Strengthening Community Based Practice Across the North East

The Children’s Workforce Foundation Degree offers charities, voluntary organisations and community‑based services a practical and accessible way to strengthen skills, confidence and consistency across the children’s workforce.

Designed for staff and volunteers already working directly with children, young people and families, the programme enables participants to gain a recognised higher‑level qualification while continuing to deliver vital frontline support.

This pathway is particularly valuable for organisations working in early help, prevention and community engagement, where strong relationships, cross‑service understanding and sound professional judgement have the greatest impact.

Partnership at the Heart of the Programme

The Children’s Workforce Foundation Degree is delivered through a strong partnership between the Centre for the Children’s Workforce, the University of East London, and Gosforth Group — bringing together national academic expertise, sector insight and high‑quality local delivery here in the North East.

This collaborative model ensures the programme is:

• Academically rigorous, with a university‑validated higher‑education qualification
• Rooted in real‑world practice, shaped by the needs of frontline children’s services
• Delivered locally, removing the need for learners to travel outside the region
• Aligned to workforce priorities across statutory, voluntary and community sectors

By combining national academic standards with deep local knowledge of children’s services, the programme supports consistent, high‑quality practice while remaining accessible to those already working directly with children, young people and families.

The Foundation Degree is academically validated by the University of East London, ensuring it meets recognised university standards. The Centre for the Children’s Workforce leads national coordination, sector relevance and employer engagement, while Gosforth Group provides the learning environment and regional delivery.

Together, the partners ensure the programme is practical, inclusive and responsive to the realities of frontline work.

Supporting Community-Based Practice

This programme is well suited to professionals working across community‑based children’s and family services, including:

• Charities and voluntary sector organisations (VCSE)
• Youth services and youth work provision
• Children and family support charities
• Scouts, Guides and other uniformed youth groups
• Community centres and neighbourhood projects
• Play schemes, holiday provision and after‑school clubs
• Sports clubs and activity providers for children and young people
• Faith‑based organisations delivering children’s or family services
• Domestic abuse, homelessness and family support services
• Social enterprises and community interest companies (CICs)
• Foster care and adoption support charities
• Inclusion, disability and SEND support organisations

Many learners come from roles that carry high responsibility, emotional labour and professional judgement, yet offer limited access to structured progression or recognised qualifications. This Foundation Degree helps address that gap by providing a clear, supported route into higher‑level study while remaining firmly rooted in frontline, community‑based practice.

One Evening a Week, Designed Around Practice

Teaching takes place on a clearly defined and predictable basis:

• One evening per week
• Wednesdays, 4.00pm–8.00pm
• Term time only

This structured delivery model is intentionally designed to support organisations that rely on small teams, volunteers or sessional staff. By concentrating study into a single, consistent evening, the programme helps minimise disruption to:

• After‑school and evening provision
• Community‑based services and outreach work
• Youth sessions and group activities
• Ongoing support for vulnerable children and families

Learners remain in their role throughout the programme, enabling them to apply learning directly to day‑to‑day practice within community and voluntary settings. This ensures organisations benefit immediately from enhanced knowledge, confidence and professional judgement, without losing capacity on the frontline.

To learn more about the course content, delivery approach and the time commitment involved, please click below.

 

Learning Environment

Teaching takes place at Gosforth Group’s North East Learning and Community Hub in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, a dedicated, professional space designed specifically for adult learners working across children’s services.

The Hub reflects the collaborative spirit of the programme, bringing together practitioners from education, early years, local authorities and the voluntary and community sector in a shared learning environment.

Learners benefit from:

• A central, accessible location with strong transport links across the North East
• Purpose‑designed spaces that encourage discussion, reflection and practical learning
• Opportunities to build professional networks across the children’s workforce
• A supportive adult‑learning environment that recognises frontline realities
• Face‑to‑face teaching that builds confidence, professional identity and peer support
• A clear separation from the workplace, creating space to step back, reflect and grow

More than a teaching venue, the Hub is a shared professional learning community, supporting connection, confidence and career progression across the children’s workforce.

Benefits for Charities and Voluntary Organisations

Charities and voluntary organisations supporting staff on the Children’s Workforce Foundation Degree benefit from a structured approach to capacity‑building, sustainability and impact.

Organisations gain:

• Practitioners with strengthened safeguarding knowledge and increased confidence in professional judgement
• Improved understanding of thresholds, referral pathways and statutory frameworks, supporting stronger frontline decision‑making
• Staff who communicate more effectively with schools, local authorities and partner agencies, enabling clearer, more timely joint working
• Greater consistency and quality across both volunteer‑led and paid roles
• Improved staff retention and progression in a sector where burnout and workforce churn are ongoing challenges
• A stronger, more robust evidence base to support funding bids, commissioning processes, inspections and partnership agreements

By investing in accredited, higher‑level development, organisations demonstrate a clear commitment to workforce development, service quality and long‑term sustainability. This strengthens organisational credibility, supports positive inspection outcomes and enhances accountability to funders, partners and the communities they serve.

Strengthening Early Help and Community Impact

Third sector and community organisations play a critical role in early help and prevention, often identifying emerging needs long before statutory services become involved.

This programme strengthens that role by supporting practitioners to develop:

• Deeper understanding of child development, attachment and the impact of trauma
• Increased confidence in recognising risk factors and protective factors
• Stronger skills in reflective practice and ethical decision‑making
• Clearer knowledge of how services connect across education, health, social care and the voluntary sector

For organisations and communities, this leads to earlier, more confident intervention, clearer escalation when concerns arise, and stronger, better‑timed collaboration with statutory partners, improving outcomes for children and families when support matters most.

Learning Alongside the Wider Children’s Workforce

A key strength of the Foundation Degree is its mixed‑professional cohort, bringing together practitioners from across the children’s workforce.

Learners study alongside colleagues working in:

• Schools and academies
• Early years settings
• Local authority services
• Family support and community‑based organisations

This shared learning environment supports:

• Stronger understanding of different roles, responsibilities and thresholds
• More effective professional relationships across sectors
• Increased confidence in multi‑agency discussion, challenge and collaboration
• A shared language around safeguarding, inclusion and family‑focused practice

For third sector employers, this means staff who are more confident, visible and influential within local systems, able to engage constructively with statutory partners and contribute meaningfully to joined‑up approaches that support children and families.

Flexible and Realistic Funding Options

We recognise that many voluntary and community organisations are themselves operating within grant‑funded and time‑limited budgets. This programme is designed to support workforce investment that can be clearly evidenced to funders.

Organisations may choose to:

• Fund the programme in full or part‑fund tuition costs
• Support staff through paid or unpaid study time
• Fund attendance while enabling assessments to be completed flexibly alongside service delivery

This flexibility allows organisations to align workforce development with funding cycles, grant conditions and delivery capacity, while clearly demonstrating outcomes such as increased staff capability, improved safeguarding practice, stronger partnership working and enhanced service sustainability.

For many organisations, this makes the Foundation Degree not just affordable, but fundable, as a justifiable investment in staff development, service quality and long‑term community impact.

To learn more about the course tuition fees and potential funding options, click below: