ProQual Level 3 Award in Healthcare and Social Care Support Skills
(Ofqual-Regulated Qualification)

ProQual Level 3 Award in Healthcare and Social Care Support Skills (Level 3 Health and Social Care Award) – Course Overview

The ProQual Level 3 Award in Healthcare and Social Care Support Skills, commonly known as the Level 3 Health and Social Care Award, is a United Kingdom Ofqual-regulated qualification designed for healthcare assistants, care support workers, and senior care assistants working in hospitals, care homes, nursing homes, domiciliary care, and community health settings. This Level 3 Health and Social Care Award helps learners develop essential skills in supporting individuals with their physical, emotional, and social needs, promoting health and wellbeing, following safety procedures, and understanding laws and ethics in care. Unlike longer diplomas, this Level 3 Health and Social Care Award focuses on core skills needed for competent and confident care practice.

The ProQual Level 3 Award in Healthcare and Social Care Support Skills suits people already working as healthcare assistants, care support workers, or senior care assistants who want formal recognition of their skills. This Level 3 Health and Social Care Award fits roles like healthcare assistant, care support worker, senior care assistant, community support worker, or residential care worker. The ProQual Level 3 Award in Healthcare and Social Care Support Skills covers key areas such as understanding legal and ethical responsibilities in care, supporting personal care needs, promoting health and safety, safeguarding vulnerable adults, supporting individuals with specific needs, and working effectively in a care team.

As a practical work-based qualification, the Level 3 Health and Social Care Award assessment comes from your daily work evidence and written assignments, not examinations. This makes the ProQual Level 3 Award in Healthcare and Social Care Support Skills perfect for busy care workers who need to prove their competence while continuing to work. 

These clear entry requirements ensure the ProQual Level 3 Award in Healthcare and Social Care Support Skills (Level 3 Health and Social Care Award) suits care workers.

• Age Requirement: The applicant must be at least eighteen years old.
• Educational Requirements: The applicant needs no formal qualifications, but basic literacy and numeracy are helpful.
• Experience: The applicant should be working in a healthcare or social care setting as a healthcare assistant or care support worker.
• English Language Proficiency: The applicant requires good English to read care plans, write reports, and communicate with individuals and families.

To achieve the ProQual Level 3 Award in Healthcare and Social Care Support Skills: Candidates must achieve 6 credits from any combination of units.

Mandatory Units 

1. Work with babies and young children to promote their development and learning
2. Engage in personal development in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings
3. Support individuals with multiple conditions and/or disabilities
4. Support individuals who are bereaved
5. Prepare for and carry out extended feeding techniques
6. Provide support to continue recommended therapie
7. Insert and secure nasogastric tubes
8. Develop positive relationships with children and young people
9. Provide advice and information to enable parents to promote the health and well-being of their newborn babies
10. Facilitate and monitor housing and accommodation services to support individuals with mental health needs
11. Collaborate in the assessment of environmental and social support in the community
12. Influencing Others at Work
13. Care for the physical and nutritional needs of babies and young children
14. Support families who have a child with a disability
15. Support individuals to manage their finances
16. Obtain venous blood samples
17. Implement therapeutic group activities
18. Collate and communicate health information to individuals
19. Provide information and advice to individuals on eating to maintain optimum nutritional status
20. Assist in the implementation of programmes to increase mobility, movement and functional independence
21. Receive and handle clinical specimens within the sterile field
22. Prepare anaesthetic environment and provide support for pre and post-operative anaesthesia and recovery
23. Make recommendations for the use of physical resources in a health setting
24. Maintaining quality standards in the health sector
25. Understand Models of Disability
26. Support individuals to access and use services and facilities
27. Promote and implement health and safety in health and social care
28. Support young people with a disability to make the transition into adulthood
29. Understand mental well-being and mental health promotion
30. Carry out vision screening
31. Assist professionals to support individuals from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds to access speech and language therapy services
32. Implement hydrotherapy programmes for individuals and groups
33. Deliver exercise sessions to improve individuals’ health and wellbeing
34. Provide support to the surgical team when preparing individuals for operative and invasive procedures
35. Facilitate person centred assessment, planning, implementation and review
36. Work in partnership with families to support individuals
37. Support individuals to develop and run support groups
38. Monitor own work practice in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings
39. Perform first line calibration on clinical equipment to ensure it is fit for use
40. Monitor and review individuals progress in relation to maintaining optimum nutritional status
41. Give presentations to groups
42. Support individuals in undertaking their chosen activities
43. Control the use of physical resources in a health setting
44. Support children and young people experiencing transitions
45. Promote communication in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings
46. Contribute to the prevention of aggressive and abusive behaviour of people
47. Service improvement in the health sector
48. Understand the process and experience of dementia
49. Understand Physical Disability
50. Support individuals with a learning disability to access healthcare
51. Undertake urethral catheterisation processes
52. Promote good practice in handling information in health and social care settings
53. Understand mental health problems
54. Perform routine Electrocardiograph (ECG) Procedures
55. Undertake treatments and dressings of lesions and wounds
56. Adapt and fit healthcare equipment, medical devices, assistive technology, or products, to meet individuals’ needs
57. Administer oral nutritional products to individuals
58. Promote effective communication with individuals with sensory loss
59. Work with other professionals and agencies to support individuals with physical disability
60. Support individuals to access housing and accommodation services
61. Identify information requirements in a health context
62. Prepare and reproduce permanent radiographic images
63. Develop and prepare speech and language therapy resources for alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) use
64. Carry out wound drainage care
65. Prepare and provide surgical instrumentation and supplementary items for the surgical team
66. Care for a newly born baby when the mother is unable to do so
67. Understand Child and Young Person Development
68. Provide support to maintain and develop skills for everyday life
69. Facilitate learning and development activities to meet individual needs and preferences
70. Enable individuals with behavioural difficulties to develop strategies to change their behaviour
71. Reprocess endoscopy equipment
72. Support individuals with cognition and learning difficulties
73. Assist in testing individuals’ abilities prior to planning physical activities
74. Support individuals to manage dysphagia
75. Provide advice on foot care for individuals with diabetes
76. Transport, transfer and position individuals and equipment within the perioperative environment
77. Understand Sensory Loss
78. Support families who are affected by Acquired Brain Injury
79. Support individuals during a period of change
80. Perform intravenous cannulation
81. Care for individuals with urethral catheters
82. Conduct routine maintenance on clinical equipment
83. Assist and support individuals to use alternative and augmentative communication systems (AAC)
84. Measure and record individuals’ body fluid balance in a perioperative environment
85. Support parents/carers to interact with and care for their newborn baby
86. Deliver training through demonstration and instruction
87. Principles for implementing duty of care in health social care or children’s and young people’s settings
88. Promote Child and Young Person Development
89. Develop and sustain effective working relationships with staff in other agencies
90. Undertake physiological measurements
91. Undertake stoma care
92. Assure the effective functioning of radiographic image processing equipment
93. Operate equipment for intraoperative cell salvage blood collection
94. Advise and inform individuals on managing their condition
95. Assist others to monitor individuals’ progress in managing dysphagia
96. Support carers to meet the care needs of individuals
97. Maintain pharmaceutical stock
98. Anatomy and Physiology for Maternity Support Workers
99. Receive prescriptions from individuals
100. Understand how to support individuals with autistic spectrum conditions
101. Support Individuals with Specific Communication Needs
102. Obtain and test capillary blood samples
103. Support individuals at the end of life
104. Contribute to effective multidisciplinary team working
105. Analyse and present health related data and information
106. Remove wound drains
107. Develop activities and materials to enable individuals to reach specific communication goals
108. Operate equipment for intraoperative cell salvage blood processing and complete intraoperative cell salvage blood process
109. Support parents/carers and those in a parental role to care for babies during their first year
110. Obtain a client history
111. Manage the availability of physical resources to meet service delivery needs in a health setting
112. Administer medication to individuals, and monitor the effects
113. Undertake an in-process accuracy check of assembled prescribed items prior to the final accuracy check
114. Promote equality and inclusion in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings
115. Understand the impact of Acquired Brain Injury on individuals
116. Support individuals to live at home
117. Promote person centred approaches in health and social care
118. interact with and support individuals using telecommunications
119. Undertake tissue viability risk assessments
120. Manufacture equipment or medical devices for individuals within healthcare
121. Provide support for individuals with communication and interaction difficulties
122. Monitor individuals’ progress in relation to managing their body weight and nutrition
123. Assist in implementing treatment programmes for individuals with severely reduced movement/mobility
124. Assist in the delivery of perioperative care and support to individuals
125. Examine the feet of individuals with diabetes
126. Communicate with individuals about promoting their health and wellbeing while working as a Health Trainer
127. Understand How to Safeguard the Wellbeing of Children and Young People
128. Support Children and Young People's Health and Safety
129. Develop Positive Relationship with Children, Young People and Others Involved in Their Care
130. Working Together for the Benefit of Children and Young People
131. Understand How to Support Positive Outcomes for Children and Young People
132. Assessment and planning with children and young people
133. Promote the wellbeing and resilience of children and young people
134. Professional practice in children and young people’s social care
135. Support individuals to prepare for and settle in to new home environments
136. Promote positive behaviour
137. Support use of medication in social care settings
138. Provide information and advice to children and young people
139. Support young people to move towards independence and manage their lives
140. Work with children and young people in a residential care setting
141. Support positive practice with children and young people with speech, language and communication needs
142. Support children or young people in their own home
143. Support positive attachments for children and young people
144. Support individuals with autistic spectrum conditions
145. Prepare, load and operate decontamination equipment
146. Carry out sterilisation and product release of re-useable medical devices
147. Understand how to monitor the decontamination process
148. Monitor and solve customer service problems
149. Plan, allocate and monitor work of a team
150. Understand Stroke Care Management
151. Conduct hearing assessments
152. Conduct External Ear Examinations
153. Carry out intravenous infusion
154. Carry out blood collection from fixed or central lines
155. Diabetes Awareness
156. Introduction to the role and responsibilities of a Health Trainer
157. Establishing and developing relationships with communities while working as a Health Trainer
158. Enable individuals to change their behaviour to improve their health and wellbeing while working as a Health Trainer
159. Clinical Imaging Support Worker: Anatomy and Terminology
160. Clinical Imaging Support Worker: Fundamentals of Care
161. Clinical Imaging Support Worker: Radiation Protection and Awareness
162. The Use of Contrast Media in Clinical Imaging
163. Speech and Language Support for 11-16s: From Theory into Practice
164. Speech and Language Support for 5-11s: From Theory into Practice
165. Communication Support for 0-25s with Severe and Complex Needs: From Theory into Practice
166. Communication and relationships to promote the wellbeing and mental health of older people