Qualification Options

  • Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care (England)

The NEW Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care  (England) is a competence based qualification which has been designed to meet the Skills for Care qualification criteria. City & Guilds conducted additional consultation with employers and assessment centres during the development of the qualification. This Level 3 Diploma is designed to be assessed in your place of work, as part of your normal work role.

The qualification covers the knowledge and skills required to work in lead adult care worker roles, where workers have key responsibilities for delivery of care and support and/or a level of supervisory responsibility for others. Such as; Lead Adult Care Worker, Lead Personal Assistant, Key Worker, Domiciliary Care Worker, Senior Care Assistant and Support Worker - in a range of settings. This qualification enables learners to demonstrate and develop the skills and knowledge required within a role which has some autonomy, delegated responsibility or where there may be a need for supervision of others.

Consisting of mandatory units, covering core knowledge and skills competencies, plus a number of optional specialism units, this qualification can be tailored in flexible ways to reflect the real working context of each learner and their work setting.

Age Group – 16 or older

The NEW Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care is a competence-based qualification for individuals who work in Adult Care and is designed to be assessed in your place of work, as part of your normal work role.

This is an occupational qualification for learners who work in Adult Care Settings in England, and is applicable to a variety of roles, where workers have key responsibilities for delivery of care and support and/or a level of supervisory responsibility for others such as:

• Lead Adult Care Worker
• Lead Personal Assistant
• Key Worker
• Domiciliary Care Worker
• Senior Care Assistant
• Support Worker

The qualification is structured in a way which means that all learners will have to complete a group of 15 mandatory units, which cover core knowledge and skills competencies, and are appropriate across many leadership roles in adult care. The content of the mandatory units covers person-centred approaches, communication, personal development, equality and inclusion, handling information, duty of care, responsibilities of the role, safeguarding, and health, safety and wellbeing.

In addition there is a range of optional units which can be combined in flexible ways to reflect the real working context of different learners.  The optional units support areas of specialism, including:

  • Learning disability services
  • End of life Care
  • Clinical Skills
  • Residential Care
  • Domiciliary Care
  • End of life care support
  • Management skills
  • Study Skills

To achieve the City &Guilds Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care (England) learners must achieve a minimum of 58 credits
• 39 credits from the 15 Mandatory units
• A minimum of 19 credits from the optional units in group A and group B
• A maximum of 9 credits from the knowledge only units in group B
• A maximum of 9 credits from the Level 2 units

Full qualification guidance (England) – Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care 3096-31 (England) QHB V1.2 Oct 23

58 credits / 580 TQT

All learners vary on the timescale to complete their qualification.
When you register, you will be given a specified target date in which to achieve your qualification, you can complete your qualification sooner than the target date if you are able to submit work regularly and at a good pace. Specific target dates can be discussed and agreed with your Assessor.

Total Qualification Time (TQT) is set at 580 hrs, this is based on the average amount of time taken to achieve these qualifications, over an average completion period of 18-24 months.

Complete qualification (including Registration, Learner Pack, Assessment and Certification) prices start from:

• NEW Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care – £2766.00.

These prices are reduced significantly for learners and organisations with their own in-house assessor support.
Registration only from:

• NEW Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care – £766.00.

*ARC members benefit from reduced costs

*WDF funding has not yet been announced for this qualification, please contact us for more information*

WDF information

To register for any of these qualifications, you need to complete the necessary registration forms. This will prompt support for you to consider all the aspects involved in undertaking the qualification and ensure the right one is selected for you. You will also need to seek permission from your organisation to collect evidence in the workplace.

To find out more about registering please click here ‘How to Register’.

All ARC learner documentation is included in our learner portfolios, these can also be accessed via our ‘’Documentation, Guidance & Policies’ section in word and .pdf format.

Awarding Organisation guidance is available via the same page.