LEVEL 3 DIPLOMA IN RESIDENTIAL CHILDCARE
Highfields Qualifications
LEVEL 3 DIPLOMA IN RESIDENTIAL CHILDCARE
Highfields Qualifications
The Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare is the nationally recognised and required qualification for care practitioners working in children's residential homes. At The Care Revolution, we have completely reimagined how this qualification is delivered because we know from lived experience that the way it has traditionally been taught has not always served the people doing the most important job in the room.
We rebuilt this qualification from the ground up. Our delivery is structured around four core modules that break down the qualification criteria in a way that is accessible, meaningful and directly connected to the realities of residential care. Rather than generic written tasks that feel disconnected from the role, our learners submit evidence drawn from their actual practice. The qualification becomes something that makes them better at their job, not something that sits alongside it.
AT A GLANCE
Awarding body: Highfields Qualifications
Qualification number: 601/5369/6
Level: Level 3 (RQF)
Total credits: 61
Total qualification time: 610 hours
Guided learning hours: 466 hours
Assessment: Portfolio of evidence
Funding: This is a privately funded qualification
Entry requirement: Must be working, volunteering or on practical placement within a residential childcare setting in England
Minimum age: 19 years and above
Delivery: Face to face group workshops at your home or ours, with one to one tutor support throughout
QUALIFICATION OBJECTIVE
This qualification supports the role of a residential childcare worker within children and young people's residential childcare services. It is the required qualification for care practitioners under the Children's Homes (England) Regulations and is a combined knowledge and competency qualification, meaning learners develop both the theoretical understanding and the practical skills needed for the role.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Our delivery covers all mandatory and optional units, taught through a trauma informed, PACE embedded framework that is grounded in the realities of residential care. Core areas of learning include:
The development of children in residential childcare settings and what this means in practice for the adults caring for them.
How to safeguard and protect children in residential care, including contextual safeguarding, child criminal exploitation, child sexual exploitation and radicalisation.
How to support children who have experienced harm or abuse, with a specific focus on trauma informed, relational responses.
Effective communication and information handling in residential childcare settings, including record keeping and meaningful documentation.Risk management, assessment and planning within a residential care context.
Supporting group living in a way that is nurturing, boundaried and child centred.
Promoting positive outcomes for children in residential care, including education, health and wellbeing.
Rights, diversity and equality in residential childcare.
Optional units are selected in discussion with your tutor and assessor based on your role, your home and the children you work with, so that the qualification reflects your actual practice.
MANDATORY UNITS
Understand the development of children in residential childcare
Understand how to safeguard and protect children in residential childcare
Understand how to support children who have experienced harm or abuse
Promote effective communication and information handling in residential childcare settings
Support risk management in residential childcare
Support assessment and planning in residential childcare
Understand how to support positive outcomes for children in residential childcare
Support group living in residential childcare
Promote the rights, diversity and equality of children in residential childcare
Understand the legislative and regulatory framework for residential childcare
Develop as a worker in residential childcare
Promote the wellbeing of children in residential childcare
Understand the role of the key worker in residential childcare
Support children in residential childcare to prepare for adulthood
Support children in residential childcare with their health needs
Maintain safe environments in residential childcare
HOW WE DELIVER IT
Everything about the way we deliver this qualification is shaped by who we are and what we believe. Our workshops are group led and delivered face to face, at your home or ours, wherever works best for your team. Sessions are learner led. We follow the energy, the questions and the experiences in the room, because we know that the richest learning happens when people feel safe enough to bring their real selves to the conversation.
Every aspect of our delivery is underpinned by DDP principles and the PACE model. Trauma informed practice is not a module we cover and move on from. It is the lens through which everything is taught, explored and assessed.
Our assessors and tutors are former Registered Managers and Responsible Individuals. We have held the roles your team hold. We have managed the homes, navigated the pressures, and supported the children. We understand what care practitioners need from a qualification because we have been through it ourselves, and we have watched too many talented, committed people leave the industry because the qualification deterred them rather than inspired them. That is what we are here to change.
LEARNING STYLE
Our delivery is designed to feel nothing like a classroom. Learners work through the qualification via a combination of face to face group workshops, one to one sessions with their tutor and assessor, case study discussions, reflective accounts and practice based evidence. There are no exams. Assessment is portfolio based, drawing on real workplace evidence so that what learners submit is connected to the children they actually work with and the home they actually work in.
We offer flexible support throughout the qualification and our tutors are accessible, responsive and genuinely invested in every learner completing with confidence.
