Educational Aims

To prepare an Assistant Practitioner to work with a specified range of skills in partnership with others within national, regional and local employment policies and to health care standards.

To provide opportunities for the study and evaluation of the latest evidence related to practice.

To enhance the quality of the workforce by enabling confidence and competence in new or existing roles. This will enhance a flexible service delivery with learning in parallel.

To offer access and progression to people in the health and social care workforce providing easily identifiable routes to an academic award or career pathway.

The programme also meets the Apprenticeship Standard for Assistant Practitioner (Health).

Year 1 

• Communicating in Practice
• Developing your Clinical Practice in Occupational Therapy 1
• Fundamentals of Anatomy and Physiology
• Sociology and Psychology of Health
• The Management of Risk for Occupational Therapy

Year 2

• Developing your Clinical Practice in Occupational Therapy 2
• Enquiry Methods
• Principles of Management and Leadership
• The Principles of Professional Assessment in Occupational Therapy
• The Principles of Professional Development
• For HTQ students – occupational case study
• Assistant Practitioner End-Point Assessment (for degree apprenticeship students)

The FdSc Assistant Practitioner (Occupational Therapy) incorporates a range of assessment types based on the programme learning outcomes, resulting in a coherent overall assessment which evaluates the whole range of attributes required of assistant practitioners.  As far as possible, assessments are spread through the academic year to allow learners to manage their time, and to minimise anxiety caused by bunching of assessments. 

Each assessment provides an opportunity for summative assessment against the learning outcomes of the module, but also as a formative assessment for the various elements of the end point assessment.

Learner engagement is encouraged through the use of authentic assessments which mirror the characteristics of their practice, such as presentations, or encourage them to consider enhancements they could make to their practice. 

The requirements of each assessment are clearly defined, to maximise learners’ engagement with the programme and to aid learners to recognise the value of assessment as a form of learning.  Staff are strenuous in providing good quality feedback which also incorporates feed-forward advice so that learners build their confidence and competence. 

The overall programme assessment considers the competencies, knowledge and attributes required of an assistant practitioner in health and social care, while individual modules contribute varied approaches.  Skills such as presentations and digital literacy maximise inclusivity and enables learners with different aptitudes to demonstrate their learning, while transferable skills such as report writing are elements of other assessments.

Graduates of this course are eligible to progress to related Honours Top-up courses, and are also eligible to apply to join the second year of associated full Honours degrees, such as the BSc (Hons) in Occupational Therapy UWE Bristol. 

This Foundation Degree has been designed for those aspiring to be assistant practitioners (Skills for Health Career Framework Level 4) who already have related roles in health and social care settings and want to further their careers. 

Industry insight 

Assistant practitioner roles in mental health are varied, so you could be working in hospitals, community recovery teams and with families and young people. 

• Ideally a level 3 qualification in a Health and Social Care related subject
• Maths and English GCSE above a grade 4 or equivalent
• You will need to secure an appropriate workplace to gain relevant experience. You will need a mentor who is registered with Nursing and midwifery council OR health care professions council.
• Your employer must be in agreement with the student to attend University once a week.

Programme specification