Level 5 Adult Care Diploma: what registered managers need

A CQC registered manager is expected to hold the Level 5 Diploma in Leading and Managing an Adult Care Service, a 95-credit Ofqual-regulated qualification assessed by portfolio from your own leadership role. Lift College offers the TQUK Level 5 Diploma in Leading and Managing an Adult Care Service (RQF), qualification number 610/7004/X, for £79.99 a month or £815.99 a year with all fees included, no exams, typical study of 18 to 24 months, and a 7-day free trial with nothing charged until day 8, no contract and a 14-day money-back guarantee on every payment. This guide explains the registered manager route, how the portfolio works and what managers earn.

The CQC registered manager route

Most adult social care services regulated by the Care Quality Commission in England must have a registered manager as a condition of registration: the person legally responsible for the day-to-day running of the service. When you apply to CQC to become a registered manager, you have to show you are fit for the role: competent, experienced and appropriately qualified. The Level 5 Diploma in Leading and Managing an Adult Care Service is the qualification CQC expects for registered managers.

The usual route is:

1. Care worker, completing the Care Certificate standards during induction.
2. Senior care worker or lead practitioner, holding the Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care.
3. Deputy manager or team leader, taking on staff supervision, rotas, care planning and quality audits.
4. Level 5 Diploma, completed while in that leadership role.
5. Registered manager application to CQC.

You do not have to be the registered manager already to enrol. You do need a leadership role in a care service, because the evidence you submit has to come from leading real people and real processes. A deputy manager, or a senior whose manager supports them to take on leadership tasks, can gather that evidence. A care worker with no supervisory responsibility cannot.

How portfolio assessment works at Level 5

There are no exams. The diploma is 95 credits, 710 guided learning hours and 950 hours total qualification time. Each unit sets out learning outcomes you must evidence, and your portfolio is built from four kinds of evidence:

• Work products: the documents you already produce as a manager, such as supervision records, audit reports, improvement plans, policies you have written or reviewed, rota and staffing decisions, incident analyses and feedback from people who use the service.
• Written assignments and reflective accounts: where you explain the theory behind a decision, evaluate what happened and show what you would change.
• Professional discussion: a recorded conversation with your assessor that probes your understanding of a unit and lets you cover outcomes that are hard to document.
• Observation and witness testimony: your assessor observes you leading, for example chairing a team meeting or supervising a colleague, and senior colleagues can provide signed testimony about your practice.

Your tutor maps each piece of evidence to the unit outcomes, so one well-chosen document often covers several. At Lift College, a named UK tutor marks work in 5 to 7 working days and AI Study Support is available between submissions. Grading is pass only, with TQUK carrying out external quality assurance.

How long it takes and what it costs

Typical study is 18 to 24 months. Because you are evidencing work you already do, you are likely to progress faster on units that match your current responsibilities and slower on those that do not. On Lift College's monthly plan, 18 months costs £1,439.82 and 24 months £1,919.76. Paying annually is £815.99 a year, so two years costs £1,631.98. Starting now without the free trial gives 15% off for life. There is no contract and no credit check, so if you change role you can pause or cancel without penalty. For how this compares with learndirect, Access Skills and Stonebridge, see our Level 5 comparison.

What registered managers earn

The Office for National Statistics Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2025 (provisional) gives a full-time median of £42,700 a year for residential, day and domiciliary care managers and proprietors (SOC 1232). For comparison, the same survey gives £29,381 for senior care workers, and Skills for Care's December 2025 median hourly rate for senior care workers or lead practitioners in the independent sector is £13.33. The UK care worker pay 2026 guide has the full tables, including the April 2026 National Living Wage of £12.71.

Before you enrol: a checklist

• You hold a leadership role in an adult care service in England, or your manager has agreed in writing to support you to take on leadership tasks.
• Your employer will allow an assessor to observe you and will let you use work documents as evidence, with personal data redacted.
• You can commit to 18 to 24 months of study alongside the job, covering 710 guided learning hours in total.

If those apply, the Level 5 is the qualification that moves you from running shifts to running a service. All Lift College care courses are on the health and social care hub.