.

We'll focus on public health prevention such as NHS Health Check screening, and strategies to reduce health inequalities in vulnerable groups.

We'll cover interventions such as shared decision-making, supported self-management, living well with LTC, patient activation, social prescribing and improving health literacy.

You'll learn about using health intelligence and data to understand the incidence and prevalence of LTC, such as morbidity and mortality rates.

Developing Values and Principles of Health and Social Care Practice - Core

We'll cover the core values and principles you need to deliver safe, high quality and compassionate care to individuals, families and communities.

These include accountability, the duty of care, codes of conduct, safeguarding, ethical practice, social justice, personalised care and professional identity.

You'll look at the skills required for professional practice including reflective practice, effective communication, supporting equality and diversity, quality assurance, and team and multi-agency working.

We'll cover the influence of policy and legal frameworks on social welfare and contemporary service delivery.

You'll complete the knowledge competencies of the fifteen Standards of the Care Certificate.

The skills competencies can be achieved on work placement during the Professional Development Block at the end of Semester 2.

Both knowledge and skills competency achievements are required to gain the full Care Certificate award.

Year 2

During your second year, you'll study five core modules.

Applying Health and Social Care Policy, Ethics and Law - Core

We'll cover contemporary health and social care policy and legislation from an international, national and regional socio-political perspective.

You'll evaluate how policy and legislation impacts access to and development of service provision, as well as its effectiveness in improving health and social care outcomes.

You'll investigate equality and diversity, human rights, safeguarding, criminal justice, Mental Health and Mental Capacity Acts considering the role of culture, advocacy, choice and empowerment.

You'll explore theories and concepts of ethics using case studies, discussing how to respond to ethical dilemmas in health and social care practice.

Multi-Agency Working - Core

We'll introduce concepts of leadership to the multi-professional integrated workforce involved in building a health, educational and welfare team around the child.

We'll focus on working in partnership with parents as children's first educators, supporting the home learning environment, and listening to and working in collaboration with young children.

You'll consider approaches to leadership and the impact of leadership on team working.

You'll explore the challenges and constraints around multi-agency working and appraise the benefits to the child, family and society in the context of cultural differences, ethical approaches and social justice.

You'll look at the way professionals within education, social care and other sectors, work together for the benefit of children and families.

Professional Placement - Core

There are three stages to the module - preparation, work placement and reflection.

You'll have workshops to develop your employability skills, analyse your career prospects and go through the practicalities of getting and undertaking a professional placement.

You'll complete a short weekly reflective log reflecting upon the practical skills gained through your placement experience and what you have learnt about applying theoretical understanding in practice.

Research Methods and Evidence Based Practice - Core

Explore a series of research methods, including their key features, usefulness and application in different contexts.

You'll critically examine research methodologies, with an emphasis on ethical research conduct.

You'll evaluate the usefulness of research methodologies to explore specific research questions, problems and designs.

You'll reflect on ethical issues relating to children, families, communities and professional settings.

You'll understand how to design, conduct and write up research, and understand the relationship between research, policy and practice.

Personalised Care and Social Prescribing - Core

We'll cover principles and practice of personalised care, including the holistic provision of care, assessment and support planning for individuals and communities.

You'll look a the role of social prescribing as a fundamental intervention for the universal model of personalised care.

You'll develop skills in strengths-based approaches, motivational interviewing, health literacy, shared decision-making, supported self-management, advocacy, restorative practice, behaviour change and cultural competence.

You'll critically review integrated care systems and interdisciplinary work to engage communities to improve their health and wellbeing, taking account of the role of a social prescriber.

Year 3

During your final year, you'll study four core modules.

Professional Learning Through Work In Health, Social Care and Community Settings - Core

You’ll develop, negotiate and complete a collaborative work-based learning project and apply the theoretical understanding you have acquired in your studies so far into a practical setting related to health, care and community settings.

You’ll take ownership of your learning through the independent designing, brokering, negotiating, completing and evaluating of your collaborative work-based learning project.

Difficulties Families Face with Therapeutic Interventions - Core

Explore problems contemporary families may face and the service support available locally and nationally, focussing on parental empowerment.

You'll critique the role of the government and the conflict between family rights and state intervention.

We'll then look at therapeutic support for families.

You'll study therapeutic interventions and associated theoretical approaches.

You'll make links between theory and practice, looking at research from national and international perspectives.

Mental Health, Resilience and Recovery Across the Life-course - Core

Explore contemporary issues in mental health and wellbeing across the life-course through the lens of positive psychology.

You'll apply strengths-based approaches focusing on interventions to support service users’ resilience and recovery.

You'll use health data to investigate the epidemiology of mental health problems across the life-course and critically analyse international, national and regional policy responses to service delivery, focussing on public mental health and prevention.

We'll use case studies to explore assessment and care planning, risk management, cultural diversity, mental health literacy, mindfulness and how social determinants affect inequalities in mental health and wellbeing.

Independent Project - Core

Showcase your integrated learning with an independent project relevant to your course and interests.

You'll have tutorials to help you work out the format and focus of your project.

You'll have formative assessment points to act as stepping stones towards completion.

The module will culminate in an assessment event where you'll present work in a negotiated format.

Professional work placements

Experience matters. That's why we embed professional work placements within the majority of our standard undergraduate degrees.

How does it work?

Careers and Placements will work with you to find a placement or help you to arrange your own, whether that's in Leeds, another part of the UK or even abroad. You will be able to take part in a series of workshops, events and live ‘employer challenges’ to boost your confidence and prepare you for your placement.

During your placement, you could have an opportunity to gain degree-relevant work experience, build your knowledge of career sectors and secure valuable employer references and industry contacts. This experience will help you to shape your career decisions and find the right path for you.

Our students have completed placements in facilities that provide residential care for adults and older adults, with youth work teams, in the NHS, in children's and family centres, and with charities and non-government agencies. You may also choose to explore career pathways in primary care outside of traditional clinical roles, including social prescribing, public health, community development and digital health enterprise.

To find out how we can help you make your career ambitions a reality, visit:

Professional Work Placements

Learning and teaching

Assessment

A variety of assessment methods are used, matched to the learning outcomes for your programme, allowing you to apply and demonstrate the full range of knowledge and skills that you have developed.

For more details on specific assessment methods for this course contact hello@leedstrinity.ac.uk

Programme delivery

Your time on campus, learning through in-person teaching, is at the heart of your academic experience and the way we deliver our programmes. This is supported and further enhanced by additional engagement activities and opportunities provided online and through digital teaching materials. This blended approach seeks to ensure a positive learning and teaching student experience.

Your programme of study has been carefully designed around a three-phase model of delivery:

  1. Preparation: You will be given clear tasks to support you in preparing for live teaching. This could include watching a short-pre-recorded lecture, reading a paper or text chapter or preparing other material for use in class.
  2. Live: All your live teaching will be designed around active learning, providing you with valuable opportunities to build on preparation tasks, interact with staff and peers, and surface any misunderstandings.
  3. Post: Follow-up activities will include opportunities for you to check understanding, for staff to receive feedback from you and your peers to inform subsequent sessions, and for you to apply learning to new situations or context.

Preparation, Live and Post teaching and learning and the digital materials used will vary by course, but will be designed to help you structure your learning, take a full and active part in your course, and apply and test your developing knowledge and skills.

Learning and teaching

At Leeds Trinity we aim to provide an excellent student experience and provide you with the tools and support to help you achieve your academic, personal and professional potential.

Our Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy delivers excellence by providing the framework for:

  • high quality teaching
  • an engaging and inclusive approach to learning, assessment and achievement
  • a clear structure through which you progress in your academic studies, your personal development and towards professional-level employment or further study.

We have a strong reputation for developing student employability, supporting your development towards graduate employment, with relevant skills embedded throughout your programme of study.

We endeavour to develop curiosity, confidence, courage, ambition and aspiration in all students through the key themes in our Learning and Teaching Strategy:

  • Student Involvement and Engagement
  • Inclusion
  • Integrated Programme and Assessment Experience
  • Digital Literacy and Skills
  • Employability and Enterprise

To help you achieve your potential we emphasise learning as a collaborative process, with a range of student-led and real-world activities. This approach ensures that you fully engage in shaping your own learning, developing your critical thinking and reflective skills so that you can identify your own strengths and weaknesses, and use the extensive learning support system we offer to shape your own development.

We believe the secret to great learning and teaching is simple: it is about creating an inclusive learning experience that allows all students to thrive through:

  • Personalised support
  • Expert lecturers
  • Strong connections with employers
  • An international outlook
  • Understanding how to use tools and technology to support learning and development

Entry requirements

Leeds Trinity University is committed to recruiting students with talent and potential and who we feel will benefit greatly from their academic and non-academic experiences here. We treat every application on its own merits; we value highly the experience you illustrate in your personal statement.

Information about the large range of qualifications we accept, including A-Levels, BTECs and T Levels, can be found on our entry requirements page. If you need additional advice or are taking qualifications that are not covered in the information supplied, please contact our Admissions Office.

Entry requirements for this course:
QualificationGrade
UCAS tariff48
GCSE requirementsGCSE English Language at grade C/4 or above

Applications are welcome from mature students with few formal qualifications.

Any previous relevant work experience and learning will be assessed and, where appropriate, we may offer an alternative way to assess suitability to study.

This course is not available to students on a Student Route Visa.

Fees and finance

UK Home fees £9,250 per year
Full-time

Funding

UK Home Students:

Tuition fees cost £9,250 a year for this course in 2023/2024.

Part-time tuition fees will be prorated accordingly to the number of credits you're studying.

Depending on government policy, tuition fees may change in future years.

Living costs, e.g. accommodation, travel, food, will also need to be taken into consideration.

Leeds Trinity offers a range of bursaries and scholarships to help support students while you study.

Additional costs

We advise students that there may be additional course costs in addition to annual tuition fees. These include:

  • Books - recommended and required reading lists will be provided at the start of your course. All the books and e-books are available from our Library to borrow but you may choose to purchase your own.
  • Print costs - the University provides students with a £6 printing credit each academic year which can be topped up either on campus or online.

How to apply

For full-time undergraduate courses, you apply through UCAS. That's the University and Colleges Admissions Service.

On your application form, you'll need to know our institution code - it's L24 - and the course code. If you click through to the UCAS website using the button below, it'll take you to the right place with all the information you need.

You'll need to write a personal statement - we've prepared a guide to help you.

Applications are now open for courses starting in September 2025. The UCAS application deadline for courses starting in September 2025 is 29 January 2025.

There's lots more information about the application process on the UCAS website, or you can get in touch with our admissions team who will be happy to help:

This course is not available to students on a Student Route Visa.

Graduate opportunities

Providing you with the opportunity to develop the professional skills and experience you need to launch your career is at the heart of everything we do at Leeds Trinity University.

The currency and contemporary curriculum of this course will prepare you for a rewarding career in areas including public health, frontline digital health specialisms, community development, health commissioning, health and justice, and psychological wellbeing practice. Progression opportunities also exist on a range of relevant health or social care graduate schemes as well as in postgraduate clinical and non-clinical roles.

After you graduate, Careers and Placements will help you as you pursue your chosen career through our mentoring scheme, support with CV and interview preparation and access to graduate employability events.

To find out how we can help you make your career ambitions a reality, visit:

Careers

Meet the team

Children, Young People and Families Amanda Jefferson
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Children, Young People and Families Sarah Flanagan
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Sport, Health and Physical Education Vicky Hunter
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Discover Uni is the official, authoritative source of information and guidance on higher education in the UK. The website allows you to search for and compare data and information on university and college programmes from across the UK.

It helps you make sense of all the information out there by linking to other quality resources and explaining what can be found where. It also allows you to search for and compare information and data for individual undergraduate courses across the UK.

Got a question about the course?

Our Health and Social Care team are on hand to answer your questions, whether you want to know about the modules you'll be studying, where you can complete your professional placement or the types of assessments you'll do, they are here to help.

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