A management diploma for people already in care work, with safeguarding and supervision practice at its centre.
Level, credits, hours, units and Ofqual number are taken from the OTHM specification and the Ofqual register. Duration, study modes, fees and intake dates are set by London School of Planning and Management (LSPM), the approved centre.
This qualification is designed for the practitioner who has become, or is about to become, responsible for others. Its six 20-credit units cover working in partnership, safeguarding and protection of vulnerable individuals, health education and wellbeing promotion, team management, professional supervision practice and research methods, Together the six units make 120 Level 5 credits; the awarding body sets 1,200 hours in total, 600 of them guided, and Ofqual lists the qualification under 610/1537/4.
The mix is distinctive. Two units (safeguarding, supervision) are about the manager's regulatory and developmental duties; two (partnership, team management) are about working across organisational boundaries and within a team; one is about the public-health dimension of care; and one teaches the research skills that a service improvement project or a Level 6 dissertation will need. There is no clinical content and no practice placement requirement in the specification, though most learners on it are employed in care throughout.
Learners who want a broader health-and-social-care grounding across both levels, or who are new to the field, should look at the Qualifi Extended Diploma in the same sector, which starts at Level 4 and covers policy, sociology and quality alongside management.
Same awarding body, same sector, same Level 5 outcome. The Extended Diploma includes the Level 4 stage; the Diploma assumes you already hold it.
Choose this if you already hold a Level 4 qualification in a related subject and only need the Level 5 stage.
Choose this if your highest qualification is at Level 3 and you want one enrolment that ends at year-two equivalence.
6 of the Level 5 unit titles appear in both programmes. Whichever route you take, you finish in the same credit position: 240 credits across Levels 4 and 5. The Extended Diploma reaches it under one registration and one certificate; the Diploma assumes a separate Level 4 award came first.
6 × 20 credits.
| # | Unit title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Working in Partnership in Health and Social Care | 20 |
| 02 | Managing the Safeguarding and Protection of Vulnerable Individuals | 20 |
| 03 | Health Education and Promoting Wellbeing | 20 |
| 04 | Team Management in Health and Social Care | 20 |
| 05 | Professional Supervision Practice in Health and Social Care | 20 |
| 06 | Research Methods in Health and Social Care | 20 |
| Total credits | 120 | |
Unit titles and credit values from the OTHM specification.
How LSPM sequences them. LSPM opens with Working in Partnership and Team Management because they let learners anchor every later unit in their own workplace. Safeguarding and Professional Supervision Practice run together in the middle stage, as they share a case-based teaching method. Research Methods is deliberately last: its assignment is a proposal for a small service-improvement study, and by then learners have five units of evidence to draw on.
OTHM's published criteria, quoted as data. London School of Planning and Management (LSPM) checks each applicant against them before registration.
Source: OTHM specification. The OTHM route is a Level 4 diploma in a related subject, or A levels, or the mature-learner route at 21 with relevant experience. LSPM adds one requirement of its own: current or recent employment or voluntary work in a health or social care setting, because the safeguarding and supervision assignments ask you to reflect on real practice and a learner with no setting to reflect on cannot meet them well.
Assignments combine written analysis with reflective practice. The safeguarding unit uses an anonymised case review; the supervision unit asks for a recorded supervision plan and reflective commentary; the team management and partnership units use workplace analysis; health promotion produces a small campaign proposal; and research methods produces a study proposal with ethics considerations. Confidentiality protocols for workplace material are agreed at induction. See how LSPM teaches and assesses for the marking and verification process.
LSPM's tutors mark and give written feedback. OTHM samples marked work before results are ratified. A referred submission can be reworked after feedback.
OTHM Level 6 Diploma in Health and Social Care Management.
Final-year entry to a BA or BSc (Hons) in Health and Social Care, Health Studies or Care Management at universities that map the 120 credits.
Deputy manager, team leader or registered manager preparation roles in adult social care, where safeguarding and supervision units are directly relevant to regulator expectations.
Regulators in each UK nation set their own requirements for registered managers, and they change. This diploma covers safeguarding, supervision and team management, which are relevant, but you should check the current requirement with the regulator for your nation and setting rather than rely on any diploma title.
The specification does not require one. LSPM requires that you are working or volunteering in a care setting so that the reflective assignments have real material. If you are between roles, tell us at enquiry and we can discuss timing before you apply.
Through an anonymised case review using a protocol agreed at induction: no names, no identifying details, and where necessary a composite case. Tutors have worked in care and know what must not be written down.
A service-improvement project at work, or the dissertation-style unit that appears in most Level 6 programmes. Its assignment is a proposal, not a completed study, so there is no data collection at this level.
Tell us what you hold now and we will say whether you are likely to meet OTHM's criteria; LSPM confirms eligibility and the next intake.