T Level Health and Science: Core Knowledge

The core is examined in writing, and the writing is nearly all scenarios: a situation in a care home, a clinic or a laboratory, and a decision that has to follow from a principle rather than from a rule learnt by heart. So that is what these ten questions are.

Two of them turn on the same underlying idea from opposite directions. A support worker asked to do a dressing they have not been trained for is being asked to work outside their competence, and the answer is to say so — not to watch it done once first, which is the option that feels reasonable and confers no competence at all. And when a manager is choosing between a respirator, a warning sign, a time limit and a substitute solvent, the hierarchy of control puts the substitute first precisely because it removes the hazard, while personal protective equipment comes last: it guards one person, only while worn correctly, and fails silently.

The safeguarding and confidentiality questions test the reporting line rather than the instinct. A concern goes to the designated lead, not to the colleague who might have noticed something similar, and not to the service user in the form of a direct question about abuse. Information may be shared without consent when there is a real risk of serious harm — a family member's worry is not that, however genuine.

The science questions follow the same pattern: blood glucose that rises after a meal and comes back down is negative feedback, which is what homeostasis means in practice, and the tempting alternatives are all real transport mechanisms that explain how glucose moves without explaining why it ends up where it started.

Every workplace and person here is invented. No question describes anyone in a way that implies a diagnosis, and none is medical advice. Nothing is reproduced from any awarding organisation's specification or assessment materials, and no clinical guideline is quoted.

Zestly is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with any awarding organisation, and it is not an exam centre.

• Recognise a request that falls outside your competence and say what the duty of care requires
• Rank control measures by the hierarchy of control, and explain why PPE sits last
• Act on a safeguarding concern through the correct reporting line rather than investigating it yourself
• State when information may lawfully be shared without consent, and when a third party's concern is not enough
• Identify which link in the chain of infection a stated precaution breaks, and choose PPE for the task described
• Recognise negative feedback as the mechanism behind a value that returns to a norm
• Classify a solution as a mixture, and say why a record is written at the time rather than afterwards

Fairholme Laboratory, an invented workplace, uses a solvent that gives off a harmful vapour when it is decanted. The manager is choosing between four measures. Which of them sits highest in the hierarchy of control, and why? — one of ten workplace scenarios written for this set.