Programme Specification for Strategic Leadership and Management MA/Post Graduate Certificate/Diploma
|
Final award |
MA/Post Graduate Certificate/Diploma |
|
Intermediate awards available |
Post Graduate certificate in Strategic Leadership and Management |
|
UCAS code |
N/A |
|
Details of professional body accreditation |
General Social Care Council Higher Specialist Award (Leadership and Management) awarded on successful completion of PGDip. Advanced Award (Leadership and Management) awarded on successful completion of MA. |
|
Relevant QAA Benchmark statements |
N/A |
|
Date specification last up-dated |
December 2011 |
Profile
The summary - programme advertising leaflet
Programme content
This inter-professional, multi-disciplinary course is designed for Leaders and managers in social services, Health services, Education services and Voluntary sector projects. It is intended for Managers who wish to extend their leadership and managerial skills and to develop managerial expertise to complement their professional training.
The main emphasis is on leadership through strategic management where students are expected to ground their new knowledge within the base of their previous professional experience. This course offers a basis from which to develop management skills and to evaluate and implement innovation. The course aims to extend understanding of management within social care, education and health and to apply this understanding to the workplace, thereby improving leadership and management skills and the quality of service provision. It contributes to the professional development of the individual and the wider professional community. The intermediate qualifications similarly support both professional and academic development. Students would be expected to reflect on and learn from prior experience and combine this with new knowledge to apply to new situations.
Staff of the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust and the Business School at UEL will deliver this course
Strategic Leadership & Management at UEL/ Tavistock & Portman NHS foundation Trust
Underlying Philosophy of the Course
The aim of the course is to facilitate transferable learning from the psychotherapeutic and systemic domain to the organisational, social and political, and vice versa. An important element in this is the development of a capacity for critical reflexivity, which allows private experience to be understood as both contributing to and deriving from social experience. The primary theoretical orientation of the course provides a distinctive ‘lens' through which social experience can be analysed and transformed. The course is hoping to develop a reflective leader/manager with some core underpinning values. Central to this will be a consideration of the power relationships between service users, providers and funders. This will involve challenging the mindsets of leaders and managers with regard to how they work with individuals and groups. Independence, choice, control, ownership, empowerment and entrepreneurship will be key concepts to be explored as part of this process of learning and strategic practice development
Power relationships also involve an assertive approach to social inclusion, equality and anti-oppressive practice in relation to dimensions of race, gender, disability, mental health, learning difficulty, religion, sexuality and age. Throughout the programme of study, students are expected to pay consistent attention to questions of discrimination, social exclusion and the politics of difference in theory, practice, research and policy in their organisation.
Leadership and management exist within complex systems of individuals, communities and citizens on the one hand and service user, community, voluntary, independent and statutory organisations on the other. The course will adopt a whole systems approach to learning in its content, processes and practice application. The course will not be an oasis. Rather it will be conceptualised as an intervention in this whole system and will explore how students can learn from and work within real local community systems to improve outcomes. This involves both leadership and management in the current organisational and political contexts of the public sector and leadership towards a vision of the future with changing relationships, roles and systems. The course will aim to develop thinking and learning about anticipatory, entrepreneurial and innovative leadership of strategic change.
The unique character of the course is rooted in the following:
- A specific and organised theoretical framework for intervention in complex organisational systems
- A multidisciplinary course with students drawn from a range of disciplines in the public sector.
- Using a range of different teaching methods, such as application seminars, organisational observation. The course draws upon and integrates the individual's professional and practice experience with relevant theory and research.
- A focus on the organisational dynamics and management of complex organisational processes
- A focus on developing highly skilled and reflective Leaders and Manager
Outcomes
Programme aims and learning outcomes
What is this programme designed to achieve?
This programme is designed to:
- provide a programme of M level academic study to all managers working in the public context and professional study for social work managers towards the level offered by the General Social Care Council's Higher Specialist and Advanced Level Awards
- Facilitate the advanced study of organisations, their leadership/management and the changing external context in which managers operate.
- To develop advance thinking on strategy development and implementation that attends to the holistic nature of the organisation
- To develop knowledge and understanding of key areas of leadership and management that challenges students to think about the whole organisation and not just localised management.
- Develop knowledge and understanding of key areas of leadership and management. To enhance managers capacity to recognise the relationship between ideas and practices, with particular attention to improving outcomes for service users.
- develop self-awareness, personal and interpersonal skills relevant to leading and managing individuals, teams, small and large groups
- Work skilfully with diversity and oppression in the workforce and generally in organisations
- provide opportunities for furthering career development
What will you learn?
Knowledge
At the end of this course students will be able to:
- Identify, explain and discuss contrasting approaches to the analysis of organisations and distinguish between the purposes and structures of public sector organisations.
- Become more aware of and understand change issues at individual, group and organisational levels in the public sector environment
- Understand the various aspects of and critically evaluate the effectiveness of HR policies and practice in the relevant public sector organisation that they work in.
- Understand the importance of strategy and leadership in the public sector and the context in which they operate
- Understand the principles of effective financial management
- Improve outcomes for service users.
Thinking skills
At the end of this course students will be able to:
- Critically discuss, analyse and investigate concepts and theories related to human side of management, diversity, self-management and the management of change
- Critically discuss concepts and theories of leadership and strategic management, policy-making and performance review and relate these to strategic issues within their own organizations
- Develop the capacity to analyse management practice data
- Critically engage with the integration of management data and theory leading to improvement of their capacity to conceptualise and develop hypotheses
- Increase their capacity to reflect and use personal experience as a tool for learning and intervention
- Improve their ability to use theory to communicate with and supervise others
Subject-Based Practical skills
At the end of this course students will be able to:
- Develop skills in the area of leadership and communication skills
- Design schemes of policy and performance review appropriate to their own organisation.
- Work in partnership with other organisations.
- Develop theoretically and evidenced base management practice
- Develop the capacity to work with under the surface processes in individual, group and organisational contexts
- Recognise the impact and inter-play between professional and personal experience
- Develop effective multi-disciplinary and inter-agency communication
- Develop the skills of others
Skills for life and work (general skills)
At the end of this course students will be able to:
- Identify their own strengths and weaknesses in dealing with people in face-to-face situations
- Develop intervention skills (diagnostic, implementation and evaluation skills).
- Present complex information in a concise and interesting way within a time limit in both oral and written forms
- Reflect on their own learning as a result of work and educational experiences
- Improve communication skills - verbal and written
- Develop Skills in analysis and conceptualisation
Structure
The programme structure
Introduction
All programmes are credit-rated to help you to understand the amount and level of study that is needed.
One credit is equal to 10 hours of directed study time (this includes everything you do e.g. lecture, seminar and private study).
Credits are assigned to one of 5 levels:
- 0 - equivalent in standard to GCE 'A' level and is intended to prepare students for year one of an undergraduate degree programme
- 1 - equivalent in standard to the first year of a full-time undergraduate degree programme
- 2 - equivalent in standard to the second year of a full-time undergraduate degree programme
- 3 - equivalent in standard to the third year of a full-time undergraduate degree programme
- M - equivalent in standard to a Masters degree
Credit rating
The overall credit-rating of this Course is 60 for PG Certificate, 120 for PG Diploma, 180 for Masters.
Typical duration
The Post Graduate Certificate is undertaken in 1 year
The Postgraduate Diploma is undertaken in 2 years
The MA is usually undertaken within a period of 3 years although there is a maximum period of 6 years.
The teaching year begins in October and ends in June and is divided into three terms.
The course is delivered in monthly blocks of two days (Thursday/Friday). Both days commence at 9.30 and ends 5.30 pm. Students are expected to attend for all components of the course. Students attend a 5-day Group Relations event in the first year.
How the teaching year is divided
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Year 1: Theory lectures and application seminars, small group work discussion seminars, small group organisation observation seminars, Reflective leader/manager groups, group relations event |
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Year 2: Theory lectures and application seminars, small group work discussion seminars, Practice skills Development, Research Inquiry, Reflective Leader/manager group, |
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Year 3: Dissertation workshops, individual research supervision, MA dissertation submission |
What you will study when
Course Unit Titles and Credit Weightings
|
Year |
Unit |
Title |
Credits |
Status |
|
1 |
Unit A |
Theory Lectures/ Application seminars |
20 |
Core |
|
1 |
Unit B |
Organisation Observation |
20 |
Core |
|
1 |
Unit C |
Work Discussion Group |
20 |
Core |
|
1 |
Unit D |
Reflective Leader/Manager Group |
Non credit rated |
|
|
1 |
Unit E |
Group Relations Event |
Non credit rated |
|
|
2 |
Unit F |
Theory Lectures/ Application Seminars |
20 |
Core |
|
2 |
Unit G |
Work Discussion Group |
20 |
Core |
|
2 |
Unit H |
Research Methods/Inquiry |
20 |
Core |
|
2 |
Unit I |
Reflective Leader/manager group |
Non-credit rated |
|
|
2 |
Unit J |
Practice Skills Development |
Non-credit rated |
|
|
3 |
Unit K&L |
Dissertation including seminar/supervision |
60 |
Core |
The non-credit rated units requires full attendance by all students. These are essential elements of the curriculum and contribute to acquiring the learning necessary for achieving the credits in the credit rated units. These units offer students opportunities to develop their skills through experiential learning. This is in keeping with the Tavistock central educational ethos and learning culture which provide a way of learning that is reflective and experiential, attending to both the psychoanalytic and systemic psychotherapeutic traditions of what is unconscious and below the surface. Some aspects of teaching and learning on the course are familiar, tried and tested modalities in the field of applied psychotherapeutic work, for example group relations event learning; others represent new applications and extensions of this tradition into the fields of psycho-social analysis, theory building, and research. The aim of the teaching and learning is to explore and aim to develop a sophisticated understanding of this field of experience and intervention in both experiential and theoretical terms; and to facilitate intellectual and experiential mobility in students' deployment of the idea of learning from experience, so that concepts and modes of understanding traditionally rooted in clinical practice can be appropriately modified and transferred to professional intervention.
Students attending this event are advised to consider the state of their emotional well-being with regard to their degree of fragility or vulnerability at the time as this event can prove to be very provoking and sometimes disturbing for some students.
These non-credits rated units are viewed as formative learning as attention is paid to gaps in their learning and practice development and they will be offered opportunities for further increasing their performance as leaders and managers and witness their skills greatly improving. In addition, by attending these non-credits rated units' students' capacity for reflecting on their practice will be highly developed. Students will be expected to transfer their learning from these units to other units e.g. Unit B, C, G, and K&L. They will also be expected to demonstrate their learning in all their assessed assignments and in particular Unit A, B, C, F, H, and L
Requirements for gaining an award
In order to gain a Postgraduate Certificate, you will need to obtain 60 credits at Level M. Providing you have been successfully assessed in Unit A, B and C (see above).
In order to gain a Postgraduate Diploma, you will need to obtain 120 credits at
Level M. Providing you have been successfully assessed in Unit A, B, C, F, G and H (see above).
In order to obtain a Masters, you will need to obtain 180 credits at
Level M. These credits will include a 60 credit level M core unit of advanced independent research. Providing you have been successfully assessed in all units.
Masters Award Classification
Where a student is eligible for an Masters award then the award classification is determined by calculating the arithmetic mean of all marks and applying the mark obtained as a percentage, with all decimals points rounded up to the nearest whole number, to the following classification
|
70% - 100% |
Distinction |
|
60% - 69% |
Merit |
|
50% - 59% |
Pass |
|
0% - 49% |
Not Passed |
Assessment
Teaching, learning and assessment
Teaching and learning
A variety of teaching methods will be used and students will be expected to lead discussion based on their own research activities and reflective practice. They will also be required to work in groups and present findings and solutions to problems to the cohort. At all times students will be encouraged to reflect on and take responsibility for their own learning. The tutorial and seminar groups are a key component of the programme and aim to help you to analyse the underlying principles and practices of Leadership & management and assess their application to identified issues. The main approaches to teaching and learning on the programme can be summarised as:
- An emphasis on the role of learners in acquiring knowledge; the view that learning is not something that happens to students, it is something that students make happen.
- A need to develop the skills of self managed learning and self assessment.
- An awareness of the challenge of working at post graduate level and the importance of developing a critical approach to study.
- An awareness of learning as an activity to be supported by and shared with others - colleagues, mentors, tutors.
Knowledge is developed through
- Integrated tutor led lecture and class/group seminar/case study/discussion.
- Private study to prepare for group discussion and presentations.
- Private study to prepare for assignments and report writing.
- Developing capacities to integrate observation, theory and research with practice, leadership/management
- In depth study of qualitative research methods and their application to leadership and management
Thinking skills are developed through
- Structured group/seminar discussion.
- Problem solving activities.
- Linking of theory and practice in each module.
- Written assignments.
- Presentations of prepared work.
- Making increasing links in the three fields (observations, theoretical constructs and practice interventions) according to the standards and requirements of the post qualifying awards
- The enhancement of thinking and discussion skills in seminars
Practical skills are developed through
- Researching presentations and projects both group and individual.
- Undertaking data collection and analysis.
- Group work.
- Case studies and workshops.
- Increasing the capacity to make links between theory and practice, thus developing both practice and supervisory expertise and decision-making and leadership skills
- Appreciating the contribution made by service users and carers to professional development
Skills for life and work (general skills) are developed through
- Report writing
- Presentations
- Participation in group/team work.
- Continued directed learning between classes.
- Enhancing the transferable skill of making links across theories and paradigms
- Discussion based seminars and practice based projects
- Ongoing feedback in supervisions, seminars and tutorials developing awareness of suitability for practice skills
- The ongoing reflective log as facilitating the increasing capacity to reflect on learning and professional development
Assessment
Assessment is geared to test learning outcomes in each module specification.
Knowledge is assessed by
- Group and individual presentations.
- Group and individual coursework/assignments.
- Project preparation.
- Essays in theory, policy and management practice
- Work discussion papers in practice, management
- Linking observational experiences (organisational) with theory in the observation portfolio
- The capacity to develop and implement a research project and/or in-depth case study
Thinking skills are assessed by
- Group work.
- Presentations.
- Assignments/reports/case studies.
- Project preparation.
- The capacity to integrate theory and practice, policy and observation, as evidenced through assignments
- Developing and implementing the research project and/or in-depth case study
Practical skills are assessed by
- Presentations.
- Assignments.
- A variety of tasks including those undertaken on an individual basis or in a group.
- The developing capacity to observe and record, as demonstrated in assignments
- Essay and case study writing
- Conferring with service users and carers as part of the assessment process
- Developing research skills as evidenced through research assignments and dissertation/ in-depth case study
- Capacity for influence and leadership, evidenced by seminar, workshop and group presentations
Quality
How we assure the quality of this programme
Before this programme started
Before this course start, the following would be checked:
- there would be enough qualified staff to teach the course;
- adequate resources would be in place;
- the overall aims and objectives were appropriate;
- the content of the course met national benchmark requirements;
- the course met any professional/statutory body requirements;
- the proposal met other internal quality criteria covering a range of issues such as admissions policy, teaching, learning and assessment strategy and student support mechanisms.
This is done through a process of course approval which involves consulting academic experts including some subject specialists from other institutions. Each panel scrutinises available documents and talks to the staff who will teach the programme before deciding whether it can be approved.
The GSCC has first of all accredited the University of East London, at the first stage, to present professional award bearing programmes for approval within the new post qualifying framework. Following validation, the GSCC then approves the course according to the specific requirements of the awards and the overall post qualifying framework.
How we monitor the quality of this programme
The quality of this course is monitored each year through evaluating:
- external examiner reports (considering quality and standards);
- statistical information (considering issues such as the pass rate);
- student feedback.
The programme is also reviewed by GSCC every 5 years.
Drawing on this and other information, course teams undertake the annual Review and Enhancement Process which is co-ordinated at School level and includes student participation. The process is monitored by the Quality and Standards Committee.
Once every six years an in-depth review of the whole field is undertaken by a panel that includes at least two external subject specialists. The panel considers documents, looks at student work, speaks to current and former students and speaks to staff before drawing its conclusions. The result is a report highlighting good practice and identifying areas where action is needed.
The role of the programme committee
This course has a course committee comprising all relevant teaching staff, student representatives and others who make a contribution towards the effective operation of the course (e.g. library/technician staff). The committee has responsibilities for the quality of the course. It provides input into the operation of the Review and Enhancement Process and proposes changes to improve quality. The course committee plays a critical role in the quality assurance procedures.
The role of external examiners
The standard of this course is monitored by at least one external examiner. External examiners have two primary responsibilities:
- To ensure the standard of the course;
- To ensure that justice is done to individual students.
External examiners fulfil these responsibilities in a variety of ways including:
- Approving exam papers/assignments;
- Attending assessment boards;
- Reviewing samples of student work and moderating marks;
- Ensuring that regulations are followed;
- Providing feedback through an annual report that enables us to make improvements for the future.
Listening to the views of students
The following methods for gaining student feedback are used on this programme:
Course committee meeting once a term (students represent year groups)
Use of the personal tutor system
Year group reviews, once a year
Feedback forms, once a year
Students are notified of the action taken through:
Circulating the minutes of the Course committee
Year group reviews
Listening to the views of others
The following methods are used for gaining the views of other interested parties:
The views of employers are obtained through a Social Work Board of Studies employer forum held once a year following consultation during the planning stage. The forum facilitates discussions between programme tutors students and employers. The programme is linked to both the London Regional Planning Group for PQ training and education. This group is comprised of employers and their representatives, service users and carers and other post qualifying programme providers. We are also linked to the North East London Learning Resources Network. These links help to ensure that programme providers engage with stakeholders in strategic processes of work force planning within the region. Employers are invited to participate in the formulating and reviewing of the rationale for this programme.
Further Information
Alternative locations for studying this programme
Where you can find further information
Further information about this course is available from:
- The UEL web site (http://www.uel.ac.uk)
- The student handbook http://www.tavi-port.nhs.uk
- UEL Manual of General Regulations and Policies http://www.uel.ac.uk/qa/
- UEL Quality Manual http://www.uel.ac.uk/qa/
- Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust Website http://www.tavi-port.nhs.uk
- Current External examiners
- External examiner reports (available from UEL virtual learning environment (UELPlus or Moodle))
