Everything you need to know...
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What is the fee?
Home: £3,650 for the course
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How long will I study?
1 Year
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Where will I study?
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When do I start?
September 2026
January 2027
Course summary
- Develop the skills to lead in an evolving landscape and changing world.
- Explore your leadership identity and define your leadership legacy.
- Examine leadership challenges at personal, professional and organisational levels.
- Evaluate and improve system and service levels compassionately and inclusively.
- Gain new knowledge and confidence to further your career or academic studies.
Start your leadership journey with our distance-learning PG Cert Leadership in Health and Social Care – combining new ways of thinking with the skills and insight to lead effectively across health and social care services. When you complete the course, you’ll gain 60 credits towards a master's level qualification, with options to progress from PG Cert Health and Social Care Leadership to PG Dip and MSc.
Student satisfaction
This course scored 100% for overall student satisfaction in the Postgraduate Taught Student Satisfaction Survey 2025.
How you learn
We value collaboration, creativity and inclusive practice, so you’ll learn alongside colleagues from various health and social care professions – both nationally and internationally. You’ll gain valuable insights through social learning with peers and expert facilitators with lived experience in health and social care.
Our course is designed to provide you with the necessary skills and competence – alongside meaningful reflective time – to develop as an effective leader in health and social care.
The assessment tasks associated with each module are designed to reflect the real world as well your current practice and service needs. This maximises the benefit to both you as an individual staff member and to your organisation – all the outputs of the course can support service delivery and development, and ultimately patient and service user experience. This means you’ll not only gain enhanced knowledge of evidence-based management and leadership theories, you’ll also develop the practical skills you require to lead more effectively in your workplace and beyond.
You learn through:
- practice-based learning
- online learning using new technologies
- collaboration
- research-informed practice
- innovative teaching approaches
- guest speakers
- workshops
- group work
- independent study
- feedback
Key themes
As the leadership context of health and social care organisations is complex and constantly changing, our course is designed to build the skills to successfully lead in turbulent times. Our intention is to invest in immediate leadership impact and long-term organisational and system improvement.
The course supports leadership development across a range of professional roles, both nationally and internationally. You’ll explore your leadership identity while learning how to lead psychologically safe and inclusive teams. You’ll also be encouraged to challenge your ideas about how to manage and lead people and teams within your organisation, undertaking meaningful and sustainable service improvement as an agent of change.
By offering new perspectives on leadership and how these might relate to professional practice, we’ll share some powerful, practical tools, techniques and strategies to unlock effective leadership potential. As well as your own learning and development, our course can play a vital role in organisational talent management programmes, increasing overall leadership capacity while developing the next generation of leaders for the organisation.
Course support
Throughout the course you’ll be supported to make links back to your own professional practice – through reflective activities, individual and group tasks, and formative and summative assessments.
You’ll receive bespoke feedback on your leadership development in each module. You can also receive support to submit for publication on your leadership experiences if you’d like.
Applied learning
Live projects
Through real-world assignments you’re actively involved in leadership and improvement projects throughout the programme. You’ll solve organisational problems, develop service provision, strengthen teamwork and enhance motivation, commitment and effort – all while improving service user outcomes through enhanced leadership.
Previous students have developed new care pathways for service users, used new technologies in health and social care systems, and established training and development programmes to enhance workforce skill and competence.
Networking opportunities
Through our collaborative relationships with key stakeholders and providers, you’ll be able to hear from senior leaders in health and social care. They’ll share insights from the heart of leadership in practice, as guest speakers and in pre-recorded videos.
Course leaders and tutors
Anita McCrum
Senior Lecturer in Leadership, MSc Health and Social Care Leadership Course LeaderAnita's background is in adult nursing, community nursing and health visiting. She worked for many years as a frontline Health Visitor, then supporting students und … Read more
Modules studied may differ depending on when you start your course.
Modules
Module and assessment information for future years is displayed as currently validated and may be liable to change. When selecting electives, your choices will be subject to the core requirements of the course. As a result, selections may be limited to a choice between one of two or more specified electives in some instances.
Modules studied may differ depending on when you start your course.
Final year
Compulsory modules
This module aims to help you develop an in-depth understanding of the fields of management and leadership in the contemporary health and social care context, whilst considering your role and future development.
INDICATIVE CONTENT
- Overarching concepts of leadership and management
- Leadership overview
- Mapping the field of leadership
- Leadership and learning diagnostic tools
- Leadership learning and development
Elective modules
MODULE AIM
To identify and critically evaluate a specific work based service improvement project. Evaluation of service improvement has direct benefits for your organisation, and will enhance your understanding of the underpinning improvement methodologies whilst further developing your personal and professional skills.
INDICATIVE CONTENT
The content of the module will be driven by personal and organisational goals negotiated at the start of the module. Key areas will be:
- Organisational structures
- Project management and evaluation
- Change management
- Selecting and using evidence
- Reflective practice
- Action planning
- Work based learning and organisational goals
- Action learning set methodology to support learning and progression through the module.
The aim of this module is to develop your role as interprofessional educators and facilitators. This will enable you to enhance the personal and professional development of the learners in your work place allowing them to make a positive contribution to the delivery of high quality care.
INDICATIVE CONTENT
IPE theory, educational theories, sociological theories concerning professional boundaries and identities.
Policy and strategic imperatives driving modern health care education
Theories of coaching, mentoring and facilitation
Conflict resolution theories
The aim of this module is for you to explore your organisational landscape and develop an understanding of how you lead within that context.
INDICATIVE CONTENT
Models/theories leadership (for example transactional, transformational, situational servant, adaptive, distributed)
Understanding your organisation's environment/environmental analysis
Values, beliefs, making sense of culture, climate and structures,
Impact and importance of personal effectiveness on your leadership role in a changing environment.
This module critically explores the relationship between effective leadership and the team; it develops a theoretical and applied understanding of the human and interpersonal dimensions of leadership and management of groups and teams within complex, changing, health and social care environments.
INDICATIVE CONTENT
LO 1.
- Motivation and employee engagement.
- Applying influence, power and politics.
- Coaching and mentoring.
LO 2.
- Leading and managing diversity and diverse teams.
- Group dynamics and team effectiveness.
- The role of critical reflection in team leadership.
MODULE AIM
To identify and successfully plan a negotiated and critically justified work based service improvement project. The service improvement project will consider benefits for the organisation and will develop your understanding of service improvement methodologies whilst enhancing your personal and professional skills
INDICATIVE CONTENT
The content of the module will be driven by personal and organisational goals negotiated at the start of the module. Key areas will be:
- Organisational structures
- Project management and evaluation
- Change management
- Selecting and using evidence
- Reflective practice
- Action planning
- Work based learning and organisational goals
- Action learning set methodology to support learning and progression through the module.
Future careers
The Post Graduate Certificate provides new personal insights and skills development to help you advance your career in health and social care leadership.
With practical experience and real-world academic learning, you’ll have the leadership knowledge and expertise to support your professional role and the organisation.
The course is highly valued by professionals and employers, with previous graduates advancing into successful leadership careers, both nationally and internationally.
These include:
- health and social care specialisms
- senior management
- regional and national leadership
Equipment and facilities
As the course is distance learning, all teaching will be delivered online. You’ll also have access to digital media and online resources to support your learning, including:
- a virtual learning environment
- online teaching and collaboration tools
- live-streamed lessons
- online learning materials
- student community apps
In recent years, we’ve invested over £100m in new facilities to help you study how and when you want. This means 24-hour libraries and study spaces designed by our students.
Where will I study?
You study at Collegiate Campus through a structured mix of lectures, seminars and practical sessions as well as access to digital and online resources to support your learning.
Collegiate campus
Collegiate Campus can be found just off Ecclesall Road, a bustling student district.
Collegiate Campus map | Campus facilities
Collegiate library
Collegiate Library can be found just off Ecclesall Road. It's open 24 hours a day, every day.
Learn moreEntry requirements
All students
A first degree or an appropriate professional qualification considered to represent equivalence to a degree. In some circumstances experience of degree level study along with leadership/management experience will be considered. Where English is not your first language an IELTS score of 6.5 is required, with no individual element below 5.5.
Additional information for EU/International students
This course is not open to international students who require a student visa to study in the UK. If you are an international applicant but do not require a student visa, email our Admissions Team to find out whether you’re eligible to apply.
Fees and funding
Home students
Our tuition fee for UK students starting part-time study in 2026/27 is £3,650 for the course. The tuition fee displayed above is for the full course. If the full course is more than one year in duration, the fee will be divided into annual payments which will then be rounded. This may mean the total fee you pay is slightly higher than the fee stated above. If you take a break in study or have to re-take part of the course, you may also be charged an additional fee and will be notified of this at the time.
If you are studying an undergraduate course, postgraduate pre-registration course or postgraduate research course over more than one academic year then your tuition fees may increase in subsequent years in line with Government regulations or UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) published fees. More information can be found in our terms and conditions under student fees regulations.
Scholarships and financial support
Find information on scholarships, bursaries and postgraduate student loans.
International scholarships up to £3000 ›
Alumni scholarships up to £2000 ›
Postgraduate loans for UK students ›
Additional course costs
The links below allow you to view estimated general course additional costs, as well as costs associated with key activities on specific courses. These are estimates and are intended only as an indication of potential additional expenses. Actual costs can vary greatly depending on the choices you make during your course.
General course additional costs
Additional costs for Health and Social Care (PDF, 277.7KB)Legal information
Any offer of a place to study is subject to your acceptance of the University’s Terms and Conditions and Student Regulations.
