How to tackle the NEA for unit R035: health promotion campaigns
08 February 2023
Rebecca Simcox, Subject Advisor for Health and Social Care and Child Development
In this blog, I will be discussing optional set assignment unit R035, part of Cambridge Nationals Health and Social Care and how to tackle the teaching content of health promotional campaigns.
What is NEA R035?
This unit considers the four reasons why a healthy society is important:
- Control of communicable diseases
- Decrease cost of care
- Decrease of sickness and dependency
- Increased life expectancy
The unit also considers current public health challenges and the campaigns set up to tackle them. Students will need an understanding of these in order to plan, deliver and evaluate their own campaign.
Public health challenges
There are a wide range of current challenges to public health; for example, flu and viruses are particularly prevalent post pandemic. In this unit, students will need to be familiar with health challenges, campaigns to tackle the challenge and the impact on individuals and society.
In the specification, there is a list of current public health challenges, such as: child dental health, heart disease/stroke, alcohol consumption and physical activity. All of the challenges named can impact on society as a whole and on the individuals that are affected by them.
Topic area 1: current challenges and campaigns
Students are expected to discuss specific public health challenges (as directed by the set assignment – Teach Cambridge login needed), provide an explanation of why they have chosen the challenge and explain why it is important to address it. They will need to conduct independent research about the challenge and the impacts on society, and explain how addressing the challenge would lead to a healthier society. The use of specific references and statistics may be useful, and any information sourced should be referenced appropriately.
An example of a health challenge taken from the candidate style work (Teach Cambridge login needed) is cancer. This resource shows an attempt an addressing why the challenge has been chosen and the impact on society. It is useful as it serves as a guide on how to tackle the marking of this section and the unit as a whole. The commentary connected to the candidate-style work gives useful guidance on how to move the candidate-style work up from MB2 to MB3.
Students should have freedom to research and should not be given over-guidance on what to research. If students understand that campaigns are set up through different organisations such as the NHS, WHO and charities then this will give them the independence to conduct their own research. It is important that students ensure that any research is referenced correctly. Public Health England has a lot of useful information and resources.
Topic Area 2: factors affecting health
In this topic area, work should be focused on the target audience, discussing the factors and barriers that influence the health and wellbeing of individuals as well as the benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle. There should be a description of at least two factors that affect the health and wellbeing of an individual from the four areas below:
- Lifestyle choices
- Health
- Education and socio-economic
- Access to health services
Students should then consider the potential barriers to individuals leading a healthy lifestyle, remembering to make it relevant to the target audience. At least two barriers should be discussed to meet the plural rule.
Finally, the benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle should be considered. Students should discuss the ways individuals lead a healthy lifestyle and the benefits this would have to them. Synoptic assessment to R033 can be made here, but there does not need to be reference to this in candidates’ work.
Topic Area 3: plan and create a health promotion campaign
Campaigns will need to be well thought out and well planned. Students may want to consider the aims and the intention of the campaign. The templates provided, with the set assignment, could be used to help focus ideas and ensure all aspects of the criteria are met (or students could create their own).
Students may want to include justification to each section as to why it is planned that way. For example, what methods are going to be used to engage the target audience? Why have they chosen the method they have? How will that engage the audience? All work should be written in the students’ own words.
Students will need to produce the content of the campaign and be ready to deliver it, along with any other marketing resources to help aid the campaign. Consideration on how to obtain feedback from the audience will be made, and an appropriate method prepared.
Topic Area 4: deliver and evaluate campaign
Before students deliver their campaign, they may want to consider how they will address the audience, how they will convey the intention of the campaign and what communication skills they will use to be effective in persuading the audience.
Students must make sure they cover all aspects of the campaign during delivery. As a guide it should last for about 10-20 minutes. They should make sure they collect feedback from the audience and that a teacher observation record is filled out.
Students will use feedback as well as their own self-reflection to decide the strengths and weaknesses of their campaign. They can then use this information to help them decide on future improvements and reflect on what they could do differently, suggesting ideas on how they could improve next time. This must be done as a written task.
The observation record and any relevant additional evidence, such as the audience feedback sheet, photos and videos should be sent to OCR with the candidates’ work.
More information
This useful scheme of work can provide further guidance on planning the unit.
Please also see a similar blog written by subject advisors Sarah Ash and Sarah Millington on tackling the compulsory unit, R033.
Stay connected
If you have any questions, you can email us at OCRHealthandSocialCare@ocr.org.uk, call us on 01223 553998 or tweet us @OCR_Health. You can also sign up to subject updates and receive information about resources and support.
About the author
Rebecca is a new member of the Health and Social Care and Child Development subject advisor team. Before joining OCR, she taught in an all-girls secondary school in Birmingham for 19 years. She taught a variety of subjects, including Health and Social Care, PSHE, PE, Sport and Dance and has a particular interest in Health and Wellbeing.
Related blog