Fees and funding options

Cost for courses in London is £1,886* (including CPCAB fee).
Cost for courses outside London (eg. Huddersfield, Midlands, Scotland): is £1,686* (including CPCAB fee).

Payment will be required only if offered a place to study, and you will have three options to pay the course fee:

Option A: one-off payment of either £1,886 or £1,686, depending on your location

Option B: two payments, 1 month apart, either £943 or £843, depending on your location

Option C: five payments, 1 month apart, either £377.20 or £337.20, depending on your location.

*Place2Be staff subsidy available. Check the Place2Be staff Intranet for more information about this.

Course details

What it covers

• An introduction to child counselling skills, including using play, creative work and narrative.
• Developing counselling theory, with an emphasis on play and attachment theory.
• Exploration of the child’s voice.
• Observing and recording your practice for feedback and supervision.
• Building self-awareness and identifying any barriers you might have in communicating and developing non-oppressive practice.
• Applying new knowledge to home, school and peer-group relationships.

Useful for qualified counsellors who:

• are looking to develop key counselling and therapeutic play skills to support their work or everyday life with children and young people
• want to become a Counsellor on Placement with Place2Be
• are a Counsellor on Placement with us and want to pursue a professional qualification in child counselling
• wish to progress to paid roles within Place2Be.

Accreditation

This course is accredited and awarded by the Counselling and Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body (CPCAB).

Modules 

Please note that we reserve the right to change the date in the event of any unforeseen circumstances that may impact the scheduled sessions. 

• Introduction to Level 5
• Session 1 – The Therapeutic Frame
• Session 2 – Play and Story
• Session 3 – Attachment 
• Session 4 – Intersectional Identity 
• Session 5 – Wellbeing and Supervision 
• Session 6 – Working Together in the School Setting 
• Session 7 – Presentation and Funding 

Where the course is run  

Our Level 5 Certificate includes a mix of both classroom and online sessions. Our next Autumn Intake will run in London and Huddersfield: 

• London: Place2Be, 175 St John St, London, EC1V 4LW  
• Huddersfield: Creative Media Centres Ltd.7 Northumberland St Huddersfield, HD1 1RL

Entry requirements

To be eligible for a place on the Child Counselling Skills for Adult Counsellors (Level 5 Certificate), we ask for the following criteria:

• have completed (minimum 6 months post qualification) an adult counselling qualification, which must have included guided learning, theory, skills practice and evidence of self-awareness - unfortunately, we cannot accept online courses
• have time to attend all sessions and complete any required learning (readings, research)  
• to have capacity to attend one day a week a placement for the duration of the course (a minimum of 50hrs must be completed) 
• have internet access so you can access our online learning platform.

Application process

There are two different application routes for our Child Counselling Skills for Adult Counsellors (Level 5 Certificate), detailed below. Which route you take will depend on whether you are a Place2Be employee, a current Counsellor on Placement with Place2Be, or an external candidate.  

Application for our Spring Intake 2025 is now open and will close the 15 September 2024. 

Route 1 - Place2Be Staff & current Counsellors on Placement

Route 1 is for current Place2Be employees or Counsellors on Placement. Your application route will be as follows:

1. Sign up for the compulsory webinar. We will cross-check attendance, and if you haven't attended the webinar, your application will not be reviewed by the panel. However, please note that you are not required to have attended the webinar before submitting your application.
2. Fill out a condensed online application form and confirm you meet the course entry requirements. 
3. Upon application, we may invite you for an informal discussion if necessary. 
4. Our internal panel will assess your application. If you meet all the course requirements, you will be shortlisted for a place on the intake you have applied for.  
5. Our team will review all shortlisted internal and external applicants. If you are successful, you will be offered a place on the programme. 

Placements for current Place2Be employees or Counsellors on Placement

• If you are already a Place2Be Counsellor on Placement, please use your current placement to support you throughout your Level 5. Please note, you must remain on placement for the duration of the course (minimum 50 hours required). Any hours that you have completed prior to the course starting cannot be counted as part of your course hours. If you have not completed the required hours in due time, you may be required to remain on placement until you have completed all your course hours. 
• If you are a Place2Be Clinical Staff in School, please use your role to support you throughout your Level 5 Certificate. Please note, you must complete a minimum of 50 hours of one-to-one work with clients while on the course. Any hours that you have done previously cannot be counted as part of your hours for the course.

Route 2 - external candidates

Route 2 is for all external candidates. If you are following this route, your application process will be as follows:

1. Sign up for the compulsory webinar. We will cross-check attendance, and if you haven't attended the webinar, your application will not be reviewed by the panel. However, please note that you are not required to have attended the webinar before submitting your application.
2. Fill out two online application forms, which include an application to Level 5 and an application to become a Counsellor On Placement. It will also confirm you meet the entry requirements for the course and placement. Please note that the Counsellor on Placement form will be sent to you following your application to the Level 5 Course. We will not be able to process your Level 5 Course Application if you have not completed the Counsellor on Placement form. 
3. Our internal panel will assess your application. If you meet all the course and Counsellor on Placement requirements, you will be offered an interview.
4. Following interviews, our team will shortlist all eligible internal and external applicants. If you are successful, you will be offered a place on the programme.
5. Once you accept your place, our Placements Team will be in touch to organise your placement in a Place2Be partner school.

Placements for external candidates

• Fill up the Counsellor on Placement application form. 
• All placements for the Level 5 Certificate must be within a Place2be partner school - no external placement will be accepted.
• You will be able to let the tutors know of any placement requirements during your interview (e.g., days of the week, general school location).
• Once your school placement has been assigned, we will be unable to make changes unless there are exceptional circumstances. Failure to accept your placement will result in your course offer being withdrawn.
• Once you have been assigned a school placement, you must complete the onboarding process with the Placement Team. This can take up to 6-8 weeks and will include 3 days of induction training, an Experian Background (DBS) check and Right to Work check. You cannot start in your school placement without completing these onboarding tasks.
• Please note, you must remain on placement for the duration of the course (minimum 50 hours required). If you have not completed your hours in due time, you may be required to remain on placement until you have completed all your hours. 
• We aim to find you a placement within 1.5h hour's travel time of your home postcode.
• To see what placement options might be near you, you can see all our Place2Be partner schools on a map.

Application questions

Whether you're an internal or external candidate, we require you to answer the following questions as part of your application. We recommend preparing your answers on a separate document in advance and pasting them into the application form once ready. Each question has a 1,500-character limit (between 215 and 375 words with spaces included).

• Question 1: Why do you wish to work with children in a therapeutic setting, and what qualities do you feel you (can) bring to this work?
• Question 2: Describe a time in which you experienced an ethical dilemma or difficulty in a therapeutic relationship either in adult or children and young people work. What issues arose? How were these managed?
• Question 3: How do you think a school counsellor can work in the wider school setting to support a child alongside one-to-one?

References

Please note that you are required to submit references as part of your application. All references must be submitted online via the reference request form, you will also receive this link by email following your application to our Level 5 course. 

External applicants

If you are a candidate from outside of Place2Be, you need to submit two references to complete your application. The two references you need to provide are:

• one clinical academic reference (for example, your course tutor or supervisor)
• one character reference.

Neither reference can be a family relative.

Existing Place2Be staff or Counsellors on Placement

If you are a Counsellor on Placement or paid staff member at Place2Be, you will need to submit one reference from your Place2Be line manager or School Project Manager.

Sign up for updates

Sign up to hear when we open applications for our next cohort or take a look at our other counselling training courses.

Please make sure you read the counselling qualifications terms and conditions before completing an application.