Entry requirementsEntry Requirements: For entry to the Postgraduate Certificate stage you must have a degree or a professional qualification relating to healthcare and be employed within a healthcare organisation. If you already have a Postgraduate Certificate in management, or equivalent relevant learning combined with some management experience, you may be considered for direct entry to the Postgraduate Diploma stage.
Academic titleMSc/PgD/PgC Health and Public Service Management
Course descriptionThis postgraduate management programme is designed for individuals working in healthcare organisations in the public and private sectors. The course will develop your understanding,
competence and confidence as a healthcare manager and enable you to specialise in an area through your choice of dissertation topic.
The course examines current challenges facing healthcare as well as other related public service areas, and provides strong links between academic theory and management practice. The University has a long tradition as a provider of high quality healthcare management courses, and has successfully delivered similar Masters-level Health Management programmes for over 20 years.
Brief Overview:
Award is targeted at Health Care Professionals wishing to advance their careers within the Health Care Sector
Course Content
Year One (Postgraduate Certificate)
* Needs and Resources
* Professionals, Managers and Organisations
* Strategy and Leadership
Year Two (Postgraduate Diploma)
* Health Policy and Practice
* Partnership, Improvement and Delivery
* Conducting Research
Year Three (MSc)You will complete a dissertation on a topic you have selected.
How To Study
During the Certificate and Diploma stage of the course you will spend five to six hours per week in lectures, seminars and tutorials. The work you will complete outside of this time includes assignments, guided reading and research work, which will lead to your dissertation. During the first and second years you will be assessed through assignments. The third year is assessed entirely through the dissertation. Attendance is one afternoon or evening per week in Years One and Two.
Career prospects
This course is particularly relevant if you are a manager or aspire to a position of significant managerial responsibility in the healthcare sector
Additional Information
MODULES STUDIED
Organisation and Management in the Public Sector
The module aim is to introduce students to the basic approaches to understanding organisations and management within the public sector; and to the planning and implementation of human resource strategies. The module will cover the main approaches to understanding organisations and human resource management in the public sector. Much of the material will be generic to all organisations but the module will stress the particular features and challenges of managing in the public sector.
Resourcing the Public Sector
This module deals with the economics and financing of the public sector. It introduces you to the key ideas in the application of economic analysis to public management and the budgetary process in British government. The course also covers financial planning and management within government departments and decentralised bodies.
Strategic and Resource Management in the Public Sector
The module is concerned with ideas of strategic planning and the concepts that underpin resource allocation in the public sector. Strategic planning is a distinctively different process in the public sector compared with the private sector, nevertheless some concepts developed in the private sector do have value in the public sector context. This module will emphasis how the politics, strong values and resource constraints of the public sector pose particularly challenging issues in the development, formation and implementation of strategic plans. The other part of the module will deal with resource allocation mechanisms in the public sector, in particular how the allocation of resources can meet the objectives of equality and equity in service provision, and assess the outcomes resulting from the adoption of alternative resource allocation strategies.
Health Policy and Management
This module aims to develop an understanding of and the capability of dealing with current issues involved in the management of health care. It examines the impact of government policy on health and the delivery of health care services, the structure of UK health care services, the relationship between component parts, and the organisational and management processes involved. The results of collaboration between the health care sector and other sectors are also studied along with the resourcing of health care in the UK and in an international context. Topical health care managerial issues are also included in this module the exact content of which will vary from year to year depending on initiatives from government and other sources.
Effectiveness and Improvement
The issue of public service improvement is currently top of the political agenda. A number of changes have been introduced in public sector organisations such as Clinical Governance, Total Quality Management, the Wales Programme for Improvement and the European Excellence Model. The aim of the module is to equip students to understand and assess a range of approaches to managing and improving performance. The module also examines methods of evaluating the performance of organisations. We will consider the importance of stakeholder evaluation and analyse techniques such as the Balanced Scorecard. Performance Improvement is a key part of the module. Issues involved in developing performance indicators and targets for aspects of performance such as outcomes, efficiency, service quality and equity will be examined.
Conducting Research and Independent Study
The aim of this module is to assist students to develop a good grasp of the nature of social and policy research and of how to construct research-based arguments; be familiar with the main methods of applied research and consultancy; and be able to plan, execute and write up a piece of research that meets the standard of a project and dissertation at coursework masters level. But the emphasis will be on preparing a policy-based dissertation rather than on training students as expert researchers. The module will cover the basics of how to conduct a small scale research project and write a dissertation. It will cover case study research, basic quantitative and survey techniques, qualitative methods and report presentation and writing.
The independent study part of the module will involve directed study comprising library-based reading and analysis and/or empirical research in the social sciences, on a topic chosen by the student in consultation with the supervisor, usually on a topic related to their professional or work experience.
Dissertation
The dissertation involves an analysis of a significant problem faced by your employing organisation. The dissertation demands a combination of academic rigour and practical relevance. Students receive personal tuition from an academic staff member who will provide specialist advice on your dissertation.