Unit 384 Supporting healthy relationships

This unit focuses on supporting healthy relationships by promoting communication, choice, safety and respect. It explores how to help individuals build rapport, maintain friendships, and make informed decisions about relationships, including sexual relationships where appropriate. The links on this page take you to each learning outcome, so you can explore the detail you need for your assessment.

Relationships are a normal part of life. They can bring companionship, belonging, confidence and joy. They can also bring disappointment, conflict, pressure or risk. In care and support roles, you are often in a position to encourage positive connections while also noticing when something may not be safe. This unit helps you hold both realities at once: uphold rights, and safeguard wellbeing.

The first part of the unit looks at communication, rapport and choice. Rapport is built through everyday interactions—listening properly, being consistent, using respectful language, and taking the person seriously. It’s the small behaviours that add up: remembering how someone likes to be addressed, checking understanding, and making time for conversations that matter. Trust is not a “one-off”. It grows through repeated experiences of being heard.

You’ll explore ways to enable the development of positive relationships. That might include supporting someone to join community groups, reconnect with family, or maintain friendships when they move setting. It can also mean helping individuals navigate practical barriers such as transport, digital access, confidence, or anxiety about social situations. You’ll probably recognise this in your setting when someone says, “I’d like to go, but I don’t want to be a bother.” A bit of planning and encouragement can shift that.

The unit also covers supporting rapport between others and the individuals you support. Sometimes relationships become strained because of misunderstandings, communication differences, or stress. Your role may involve creating a calm space for discussion, modelling respectful communication, and supporting people to express preferences and boundaries. It may also involve stepping back when the relationship is private and healthy, so the individual can lead their own life.

Rights are central. Adults have the right to form and maintain relationships, including intimate relationships, as long as these are consensual and lawful. This unit helps you consider capacity, consent, and how to support informed choices. You are not there to “approve” relationships, but you may need to support someone to understand risks, recognise pressure, and access advice. That could include signposting to appropriate sexual health information and services in line with your organisation’s policy, or supporting someone to talk to a trusted professional.

Barriers to friendships and relationships can be practical, social or attitudinal. Disability, communication needs, stigma, cultural expectations, previous trauma, or controlling behaviour from others can all reduce opportunities. Some people have had their choices restricted for a long time and may need support to rebuild confidence and social skills. This unit looks at how to overcome barriers in ways that are respectful and empowering.

Safety is a strong theme. Healthy relationships are based on mutual respect, kindness, honesty and choice. Unhealthy relationships often involve control, intimidation, isolation, or pressure—sometimes subtle at first. You’ll learn ways to support individuals to keep safe, including recognising early warning signs, encouraging clear boundaries, and knowing what to do if you are concerned. Safeguarding procedures must be followed if there is risk of abuse or exploitation. Confidentiality matters, but it does not override safety when someone is at risk.

Sexual relationships and sexual health are included in this unit because they are part of many people’s lives, and avoiding the topic can leave individuals unsupported. You’ll consider factors that help maintain good sexual health, and how to share information in a way that is age-appropriate, private and respectful. Your role will depend on your setting and policies, but the principles stay the same: don’t shame, don’t assume, and don’t give advice outside your competence. Support people to access reliable information and appropriate professionals.

Practical example: in a supported living service, an individual starts a new relationship and wants help planning a date. You could support them to think about what makes them feel safe and comfortable—meeting in a public place, planning transport, keeping their phone charged, and agreeing a check-in time—without making it feel like an interrogation. Another example: in a care home, two residents enjoy spending time together but one becomes upset when the other talks to anyone else. You could support them to talk about feelings, encourage respectful boundaries, and involve senior staff if there are concerns about distress, coercion, or capacity.

The unit also asks you to reflect on your own beliefs and values. Everyone has opinions shaped by culture, upbringing and experience. Professional practice means recognising those beliefs and making sure they do not limit someone else’s rights. Supervision is a good place to explore this, especially if you feel unsure, protective, or uncomfortable about a situation.

Finally, you’ll evaluate how relationships affect wellbeing. Positive connections can reduce loneliness, improve mental health, and support resilience. On the other hand, harmful relationships can undermine confidence and safety. Your job is to support the person to have as full a life as possible, with the right balance of independence, information and protection.

By the end of this unit, you should feel clearer about supporting communication and choice, encouraging safe friendships and intimate relationships, and taking appropriate action when there are concerns. Use the links on this page to explore each learning outcome and keep relating them back to your role, your policies, and the individual’s rights and wellbeing.

1 Be able to support and enable communication, rapport and choice between individuals and others

2 Be able to support and encourage individuals to develop and maintain safe, healthy friendships and relationships

3 Understand how to discuss sexual relationships, sexual health and keeping safe with people they support

  • 3.1 Identify factors that are important to maintain good sexual health
  • 3.2 Identify appropriate sources of information about sexual relationships, sexual health and keeping safe to share with individuals they support
  • 3.3 Describe ways of supporting people to develop and maintain safe sexual relationships
  • 3.4 Describe how to support an individual to make informed and age appropriate choices
  • 3.5 Describe the actions to take if there are concerns about a sexual relationship
  • 3.6 Reflect on beliefs about sexual relationships and how these may influence practice

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