Trainee Counsellor Placement Hours: How to Log Them (UK)

Starting a counselling placement is one of the most significant steps in training — and also one of the most confusing when it comes to the admin side. How many hours do you actually need? How do you log them properly? What happens if your records aren't clear when it comes to accreditation? This guide sets out the real requirements and how to build good habits early.

What counts as a placement hour

A placement hour is a supervised hour of direct client contact — an individual counselling session, typically 50 minutes, counted as one hour for logging purposes. Missed sessions where the client doesn't attend generally still count toward your supervision ratio, but check your specific course's definition, as this can vary.

How many hours do you need?

There's no single UK-wide number — requirements are set by your training course, not directly by BACP, UKCP, or other professional bodies. However, most BACP-accredited diploma-level courses require somewhere in the region of 100-120 hours of supervised client work over the full course, with some requiring a minimum number of hours completed within the first year specifically.

This is genuinely worth confirming directly with your course, since the figure varies and getting it wrong — either under-logging or assuming a lower number than your course requires — can cause real problems at the point of qualification.

Supervision requirements while training

This part does have clearer BACP-wide guidance, since it applies to accreditation later regardless of which course you trained on:

These figures matter beyond just training — client work only counts toward BACP individual accreditation later if it was supervised in line with these requirements at the time. This is one of the more common gaps trainees discover too late: hours completed without adequate supervision may not count when you come to apply for accreditation, even years afterward.

How to log your hours properly

Most courses provide a standardised log sheet or online system, but the underlying principle is the same regardless of format. Each entry should record:

• The date and duration of the client session
• A brief description of the work — enough to be meaningful, not a full transcript
• Whether the session was individually or group supervised, and by whom
• Your supervisor's sign-off, ideally at the end of each month rather than left until the end of your training

The single biggest mistake trainees make is leaving logging until much later and trying to reconstruct hours from memory or scattered notes. A log kept up to date weekly, or even after each session, is far more reliable — and far less stressful — than trying to piece together a year's worth of placement hours before an accreditation deadline.

Building good record-keeping habits from the start

The habits you build as a trainee tend to carry through into qualified practice. Getting into a routine now — writing session notes promptly, logging supervision consistently, keeping everything organised by client reference code rather than name — sets you up well for private practice later, when there's no course administrator checking your paperwork and it's entirely down to you.

A few principles worth adopting from day one:

• Write notes immediately after each session, while the detail is fresh — this becomes significantly harder to do consistently once you're managing your own caseload alongside placement or paid work
• Use reference codes, not client names, in any notes or logs — a habit that protects you and your clients regardless of which setting you eventually work in
• Keep a running supervision log rather than a single document you update sporadically — small, consistent entries are far easier to maintain than large periodic catch-ups
• Understand your placement provider's data protection setup — who is ICO registered, where records are stored, and what happens to your notes if you move placements

Where AI note tools fit in for trainees

Many trainees are now using AI-assisted note-writing tools for the same reason qualified therapists do — it's faster and more consistent than writing notes from scratch after every session. The same principles apply regardless of career stage: don't record the session itself unless your placement has agreed it and the client has too, always review the note before it becomes part of your record, and make sure whatever tool you use is open about where it stores and processes data, ICO registered and covered by a DPA. Check your placement provider's policy on AI tools first.

NoteSono has a free plan that suits trainees building this habit early: SOAP, DAP, BIRP and Intake formats, 5 notes a month, no card and no time limit. Notes are stored in the EU and NoteSono is ICO registered. The Supervision format comes with Essentials and Pro, and you can try everything for 7 days when you want to.

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