Unit AS 1
Promoting Quality Care
- PROMOTING QUALITY CARE
CCEA A-Level Health and Social Care, memorised fast.
Long notes are boring. Brain-hack the whole 0003 specification with active recall and actually remember it.
- Spec 0003
- 14 topics
- 172 subtopics
CCEA A-Level Health and Social Care 0003
Promoting Quality Care
Topic overviewThe values of care and their impact on service usersIndividual rights and choicesAnti-discriminatory practiceRespect, dignity and confidentialityChildren's rights and special educational needs legislationHuman rights and safeguarding legislationDisability discrimination legislationMental health legislation and capacityHealth and safety legislation, COSHH and RIDDORPolicies that promote quality carePoor practice and its impact on people
Communication in Health, Social Care and Early Years Settings
Topic overviewThe range of people staff communicate withVerbal communicationNon-verbal communication and body languageWritten and electronic communicationThe purposes of communication in care settingsConfidentiality and privacy in communicationPhysical and emotional factors that support communicationPractitioners' communication skillsBarriers arising from sensory impairment, illness and disabilityBarriers arising from mental health, language and cultureOvercoming barriers to communicationTeam communication and reflecting on your own practice
Health and Well-Being
Topic overviewConcepts of health, ill-health and diseaseMental health, mental illness and psychological well-beingThe needs of service users and how settings meet themThe effects of ill-health on education, employment, income and relationshipsSocio-economic factors affecting health and well-beingInherited conditions: cystic fibrosis and Huntington's diseaseConditions associated with ageing: osteoarthritis and type 2 diabetesEnvironmental factors: location, pollution and occupational hazardsBehavioural factors: exercise, diet, smoking, alcohol and drug useApproaches to health promotion and personal responsibilityStatutory services and the World Health OrganisationVoluntary, private and commercial providersPrejudice, discrimination and stereotypingAnti-discriminatory practice and equality law in Northern Ireland
Safeguarding Children
Topic overviewPhysical development from one to eight yearsIntellectual and language development from one to eight yearsEmotional and social development from one to eight yearsPromoting development through activities and interactionPiaget and Vygotsky in early years practiceSkinner and Bandura: managing behaviour and modellingErikson and Bowlby: attachment, identity and settling inTypes of abuseIndicators of abuse in childrenSafeguarding responsibilities and the setting's policiesFactors that increase the risk of child abuse
Adult Service Users
Topic overviewKey concepts in work with adults: need, protection, disability, empowerment and person-centred careOlder people: needs and how they are metAdults with physical disabilities: needs and how they are metAdults with learning disabilities: needs and how they are metAdults living with mental ill health: needs and how they are metHealth practitioners working with adult service usersSocial care practitioners and advocacyReablement and the care planning cycleThe Bengoa Report and a new model of health and social careConfidentiality, safeguarding adults and whistle-blowing policiesStatutory, private and voluntary provision and how it is fundedInformal carers and the Carers and Direct Payments Act (Northern Ireland) 2002
Holistic Therapies
Topic overviewThe holistic approach and safe practiceAcupunctureAromatherapyHerbalismReflexologyPilates and kinesiologyMedical approaches: medication, surgery and physiotherapyManaging asthma, high blood pressure and arthritisManaging insomnia, migraine, back pain, depression and irritable bowel syndromeComparing holistic therapies and medical treatmentsCurrent trends, evidence and holistic therapies in care settings
Understanding the Physiology of Health and Illness
Topic overviewThe animal cell and its organellesCell specialisation and the four tissue typesThe organisation of the nervous systemThe major areas of the brainNeurones, the reflex arc and the synapseMultiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury and strokeThe endocrine glands and their hormonesType 1 and type 2 diabetesThe digestive system and how food is broken downPancreatitis, cirrhosis of the liver and stomach ulcersThe urinary system and the kidney nephronRenal failure, incontinence and dehydrationLiving with a physiological disorder
Applied Research
Topic overviewChoosing a research topic and writing a rationaleResearch objectives and the hypothesisSearching the literature and using secondary sourcesHarvard referencing and citing sourcesQuestionnaires as a research toolInterviews and interview schedulesObservation and observation chartsValidity and reliability in research designSampling techniques and representativenessEthics in research with people who use servicesCollating and presenting quantitative dataAnalysing results and drawing conclusionsEvaluating the methodology and recommending improvements
Body Systems and Physiological Disorders
Topic overviewThe heart and the cardiac cycleBlood, blood vessels and the double circulationControl of heart rate and blood pressureThe respiratory system, ventilation and gas exchangeBehaviour that protects the heart and lungsNormal ranges for pulse and breathing rates, and causes of deviationMonitoring pulse and breathing safely before and after exercisePresenting and analysing monitoring resultsCoronary heart disease, asthma and other physiological disordersDiagnostic techniques and what each one showsTreatments, care pathways, practitioners and support servicesThe effects of a physiological disorder on everyday life
Providing Services
Topic overviewThe origins of the welfare stateLegislation shaping service provision in Northern IrelandSafeguarding, mental health and disability legislationPolicies in health and social care settingsDemographic trends and their effect on servicesStatutory, private, voluntary and informal providersHow the providers are fundedIntegration, community care and evaluating provisionMeeting physical, intellectual, emotional and social needsAccessing services and routes of referralBarriers to access and how they are overcomeThe roles and specialisms of practitionersInterdisciplinary team workingCodes of practice, regulation and quality assurance
Public Health and Health Promotion
Topic overviewThe concept of public healthPublic health issues in the United KingdomHow public health issues are addressed in Northern IrelandLegislation, taxation and the law as public health toolsThe Public Health Agency and its campaignsApproaches to health promotionEvaluating a health promotion campaignChoosing a topic, an aim and a target groupDelivery methods and materialsDrawing up and justifying the planDesigning tools to evaluate the activityCarrying out and evaluating the activity
Supporting the Family
Topic overviewFamily structures since the Second World WarWhy family structures have changedHow families meet physical and intellectual needsHow families meet emotional and social needsHealth and social care services a family may needStatutory services and how they support familiesThe private sector and informal careVoluntary organisations supporting familiesEffects on families of accessing servicesDomestic violence, child abuse and addictionPoverty, mental illness and bereavement in familiesPoor parenting, behavioural problems, special needs and racism
Understanding Human Behaviour
Topic overviewThe psychoanalytic perspective and Freud's theory of personalityThe humanistic perspective and Rogers' theory of personalityBehaviourism: Pavlov, Skinner and conditioningThe cognitive perspective: Beck and EllisSocial learning theory and the Bobo doll experimentThe biological perspective on behaviourPerspectives on depression and its treatmentPerspectives on aggression and its treatmentPerspectives on stress and its managementPerspectives on anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosaPerspectives on phobias and their treatmentSocio-economic influences on behaviour
Human Nutrition and Health
Topic overviewProtein, carbohydrate and fat: functions and sourcesVitamins: functions, sources and deficiencyMinerals, water and dietary fibreCurrent dietary guidance and the bodies that issue itNutritional requirements at each stage of lifeVegan diets and meeting nutritional requirementsEnergy requirements, basal metabolic rate and activity levelsModifying recipes and diets for intolerance and allergyDiet-related conditions of the gut, bowel and teethDiet, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesityFactors influencing food choiceFood hygiene and the safe storage and preparation of foodFood poisoning bacteria, symptoms and food safety enforcement
What CCEA A-Level Health and Social Care covers
CCEA A-Level Health and Social Care (subject code 0003; A level qualification numbers 601/8918/6 Single Award and 601/8920/4 Double Award) is the Northern Ireland board's applied specification, first taught from September 2016. It runs as a Single Award of six units or a Double Award of twelve, drawn from fourteen, and the AS can also be taken on its own as a Three Unit (Single) or Six Unit (Double) Award. Four units are compulsory for both A level awards — Promoting Quality Care, Communication, Health and Well-Being and Providing Services — and the Single Award adds two chosen from Applied Research, Body Systems, Public Health and Supporting the Family. The Double Award takes ten compulsory units and adds one of Adult Service Users or Understanding the Physiology of Health and Illness, and one of Understanding Human Behaviour or Human Nutrition and Health. Two thirds of the units are internally assessed reports on practice; the rest are written examinations. The legal and service framework throughout is Northern Ireland's: Health and Social Care Trusts, the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority, and the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995.
CCEA GCE Health and Social Care (Single and Double Award), subject code 0003, qualification numbers: AS 601/8917/4 (Single) and 601/8919/8 (Double); A level 601/8918/6 (Single) and 601/8920/4 (Double); first teaching September 2016. Read the CCEA specification ↗
How it is assessed
Unit AS 2
Communication In Health, Social Care And Early Years Settings
- COMMUNICATION IN HEALTH, SOCIAL CARE AND EARLY YEARS SETTINGS
Unit AS 3
Health And Well-Being
- HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
Unit AS 4
Safeguarding Children
- SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN
Unit AS 5
Adult Service Users
- ADULT SERVICE USERS
Unit AS 6
Holistic Therapies
- HOLISTIC THERAPIES
Unit AS 7
Understanding The Physiology Of Health And Illness
- UNDERSTANDING THE PHYSIOLOGY OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS
Unit A2 1
Applied Research
- APPLIED RESEARCH
Unit A2 2
Body Systems And Physiological Disorders
- BODY SYSTEMS AND PHYSIOLOGICAL DISORDERS
Unit A2 3
Providing Services
- PROVIDING SERVICES
Unit A2 4
Public Health And Health Promotion
- PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH PROMOTION
Unit A2 5
Supporting The Family
- SUPPORTING THE FAMILY
Unit A2 6
Understanding Human Behaviour
- UNDERSTANDING HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
Unit A2 7
Human Nutrition And Health
- HUMAN NUTRITION AND HEALTH
The full specification
14 topics, 172 subtopics. Open any topic to see what is inside it.
01Promoting Quality Care11 subtopicsOpen topic
- The values of care and their impact on service users
- Individual rights and choices
- Anti-discriminatory practice
- Respect, dignity and confidentiality
- Children's rights and special educational needs legislation
- Human rights and safeguarding legislation
- Disability discrimination legislation
- Mental health legislation and capacity
- Health and safety legislation, COSHH and RIDDOR
- Policies that promote quality care
- Poor practice and its impact on people
02Communication in Health, Social Care and Early Years Settings12 subtopicsOpen topic
- The range of people staff communicate with
- Verbal communication
- Non-verbal communication and body language
- Written and electronic communication
- The purposes of communication in care settings
- Confidentiality and privacy in communication
- Physical and emotional factors that support communication
- Practitioners' communication skills
- Barriers arising from sensory impairment, illness and disability
- Barriers arising from mental health, language and culture
- Overcoming barriers to communication
- Team communication and reflecting on your own practice
03Health and Well-Being14 subtopicsOpen topic
- Concepts of health, ill-health and disease
- Mental health, mental illness and psychological well-being
- The needs of service users and how settings meet them
- The effects of ill-health on education, employment, income and relationships
- Socio-economic factors affecting health and well-being
- Inherited conditions: cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease
- Conditions associated with ageing: osteoarthritis and type 2 diabetes
- Environmental factors: location, pollution and occupational hazards
- Behavioural factors: exercise, diet, smoking, alcohol and drug use
- Approaches to health promotion and personal responsibility
- Statutory services and the World Health Organisation
- Voluntary, private and commercial providers
- Prejudice, discrimination and stereotyping
- Anti-discriminatory practice and equality law in Northern Ireland
04Safeguarding Children11 subtopicsOpen topic
- Physical development from one to eight years
- Intellectual and language development from one to eight years
- Emotional and social development from one to eight years
- Promoting development through activities and interaction
- Piaget and Vygotsky in early years practice
- Skinner and Bandura: managing behaviour and modelling
- Erikson and Bowlby: attachment, identity and settling in
- Types of abuse
- Indicators of abuse in children
- Safeguarding responsibilities and the setting's policies
- Factors that increase the risk of child abuse
05Adult Service Users12 subtopicsOpen topic
- Key concepts in work with adults: need, protection, disability, empowerment and person-centred care
- Older people: needs and how they are met
- Adults with physical disabilities: needs and how they are met
- Adults with learning disabilities: needs and how they are met
- Adults living with mental ill health: needs and how they are met
- Health practitioners working with adult service users
- Social care practitioners and advocacy
- Reablement and the care planning cycle
- The Bengoa Report and a new model of health and social care
- Confidentiality, safeguarding adults and whistle-blowing policies
- Statutory, private and voluntary provision and how it is funded
- Informal carers and the Carers and Direct Payments Act (Northern Ireland) 2002
06Holistic Therapies11 subtopicsOpen topic
- The holistic approach and safe practice
- Acupuncture
- Aromatherapy
- Herbalism
- Reflexology
- Pilates and kinesiology
- Medical approaches: medication, surgery and physiotherapy
- Managing asthma, high blood pressure and arthritis
- Managing insomnia, migraine, back pain, depression and irritable bowel syndrome
- Comparing holistic therapies and medical treatments
- Current trends, evidence and holistic therapies in care settings
07Understanding the Physiology of Health and Illness13 subtopicsOpen topic
- The animal cell and its organelles
- Cell specialisation and the four tissue types
- The organisation of the nervous system
- The major areas of the brain
- Neurones, the reflex arc and the synapse
- Multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury and stroke
- The endocrine glands and their hormones
- Type 1 and type 2 diabetes
- The digestive system and how food is broken down
- Pancreatitis, cirrhosis of the liver and stomach ulcers
- The urinary system and the kidney nephron
- Renal failure, incontinence and dehydration
- Living with a physiological disorder
08Applied Research13 subtopicsOpen topic
- Choosing a research topic and writing a rationale
- Research objectives and the hypothesis
- Searching the literature and using secondary sources
- Harvard referencing and citing sources
- Questionnaires as a research tool
- Interviews and interview schedules
- Observation and observation charts
- Validity and reliability in research design
- Sampling techniques and representativeness
- Ethics in research with people who use services
- Collating and presenting quantitative data
- Analysing results and drawing conclusions
- Evaluating the methodology and recommending improvements
09Body Systems and Physiological Disorders12 subtopicsOpen topic
- The heart and the cardiac cycle
- Blood, blood vessels and the double circulation
- Control of heart rate and blood pressure
- The respiratory system, ventilation and gas exchange
- Behaviour that protects the heart and lungs
- Normal ranges for pulse and breathing rates, and causes of deviation
- Monitoring pulse and breathing safely before and after exercise
- Presenting and analysing monitoring results
- Coronary heart disease, asthma and other physiological disorders
- Diagnostic techniques and what each one shows
- Treatments, care pathways, practitioners and support services
- The effects of a physiological disorder on everyday life
10Providing Services14 subtopicsOpen topic
- The origins of the welfare state
- Legislation shaping service provision in Northern Ireland
- Safeguarding, mental health and disability legislation
- Policies in health and social care settings
- Demographic trends and their effect on services
- Statutory, private, voluntary and informal providers
- How the providers are funded
- Integration, community care and evaluating provision
- Meeting physical, intellectual, emotional and social needs
- Accessing services and routes of referral
- Barriers to access and how they are overcome
- The roles and specialisms of practitioners
- Interdisciplinary team working
- Codes of practice, regulation and quality assurance
11Public Health and Health Promotion12 subtopicsOpen topic
- The concept of public health
- Public health issues in the United Kingdom
- How public health issues are addressed in Northern Ireland
- Legislation, taxation and the law as public health tools
- The Public Health Agency and its campaigns
- Approaches to health promotion
- Evaluating a health promotion campaign
- Choosing a topic, an aim and a target group
- Delivery methods and materials
- Drawing up and justifying the plan
- Designing tools to evaluate the activity
- Carrying out and evaluating the activity
12Supporting the Family12 subtopicsOpen topic
- Family structures since the Second World War
- Why family structures have changed
- How families meet physical and intellectual needs
- How families meet emotional and social needs
- Health and social care services a family may need
- Statutory services and how they support families
- The private sector and informal care
- Voluntary organisations supporting families
- Effects on families of accessing services
- Domestic violence, child abuse and addiction
- Poverty, mental illness and bereavement in families
- Poor parenting, behavioural problems, special needs and racism
13Understanding Human Behaviour12 subtopicsOpen topic
- The psychoanalytic perspective and Freud's theory of personality
- The humanistic perspective and Rogers' theory of personality
- Behaviourism: Pavlov, Skinner and conditioning
- The cognitive perspective: Beck and Ellis
- Social learning theory and the Bobo doll experiment
- The biological perspective on behaviour
- Perspectives on depression and its treatment
- Perspectives on aggression and its treatment
- Perspectives on stress and its management
- Perspectives on anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa
- Perspectives on phobias and their treatment
- Socio-economic influences on behaviour
14Human Nutrition and Health13 subtopicsOpen topic
- Protein, carbohydrate and fat: functions and sources
- Vitamins: functions, sources and deficiency
- Minerals, water and dietary fibre
- Current dietary guidance and the bodies that issue it
- Nutritional requirements at each stage of life
- Vegan diets and meeting nutritional requirements
- Energy requirements, basal metabolic rate and activity levels
- Modifying recipes and diets for intolerance and allergy
- Diet-related conditions of the gut, bowel and teeth
- Diet, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity
- Factors influencing food choice
- Food hygiene and the safe storage and preparation of food
- Food poisoning bacteria, symptoms and food safety enforcement
How you work through it
Pick the mode that fits the time you have.
Try three questions
No account needed. Answer from memory first.
Your recallNot started
Key term
How can a practitioner promote anti-discriminatory practice in relation to a person's beliefs?
Key term
Give four practical ways a care worker protects dignity during personal care.
Key term
Distinguish privacy from dignity.
Spaced Repetition Schedule
How reviews are timed
Levo will automatically distribute all of your progress into a spaced repetition calendar. Once you’ve answered, it’s scheduled for you on the next day in the spaced repetition schedule. Over time, the gaps between your recall get bigger, from a day to three years, reinforcing memorisation over a long period of time.
Interval sequence
- 1 day
- 3 days
- 7 days
- 14 days
- 30 days
- 60 days
- 4 months
- 8 months
- 1 year
- 2 years
- 3 years
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material
Health and Social Care revision questions
Common questions about revising CCEA A-Level Health and Social Care. Tap any to open it.
How do you memorise CCEA A-Level Health and Social Care?
By testing yourself, not rereading. Active recall, pulling each answer from memory then checking it, builds far stronger memory than highlighting notes. Levo runs the method for you across all 14 Health and Social Care topics and brings each one back on a spaced schedule so it stays memorised.
What is the fastest way to revise Health and Social Care for CCEA?
Skip the long notes and go straight to retrieval. Levo turns the 0003 specification into short questions you drill with rapid recall, cram whole papers in one sitting, and a readiness score tells you exactly what is left to learn.
What topics are on CCEA A-Level Health and Social Care (0003)?
There are 14 topics, split across 172 subtopics, from Promoting Quality Care, Communication in Health, Social Care and Early Years Settings, Health and Well-Being and more. Every topic is listed above, and each one opens to the subtopics inside it.
What do you get inside Levo for Health and Social Care?
Six ways to work the same material. The 3-step method for learning a set, Cram for sorting a whole paper into what you know and what you do not, Blank Blitz for making key facts automatic, Build It for assembling full-mark answers, Test It for catching misconceptions, and Brain Breaks between sessions. A readiness score tracks how much of the subject you have memorised.
Is active recall better than rereading your notes for Health and Social Care?
Consistently, yes. Rereading feels productive but fades quickly. Retrieving an answer from memory, the way Levo tests you, is what actually forms durable memory, and it shows you honestly what you do and do not know.
Does Levo cover the whole CCEA Health and Social Care specification?
Every topic on the 0003 specification is covered, written from the published subject content. The full list is above, and each topic opens to its subtopics so you can see exactly what is there before you subscribe.
How can you encourage your teenager to revise?
Make it short, structured and low-pressure. Levo gives a clear daily plan, quick sessions rather than marathon ones, streaks that reward showing up, and an honest readiness score, so revision feels like progress instead of a chore. Parents can add an account and follow along.
Can you revise Health and Social Care the night before an exam?
Yes. Cram mode is built for exactly that: fly through a whole paper, sort every topic into red, amber and green, then drill just the reds and ambers you do not know yet. It is the honest version of a last-minute session.
Every question in Health and Social Care, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.