Work with Parents qualifications and training courses

Last Updated: 09 Jul 2019

Get the skills you need to work effectively with parents, helping them to understand their role and meet their children's social, emotional, intellectual and physical needs in family life.

Awards and Certificates in Work with Parents can help you start a career, develop your role and continue your professional development.

An Award or Certificate in Work with Parents is for anybody supporting and working with parents and children.

There are options to suit every level of experience - whether you're looking for a first job, developing your career or already working as a manager for a parent support service.

Available to deliver in the following:

England
Wales – please check QiW website for available funding
Scotland
Northern Ireland

Interested in delivering this qualification?

Find out more about how to become an approved City & Guilds centre or fill out our online customer application form.

General Information

What Is Involved In Studying This Course?

Depending on your level, you'll cover subjects like:

building relationships with parents
working with parents to meet their children's needs
engaging parents in their children's learning
working with groups of parents.

For an Award or Certificate in Work with Parents your centre will put together your learning programme.

You'll be assessed on a portfolio of evidence that you gather during the qualification. If you choose unit 310 Preparing to Teach in the Life Long Learning Sector, you'll also be assessed as you deliver a micro teaching session and complete an assignment.

Which level is right for me?

Level 2
You're looking to start a career in work with parents. You may have some experience - perhaps you're a parent yourself, you've been through parenting courses and are now a parenting mentor. You might also work as part of a team, supporting someone delivering services to parents.

Level 3
You deliver frontline services to parents/carers in children's centres or extended schools.

Level 4
You are a manager or potential manager delivering parenting services. You want to further your skills and develop a particular area of your role.

What Careers Can This Lead To?

An Award or Certificate in Work with Parents can help you start your career in the work with parents sector or progress within the industry.

You can use these qualifications to work with parents in roles like:

Parent liaison officer
Home school support advisor
Parent support advisor
Parenting group leader/Facilitator
Parenting support/Home visitor
Senior support worker
Child care practitioner
Family support worker
Health visitor
Social worker.

To help develop your career working with parents and children, you might also be interested in other qualifications such as:

Level 4 Higher Level Study Skills (4464)
Level 3 or 4 S/NVQ Children's Care, Learning and Development (3171/4)
Level 3 or 4 NVQ in Health and Social Care - Children and Young People pathway (3172).

Leadership and management courses to help you move forward with your career are also available through our sister organisation ILM.

What Is Involved With Delivering This Course?

To deliver these qualifications you will need suitably qualified staff to carry out training and assessment. You will also need suitable facilities to carry out the required training to enable learners to achieve industry standards.

If your learners choose unit 310 Preparing to Teach in the Life Long Learning Sector, you'll assess them as they deliver a micro teaching session and complete an assignment.

You can get fast-track approval if you offer:

Award/Certificate in Work with Parents (3598)
Level 2 Certificate in Children's Care, Learning and Development (3177-02)
Level 3 Certificate in Children's Care, Learning and Development (3177-03)
Level 3 Certificate in Work with Children (3596-03)
Level 2 N/SVQ in Children's Care, Learning and Development (3171-02)
Level 3 N/SVQ in Children's Care, Learning and Development (3171-03)
Level 3 N/SVQ in Health and Social Care - Children and Young People pathway (3172-32)
Level 3 NVQ in Community Development Work (3057-03)
Level 4 NVQ in Health and Social Care - Children and Young People pathway (3172-42)
Level 4 NVQ in Community Development Work (3057-04).

These qualifications are not approved for use by candidates under the age of 16. Restrictions apply to candidates under the age of 18 working unsupervised with children.

To find all the resource requirements, download the qualification handbook from the centre documents section.

Any adult learner can take this qualification, but you must make sure all your learners can access the resources they need to complete it.

Level 3

Level 3 will suit you if you deliver frontline services to parents and carers in children's centres or extended schools.

There are two qualifications available at this level:

Level 3 Award in Work with Parents
Level 3 Certificate in Work with Parents.

To gain the award, you need to gain 12 credits from a range of units, including:

Build and maintain relationships in work with parents (core unit: 6 credits).
Enable parents to reflect on the influences in parenting and the parent-child relationship (3 credits)
Provide environments that are sensitive to the culture, religion, gender or disability of the parents (3 credits).

To achieve the longer certificate, you must achieve 30 credits from a range of units that have been grouped into core units (A and B) and optional units (C), at Levels 2 and 3. Units include:

Build and maintain relationships in work with parents (core unit: 6 credits).
Work with parents to meet their children's needs (core unit: 3 credits)
Enable parents to reflect on the influences in parenting and the parent-child relationship (core unit: 6 credits)
Support parents to gain knowledge and access information and services (optional unit: 3 credits)
Build and maintain relationships with the wider community (optional unit: 3 credits).

Full unit details are available within the qualification handbook.

What Careers Can This Lead To?

An Award or Certificate in Work with Parents can help you start your career in the work with parents sector or progress within the industry.

You can use these qualifications to work with parents in roles like:

Parent liaison officer
Home school support advisor
Parent support advisor
Parenting group leader/Facilitator
Parenting support/Home visitor
Senior support worker
Child care practitioner
Family support worker
Health visitor
Social worker.

To help develop your career working with parents and children, you might also be interested in other qualifications such as:

Level 4 Higher Level Study Skills (4464)
Level 3 or 4 S/NVQ Children's Care, Learning and Development (3171/4)
Level 3 or 4 NVQ in Health and Social Care - Children and Young People pathway (3172).

Leadership and management courses to help you move forward with your career are also available through our sister organisation ILM.

Level 3 Award in Work with Parents (3599-02)

Last Registration Date: 28 Feb 2021

Level 3 Award in Work with Parents

Accreditation No: 500/5990/7 This is a reference number related to UK accreditation framework
Type: Credit based qualification This is categorisation to help define qualification attributes e.g. type of assessment
Credits: 12 Credits are a measure of the size of the qualification
Guided Learning Hours: 50 - 70 This is the average contact time a centre would typically commit
Total Qualification Time: 120 The total time for the qualification
Key Stage: Data unavailable This shows the equivalent Key Stage level.
Last Certification: 28/02/2024 This is the last date that a certificate can be issued
Qualification fees in the UK: TBC, please speak to your Account Manager for further information Our typical price is the one that is most often paid by a centre for a completed learner. Some prices are made up of multiple charging points so action like taking difference units or specialisms to complete and resitting assessments may mean the cost for some learners differs.

Level 3 Certificate in Work with Parents (3599-03)

Last Registration Date: 28 Feb 2021 Supportive services: Learning Assistant

Level 3 Certificate in Work with Parents

Accreditation No: 500/5988/9 This is a reference number related to UK accreditation framework
Type: Credit based qualification This is categorisation to help define qualification attributes e.g. type of assessment
Credits: 30 Credits are a measure of the size of the qualification
Guided Learning Hours: 140 - 170 This is the average contact time a centre would typically commit
Total Qualification Time: 300 The total time for the qualification
Key Stage: Data unavailable This shows the equivalent Key Stage level.
Last Certification: 28/02/2024 This is the last date that a certificate can be issued
Qualification fees in the UK: TBC, please speak to your Account Manager for further information Our typical price is the one that is most often paid by a centre for a completed learner. Some prices are made up of multiple charging points so action like taking difference units or specialisms to complete and resitting assessments may mean the cost for some learners differs.

Level 3 Certificate in Work with Parents - Parent Support Adviser Pathway (3599-05)

Last Registration Date: 28 Feb 2021

Level 3 Certificate in Work with Parents - Parent Support Adviser Pathway

Accreditation No: 500/5988/9 This is a reference number related to UK accreditation framework
Type: Credit based qualification This is categorisation to help define qualification attributes e.g. type of assessment
Credits: 30 Credits are a measure of the size of the qualification
Guided Learning Hours: 140 - 170 This is the average contact time a centre would typically commit
Total Qualification Time: 300 The total time for the qualification
Key Stage: Data unavailable This shows the equivalent Key Stage level.
Last Certification: 28/02/2024 This is the last date that a certificate can be issued
Qualification fees in the UK: TBC, please speak to your Account Manager for further information Our typical price is the one that is most often paid by a centre for a completed learner. Some prices are made up of multiple charging points so action like taking difference units or specialisms to complete and resitting assessments may mean the cost for some learners differs.

Level 4

The Level 4 Award in Work with Parents is ideal if you are a manager or potential manager delivering parenting services. You want to continue your professional development.

This level is comprised of one core unit:

Build and maintain relationships in work with parents (6 credits).

Full unit details are available within the qualification handbook.

What Careers Can This Lead To?

An Award or Certificate in Work with Parents can help you start your career in the work with parents sector or progress within the industry.

You can use these qualifications to work with parents in roles like:

Parent liaison officer
Home school support advisor
Parent support advisor
Parenting group leader/Facilitator
Parenting support/Home visitor
Senior support worker
Child care practitioner
Family support worker
Health visitor
Social worker.

To help develop your career working with parents and children, you might also be interested in other qualifications such as:

Level 4 Higher Level Study Skills (4464)
Level 3 or 4 S/NVQ Children's Care, Learning and Development (3171/4)
Level 3 or 4 NVQ in Health and Social Care - Children and Young People pathway (3172).

Leadership and management courses to help you move forward with your career are also available through our sister organisation ILM.

Level 4 Award in Work with Parents (3599-04)

Last Registration Date: 28 Feb 2021

Level 4 Award in Work with Parents

Accreditation No: 500/5984/1 This is a reference number related to UK accreditation framework
Type: Credit based qualification This is categorisation to help define qualification attributes e.g. type of assessment
Credits: 6 Credits are a measure of the size of the qualification
Guided Learning Hours: 24 - 24 This is the average contact time a centre would typically commit
Total Qualification Time: 60 The total time for the qualification
Key Stage: Data unavailable This shows the equivalent Key Stage level.
Last Certification: 28/02/2024 This is the last date that a certificate can be issued
Qualification fees in the UK: TBC, please speak to your Account Manager for further information Our typical price is the one that is most often paid by a centre for a completed learner. Some prices are made up of multiple charging points so action like taking difference units or specialisms to complete and resitting assessments may mean the cost for some learners differs.

Additional information for centres

LEARNING ASSISTANT IS AVAILABLE FOR THIS QUALIFICATION

Learning Assistant is an innovative and cost effective e-portfolio solution that allows colleges and training providers to dramatically improve the delivery of their vocational qualifications.

Learn more about Learning Assistant >

Here you can find all documents related to this suite of qualifications.

By clicking on the section headings below, you can access a variety of documents such as the qualification handbooks and assessment materials, Statements of Purpose, and recognition letters from industry and employers.

Some documents may be password protected. Passwords can be retrieved by logging in to Walled Garden and visiting the Administration section of the relevant qualification catalogue page.

Interested in delivering this qualification?

Find out more about how to become an approved City & Guilds centre or fill out our online customer application form.

Work with Parents (3599)