Fees and funding options

Cost for courses in London is £2,100* (including CPCAB fee).
Cost for courses outside London (e.g. Manchester and Scotland): is £1,900* (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 £2,100 or £1,900, depending on your location

Option B: two payments, 1 month apart, either £1,050 or £950, depending on your location

Option C: five payments, 1 month apart, either £420 or £380, 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.

Our therapeutic approach, which you will be taught in this programme, is practice-led, backed by research and informed by our experience of over 30 years of providing mental health services in schools. Our mental health professionals use our therapeutic approach daily with children and young people in our schools.

Who is the Level 5 counselling course for?

The Level 5 Certificate is suitable for:

• qualified adult counsellors looking to work with children and young people who want to have a counselling placement in a Place2Be school
• Place2Be Counsellors on Placement who wish to pursue a qualification that will allow them to work therapeutically with children and young people in a paid, professional capacity.

Accreditation

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

Place2Be is a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).

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 – 4 November 2025 – Online
• Session 1 – The Therapeutic Frame – 8 November 2025 – Face to face
• Session 2 – Play and Story – 6 December 2025 – Face to face
• Session 3 – Attachment – 10 January 2026 – Online
• Session 4 – Intersectional Identity – 31 January 2026 – Face to face
• Session 5 – Wellbeing and Supervision – 14 March 2026 – Online
• Session 6 – Working Together in the School Setting – 11 April 2026 – Online
• Session 7 – Presentation and Funding – 16 May 2026 – Face to face

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 Manchester:

• London: Place2Be, 175 St John St, London, EC1V 4LW
• Manchester: Esea Contemporary, 13 Thomas St, Manchester, M4 1EU

Entry requirements

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

• have completed (minimum 6 months post qualification by the time of the application) 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)
• 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 Autumn Intake 2025/2026 is now open, and application will close the 18 May 2025. 

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 before submitting your application. When we're reviewing applications, we'll check webinar attendance; if you haven't attended the webinar, your application won't be reviewed by the panel.
   
   Please see our webinar dates below: 
   - Thursday 20 March from 12pm till 1pm
   - Tuesday 29 April from 4pm till 5pm
   - Tuesday 6 May from 12pm till 1pm
   
   
2. Fill out an online application form and confirm you meet the course entry requirements. Once you've applied, we may invite you for an informal discussion if necessary.
   
   
3. 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.
   
   
4. 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 counselling course. 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 member 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 before submitting your application. When we're reviewing applications, we'll check webinar attendance; if you haven't attended the webinar, your application won't be reviewed by the panel.
   
   Please see our webinar dates below: 
   
   - Tuesday 11 March from 12pm till 1pm
   - Tuesday 8 April from 4pm till 5pm
   - Tuesday 29 April from 4pm till 5pm
   - Tuesday 6 May from 12pm till 1pm
   
   
2. Fill out two online application forms, which include an application to our Level 5 counselling certificate 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'll 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 out 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 1.5 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.

Find out more

For more information, please read our Counselling qualifications FAQs, get in touch through our enquiries form, or call us on 0207 923 5558.

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