Working with Children and Families
Supported by employers and practitioners, you’ll complete hands-on learning, placements and accreditation to build a career making a difference in people’s lives.
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Key Course Details
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UCAS Code
C4N7
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Start Date
September
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Location
Newport
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Campus Code
C
Fees
Home students
£9,250*
International students
£16,200*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
The only Welsh university course endorsed by the Social Pedagogy Professional Association, providing you with sought-after skills, experience and credentials for a broad range of roles in schools, youth justice, social care, prevention and early intervention, and charities.
DESIGNED FOR
This course prepares you to meet the growing demand for professionals with a joined-up understanding of the complex issues children and families face, helping everyone to thrive. The degree opens diverse career paths that make a difference to the lives of children, young people and families.
Career Paths
- School Settings
- Children’s Charities
- Children’s Centres
- Social Care
Skills Taught
- Independent Working
- Collaboration
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Creativity
Course Highlights
Module Overview
You’ll gain a breadth of skills, experiences and perspectives. Placements are a real highlight for students. With relationships at the core, you’ll learn to see beyond behaviour and circumstances, working with partners to offer tailored, holistic, unconditional support to meet people’s unique needs and preferences.
Year one
Preparing for Placement
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Supporting Educational Engagement and Transitions
Communication, Counselling and Therapeutic Skills
Safeguarding
Introduction to Social Pedagogy Approaches
Year two
Social Policy and Understanding Key Legislation
Researching with Children and Young People
Social Pedagogy in Theory 1
Social Pedagogy in Placement 1
Family-Centred Practice
Positive Youth Justice
Adventure, Play, Games and Outdoor Learning
Year three
Social Pedagogy in Theory 2
Social Pedagogy in Placement 2
Dissertation
Child and Family Mental Health
Settle into university life and prepare for placement. Learn the fundamentals of safeguarding, communication and relationship skills and working with people who may be different from you. Explore what shapes a child’s first 1000 days and begin your Social Pedagogy Practitioner training.
Preparing for Placement
We guide you through employer expectations, applying theory and skills such as professional behaviour, effective communication and critical reflection on your experiences.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Hear first-hand lived experiences, from UK migrants to those supported by Little People UK, founded by actor Warwick Davis to help people with dwarfism.
Supporting Educational Engagement and Transitions
Explore the educational challenges and opportunities children face growing up, ways to boost their learning and how creativity helps their development.
Communication, Counselling and Therapeutic Skills
Gain communication and counselling skills, learn creative therapeutic tools for your practice and understand key theories behind these methods.
Safeguarding
Spot signs of harm, abuse and neglect, understand your professional responsibilities, and apply laws and policies to safeguard children, young people and vulnerable adults in social care.
Introduction to Social Pedagogy Approaches
A values-based approach that focuses on relationships to support people’s holistic development and wellbeing, regardless of their circumstances.
Opt for Adventure, Games, Play and Outdoor Learning or Positive Youth Justice modules. Gain 200 practice hours on placement, apply theory in the Social Pedagogy module, and deepen your understanding of relevant legislation. Learn research methods to get your dissertation ready.
Social Policy and Understanding Key Legislation
Learn how agencies meet needs in, social care, education, work, health and wellbeing. Plus laws, social change, social divisions and welfare rights.
Researching with Children and Young People
Learn various research methods for studying children and young people, explore ethical considerations, and understand research design and implementation.
Social Pedagogy in Theory 1
Learn social pedagogy concepts and how you can apply them on placement. You'll also perform an asset mapping exercise to evaluate community resources.
Social Pedagogy in Placement 1
Apply social pedagogy and non-formal learning in social care. You'll work on reflective practice, focusing on anti-oppressive methods and cultural significance.
Family-Centred Practice
Learn assessment approaches, models, and methods for working with children and families. Understand how to engage families in activities that support effective functioning.
Positive Youth Justice
Explore young people’s offending and related issues, such as school exclusion and social injustice. Gain an insight into youth justice practices, services and legislation.
Adventure, Play, Games and Outdoor Learning
Led by a Duke of Edinburgh instructor, build experience and skills to deliver outdoor learning activities that enhance learning experiences.
Study fewer modules in greater depth. Carry out independent research for your dissertation with your supervisor's support. Deepen your understanding of wellbeing and mental health. Continue practice-based learning with a new placement, gaining an additional 200 hours of experience.
Social Pedagogy in Theory 2
Develop skills in critical reflection, supervision, anti-oppressive practice and safeguarding. Learn to coach, mentor and supervise effectively in your practice.
Social Pedagogy in Placement 2
Build strong practitioner identities in social pedagogy, reflecting professional standards. Grow the leadership and management skills for ethical, safe practice.
Dissertation
Immerse yourself in the latest evidence in your research area, develop and evaluate relevant research activities, and support the ethical collection, analysis and presentation of findings.
Child and Family Mental Health
Examine what defines good mental health, assess risks and factors affecting it, reflect on the importance of interventions and interactions. Raise awareness and provide support.
Course Highlights
How you’ll learn
Learning and assessments are based on real-life situations. We blend lectures, tutorials and seminars with hands-on activities and placements so you can put your theory into practice. Reflecting on experiences with others is part of your growth so you learn to confidently adapt your approach to fit around the individual needs of children and families. We recognise each student has different starting points. That’s why we tailor our support to you, providing the scaffolding to help students step out of their comfort zone safely. Assessments include case study discussions, producing educational resources, reflective journals, reports, essays and presentations.
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Teaching staff
Our team come from diverse backgrounds including qualified youth workers, psychology and behavioural specialists, teachers and outdoor activity instructors. They each bring their experiences into the classroom and make sure your degree gives you the skills that employers need. Their rich employer connections mean you’ll benefit from day one and this will pay dividends when it comes to securing placements and roles that are right for you. We get to know our students, applying the same nurturing and supportive approach we use with the children and families we work with. We support their development, building on their strengths and aspirations.
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Placements
Placements give you experience of a wide range of strengths and challenges faced by children and families, and how to support them. Thanks to our strong employer networks, you will spend at least 400 hours in diverse settings ranging from working in prisons with families, children in care or at risk of exclusion, hospices, to homelessness, play, educational and substance misuse projects. You’ll receive strong support throughout, starting with preparing for placement in your first year. Our placement co-ordinator carefully matches you to a role reflecting your strengths and interests and identifies the right mentor to support your needs.
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Facilities
One advantage of our Newport City Campus location is that students can easily walk to various partner organisations for their placements. We’re right in the heart of Newport overlooking the River Usk with everything you’ll need on campus - a library, student union, plenty of study spaces and student accommodation just a few minutes away. The campus is well-connected by public transport and close to shops, restaurants, and cultural attractions, allowing you to enjoy student life and find opportunities for part-time work. Plus, we’re only 20 minutes from Cardiff.
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ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
UCAS Points: 88 (or above)
Typical qualification requirements:
- A Level: CCD to exclude General Studies
- Welsh BACC: Pass the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate Diploma with Grade C/D in the Skills Challenge Certificate and CD - CC at A Level to exclude General Studies.
- BTEC: Merit Merit Merit
- Access to HE: Pass the Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 88 UCAS tariff points
Additional Requirements:
The University normally requires a minimum 5 GCSEs including Mathematics/Numeracy and English at Grade C or Grade 4 or above, or their equivalent, but consideration is given to individual circumstances.
An Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check on the Child & Adult Workforce and Child & Adult Barring List and subscription to the DBS Update Service is required. (Overseas equivalent required for non-uk applicants).
International applications welcomed:
We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence please view our dedicated country pages.
English language requirements
International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 72 overall and a minimum of 18 in reading, 17 in listening, 20 in speaking and 17 in writing or equivalent.
Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.
If you have previously studied through the medium of English IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.
If you do not meet the English entry criteria please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.
Contextual offers
We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.
USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.
We're here to help
Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch and we'd to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.
Fees and Funding
£9,250
per year*£16,200
per year*Additional Costs
As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.
This fee includes £40 for the enhanced DBS certificate, the Post Office Administration fee and the online administration fee.
Cost: £55.42
Subscription required for each year of the course for a yearly fee of £13. Please note the service has to be joined within 30 days of receipt of your enhanced DBS certificate
Cost: £13
A range of books are available in the university library , but students often purchase key texts
Cost: £100
Years 1, 2 and 3 - Cost is dependent on placement location.
Cost: Up to £300
University Quality Assurance
At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.
If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.
Life at USW
Halls are a big part of your student experience and there’s accommodation at all three of our locations. If you don’t want to live near the campus, there are great transport links to keep you connected.
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