Postgraduate Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy for Children and Young People in Schools
Postgraduate Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy for Children and Young People in Schools
With Place2Be's Postgraduate Diploma in child counselling, you’ll gain the skills and experience you need to become a fully qualified child counsellor. Our Level 7 Diploma also includes a supervised placement in a Place2Be school.
Overview
Applications are opening soon for our next cohort for the course beginning in September 2026. Make sure you register your interest in our Postgraduate Level 7 Diploma to find out more about our next intake!
Our established Level 7 Postgraduate Diploma will equip you with the skills and experience to become a qualified counsellor for children and young people in any setting, with specific focus on schools. It's the only BACP-accredited Postgraduate Diploma in counselling children and young people in the UK. The programme is also the only one delivered by a service delivery organisation based on the needs of the children we work with every day.
The course is a 2-year part-time course which will include both in-person learning and practical experience working with primary and secondary aged children and young people in a Place2Be Partner School.
The course is accredited by the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and awarded by the University of East London (UEL).
It's important that those working as counsellors for children and young people reflect the pupils in our partner schools. We encourage applications from people currently underrepresented in the counselling profession, including:
- people from Black, Asian and ethnically diverse communities
- people with disabilities
- men
- care leavers
- gender-diverse members of the LGBTQI+ community.
Are you passionate about training to work therapeutically with children and young people but need help funding your training? Our scholarship funding is here to support you. For more information, please see the Fees and Funding Options section.
Course details
Please see the Programme Specification for the courses aims and learning outcomes.
What is the course structure?
Our Level 7 Postgraduate Diploma runs every Thursday, 10am-4pm during term time.
The course includes:
- 400 hours of contact time with tutors and 100 supervised clinical hours over the two years
- at least 30 hours a year of personal therapy
- two training weekends in Year 1 and in Year 2
- substantial reading and written work in your own time.
Topics covered
During our Postgraduate Diploma, you'll have a combination of academic and experiential learning, covering a range of topics, including:
- the use of play and creativity
- self-awareness
- child development and observation
- counselling skills using an integrative therapeutic approach
- person-centred, psychodynamic, systemic, transcultural work and attachment theories
- assessment, referral and multi-agency working.
Who is the course for?
Our Postgraduate Diploma is useful for those who want to:
- become a qualified and registered child counsellor
- learn how to work therapeutically with children and their families within a multi-agency setting
- receive training in child development, systemic thinking and integrative theory
- develop skills as a creative and reflective counselling practitioner
- apply for clinical roles at Place2Be.
Entry requirements
To submit your application and meet the entry requirement for this course, you must have completed the following:
1. A counselling certificate
You must have, or are studying towards, at least one of the following:
- Place2Be's Intermediate Child Counselling Skills (Level 3 Certificate)
- a Level 3 Certificate in counselling completed face-to-face over 9-12 months with Place2Be or another accredited training provider* (your course must be due to finish by 10 April 2026 to apply)
- a Diploma in Counselling (Level 4 or above in England and Wales, or equivalent diploma at SCQF Level 9-11 in Scotland)
- a degree or master's in Counselling, Psychotherapy or Art Therapy.
*If you completed your Level 3 Certificate elsewhere, you must have attended a Place2Be Taster Day within 18 months of your application, and your Level 3 course must have included:
- at least 10 hours of clinical skills practice
- 92 hours of theory-guided learning, with at least 65 of those hours being in-person training
- in-person delivery with no more than 30% delivered online
- evidence of self-awareness through a reflective journal or group process
- an overview of safe and ethical therapeutic practice.
2. A degree and/or professional qualifications
You must have a degree or equivalent professional qualification. If you have not completed a degree, you can still apply, but you must submit a 1,500-word essay as part of your application. Your essay will be titled My Philosophy of Counselling. Your typed essay should include a minimum of three sources and a bibliography.
3. Additional skills and experience
You must have:
- completed at least six counselling or psychotherapy sessions (individuals, couples or group) to demonstrate your personal development and self-discovery journey
- significant experience working with or interacting with children and/or young people that demonstrate your ability to achieve the standards of the course
- a willingness to be playful and creative
- a commitment to be self-reflective and committed to self-development
- spoken and written English to GCSE level.
Please note that our course require assignments to be submitted online, there is an expectation that all students can use and are familiar with Microsoft office to type their assignments and submit them.
Desirable
We would like it if you also have the following:
- an interest in difference and anti-oppressive practices as shown through reading, listening and viewing for personal interest.
References
We need two references to support your application for the Postgraduate Diploma. We will ask you to give these during your application. One reference must be from a previous employer, and the other must be a clinical/tutor reference. Your referees will be contacted if you are successful at interview and offered a conditional place on the course.
Get started with our Level 2 Award and Level 3 Certificate
If you haven't already completed a Level 2 Award or Level 3 Certificate counselling course, you can start your training with Place2Be. Our Level 2 and Level 3 courses are delivered in London and Manchester. You can apply for our Postgraduate Diploma while completing our Level 3 course if your Level 3 cohort is completed before 10 April 2026. We will check your certificate before the beginning of the Postgraduate Diploma.
Find out more about how you can become a child counsellor with Place2Be.
Course fee
The fee for the Postgraduate Diploma 2026-28 intake is £15,000 (£7,500 per year).
This fee includes:
- all of your Supervision on the course
- a Placement in a Place2Be school
- Place2Be Mentoring
- access to additional training
- registration with UEL
- assessment fees.
The only additional fees you will be expected to pay are your personal therapy and travel to and from the training and placement.
Payment options
If offered a place on the course, we'll ask you to make a first payment to confirm your place. Each payment option below includes a non-refundable deposit of £750 as part of your first instalment.
Payment will be required only if offered a place to study.
Two payments of £7,500 one year apart (full course fee)
Six payments of £2,500 every four months (termly)
20 payments of £750 (monthly)
Financial support through Place2Be's bursary and scholarship scheme
We want our Postgraduate Diploma to be as accessible as possible, so we're offering scholarship support packages for eligible students. You can apply for a scholarship when completing the Postgraduate Diploma course application form. Scholarship applicants must meet all of the course eligibility requirements, plus the scholarship eligibility requirements. If you struggle to fund this level of training, you can apply for a financial support package.
To find out more, look at our information about:
- our bursaries and scholarships, including information about eligibility
- applying for your bursary or scholarship, including a helpful guide about everything we ask about on the application.
We offer three options for our Postgraduate Diploma scholarship, which give you different levels of financial support:
- a partial tuition fee scholarship
- a full tuition fee scholarship (you’ll have to pay £200 to secure your place on the course)
- a hardship support fund, which you can use to cover costs of personal therapy, travel and learning materials.
Application process and questions
Applications are opening in November for our next intake beginning September 2026. Make sure you register your interest in our Postgraduate Level 7 Diploma to find out more about our next intake!
Application questions
You will be asked to answer the following questions as part of your application. We advise preparing your answers before starting to submit your application. Each questions has a 1,500 character limit (this is between 215 and 375 words with spaces included).
- Question 1: Why do you want to undertake this training and what do you hope to gain from the course?
- Question 2: Why do you feel that now is the right time to begin?
- Question 3: What skills and knowledge do you have that you have already used when looking after or working with children?
- Question 4: In what way does your own experience of childhood influence the way that you interact with children?
- Question 5: Outline your developing understanding of the nature of oppression and bias, and how this understanding has influenced your work with children and young people who are different to you?
- Question 6: Describe some activities that you engage in which promote personal development and self-awareness and outline how this benefits you.
Once you have completed the course application form, you will be connected to the placements application form. Both the course and placements application will need to be completed to be considered for the programme.
Application process
1. Submitting your application
Once applications open, your first step is to submit your application form, which we will post a link to on this page. There are two parts to this application: a course application and placements application. When you have completed the course application, you will be connected to the placements application to complete. Both parts of the application need to be completed to be considered for the programme.
Applications are expected to close in February 2026, please make sure to apply before then so you don’t miss out Applications may be assessed on a rolling basis, so make sure you apply as early as possible so you don’t miss out.
2. Attend your interview(s)
If you have completed Place2Be’s Level 3 Certificate and are shortlisted after submitting your application, you will be invited for an online one-to-one interview between February and April 2026.
3. Scholarship eligibility (if applicable)
If you have also applied for a scholarship, you'll be required to complete further checks on your scholarship eligibility through our third-party administrator. This will take place by a separate organisation that will perform assessments on our behalf to inform our scholarship award decisions, including the amount of living support you may receive.
4. You'll be offered a place
If you secure a place on our Postgraduate Diploma, we'll let you know from April 2026.
Not sure which course to apply for?
We are holding information sessions on our qualifying courses in November and December. If you would like to know more on each qualification, we advise signing up to attend one of the below dates and times:
Accreditation
Our Postgraduate Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy for Children and Young People in Schools is:
- accredited by the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)
- awarded by the University of East London (UEL).
As we don't operate a waiting list for this course, please register your interest in our Postgraduate Diploma if your preferred course is full and we'll let you know when our next dates are.
Register your interest
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.
Are you not quite ready to start your training but would like to receive updates about our counselling training courses and general mental health news? Sign up for our Mental Health Professionals Network newsletter to stay in the loop.
I was bowled over by how interactive the course was - a far cry from sitting in a classroom being talked at. When you’re preparing people to support children with social and emotional difficulties, presentations and conversations can only go so far.
Applications are opening soon for our next cohort for the course beginning September 2026. Make sure you register your interest in our Postgraduate Level 7 Diploma to find out more about our next intake starting in September 2026!