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My blog contains general posts about preparing and studying for qualifications in the health and social care sector, updates to the website and stuff regarding my own personal development.

DSDWEB is 100% free. Do not get scammed!

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I have been informed that some users have been tricked into paying for resources that proclaim to be from this website (DSDWEB).

I want to clarify that all DSDWEB resources are completely free.

If somebody is asking for money for DSDWEB resources PLEASE DO NOT PAY!

DSDWEB does not sell any products or services, whatsoever.

Dan

Study Advice for Care Qualifications

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These Study Notes, compiled by Cheryl, can support you to meet the assessment criteria for all qualifications, including:

Having an understanding of what assessors are looking for and the way in which they want you to answer questions can help you to complete your work more efficiently and with higher marks.

Assessment methods

Assessment will generally comprise of one or more of the following

  • Direct Observation, Reflective Accounts, the question papers themselves
  • An Expert Witness Statement – A Nurse, Matron, Deputy or Care lead or someone who is your Supervisor/Mentor ETC.
  • A Witness Testimony – This can be given by someone who holds a level 3 or ABOVE what you are studying so in this case someone who holds a level and has worked closely with you can reflect on how this is applied within the work environment. Generally, a Senior or Higher Carer, or head of care, field senior or supervisor, Care Co-Ordinator and so on…..
  • The Work itself – although difficult, most is delivered over video or teams. A Professional discussion is a variety and may include the questions on this unit.

It is a good idea to get statements from various people within the workplace who have provided support and guidance and support your journey through this diploma. These can then be filed with your work together to begin a process of development and the start of your health and social care journey and build your diploma file.

Recording, documentation and evidence

A Diploma File typically comprises of:

  • A Work Planner to evidence when you did what and when – assessors will like this
  • A Log of Sources – Where you got your information from – this will help with other units too.
  • Any research that has been undertaken – Print outs of subject information from sites such as
  • A Log of activity or work completed
  • Witness Testimonies /Statements
  • Reflective Accounts
  • The question papers – Units themselves
  • Completed Work
  • Review or Feedback Documents
  • A pouch for your USB/DISC used if printed or used on a computer (and a backup)

Order the sections of work completed together with the question paper and review from assessor which should make it easier to find, but also keep it well presented and take pride in each achievement – You earned this!

Structuring Answers

The following 2-step process, combined with the way that assessment criteria are graded (below) can be used to structure your answers:

Step 1 – Identify the First Key Word

Highlight these so you can stay on target as it is easy to go off track.

  • Define – Means State or describe exactly the nature, scope or meaning of something.
  • Outline – Means to Summarise or indicate main features of something or provide a brief description or explanation of a topic or content indicated in the question
  • Identify – Means indicate, list, bullet point main features or purpose of something
  • Describe – Means to give a clear, objective account in their own words, showing recall, and in some cases, application, of relevant features and information, this normally requires breadth of content coverage
  • Explain – Means to provide details & give reasons &/or evidence to support content such as person hygiene, infection control, health, and safety etc.
  • Summarise – Means to gather together all of the main aspects of a given situation or experience in a condensed format.
  • Justify – Means to give reasons or provide evidence to support a view, opinion, side, aspect etc
  • Compare – Means to Identify the main factors relating to two or more items/situations, explain the similarities and differences, and in some cases say which is best and why.
  • Discuss – means to consider different aspects of a topic and how they interrelate and the extent to which they are important.
  • Evaluate – Means to bring together all information and review it to form a conclusion, drawing on evidence, including strengths, weaknesses, alternative actions, relevant data or information.
  • Analyze – Means to examine methodically and in detail, typically in order to interpret the content.  

Step 2 – Identify the content or topic of discussion.

These are KEY words which show you how to answer the question, and the content will be the major element in which this relates so for example the question may reference things such as personalized care, health and safety, infection control, policies and procedures or legislation, abuse, neglect etc

Use the information from these two steps as the basis for your research and writing.

Grading 

If you are wanting to achieve the following then you will need to look at how you can get these elements of the content into each question, to get to what you are aiming to do next, the method for assessment often includes –

Pass

When answering a question set your paragraph separately cover Identify, outline & describe, therefore effectively you will have at least 3 paragraphs that include components to get this element.

Merit

When answering a question set your paragraphs to separately cover Identify, Outline, Describe & Compare components therefore effectively having at least 4 paragraphs or components to the answer structure that meet each element.

Distinction

When answering a question set your paragraphs to separately cover Identify, Outline, Describe, Compare, and assess or analyze, therefore effectively having at least 5 maybe 6 components contained within the answer structure.

Learners must carefully consider relevant factors and how this may impact, including vital information and clearly demonstrate relevance in how you work and this is applied, include factors that are most important for each area through defining something, explain how this applies, describe when or what impact this can have, reference how this is relevant, why this is recommended or used, how this may relate to mandatory training or care certificate knowledge, organization policies, procedures and codes of conduct and touch on when things go wrong – mention care failures in relation to changes in practice and importance or improving care and aiming for personalized Care through the quality of how health and social care homes or companies are striving to meet regulatory standards to gain a good or outstanding grade. 

Final words

Importantly – Enjoy this, enjoy finding out and looking for the information. This will help you in the next stage – moving into level 3. These are the foundations of your career in Health and Social Care. Don’t forget to ask questions, find information in your organization’s policies and procedures, and use the resource of social care reputable sites for you research! 

 

Good luck and be proud!

 

Cheryl.

Why You Should Not Cite DSDWEB in Your Essays

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Following a recent conversation with a health and social care assessor, I discovered that some of her students are directly citing this website in their work.

Whilst I’m flattered that people deem my work worthy of quoting, I must advise against this.

Citations should be from sources that are authoritative and reliable. This could be the NHS, CQC, Skills for Care, the King’s Fund, peer-reviewed research papers or government departments.

Although I try to provide detailed and accurate information on this website to help students studying for health and social care qualifications, in the grand scheme of things I am just a guy on the Internet. I do work in health and social care (currently a team manager in a supported living setting) so I do have experience but I am not a professor in academia and do not have letters after my name!

Therefore, if you use me as a source, it is very likely that your assessor will advise you to remove it from your work.

This website should be used to gain knowledge and support you to understand what assessors are looking for in the answers that you provide. It is a great starting point and can help you to answer questions but if you require citations for your bibliography, it would be prudent for you to do further research and quote from a more scholarly source.

Dan

A Massive 88% of DSDWEB.CO.UK Visitors Find The Website Useful

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The Results Are In! 88 percent of DSDWEB visitors said they found the website useful

We asked 100 visitors to DSDWEB.CO.UK if they found the website useful.

After responding, we also asked them why.

All responses were anonymous.

This post takes a look at this data and responds to the comments that we received.

THANK YOU!

Before I begin, I just want to say a big ‘Thank You’ to everyone that took the time to respond to the poll and leave their comments. Your feedback makes all the work that has gone into the website worthwhile and helps us to make it better in the future.

THE RESULTS

[visualizer id=”3229″]

As you can see, a whopping 88% of visitors found the website useful.

This tells us that the work we have put into it has not gone to waste and we are providing a useful resource to the care sector.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER 12%?

Twelve out of 100 website visitors did not find the website useful.

The feedback they supplied is shown below along with our reply:

  1. “ all of its confusing ” – We’re sorry you find it confusing. Fill in our contact form or join our facebook group and we will try to help and clarify things for you.
  2. “ Carnt find what I’m looking for ” – Apologies. If you haven’t already done so, try using the red search feature that is on the top right of every page (or underneath the main text on mobile). It may be that you are doing an optional unit that we haven’t yet published – there are over 100 optional units for Level 2 and Level 3 Diplomas so please bear with us!
  3. “ Not what I wanted ” – No worries – thanks for visiting.
  4. “ No time sorry” – No worries, thank you for your feedback and do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of assistance in future.
  5. “ NOTHING ” – Okay
  6. “ interrupting ” – We’re guessing the little pop-up box asking if you found the website useful was what was interrupting. Apologies for this but asking for feedback is important to us as it helps us improve. We only use the pop-up when we have something important to ask.
  7. “ have not start using it ” – Obviously we asked you the question too soon. In future we will look at only asking visitors questions when they have visited multiple pages.
  8. “ not ” – Okay
  9. “ thanks ” – Okay
  10. “ No ” – Okay
  11. “ its crap ” – Okay
  12. “ Because it’s not giving me the answer I need ” – As stated earlier, there are a lot of optional units that we haven’t written/published yet but we will get there in the end.

The main points seem to be:

  • Some people can’t find what they are looking for
  • Some people just clicked ‘No’ to get rid of the pop-up box asking them the question

Next time we run a poll we will try to give an option to just close the pop-up rather than having to give an answer to close it. We will also steam ahead with getting more optional units onto the website to make it more comprehensive.

WHAT ARE THE COMMENTS OF THE VISITORS THAT SAID “YES”?

The comments of those that found the website useful are below:

  1. “ it is clear and concise ”
  2. “ has helped me with mu assignment ”
  3. “ descriptive answers ”
  4. “ good ”
  5. “ good ”
  6. “ helpful ”
  7.  “ is good for my work. ”
  8. “ Has giving me ideas as to how communication needs to be looked at. ”
  9. “ Informative ”
  10. “ helped me with my studies ”
  11. “ corse work ”
  12.  “ a lot of information ”
  13. “ brilliant ”
  14. “ Things are explained well ,very useful ”
  15. “ o ”
  16. “ gives good information ”
  17. “ superb ”
  18. “ its amaing ”
  19. “ good ”
  20. “ l ”
  21. “ useful info for diploma ”
  22.  “ gives answers to questions i need to answer ”
  23. “ clear and concise ”
  24. “ helps me wiyh my nvq ”
  25. “ it gives me some examples of information for what I need”
  26. “ Answer to my question ”
  27. “ hello ”
  28. “ gave me an idea what to write on my own work ”
  29. “ great ”
  30. “ It has given me the correct way to answer questions. ”
  31. “ eeererr ”
  32. “ OK ”
  33. “ It had the ifo I needed ”
  34. “ Helping me very much in my course work ”
  35. “ I am doing my N.V.Q and need help. Thank you. ”
  36.  “ It had a good description which helped with my work, but you could go into a little more detail ”
  37.  “ it is easy for me understand. thank you. ”
  38. “ good ”
  39. “ It helped me understand and learn more skilful knowledge. ”
  40. “ Lots of little refreshers to help you understand questions ”
  41.  “ Helpful ”
  42. “ great ”
  43. “ This website helps the thought process kick into gear. It provides the start of the discussion for the student to develop further in their own words. Thanks! ”
  44. “ Sick website my g ”
  45. “ info is brilliant ”
  46.  “ ***** ”
  47.  “ Yes ”
  48. “ I didn’t know how to word my answer and this helps ”
  49.  “ YES ”
  50.  “ Thank you ”
  51. “ it has enriched my knowledge in health and social care. ”
  52.  “ i have received relevant and helpful answers ”
  53.  “ because its got simple explanation to some questions along with good examples ”
  54.  “ helps explain questions ang gives examples ”
  55. “ very useful ”
  56.  “ ; ”
  57. “ information has been presented clearly and easily understood ”
  58. “ yes good examples ”
  59. “ find the answer ”
  60. “ it has hone and improve my skills ”
  61.  “ yes ”
  62. “ very helpful to giveing information to support learning ”
  63.  “ Helps me with my work ”
  64.  “ good information ”
  65.  “ I’m terrible at putting my thoughts down the right way, and really understanding what the question is asking. ”
  66. “ got me an answers ”
  67.  “ It’s provided me with the answers I require for my assignment. ”
  68. “ ok ”
  69.  “ Very helpful ”
  70. “ because im doing the care certificate. Helps me put into words the knowledge I already have which is 30+ years experience ”
  71.  “ i’m here to find some answers ,for my NvQ LEVEL2 ”
  72. “ All the answers are available and it helps individuals doing this course to understand the care certificate and standards. ”
  73. “ Good material to study ”
  74. “ . ”
  75.  “ Useful information ”
  76. “ wait ”
  77.  “ doing my diploma ”
  78. “ its useful ”
  79.  “ helped with my level 3 ”
  80. “INFORMATION HAS BEEN PRESENTED IN CLEAR WAY AND EASY TO UNDERSTAND ”
  81. “ just helpful ”
  82. “ amazing I feel its guiding slowly and am so happy I found it. ”
  83. “ I fund all info for my nvq level 2 ,but im not copy paste,i wil use my skils to add ”
  84. “ it helps with areas that I as a brand new staff member haven’t learnt yet in the course of my job ”
  85. “ Saved me time ”
  86. “ Informative ”
  87.  “ still on it ”
  88.  “ Clear information ”

Lots of positive feedback there (as well as a few random comments).

WHAT NEXT?

Te data we received from running this poll (thanks again to everyone that took the time to answer) will be used to shape the website going forward.

Although we are helping a lot of people, there is still room for improvement and we will continue to develop and get better. We will do this by:

  • Getting more optional units online
  • Creating a less intrusive poll
  • Looking at the structure of the website to see if we can make navigation more intuitive

Next time we run the poll, we want to get over 90% of visitors finding the website useful.

In the meantime, if you have any suggestions on how to improve the website, please do not hesitate to contact us.

The Difference Between an NVQ and Diploma in Health & Social Care

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Picture of a diploma with the words 'Diploma or NVQ?'

You’ve probably seen that I use the words ‘NVQ’ and ‘Diploma’ interchangeably around this website and I’ve had a few messages from visitors asking me what the difference between the two is. So, I will try to explain…

In a nutshell

Essentially, an NVQ in health and social care is the same as a diploma in health and social care. The only difference is that a while ago the name changed. However, the levels remained the same so, for example, a Level 3 Diploma is the same as a Level 3 NVQ.

The history

For many years, National Vocational Qualifications or NVQs were the standard work-based qualification that recognised and assessed employees in a wide range of career paths. NVQ’s were available in hairdressing, plumbing, administration, horticulture and many other subjects.

In 2015, NVQs were discontinued and replaced by Diplomas under the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF).

And then in early 2018, the QCF Diploma was replaced by the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) Diploma.

Do workers need to upgrade their qualification?

Although going forward, only RQF Diplomas can be commissioned for new learners, NVQ and QCF qualifications still remain relevant and there is no need to ‘upgrade’ to the newer standard. All the standards carry the same amount of weight and are equivalent to one another.

Level 2 NVQ = Level 2 QCF Diploma = Level 2 RQF Diploma

Also, learners that have started studying under the QCF framework will be able to continue. However, employers should ensure that their employees training is kept up-to-date and refreshers provided where necessary.

Final word

So if NVQs are obsolete, you may be asking why I continue to use the word on my website.

This is simply because a great many people in the health and social care sector still refer to Diplomas as NVQs and, consequently, many visitors to this website find it my typing a phrase with the word ‘NVQ’ in it. If I didn’t use the word ‘NVQ’, less people would find and get help from me.

Over time, I expect the word to be used less and less until at some future point in time only the word ‘Diploma’ is used. And then I will be able to remove all reference of ‘NVQ’ from these webpages.

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