Brand New SPQ Programme in Adult Social Care Nursing
University College Birmingham has been approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to offer a brand-new programme, the MSc in Community Specialist Practice Qualification (SPQ) in Health and Social Care.
Within the qualification, one of the distinct pathways offered is Adult Social Care Nursing. The course has been mapped to the QNI’s Field Specific Standards in Adult Social Care, and the course has now received official endorsement by the QNI.
The Community Specialist Practice programme will enable you to register your Specialist Practice Qualification on the NMC register once you successfully complete all university, apprenticeship and NMC requirements.
Professor Kathryn Riley, Director of Nurse Education, said: “Integrating both theory and practice, you will develop the skills, knowledge and behaviours required to deliver safe and effective specialist practice to patients and clients within your field of community specialist practice (Adult Social Care Nursing).
“You will gain the confidence to make higher level clinical decisions, drive consistent developments and advancements in clinical healthcare, and see through strategic or operational change within your workplace.”
She added: “University College Birmingham’s strong links with clinical practice, combined with direct input and teaching from experienced colleagues in clinical settings, helps to ensure learning is relevant to current practice.”
The qualification, running as a two-year level seven (MSc) apprenticeship will be available from February 2025.
It is designed specifically for Registered Nurses working across a range of community and social care settings, where it is recognised that Registered Nurses are required to lead and manage the increasingly complex care of people with diverse care needs in the community.
Paula Du Rand, Nursing Manager of Kineton Manor Nursing Home, said: “As a manager of a nursing home with lots of experience in social care I want to express my enthusiasm for the course.
“It was a privilege to provide input and be part of a whole network supporting this course through to approval.
“I cannot emphasize enough, the need for a programme like this one to enhance care in social care.”
The programme has been flexibly designed to ensure that it is accessible to as many Registered Nurses as possible.
Modules are delivered in a hybrid manner including online delivery with directed e-learning, to ensure that the MSc can be studied flexibly alongside work and other commitments as required by the student or apprentice.
As well as a two-year apprenticeship, the programme is also to be offered as a fulltime (18 months) or part time (three years), self-funded MSc programme.
Registered Nurses on the programme will study core modules that are aligned to the four pillars of Advanced Practice (HEE, 2017), which provide theory on developing community specialist practice through leadership and management, research and service improvement, teaching and mentoring, and the development of advanced and specialist clinical assessment and diagnosis skills.
The following optional modules have been developed that will inspire students to meet their personal and professional ambitions:
V300 Independent and Supplementary Prescribing
Complex Care Management of Long-Term Health Conditions including Frailty.
Homeless and Inclusion Health
Principles of Public Health
Safeguarding in Community Specialist Practice
Addictions and Substance Misuse
Supporting Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
Critical Issues in Mental Health and Learning Disability across Lifespan
Advanced Respiratory Care.
These optional modules were developed with practice and employer partner engagement, and also with the service user and carer engagement group, who were integral to the NMC approval process and validation of the programme.
Students and apprentices will be assessed through a range of assessment methods that ensure new Specialist Practitioners have the knowledge, skills and behaviours to work at an advanced and specialist level of community practice. Some of the assessments also involve service user and carer participation.
Dr Agnes Fanning, Assistant Director of Nursing Programmes (Standards), The Queen’s Nursing Institute, said: “Nurses working in Adult Health and Social Care have frequently been the forgotten workforce, yet the expectation is that they will be able to deliver care to the most vulnerable members of society, many who have comorbidities and require complex nursing care.
“The development of Field Specific Standards in Adult Social Care Nursing leading to an SPQ has been long overdue, and we encourage commissioners from Integrated Care Boards and the private sector to recognise the benefits of having highly skilled nurses working at an advanced level of practice within the Social Care sector.”
Dr Fanning added: “The Adult Social Care Nursing SPQ programme has been mapped to the NMC (2022) Standards of Proficiency and Education, and the QNI Field Specific Standards in Adult Social Care Nursing have built on these Standards using the Four Pillars of Advanced Practice (HEE 2017) as a framework to demonstrate the advanced level of practice that the nurses will be working at.”
University College Birmingham are keen to speak with employers who would like to offer apprenticeship places to their Registered Nursing staff on the programme for February 2025.
If employers are not apprenticeship levy payers, advice can be provided to ensure this programme is accessible to their staff, through levy gifting.