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[   Specialist Level | Higher Specialist Level | Advanced Level | Underpinning Standards | APECL [  
Pathways
Levels
The revised PQ framework is divided into three levels, each corresponding to a different stage of professional development.
  • The focus of the first or specialist level is on consolidating, extending and deepening initial professional competence in a specialist context.
  • The second or higher specialist level has a specific focus on the knowledge and skills needed to make complex judgements and discharge high levels of responsibility for the co-ordination of social support and the management of risk.
  • The third or advanced level is focused on the knowledge and skills required for professional leadership and the improvement of services.  This incorporates managerial forms of leadership but also includes other types of professional leadership including those linked to the promotion and dissemination of advanced practice skills.
Areas of Specialist Practice
Each level is linked to a set of criteria and builds on the one below.  The revised framework envisages the development, over time, of a range of programmes in five specific areas of specialist practice:
It may be helpful to note that for practice education and leadership and management, pathways will only be available at higher specialist and advanced levels.
 
Underpinning Standards
Each level of award will be underpinned by three sets of national standards produced and validated by the General Social Care Council (GSCC) and Skills for Care, comprising:
Accreditation of Prior Certificated and/or Experiential Learning (APCEL)
Arrangements for the accreditation or prior certificated and/or experiential learning (APCEL), will be used to provide the link between the existing and revised frameworks, so that students will be able to claim credit for their learning wherever it has taken place.  These APCEL arrangements will be particularly important where students hold the current professional Part I/PQ1 certificate, which may provide exemption from the consolidation module of programmes at Specialist level.  The requirements of each university will vary in relation to the accreditation of prior learning and students will need to make individual enquiries as early as possible in relation to any programme of study that they are considering undertaking.  
 
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Pathways
Pathways
> Pathways Introduction
> Programme Pathway Development
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