LEVEL 5 DIPLOMA IN LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT FOR RESIDENTIAL CHILDCARE
Highfields Qualifications
LEVEL 5 DIPLOMA IN LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT FOR RESIDENTIAL CHILDCARE
Highfields Qualifications | Delivered by The Care Revolution
The Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare is the required qualification for registered managers of children's residential homes. It is a significant undertaking, and at The Care Revolution we take it seriously. Not just as a qualification to complete, but as a genuine development journey for the people who hold some of the most demanding and important leadership roles in social care.
Our Level 5 delivery is built around the same values and principles that run through everything we do. It is relational, reflective and rooted in the realities of leading a residential home. We do not deliver generic leadership content with a residential care label attached. Every unit, every workshop and every assessment task is shaped by the operational knowledge and lived experience of our tutors, who have themselves held registered manager and responsible individual roles.
AT A GLANCE
Awarding body: Highfields Qualifications
Qualification number: 601/5372/6
Level: Level 5 (RQF)
Total credits: 65
Total qualification time: 650 hours
Guided learning hours: 488 hours
Assessment: Portfolio of evidence
Funding: This is a privately funded qualification
Entry requirement: Must be working, volunteering or on practical placement in a management or leadership role 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
Regulatory requirement: This qualification meets the requirements for registered manager status under the Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015
QUALIFICATION OBJECTIVE
This qualification is designed to support the role of leaders and managers in children's residential care. It is a combined knowledge and competency qualification, covering both the theoretical and practical dimensions of managing a residential home, leading a team, safeguarding children, and driving positive outcomes. It is the required qualification for those holding or aspiring to registered manager status and is recognised as formal occupational competence at Level 5.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Our delivery covers all mandatory and optional units through a trauma informed, PACE embedded framework that reflects the real demands of residential childcare leadership.
Core areas of learning include:
Understanding children's development in residential childcare and the leadership implications for how a home is shaped and led.
Leading and managing a team within a residential childcare setting, including supervision, performance, culture and professional development.
Leading practice to support the safeguarding and protection of children, including understanding high risk situations and implementing robust policies and procedures.
Communication and information management at a leadership level, including record keeping, information governance and multi-agency working.
Managing risk in residential childcare in a way that is proportionate, trauma informed and child centred.
Leading and managing group living, including the dynamics of a shared home environment and how leadership shapes the culture children experience every day.
Leading a service that supports children who have experienced harm or abuse, with a focus on relational, therapeutic leadership.
Leading practice to achieve positive outcomes for children, including in education, health, wellbeing and preparation for adulthood.
Promoting wellbeing and resilience in children through leadership that models the same values it asks of the team.
Optional units are chosen in discussion with your tutor based on your specific role, your home and your leadership context.
UNITS
Understand children and young people's development in residential childcare
Understand support for children and young people who are vulnerable and disadvantaged
Lead and manage a team within a residential childcare setting
Lead practice to support the safeguarding and protection of children and young people in residential childcare
Lead practice for communication and information management in residential childcare settings
Manage risk in residential childcare Lead and manage group living in residential childcare
Lead a service that can support children or young people who have experienced harm or abuse
Lead practice to achieve positive outcomes for children and young people in residential childcare
Lead practice to support the wellbeing and resilience of children and young people in residential childcare
Lead practice in the safe use of digital, internet and mobile technology with children and young people
Lead practice that supports positive behaviour in residential childcare
Lead and manage the provision of care for children and young people in residential childcare
Promote professional development in residential childcare
Champion equality, diversity and inclusion in residential childcare
Manage the supervision and performance of workers in residential childcare
Lead and manage multi-agency working in residential childcare
HOW WE DELIVER IT
Leadership in residential childcare is unlike leadership anywhere else. The complexity of the children, the regulatory environment, the responsibility for a team, the relationship with Ofsted, and the weight of being the one who holds it all together. These are not things you learn from a textbook. Our Level 5 delivery acknowledges all of this and creates space for leaders to grow in a way that feels honest, supported and genuinely useful.
Our workshops are group led and delivered face to face, at your home or ours, wherever works best. Sessions bring leaders together to explore, reflect and challenge, because we know that some of the most powerful learning happens in conversation with others who are living the same experience.
Our delivery is underpinned by DDP and PACE throughout. We believe that the best leaders in residential childcare are those who understand themselves, understand their team, and deeply understand the children in their care. Our Level 5 programme is designed to develop exactly that.
LEARNING STYLE
There are no exams. Assessment is portfolio based, drawing on real workplace evidence, reflective accounts, professional discussions and observations of practice. Learners work through the qualification alongside their day to day leadership role, and everything they submit should reflect their actual practice in their actual home.
One to one support from an experienced tutor and assessor is available throughout. Our tutors are not just academically qualified. They have led homes, managed Ofsted inspections, built teams and supported children through some of the most difficult chapters of their lives. That experience is present in every session and every conversation.
WHO THIS IS FOR
This qualification is for registered managers, deputy managers, senior practitioners and those working towards a management role in a children's residential home. It is the required qualification for registered manager status under the Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and a strong foundation for those who want to lead with confidence, knowledge and values.
