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BTEC Public Services

Welcome

We are delighted that you have shown an

interest in studying Public Services at Richard

Huish College.

In order to get you thinking about the subject,

we have produced this Headstart booklet to

help you prepare for your studies when you

join us in September. As the course contains

both practical and theoretical elements this

booklet contains both practical and

theoretical activities for you to do.

Within our department we offer Public

Services Level 2 and Level 3 and we are a

team of 4 staff members. Between us we have

a wealth of teaching and public service

experiences.

Level 2 Public Services

Is a one-year course that is equivalent to two

GCSEs. It is designed to be taken as part of a

Study Programme alongside retaking GCSEs in

English Language and/or Mathematics. The

course consists of 7 units, some externally

assessed and others assessed through written

assignments, presentations, observations and

practical work. It is 25% exam based.

Click the link below for the specification

BTEC First Certificate Specification

Level 3 Public Services

Is a two-year BTEC Extended Diploma is

equivalent to three A-levels. It consists of 19

units; 10 will be completed in the first year

and 9 in the second year. The course is

assessed through coursework only comprising

of written assignments, presentations and

practical activities.

The qualification allows you to develop skills

and knowledge that are essential when

looking to progress into employment,

apprenticeships or further study in the Public

Services.

Click the link below for the specification

BTEC L3 Extended Diploma Specification

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Tasks

On the course we study current events which affect the Public Services. The current Covid 19 crisis is

an excellent example and will form the focus of this booklet showing how it links to many of the

units, including:

Unit 1 Government Policy

Unit 3 Citizenship and diversity

Unit 4 Discipline

Unit 5/6 Fitness

Unit 15 Major incidents

Unit 33 Volunteering

Please complete tasks 1-4 in the booklet ready for 1 September. If you complete the work before

this you can email it to amandah@richuish.ac.uk If you would like more to do then you can also do

tasks 5 and 6 and watch some of the additional resources.

Please read through the activities before you start them, some will be quick

to complete while others will take a couple of weeks.

Contents

Task 1 Fitness diary 3

Task 2 Volunteering logbook 5

Task 3 Conformity assignment 7

Task 4 Citizenship and diversity assignment 8

Task 5 Government policy assignment (optional) 9

Task 6 Major incidents assignment (optional) 10

7 Additional resources (optional) 13

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Unit 5 and 6 – Fitness Diary

The Uniformed Public Services require their employees to have a basic standard of fitness. It is therefore important for Public Service students to develop both a theoretical understanding of, and a sound practical level of fitness

One of the activities we are still able to take part in is exercise and of course it is really important to do this for both physical and mental reasons.

Please record in a daily diary the activity / exercise that you take part in during a 2 week period. If you have a day without any exercise record this as a rest day. Include all activity eg. Walking / running / cycling / Joe Wicks / Yoga

Day / Date Activity - including eg. Time / Distance /reps

Week 1

Week 2

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1 How has your activity levels changed during this 2 weeks compared to a non-Covid 19 period?

2 What impact may the activity in this 2 weeks have had on your body? Include impacts that may occur if you continued these levels for a longer period. You could consider impacts on heart, lungs, bones , muscles

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Unit 33 Volunteering

Members of the public services are good citizens, one of the indicator of being a good citizen is

taking part in volunteering. During this time of lockdown this is even more important than usual.

Please take part in at least 3 hours of volunteering. This can be any form you like, from cadets, sports

coaching, doing the shopping for a vulnerable person, gardening for a neighbour to helping the Red

Cross from home studying missing maps. You need to think about the skills you used doing the

activity

Below are some ideas for volunteering from home

https://www.helpfromhome.org/do-more/volunteer-for-us/ Lots if ideas from home

https://www.missingmaps.org/ Help make maps to help the Red Cross. Volunteers use satellite

images and a drawing tool to mark up buildings, rivers and roads in remote areas that may not have

been mapped before. This helps organisations who are first to respond make more informed

decisions about disaster relief.

http://www.projectimplicit.net/ is a non-profit network of researchers investigating the

subconscious way our minds work. Volunteers take psychological tests online to help scientists

better understand society’s hidden prejudices and how we might tackle them.

https://www.bemyeyes.com/ virtual volunteers can help a blind or low-vision person to go about

their daily tasks. Through a live video call, you can help to solve problems like checking expiry dates,

distinguishing colours, reading instructions or navigating new surroundings.

https://decoders.amnesty.org/ Amnesty Decoders volunteers around the world use their devices to

sift through pictures, information and documents and help expose human rights violations. Projects

that volunteers have helped to decode include making oil companies accountable for devastating oil

pollution in Nigeria.

https://chdliving.co.uk/adopt-grandparent volunteers will take part in regular video calls with care

home residents in a bid to provide companionship as coronavirus forces many elderly into isolation.

Making hearts Hearts can be knitted, crochet, embroidered, fabric or felt, and each heart should

have at least one matching pair. The team will send up to three to relatives.

They should be sent to the palliative care teams at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent and

Canterbury Hospital or Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate

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Keep a log of your volunteering activity

Examples of skills commonly needed by volunteers include : honesty,

commitment, reliability, cheerfulness, empathy, reliability, dedication, verbal

communication skills, written communication skills, teamwork, giving and

receiving instructions, confidentiality, physical fitness, first aid, sign language

Date Activity

Skill demonstrated How did you demonstrate this skill?

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Unit 4 – Discipline in the Public Services.

The following work relates to Unit 4, this unit asks learners to develop their understanding

of how important discipline is to the effective running of our public services. It is usually

delivered in the first year and the unit contains a mix of practical, theoretical, and self-

reflective study. Here we are going to look at one characteristic of the unit which is

conformity.

Conformity in the public services.

There are several definitions of conformity, the following is from Simple Psychology

“Conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behaviour in order to fit in with a group.” If we look at the quote above, the “group” refers to the service you are thinking about joining. E.g. the Police.

Take a good look at yourself, why do you think you would make a good, police officer, soldier, sailor, firefighter, member of the air force (service of your choice)?

Please answer the questions below: try to provide detailed answers, demonstrating you have thought about the issue’s involved and how your personality would fit with that of your chosen public service. Here is some help to get you started, You do not just instantly become a police officer or member of the armed forces overnight, it take’s time, to join all of the forces you have to successfully complete a period of training. All initial training has a similar purpose to get you to conform to the requirements of that service. If you cannot, you will be asked to leave! As you have been living under Covid 19 restrictions you have experience of knowing there are rules and regulations to follow, orders to obey, social distancing to maintain, only going out when necessary and not being able to see friends and family to name some. Use this experience to support your answers.

Questions

1. Identify which public service you would like to join? 2. What is it about the work/role they do that interests you?

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3. How good are you at conforming? The following 5 points are for you to discuss in your answers. a. Would you be happy wearing a uniform and have the skills to keep it clean and ironed? b. Do you need to get a haircut or learn how to put it up? c. How good are you following rules and regulations d. Have you found it easy or difficult to follow the lockdown guidelines and obey the orders? e. What is your level of self-discipline?

Identify the changes that you will need to make in yourself to fit in with your future colleagues and meet the challenges of the role?

How are you going to change so that you conform to the requirements of the service?

Unit 3 Citizenship and Diversity

This unit examines what the public services are doing to increase the diversity of their staff and how

this can be supported. It also looks at the way the media portray the services and the effect this has

on the public.

During the Covid pandemic there have been many TV programmes on the subject.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/coronavirus-how-britain-is-changing

Watch the following program and answer the questions

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1 How did the program portray the public services in a positive or negative light?

(Think about the Government, NHS, Schools, Carers, Volunteers)

2 How does the program make the public feel ? ( e.g scared, nervous, worried, reassured, hopeful?

Unit 1 Government Policy (Optional)

This unit provides you with an introduction to the Political structure of the UK including the levels of

Government and investigates how laws are made. In the UK some of the power is transferred from

Central Government to a regional organisation

There are 3 regional assemblies that have devolved power these are:

The Scottish Parliament

The Welsh Assembly

The Northern Ireland Assembly

The current pandemic has highlighted some of the challenges of having devolved Governments

What are the advantages and disadvantages of having devolved Government

Advantages

Disadvantages

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Unit 15 Major incidents (Optional)

This unit will help you understand the roles and responsibilities of Public Service organisations

during a major incident. You will study the cause of major incidents, how incidents affect individuals,

public service workers and the importance of planning

Although there are many types of disasters ranging from flooding to explosions to transport incidents, the causes of these can generally be divided into 5 broad categories--

1. HUMAN CAUSES. 2. TECHNOLOGICAL CAUSES. 3. NATURAL CAUSES. 4. HOSTILE ACTS. 5. HEALTH RELATED.

Clearly we are right in the middle of a health related major incident at the moment with coronavirus .

Using the Covid 19 Pandemic as a example answer the following questions

1 What is the cause of the crisis?

2 Describe the role of the following public services in the crisis

NHS

Ambulance Service

Police

Government

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St John Ambulance

Fire and Rescue

The Armed forces

Now examine the bush fires in Australia that have just happened.

The below sites will give you some background knowledge of the fires but there is plenty more out

there for you to discover. See how you get on.

https://www.savethechildren.org/us/what-we-do/emergency-response/australian-bushfires-how-

to-help-facts-faq

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-50951043

https://trees.org/post/fire-food-australia/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIz9TJnaWx6QIVB-

7tCh0K8wITEAAYAiAAEgKH3PD_BwE

https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/02/australian-bushfires-start-causes-11989633/

https://www.wwf.org.au/get-involved/bushfire-emergency#gs.6gtf0v

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/c2wlvy54gd1t/australia-fires

Task 1-What caused these fires? Have a look on the internet and see if you can find out how these

fires stared.

Task 2-What Australian public services and voluntary services were involved in the control and

putting out of these fires?

Task 3-How were they eventually extinguished?

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Task 4-How long did the fires burn for and how much land was burnt?

Task 5-Can you find any voluntary groups or charities who helped out looking after displaced families

and injured animals?

Task 6-What were the health issues relating to these bush fires?

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Additional Recourses

The public services are often portraited in the media.

It is important for you to watch TV programmes depicting them (real or fictional) and keep up to

date with current events being able to give examples.

The news always has good examples, you could download the BBC news app to ensure you are

always kept up to date.

Factual Documentaries Fictional Dramas

999 what’s your emergency Shetland

The Force Vera

24 hours in Police custody Casualty

Warship Life at Sea Our girl

SAS who dares wins Line of Duty

First time on the front line Rockface

Rescue - River deep mountain high Soldier soldier

Ambulance Broadchurch

Saving lives at sea Red caps

Into the fire London’s burning

Looking forward to see you in September