What You’ll Gain As An Learner
Through expert teaching, quality resources and ongoing support from industry professionals, you will gain the skills, knowledge and behaviours needed to work with children, young people and their families in residential settings. You will also learn how to support children and young people with additional needs, like Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). With nearly 20 years of training expertise and a 99% learner success rate, we are your trusted partner in supporting your career growth and helping you empower young lives.
What You’ll Gain As An Employer
We provide expert teaching through quality resources and ongoing support to take your staff to the next level as they progress in their childcare career and learn how to support children and young people living with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and other additional needs, as well as their families. With nearly 20 years of training expertise and a 99% learner success rate, leave the teaching to us as we support the next generation of teaching professionals on their journey to empowering the lives of children and young people.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Level 4 Children, Young People and Families Practitioner (Residential) apprenticeship prepares You will support children and young people living in residential care settings and help to create safe, supportive environments that enable young people to achieve positive outcomes and long-term change in their lives. The programme develops the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to work effectively with children, young people and their families, whilst also building your professional practice within residential childcare.
This apprenticeship is ideal if you’re working in residential childcare or a related role and want to develop your professional skills further, or if you’re looking for your first role in residential childcare. Designed for individuals who want to deepen their understanding of residential care and make a meaningful different in young people’s lives, this programme is right for you if you’re passionate about helping children overcome challenges, build resilience and achieve positive outcomes.
The programme is designed for those already working in residential childcare roles, such as residential care workers, support workers or similar positions, as well as new staff members in these roles. You will need to apply your learning within your current job role and meet the programme modules through your work responsibilities. This ensures you can develop practical skills while gaining the knowledge needed to support children, young people and families more effectively.
This apprenticeship typically lasts around 18 months. During this time, you will complete a mix of face-to-face and online learning alongside your job role and must dedicate a minimum of six hours per week to off-the-job training. The programme finishes with an end-point assessment to demonstrate the knowledge, skills and behaviours you’ve developed.
You will learn how to support children, young people and their families to achieve positive outcomes in residential care. This includes developing person-centred care plans, safeguarding and protecting young people, supporting health and wellbeing, and understanding the care system. You will also build skills in communication, multi-agency working, professional development and reflective practice. The programme helps you link theory to real-life practice so you can provide effective support in residential childcare settings.
Off-the-job training is structured learning that takes place during your paid working hours but is separate from your normal day-to-day duties. You’re required to complete a minimum of six hours per week of this training to develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed for your apprenticeship. Activities can include online learning, workshops, research, mentoring and other development tasks relevant to your role.
You can also use our Learner Enrichment Calendar to help plan and log suitable off-the-job activities that count towards your training hours, giving you a variety of ways to grow your skills throughout the programme.
All off-the-job training hours must be recorded on your e-portfolio system, Aptem, to ensure your progress is tracked throughout your apprenticeship.
Once you’ve completed the Level 4 apprenticeship, you can continue to build your skills and progress your career within residential childcare and wider social care settings. A natural next step is to advance onto our Level 5 Children, Young People & Families Manager (Residential Pathway) apprenticeship.
This programme is designed for those looking to move into deputy manager or manager roles, developing the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to lead teams and manage others working with children, young people and families. It prepares you to take on greater responsibility, support positive outcomes and confidently manage social care colleagues across a range of settings.
Upon successful completion of the End-Point Assessment, you will achieve a Level 5 TQUK Diploma in Leadership and Management, supporting your progression into senior leadership roles within residential and wider social care environments.
For the learner, there is no cost.
For employers, the cost depends on whether you pay the apprenticeship levy:
- Levy-paying employers: You can use your apprenticeship levy funds to cover the full cost of the programme. These funds are accessed through your digital apprenticeship service account.
- Non-levy employers: The government will fund 95% of the training cost, meaning you only pay the remaining 5%. Based on the £6,000 funding band, this equates to just £300.
This makes apprenticeships a highly cost-effective way to develop your workforce, with the majority of training costs covered through government support.