BTEC Advanced Award for Community Advocates

Introduction

According to The Compact, the Government's agreement with the third sector, there are over 140,000 community - based charities, 55,000 social enterprises, 4,500 cooperatives and 1,830 housing associations in England. On top of this there are a further 500,000 small organisations active at a local level.

The Compact recognises the need for public bodies to work in partnership with the third sector, to support the contribution they make in improving the lives of individuals and communities.

One of the largest community organisations in the UK, with over 7 million members and 170,000 co-ordinators is the Neighbourhood Watch and Home Watch Network. The organisation's vision is to support and enable a caring society that is founded upon trust and respect in which people are safe from crime and live in communities that enjoy a good quality of life.

This qualification has been developed as part of the "National Neighbourhood Watch Academy" in partnership with the National Neighbourhood and Home Watch Network.

Overview

The qualification is designed to address the skills needs of volunteers within community organisations, such as Neighbourhood Watch and Home Watch, staff from public bodies who support them and any other charity or organisation that has to be an advocate. Across three areas learners will develop the knowledge and skills required to act as advocates for community organisations.

By obtaining this qualification advocates will be able to:

Communicate effectively with members of communities and staff from public bodies
Determine the concerns and priorities of communities in relation to safety and the prevention and reduction of crime and anti social behaviour
Contribute to the development of priorities and objectives for promoting neighbourhood justice and social inclusion in partnership with others
Describe what is required to enable people from different backgrounds to get on well together, influence decisions in their locality and feel they belong to their neighbourhood
Develop and sustain effective working relationships with members of community organisations and staff from public bodies
Enable groups, communities and organisations to address issues which affect community their community and social inclusion
Enable groups, communities and organisations to go beyond influencing onto doing by taking positive social action.

Qualification Structure

The course consists of 30 hours of guided learning, made up as follows:

Academy training day - 08 hours
Pre course & home based assignment - 22 hours

Who should enrol

There are no entry or learning requirements for this qualification.

This qualification is designed to address the skills needs of volunteers within community organisations, such as Neighbourhood Watch and Home Watch and staff from public bodies who support them.

Learning Outcomes

This qualification is a BTEC Level 3 , learning accredited at this level will reflect the ability to:

Apply knowledge and skills in a range of complex activities demonstrating comprehension of relevant theories; access and analyse information independently and make reasoned judgements, selecting from a considerable choice of procedures, in familiar and unfamiliar contexts; and direct own activities, with some responsibility for the output of others.

This qualification will enable candidates to:

To describe the structure of their own Community Partnership and the extent to which their organisation holds influence within it.
To explain what communication techniques are effective in promoting effective partnership work
To be able to describe how their Community Partnership's concerns and priorities are developed and promoted.
To describe how to influence decisions made by Community Partnerships, other public bodies and voluntary organisations.
To explain the legislation and policies which allow and require community organisers to be involved in decision-making processes by Community Partnerships and public bodies
To describe how to formulate priorities from community concerns
To describe how they, as community organisers, can be involved and lead on projects designed to tackle local priorities
To develop effective partnerships with public bodies and voluntary organisations
To identify concerns and priorities within their communities.
Develop strategies and methods to tackle the identified concerns and priorities
Develop strategies to enable groups, communities and organisations to go beyond influencing onto doing by taking positive social

Upon completion of the qualification candidates will be able to:

Understand and demonstrate how Community Partnerships are structured, their role within them, how to influence how concerns and priorities are developed and promoted
Understand the principles of community cohesion, what is required for communities to become more cohesive and how this benefits communities.
Understand how public and voluntary organisations are required to work together to develop concerns into priorities and how these priorities can be tackled through effective partnership working
Demonstrate how as community advocates you go beyond influencing into doing by taking positive social action.

National Occupational Standards - Skills for Justice

The following National Occupational Standards will be used within the content of this qualification:

Determine the concerns and priorities of communities in relation to safety, social inclusion and the prevention and reduction of crime and anti-social behaviour
Raise awareness to promote community safety and social inclusion
Contribute to developing awareness and community action in relation to crime
Enable groups, communities and organisations to address issues which affect community safety and social inclusion
Enable individuals and families to address factors which affect their safety, well-being and social inclusion
Improve environments and practices to promote community safety and social inclusion
Identify and track trends and changes in community justice and social inclusion and the effectiveness of different means of addressing issues

Cost

Important Note: There are currently bursaries available for candidates from the National Neighbourhood and Home Watch Network to take this qualification please click here for details.

The introductory cost to enrol to this qualification is £495 + VAT. This includes:

A mandatory taught tutorial date
All required course materials
Lifetime membership to our online Student Zone (which includes any relevant updates to legislation, National Occupational Standards and best practice, enabling the student to maintain their learning and continuing professional development).
All certification and qualification costs.

Tutorial Dates and Venues

This qualification can either be delivered "In-House" to your watch, organisation, network or partnership or at one of the open programme events shown below. If you would like to arrange for "in house" delivery please contact us for details.

Open programme events

We are currently planning a series of open programme tutorial dates for this qualification at various locations across the UK.

If an in house event would not be viable for your organisation, network or partnership or you would like to take this qualification as an individual you can register your interest by clicking here (non binding and without obligation).

We will take into account all interests registered in this way when setting the final locations of the tutorial dates.

Baroness Browning presenting Jim Maddan, National Chair of the Neighbourhood and Home Watch Network with his certificate

Associated Qualifications and Training

People who are interested in or have already studied this qualification may also be interested in the following qualifications or training (click for details, opens in new window):

BTEC Intermediate Award for Community Safety Practitioners

BTEC Advanced Award in Neighbourhood Nuisance and Anti Social Behaviour Case Working.

BTEC Professional Award Neighbourhood Nuisance and Anti-Social Behaviour Case Work Supervision as a Senior Investigating Officer.

BTEC Advanced Award Operational use of powers contained in the Regulations of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) for Covert Human Intelligence Sources and Directed Surveillance.

BTEC Advanced Award in Practitioner Training for Restorative Approaches

BTEC Advanced Professional Diploma in Neighourhood Justice

Conflict Management and Resolution Training

Problem Solving Training

Understanding and Responding to Stalking

Book Online About Qualifications/Training