Foot Health Practitioner Centre

Foot Health Practitioners care for and treat people’s feet. Stonebridge Associated College’s Foot Health Practitioner course gives you the opportunity to set up your own practice or you could choose to work for another practice. Working for yourself lets you change your working life to fit in with your needs. Great enjoyment and satisfaction can be gained from caring for others. The history of the medical profession stands testament to this. The Foot Health Practitioner Course covers the whole field of Foot Health, from leg and foot anatomy to ‘materia medica’, from dressings to autoclaves.

The Human Foot - An Intro

The human foot is one of the most complex and neglected of body parts. Every step we take places two and a half times our body weight on the 26 bones that make up each foot, and it has been estimated that we walk 3 times around the planet in a lifetime. However, the foot is highly sensitive and like any machine part suffers wear or damage when injured or stressed beyond its capability.

Here’s where you come in. Though there may be little wrong with a perfect, many circumstances prevent people from looking after their feet:

• Arthritis,
• Cataracts prevent them seeing what they are doing,
• Hip joints prevent them bending,
• Stiff knees put feet out of reach,
• Hands that are arthritic cannot control scissors or nippers.

The Foot Health Practitioner’s Clients

People who suffer from conditions that prevent them from looking after their feet need assistance with foot care - yet there may be nothing wrong with their feet. They have real need of someone they can trust to safely do for them whatever is necessary.

On the other hand, there are those who do have problems with their feet, from corns, calluses, verrucas, flat-foot and bunions to nail conditions and structural defects, many of which can be treated without surgery or medical intervention.

Some people just enjoy being pampered!

Active and fit individuals want to enjoy life to the maximum and seek optimum performance from their legs, feet and skeleton. They want informed advice and support to maintain themselves in good order and even to improve their performance further.

The Foot Health Practitioner’s Role

All of these people can be helped by a Foot Health Practitioner, a professional trained to deliver the care they need, safely and with understanding. Because the private sector practitioner is in a position to spend sufficient time with a client to address their needs fully, there can be considerable satisfaction for both parties. The Foot Health Practitioner is often able to visit a client in their own home. Alternatively, the practitioner might choose to provide a comfortable surgery in which the client can be seen under optimal conditions of position, lighting and cleanliness. Many offer both services. The opportunities are endless and we encourage all of our graduates to match their personal interests with the marketplace needs by taking the skills they have developed through the Foot Health Practitioner Course and setting up their own practice.

The Foot Health Practitioner course qualifies the Practitioner to set up and practice unlimited in Private Practice. We teach the necessary business skills and give you the confidence to make a success of your business.

As a professional you choose the hours you wish to work and make your appointments accordingly. Full-time or Part-time, you are in control and you decide how much or how little you wish to work.

There are several options for setting up in practice. You may elect to establish a Domiciliary Practice, visiting clients in the comfort of their own homes. Alternatively, you might arrange to visit supermarkets and factories to look after their staff, or Nursing Homes to care for their residents.

Your choice of private practice

Many choose to establish a Practice and work at home (subject to planning permission) or in rented premises, perhaps on the High Street. These options may be mixed in any combination to suit your personality, budget or local geography.

As a private practitioner you will find yourself working in a range of different environments. The work of a Foot Health Practitioner is so varied that you will often find yourself engaged in a whole variety of new and exciting environments.

Become a chiropodist/podiatrist

If you wish to increase your responsibilities and build your career, you could continue your education and training to become a chiropodist/podiatrist, earning up to £39,000+*/year. *Source: Payscale.com, Sept. 2012.

Student support

There is a genuine wish to see every person/trainee do well and make a go of it. You will be fully supported throughout the Course.

If you wish to establish yourself in a new profession you will appreciate that there is only one way to go about it - with a positive will. The Principals and Tutors have gone through this process and fully understand your needs and how it feels.

Stonebridge’s Foot Health Practitioners course not only gives you a complete grounding in foot anatomy, care and diagnosis but also provides you with the information and support you need to establish a successful practice.

Once qualified, you will receive a nationally recognised ABC award, as well as a Diploma, enabling you t o use the letters SAC. Dip. (Foot Health Practitioner) after your name.

There are various Career Professional Development (CPD) courses also offered to continue your learning journey.

On successful completion of your course, you will receive two certificates:

Certificate 1 is issued by Stonebridge Associated Colleges: Foot Health Practitioner Diploma

This allows you to use SAC Dip. (Foot Health Practitioner) after your name - a qualification that tells the public you are properly trained to a good working standard.

Certificate 2 is issued by our Awarding Body: Level 4 Foot Health Practitioner Certificate of Achievement

At the end of this course successful learners will receive a Certificate of Achievement by ABC Awards and a Learner Unit Summary (which lists the details of all the units you have completed as part of your course).

The course has been endorsed under the ABC Awards’ Quality Licence Scheme. This means that Stonebridge Associated Colleges have undergone an external quality check to ensure that the organisation and the courses it offers, meet certain quality criteria. The completion of this course alone does not lead to an Ofqual regulated qualification but may be used as evidence of knowledge and skills towards regulated qualifications in the future. The unit summary can be used as evidence towards Recognition of Prior Learning if you wish to progress your studies in this sector. To this end the learning outcomes of the course have been benchmarked at Level 4 against level descriptors published by Ofqual, to indicate the depth of study and level of difficulty involved in successful completion by the learner.

ABC Awards is a leading national Awarding Organisation, regulated by Ofqual, and the Welsh Government[1]. They have a comprehensive portfolio of over 650 Ofqual regulated qualifications on the national Qualifications and Credit framework (QCF). It has a long-established reputation for developing and awarding high quality vocational qualifications across a wide range of industries. As a registered charity, ABC Awards combines 180 years of examination and assessment expertise but also implements a responsive, flexible and innovative approach to the needs of our customers.

Renowned for excellent customer service, and quality standards, ABC Awards also offers over 600 Ofqual regulated qualifications for all ages and abilities post-14; all are developed with the support of relevant stakeholders to ensure that they meet the needs and standards of employers across the UK.

In order to qualify and practice as a SAC registered Foot Health Practitioner you will need to complete Stage 1 (theory) and one option from Stage 2 (practical training). On completion of both stages you will be able to practice competently as a fully registered Foot Health Practitioner.

All students must complete Stage 1 of the programme. This is the 12 lesson distance learning theory element of the programme which is completed entirely from the comfort of your own home without the need for you to attend the College. During this period all students will be assigned a personal tutor who can be contacted via phone, e-mail or in writing. Your personal tutor will be happy to deal with any queries you may have.

Once you have completed Stage 1, you will progress onto your chosen option for Stage 2.

Stage 2 contains two options. You can choose:

5 Clinical/Practical Days Training,
or
11 Clinical/Practical Days Training

When you decide to enrol you will elect which practical option you would like to complete in Stage 2 (the cost of the course varies in conjunction with which option you choose).

On completion of Stage 1 and one option from Stage 2 you will be able to practice competently as a fully registered Foot Health Practitioner. For more about choosing between a 5 day or 11 day practical click here

Once you have qualified, Stonebridge Foot Health School then offers a range of optional additional courses that you can complete for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) purposes. These courses are entirely optional and can be completed at your own pace. See CPD choices at the top of page

The Stonebridge Foot Health Faculty recognise that you will have different factors that influence your choice on the foot health training you would like to undertake, things like:

• Your family commitments,

• the amount off time you are able to take of work,

• the cost of the training,

• the depth of practical training you would like to receive and

• the number of real clients you would like to treat under instruction.

It is due to these factors that we offer you a choice with regards to the amount of practical training you can receive. However, regardless of whether you elect to do the 5 clinical day or the 11 clinical day course, we can guarantee you that upon completion of either, you will be able to secure professional indemnity insurance to start practicing as a Foot Health Practitioner and more importantly, that you will feel entirely comfortable and competent to do so.

With Stonebridge Foot Health School, the choice really is yours!

Yes, all of our students receive access to their own personal tutor who is available via phone and email to deal with any queries that you may have and to support you throughout your Foot Health Practitioner course.

Yes, if you want to qualify and practice as a SAC registered Foot Health Practitioner.

At Stonebridge Associated Colleges, whilst theoretical knowledge is considered essential to becoming a competent and successful Foot Health Practitioner, it is equally important to understand how the theory can be applied in practice.

Practical training provides the opportunity for students to apply the theory they have experienced during the first part of the course to “real-life” working situations and environments. The practical side should help you:

• Find solutions for real problems

• develop professional competence

• gain skills in handling equipment (such as scalpel and drill) and in treating people

• adopt and sustain ethical values and learn the norms of the professional life

• provide a sound base for your new career.

Stonebridge practical training acts as an extremely effective means of preparing students for the challenges they are likely to face in practice as well as allowing them to put their theory into practice in a safe, controlled and supervised environment.

The Foot Health faculty has two training clinics, one in Cornwall and one in the Midlands. Practical training is held in two of the College campuses, Bude and Birmingham. Both locations boast spacious modern Foot Health Clinics where students are taught in a professional learning environment by qualified tutors with up-to date equipment.

The prices of our Nationally Recognised Foot Health courses now include FREE* student accommodation [for Bude venue only], saving you up to £125 on your total training costs!

Bude

Stonebridge Associated Colleges Foot Health Faculty Bude:
Stonebridge House | Ocean View Road | Bude | EX23 8ST

Birmingham

Stonebridge Associated Colleges Foot Health Faculty Birmingham:
Ciba Building | 146 Hagley Road | Edgbaston | B16 9NX

Windsor

Stonebridge Associated Colleges Foot Health Faculty Windsor:
This location is coming soon

The Cornish College is situated in Bude, on the beautiful North Cornish coast it’s an ideal place for students to come and relax while they undertake their practical training. The Birmingham College is in the Ciba building in Edgbaston, so obviously more central and, like Windsor, well connected by rail, bus and road.

Colleges set up their own ‘alliance’ or registers for the benefit of their students. No one particular ‘alliance’ or register regulates the profession. You are not required to join our Register for Foot Health Practitioners (RFHP) in order to take advantage of our insurance, although we run and administer the Register of Foot Health Practitioners (RFHP), there is no legal requirement for you to belong to this or any other register or ‘alliance’.

Whilst at the College you are covered by the College’s own insurance policies. The College offers full insurance protection for the practice of all disciplines taught at the School.

When you are qualified as a SAC registered Foot Health Practitioner with your Level 4 Foot Health Practitioner Certificate of Achievement you will be able to secure insurance cover through our insurers. You will also be able to secure Malpractice, Public Liability and Product Liability insurance cover at a competitive rate. This will cover you to practice as a fully qualified and registered Foot Health Practitioner. For more information please contact us.

No there are not. The courses are available to all students from all academic backgrounds and there is no age barrier. We recognise that some students will have relevant experience, and that others will be new to medical matters. The College’s courses are designed to be understandable to the medically inexperienced, and yet contain material that will be new to those with previously gained medical knowledge.

The first part of the course is theory, comprises 12 modules which can be studied online or as a paper based course. you complete each module through study and test. Your tutor can offer help by email or phone if required. Each module has a test at the end which should be passed before proceeding to the next module. You go at the pace that suits you so it can take a few months or a couple of years depending on your pace.. There is a written assignment at the end of the 12 modules which enables you to demonstrate that you have learned your theory and this is assessed by the college. You are given feedback at the end of each module so you can see which areas need further work. Once you have passed the theory , you can commence the practical.

The practical part of the course takes 5 or 11 days and these are run throughout the year. Your place on any practical course can be pre-booked through the college by calling: 0845 230 6880. On completion of your Foot health Practitioner Course you will receive a nationally recognised award at a level of learning equivalent to level 4 on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, which is currently the highest equivalent level of accreditation for a Foot health Practitioner Course mapped to the NQF in the UK.

Stonebridge Career Professional Development (CPD) courses are entirely optional, and are for those students who wish to continue their foot care related studies, and to offer a wider range of services to their clients. You must have completed a recognised Foot Health practitioner Course in order to take a CPD course. A full range can be seen using the CPD button at the top of this page

At Stonebridge Associated Colleges, we do not believe in compulsory CPD. Once you have qualified with us and have joined the Register of Foot Health Professionals (RFHP), we will not require you to do any further CPD courses. There is no legal requirement to attend CPD in the UK for the FHP profession.

We do, however, run advanced short practical training courses in subjects such as Diabetes and Foot Care, Biomechanics and Reflexology etc. However, these courses are entirely optional, and you will not be required to do them. If you do decide to do an advanced course, you will be awarded with CPD points.