King's College London

Our unique Health and Social Care Policy MSc will equip you with the necessary skills and knowledge to develop and deliver policy in health and social care. You’ll learn from a programme that balances cutting-edge insights into the policy-making process with real-world experience from clinical settings around the world.

This master’s in health and social care policy is jointly delivered by the School for Government and the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care, which means you’ll get a rigorous education in how to think about policy across healthcare, social care and public health in a joined-up and integrated way.

You’ll graduate with a variety of knowledge and skills that will be invaluable in your future careers, including the ability to critique health and social care policy using evidence-based approaches and to propose solutions to existing challenges. You’ll also demonstrate your advanced research skills by producing a dissertation.

This MSc in health and social care policy is for anyone interested in policy-making or the clinical sector at a local, national, or global level. You’ll be taught in small groups to encourage debate alongside your in-depth study of case studies.

It’s delivered in partnership by the School for Government and the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care. This partnership means you’ll get access to cutting-edge insights into the health and social care policy-making process alongside practical, real-world experience from clinical settings.

Half of your Health and Social Care Policy MSc curriculum comprises five required modules that will give you specific insights into essential aspects of this field of study. You’ll begin by learning all about the history of health and social care and why it’s so important to consider both at the same time before critically analysing political policy shifts to get a deeper understanding of England’s health and social care systems.

Another required module will help you to understand and compare global health systems, as complex entities that are made up of multiple priorities and functions that include financing, infrastructure, technologies, information, workforce and governance.

Your understanding of policy implementation in the development and delivery of health and social care services will be strengthened with another required module. You’ll study real-world scenarios to discover how culture, population needs, resources and national policies have influenced health and social care development and delivery before taking another required module on approaches to policymaking.

This master’s in health and social care policy will also teach you about health economics, with a required module that examines the demand and supply of health and social care and how the two forms of provision are interconnected. You’ll look at the role of markets in health and social care provision, learn how to evaluate through value for money and cost-benefit analysis and develop the tools to critically assess the merits and critiques of different models of delivery.

The rest of your syllabus is up to you, as you’ll get to choose three modules from the field of health and social care policy. For example, you might choose to explore behavioural science, policy analytics, or communications media and public policy — or you might want to learn how to evaluate the impact of policy and how to trial and analyse policies before deciding what to extrapolate further.

Your Health and Social Care Policy MSc will culminate in a research-based dissertation that specialises in quality improvement.

You’ll find plenty of opportunities to enhance your education, including the chance to delve into the King’s archives to investigate the history of the NHS or engage with renowned guest lectures across a broad range of modules. You may also be invited to visit an inner-city hospital to see the real-world contexts in which some policy decisions are implemented and service development designs are made.

Throughout this MSc programme, you’ll gain and strengthen a range of relevant and transferable skills. For example, you’ll discover how to build, understand and critique the evidence base around a health and social care policy and how to apply critical thinking, statistical and analytical skills to contemporary health and social care policy challenges.

You’ll learn practical policy-making skills and develop an understanding of health and social care policy across international jurisdictions, governments and other agencies and systems. This Health and Social Care Policy MSc will also give you an understanding of the integration - and lack thereof - between health and social care policy and the tools to influence this.

This master’s runs in parallel with a programme for Officials in the UK Department for Health and Social Care, presenting the opportunity to learn from students who have professional experience at the forefront of policy-making in health and social care — and grow your professional network.