Graduate Diploma in Residential Work (Children's)

30 credits

This module explores the history, context, and current challenges of Residential Care and similar settings. You will critically reflect on what has brought you into the work, what your motivations and experiences are in the sector, and how these play out in your practice in the home, both with the children, your team, and other professionals. Together you will explore what brought you into this work and what it means for you collectively to be working as part of a team supporting children in a children's home (or similar setting).

The module explores 'care versus control' narratives in the social care sector and in the institutions and systems that contextualise children's lives in a children's home (or similar setting), and introduces social pedagogy as a value base for your work. Knowledge of what has brought the children to the home, and of the wider systems and structures of care, allows you to critique practice and to develop professional confidence and assertiveness in advocating for children and young people.

30 credits

This module provides you with the breadth and depth of knowledge of abuse, neglect and trauma that you need for working with children in Residential Care and similar settings. You will gain knowledge of different kinds of abuse and their impacts on children and young people, focusing on harm inside and outside the home, such as sexual exploitation and county lines activity. You will build on your introduction to social pedagogy in The Big Picture to consider how as a holistic approach to wellbeing it can be used to understand children and families' experiences of abuse, neglect, and trauma.

You will explore environmental and social factors within which harms occur, and the relationship between these contextual factors, the harms, their impacts and professional responses. You will apply your learning from The Big Picture when considering the social context in which harm is caused to young people. The module will teach you safeguarding and support remits, roles and responsibilities, and you will critically reflect and apply your knowledge from this module to your learning and skills development across the other modules.

30 credits

This module equips you with Social Pedagogy theories, approaches and tools for working with children and young people in Residential Care and similar settings. The module develops knowledge and applied skill in trauma-informed approach and relationship-based practice, including tools such as Motivational Interviewing Techniques. The module gives you the knowledge, skills and confidence to work therapeutically with children and young people as a Social Pedagogy Practitioner (qualifying at Level 6). You will apply knowledge from The Big Picture to critically consider the context in which you are working therapeutically with children who have experienced trauma, and will practise your skills in these therapeutic methods both individually and with your peers on the course.

You will also apply your understanding from The Hard Stuff to your skills practice on this module, demonstrating how your contextualised knowledge of abuse, neglect and developmental trauma, factor into therapeutic decisions about how best to approach healing opportunities for children in residential care and similar settings. You will develop your ability to ‘reflect-in-action' in order to hone skills in adapting therapeutic techniques in response to children's needs.

30 credits

This module provides you with knowledge of children's laws, rights, regulations and policies, and the skill and professional confidence to apply this for the benefit of young people you work with in residential care and similar settings. You will develop a working knowledge of children's health, education and social care rights, with the assertive acumen to advocate for them within the systems that you, they, and the home (or similar setting) find yourselves. You will apply knowledge gained from The Big Picture to critically analyse children and young people's experiences within the policy and legal context of Residential Care and similar settings, practising your advocacy role within this system.

Social Pedagogy values and approaches will form the ethical basis of this knowledge application, and you will practise your skills in speaking up for yourself, your profession, your organisation, and most importantly – the children and young people you're charged with looking after and advocating for. You will use knowledge and skill from the other modules to explore how to put your professional expertise into practice in professional networks as a Social Pedagogy Practitioner.

30 credits

This module will give you skills, knowledge and confidence to lead a children's home or similar setting, grounded in understanding of what it is to be a leader. You will explore different leadership styles, approaches and theories to find your own voice as a leader and registered manager. Using social pedagogy approaches and ethos, you will develop professional leadership in order to guide the home, your team, and positive outcomes for the children, young people, and young adults you work with.

You will develop a working knowledge of all the regulatory requirements and responsibilities of a registered manager, with a strong focus on exercising these with relational leadership skill and critical awareness of the wider context of your work within residential care or similar settings.

Knowing your own drivers and what led you to this work, understanding your team's motivations, and empathising with young people's lived experiences will allow you to lead with skill and professional confidence. This module will equip you with professional confidence to lead as a Social Pedagogy Practitioner.