Iain Wolloff

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Widening Participation in Health and Social
CareAn FE College Perspective
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• Presentation Aims
• To debate the focus of WP activity in health
  social care
• To establish the view of WP from the FE
  perspective
• To outline the contribution that FE colleges can
  make to WP in health social care

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Widening whose participation?
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• Who should be the focus of WP activities?
• Under-represented groups
• Men / Women
• People from black and minority ethnic communities
• People from lower socio-economic groups
• etc.
• Young People in schools / colleges
• Existing workforce in lower skilled jobs

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Widening whose participation?

• Who are the under-participating groups in
  healthcare?
• Data from Skills for Health
• 2 million employees across the UK (1.3 million on
  the NHS)
• Four sectors Hospital, medical practice, dental
  practice other
• Largely female (78)
• Predominantly white (89)
• Broad spread of ages (35 to 44 largest group)
• 62 full-time employees

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Widening whose participation?

• Who are the under-participating groups in
  social care?
• Data from Skills for Care
• 1 million employees in adult social care in
  England
• 25,000 employers in the private, voluntary and LA
  sectors
• Largely female (81)
• Predominantly white (86)
• Less than 50 full-time employees

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Widening whose participation?
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Widening participation for the existing workforce

• Prof RH Fryer, (2006) Learning for a change in
  Healthcare, DoH NHS.
• One third of NHS staff (400,000) report having no
  opportunities for taught learning in the last
  year
• 70 (900,000) reported no on-the-job training in
  the last 12 months
• A quarter of NHS staff are qualified below NVQ
  level 2 40 NVQ 2 or below
• 40 of all social care staff are qualified to NVQ
  2 or below.
• Recommendation 5b
• Reduce the number of healthcare staff without NVQ
  Level 2 by at least 15 each year

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• What do FE colleges do?

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• FE colleges A diverse Sector
• Overview
• There are 430 colleges in England, Wales NI
• Colleges have 3.5 million LSC funded students and
  4 million in total.
• Types General, Sixth Form, Tertiary,
  Specialist.

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• FE colleges A diverse Sector
• Young People
• 120,000 14-16 year olds choose to study
  vocational courses at college.
• 701,000 16-18 year olds choose full time study in
  college, compared with 345,000 in schools.
• While only 53 of young people have 5 good GCSEs
  or their equivalent at age 16, that figure rises
  to 76 at age 19, largely due to the help they
  receive at local colleges.

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• FE colleges A diverse Sector
• Adults
• 154,000 learners enrolled on a Skills for Life
  college course to improve their basic skills
• More than half of all vocational qualifications -
  over 550,000 annually - are awarded via colleges
• In three years 2 million vocational
  qualifications were awarded through colleges,
  compared with 233,000 through employers.

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• FE colleges A diverse Sector
• Employers
• Colleges provide 114 million learning days at all
  levels - compared with around 43 million days of
  off-the-job training supported by employers
• 60 of employees are in companies which use
  colleges for training.
• The average college has links with 500 employers.
  The bigger urban colleges can provide training
  and other services for 1000 or more employers.

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• FE colleges A diverse Sector
• Higher Education in Colleges
• c. 65,000 FTE students studying HE in FE in
  England (11 of all HE)
• 50 directly funded, 50 via an HEI
• Often focussed on vocational learning,
  non-traditional entrants and widening
  participation
• Also, 44 of students going on to Higher
  Education come from colleges

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Example Farnborough College of Technology

• Medium-sized Mixed Economy College
• Broad, wide deep curriculum offer
• 16,000 enrolments
• 1,000 HE students
• 2,500 Full Time FE (16-18s)
• 200 IF Students (14-16s)
• 250 Apprentices
• Remainder are part-time (evening, day release,
  work-based, etc)
• Twenty Five Years practice at delivering HE in FE
  
• (but could be 90)
• Accredited by the University of Surrey in 2002
• Foundation, Honours, Masters and Research
  degrees.
• Twenty Three FDs validated. 

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How can colleges contribute to WP in Health
Social Care
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Colleges contribution to WP in Health Social
Care

• Throughout the Student Lifecycle
• Raising aspirations working with schools,
  communities and those in employment. Aimhigher.
  Lifelong Learning Networks
• Pre-entry activities open days, summer schools
• Admissions courses at all FE levels in all
  subjects. Open to those with academic
  vocational qualifications
• Getting started induction, Degree Academy
• Moving through the course vocational pedagogy
  curriculum, work based (apprenticeships
  placements)
• Progression Key mission of many colleges

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Colleges contribution to WP in Health Social
Care

• Example Progression routes in health social
  care _at_ Farnborough
•       

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• Case Study
• The contribution of Foundation Degrees to WP in
  Health Social Care

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• Foundation Degrees
• Nationally
• Health Care 236
• Community Social Studies 171
• Education (inc. Childcare) 382

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• Key Features
• Employer involvement
• Accessibility
• Articulation progression
• Flexibility
• Partnership
• Knowledge, understanding skills
• Assessment

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• Employers
• Positive involvement in validation review
• Listening to employer needs or stimulating
  employer interest
• Large employers or SMEs
• The role of SSCs
• College myths employer realities

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• Accessibility
• Entry qualifications
• Clear role in widening participation
• Differences between FD and honours

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• Articulation Progression
• Significant progression level 3 to FD
• Vocational specialism and vertical identification
• High rates of progression to honours
• Combination with vocational/professional
  qualifications
• Flexible FDs to inflexible Hons.
• Matching curriculum, as well as CATS
• Specialised FDs to generalist Hons.

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• Flexibility
• Three main routes available
• Full-Time
• Part-Time
• Work-Based

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• Partnership
• Role of HEI partner
• Increasing partnership with other colleges
• Employers as partners in design, delivery and
  assessment

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• Knowledge, understanding skills
• Challenge of locating supporting work-based
  elements
• Inclusion of key skills

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• Assessment
• Reflecting the learner continuous and
  time-constrained assessment
• Assessing work-based elements
• Employer involvement

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• Summary
• Need for focus in WP in health social care
• FE Colleges are diverse and can make different
  contributions to WP
• Key mission of many colleges is to widen
  participation and to provide progression
• Colleges can offer diverse routes to higher
  qualifications
• FDs can provide an important work-based route to
  higher qualifications in health social care

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Widening Participation in Health and Social
CareAn FE College Perspective