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Choose two 20-credit option units and the core unit ‘Leading for Change’:

Core unit: 

Leading for Change: The unit aims to address the needs of new managers/leaders in health and social care who are working in a culture of constant change and service development. The unit aims to provide an opportunity to critically consider their role in leading themselves and others in a change environment. The focus is on how they can contribute to the development and maintenance of an effective learning culture within their organisation. 

Option units:

Evidencing Professional Learning (EPL) 1,2 & 3 (up to 3 times, 20 credit each): Learn to evaluate yourself as a lifelong learner and to apply learning outcomes in the complex and unpredictable professional context. You can take this unit up to three times on the course. All parts can be taken as work-based CPD units and combine what you’ve previously learnt before taking our Master’s level programme.

(Up to 40 credits from a social work undergraduate specialist programme may be used in a Recognition of Experiential Learning (RPEL) process against the EPL 1, 2 and 3 units.)

Self-leadership: This unit will enable you to increase your self-leadership capability and capacity to better manage self and others under the multiple pressures of the work environment. The development focus is upon the quality of the leaders thinking, creativity, and deeper self-awareness in the moment and ultimately developing advanced level professional leadership impact. Personal resilience and better relating within complex and critical situations is a fundamental goal of this leadership unit.

Strategic Leadership: The unit aims to address the needs of managers/leaders in health and social care who are working in a culture of constant change and service development. The unit aims to provide an opportunity for them to develop an understanding of the way in which health and social care is organised, lead and managed. Strategy is considered in respect of how it might be formulated and implemented locally but also to evaluate both national and local strategy. Being strategic within the organisation and in collaboration/integration with others is a key principle here.

Leading Integrated Services: The unit aims to explore leadership in the context of integrated care and service provision. It will focus on developing and sustaining new approaches to collaborative working; developing new roles and seamless person-centred provision through effective whole system leadership. There is an exploration of integrated care and leadership theory supporting the student to reflect upon their own capability and develop a plan for leading integrated service provision.

Professional Reasoning and Judgement in Health and Social Care: This unit is aimed at health and social care professionals undertaking advanced practice roles with a desire to articulate and develop professional thinking, reasoning and judgment. The unit helps you develop expertise in critical thinking and informs your judgement and decision-making processes. It helps develop a more holistic understanding of the complexity, ambiguity and uncertainty that characterises complex professional practice. The teaching and reflective activities explore what critical thinking should achieve in advanced practice, patterns of thinking, practical reasoning and judgement making, the influences on thinking, raising awareness and developing understanding and skills. The focus throughout the unit and in the assessed work is on developing sound thinking strategies and processes to help ourselves and others in the environment we work in.

Practice Observation (Self-managed): A feature of all professional development is not only to be able to identify and meet learning needs, but then to apply the acquired learning outcomes in practice. This unit aims to demonstrate that the student has met the required standards for practice at an appropriate level as identified by their appropriate professional bodies/standards. Content will consolidate knowledge and learning acquired and focus on evidencing critical integration of that knowledge with advanced practice, through direct observation of practice and reflective analysis.

Professional Supervision in Health and Social Care: Good supervision is at the heart of effective professional practice, and the rapidly changing context of health and social care means it is a complex and demanding activity. Through exploration of theory and research evidence the student will develop a critical knowledge base of the nature and context of supervision in their current environment. The unit will also encourage the student to reflect and evaluate their own practice and role in relation to their professional values and standards.

Improving Personal and Organisational Performance (IPOP): The unit aims to address the needs of new managers/leaders in health and social care who are working in a culture of constant change and service development. It will allow you to critically reflect on your existing competence in basic leadership skills developed as a result of experience or those typically found in organisation-based training programmes. You will be encouraged to identify your own skills and plan to improve these by setting personal and organisational objectives. Leading and managing in complex, ever-changing, and financially challenged organisations requires flexible and adaptive professional leaders. This unit will encourage the student to explore their leadership capability starting with self, critically reflecting upon their impact and experience, developing a matched action plan focused on two objectives a personal professional, and organisational focused improvement outcomes.

Leading and Managing Teams: This unit is designed to enhance knowledge and skills on team leadership and management of those in leadership and management roles. You will be able to gain a systematic understanding of relevant literature including a critical awareness of current issues and recent research related to leading a team. This unit aims to address the needs of new managers and leaders in health and social care who have responsibilities for supervising or leading teams and will support you to develop the practical skills to manage a team. 

Choose five 20-credit option units and the core unit ‘Leading for Change’:

Core unit: 

Leading for Change: The unit aims to address the needs of new managers/leaders in health and social care who are working in a culture of constant change and service development. The unit aims to provide an opportunity to critically consider their role in leading themselves and others in a change environment. The focus is on how they can contribute to the development and maintenance of an effective learning culture within their organisation. 

Option units:

Professional Supervision in Health and Social Care: Good supervision is at the heart of effective professional practice, and the rapidly changing context of health and social care means it is a complex and demanding activity. Through exploration of theory and research evidence the student will develop a critical knowledge base of the nature and context of supervision in their current environment. The unit will also encourage the student to reflect and evaluate their own practice and role in relation to their professional values and standards.

Improving Personal and Organisational Performance (IPOP):  The unit aims to address the needs of new managers/leaders in health and social care who are working in a culture of constant change and service development. It will allow you to critically reflect on your existing competence in basic leadership skills developed as a result of experience or those typically found in organisation-based training programmes. You will be encouraged to identify your own skills and plan to improve these by setting personal and organisational objectives. Leading and managing in complex, ever changing, and financially challenged organisations requires flexible and adaptive professional leaders. This unit will encourage the student to explore their leadership capability starting with self, critically reflecting upon their impact and experience, developing a matched action plan focused on two objectives a personal professional, and organisational focused improvement outcomes.

Leading Integrated Services: The unit aims to explore leadership in the context of integrated care and service provision. It will focus on developing and sustaining new approaches to collaborative working; developing new roles and seamless person-centred provision through effective whole system leadership. There is an exploration of integrated care and leadership theory supporting the student to reflect upon their own capability and develop a plan for leading integrated service provision. 

Evidencing Professional Learning (EPL) 1,2 & 3 (up to 3 times, 20 credit each): Learn to evaluate yourself as a lifelong learner and to apply learning outcomes in the complex and unpredictable professional context. You can take this unit up to three times on the course. All parts can be taken as work-based CPD units and combine what you’ve previously learnt before taking our Master’s level programme.

(Up to 40 credits from a social work undergraduate specialist programme may be used in a Recognition of Experiential Learning (RPEL) process against the EPL 1, 2 and 3 units.)

Self-leadership: This unit will enable you to increase your self-leadership capability and capacity to better manage self and others under the multiple pressures of the work environment. The development focus is upon the quality of the leaders thinking, creativity, and deeper self-awareness in the moment and ultimately developing advanced level professional leadership impact. Personal resilience and better relating within complex and critical situations is a fundamental goal of this leadership unit.

Strategic Leadership: The unit aims to address the needs of managers/leaders in health and social care who are working in a culture of constant change and service development. The unit aims to provide an opportunity for them to develop an understanding of the way in which health and social care is organised, lead and managed. Strategy is considered in respect of how it might be formulated and implemented locally but also to evaluate both national and local strategy. Being strategic within the organisation and in collaboration/integration with others is a key principle here.

Practice Observation (Self-managed): A feature of all professional development is not only to be able to identify and meet learning needs, but then to apply the acquired learning outcomes in practice. This unit aims to demonstrate that the student has met the required standards for practice at an appropriate level as identified by their appropriate professional bodies/standards. Content will consolidate knowledge and learning acquired and focus on evidencing critical integration of that knowledge with advanced practice, through direct observation of practice and reflective analysis.

Professional Reasoning and Judgement in Health and Social Care: This unit is aimed at health and social care professionals undertaking advanced practice roles with a desire to articulate and develop professional thinking, reasoning and judgment. The unit helps you develop expertise in critical thinking and informs your judgement and decision making processes. It helps develop a more holistic understanding of the complexity, ambiguity and uncertainty that characterises complex professional practice. The teaching and reflective activities explore what critical thinking should achieve in advanced practice, patterns of thinking, practical reasoning and judgement making, the influences on thinking, raising awareness and developing understanding and skills. The focus throughout the unit and in the assessed work is on developing sound thinking strategies and processes to help ourselves and others in the environment we work in.

Leading and Managing Teams: This unit is designed to enhance knowledge and skills on team leadership and management of those in leadership and management roles. You will be able to gain a systematic understanding of relevant literature including a critical awareness of current issues and recent research related to leading a team. This unit aims to address the needs of new managers and leaders in health and social care who have responsibilities for supervising or leading teams and will support you to develop the practical skills to manage a team. 

Once you've completed the above stages you study the following units (however they may be undertaken earlier if required):

• Preparing for your Service Improvement Project (PSIP): In this unit you will learn about an appropriate, systematic and justified service improvement methodology, undertake a short literature review, and design an original, intellectually challenging and in-depth SIP action plan for your professional context.
• Service Improvement Project (SIP): You'll show your autonomous and independent ability in a complex professional context to expand or redefine existing knowledge or develop new approaches to service improvement, and then evaluate your SIP's impact. Throughout the unit you'll be supported by a university tutor via phone calls, emails and face-to-face meetings. Your tutor will direct you towards helpful resources. This may include electronic resources, workshops, seminars and master classes.

On this course you will usually be taught by a range of staff with relevant expertise and knowledge appropriate to the content of the unit. This will include senior academic staff and qualified professional practitioners. 

Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance. 

We are looking for applicants who:

• Are in a management role or actively contributing to developing and improving health and social care services
• Are committed to developing their own leadership and management practice
• Will take on the challenge of applying course material in complex working situations
• Will support colleagues on the programme and in the workplace in developing their leadership and management practice and will contribute to the group learning experience
• Have a first degree or its equivalent

Students on the course will be committed to developing and improving services and will see advancing their own leadership and management practice as essential to this. Our students come from both health and social care backgrounds and could be senior managers with strategic responsibilities, middle managers or senior practitioners.

All of the assignments for the course require the application of theory to workplace situations so students must be actively involved in service development and improvement. This also means that students must be able to research and learn independently and be able to reflect critically on their leadership and management practice. Most students bring a depth of previous experience to the course and have often had some introductory management training. We draw heavily on this experience as a valuable resource, so a willingness to contribute to group discussion and share knowledge and understanding is essential.

Please note that you will need to apply for individual units to build up towards the full MA award. 

Please click on the button below to apply via our online portal.  

A Bachelors Honours degree with 2:2 in any subject, or equivalent. 

Applicants should be a registered social work or healthcare professional. For post-experience and professional qualifications, there may be additional entry requirements set by the association or institute that ultimately administers the qualification in question. 

Contact our NCPQSW Administration Team (National Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work) for more information:

• Tel: +44 (0)1202 964765
• Email: [email protected]

If English is not your first language, you will need to provide evidence that you can understand English to a satisfactory level. English language requirements for this course are normally: 

• IELTS (academic) 6.5 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in each component, or equivalent.

³Õ¾±±ð·ÉÌýfurther information about our English language requirements.

offers a number of and to prepare international students for postgraduate study at ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥. Admission to the degree is guaranteed on successful completion of your course to the required level.

You can also find further details of the international qualifications we accept, and what level of study they apply to, on our international entry requirementsÌý±è²¹²µ±ð.

• Senior manager
• Academic lecturer
• Academic researcher

• NHS (hospital and community)
• Private and independent healthcare sector (nursing homes and private hospitals)
• Education
• Academic research.

If you want to continue your studies after achieving your Master's, you can look into our range of doctoral programmes.

What’s included in your tuition fee?
Your tuition fee covers expenses associated with your course including tuition materials, access to facilities, mandatory field trips and the following:

• One set of study-related consumables such as a memory stick.
• Materials for laboratory and field-based teaching activity.
• Support for finding placements (UK or abroad) and fieldwork, and non-financial support whilst on placement.
• A range of student services – advisors, help desks, counsellors, placement support and careers service.
• The Library – access to a wide range of electronic resources (databases, e-journals and e-books), print and multimedia collections, subject librarians and study spaces.
• IT labs (some open 24/7), wireless network, AV equipment to borrow.
• Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) scheme.
• Disability and additional learning support.
• The ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ Language Centre to help you develop/improve foreign or English language skills.
• 24 hours a day, 365 days a year security team.

Additional costs
We are committed to offering you value for money and ensuring there are no hidden costs while you are studying with us, therefore we have listed below any additional costs you may incur that are not covered by your tuition fee:

• Accommodation and living costs. Our can be found on our website.
• Optional fieldwork travel, outdoor wear and footwear (where applicable)
• Text books, general stationery and other supplies. Our award-winning library is stocked with a large range of text books and online resources, free of charge. The Students’ Union shops stock a wide range of stationery supplies on both campuses.

• Replacement Student ID card- £10.00 (per replacement)
• Cost of resit examination- No charge if examined at ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥, if examined elsewhere costs may be incurred at the Exam Centre
• Cost of additional transcript results- £10.00 (per year of study)
• Replacement certificate (Postgraduate and Diploma level students only)- £30.00 (per replacement)

If you need to repeat one or more units during the course of your studies (with or without attendance) the pricing will be pro-rata of the full time fee.

International (not Rep. of Ireland) students need to pay a non-refundable deposit to secure their place on a postgraduate course. For September 2024 and January 2025 entry, a £5,000 deposit is required. You will need to pay your deposit by the date stated in your offer letter. The remainder of your fee will be payable on registration/enrolment. There are two exceptions to the non-refundable rule on the deposit:

• You fail to meet the academic or English requirements of your offer
• You are refused a visa to enter the UK, provided the reason for the refusal is not a fraudulent application.

The table below indicates the latest changes to this course.