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UpdateJanuary 2017 No. 57

Best wishes to you all from CPCAB at the start of the new year. As this newsletter makes it way to you the weather forecast is rather bleak but the days are beginning to get a bit longer and that is always encouraging! We hope you have had a happy, healthy and relaxing break and feel ready for whatever challenges 2017 will present to us.

New fees from September 2017

Please note that our new fee structure comes into force with effect from September 2017. These fees apply to the UK only. For overseas charges please contact CPCAB.

Our level 2 qualifications: funding eligibility under Local Flexibility scheme

The Local Flexibility scheme is part of funding within the Skills Funding Agency's Adult Education Budget. It has been introduced for this current teaching year (and beyond) and gives centres more funding flexibility to respond to the needs of their local area.

Please note that all of CPCAB's Level 2 qualifications are eligible for funding (in England only) under this new scheme.

You can confirm this by first going to each relevant qualification page on the government's Hub website (see below) and then clicking on the ‘Category’ tab.

Qualification Qual. Number Hub weblink
Level 2 Award in Effective Listening Skills 50077946 http://bit.ly/2jmB34y
Level 2 Award in Introduction Counselling Skills 50077624 http://bit.ly/2jv9LnK
Level 2 Certificate in Counselling Skills 50079384 http://bit.ly/2k96P1Y
Level 2 Award in Understanding Substance Misuse 50046846 http://bit.ly/2kjwnM7

Wellbeing in Schools Awards 2016

Our own Fiona Ballantine Dykes was one of the judges at these prestigious awards in November last year. They celebrate and recognise ambassadors of positive mental health and highlight the unique contribution that school communities make to the wellbeing of local communities. Place2Be is the charity that sponsors these awards and provides emotional and therapeutic services in primary and secondary schools, building children's resilience through talking, creative work and play.

As part of the publicity for the Awards event, Fiona wrote a short opinion-piece – “Changing My Mind On Counselling For Children” – for the Huffington Post.

This article and many other items that may be of interest to counsellors, tutors and trainees, is available on CPCAB's Facebook page.

Standardisation training – fully booked

The last standardisation training day in London on Saturday 4th February 2017 is now fully booked. The dates for the 2017/18 academic year will be advertised on our website in May. Please book your place early to avoid disappointment. If you have any queries please contact Jackie Rice.

CPCAB Counselling Research Award videos

The first recipients of the CPCAB Counselling Research Award – made in association with BACP – present their research findings in the following videos made by the Counselling Channel. This prestigious new award is designed to disseminate research which is important for counselling or counselling training. We hope you find them enjoyable and valuable.

The 2015 Award was won by Beverley Spalding, a graduate from Newman University, Birmingham. Her research, titled "An exploration of Black and Asian counsellors' experiences of working with White clients", was supervised by Jan Grove and Alison Rolfe.

A team from Lewisham Counselling & Counsellor Training Associates (LC&CTA) received a commendation award. Their research, titled "Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Trainee Counsellors' Reflections on their Training and Implications for Practice", was conducted by Debra Powell, Mehboob Dada and Reyhan Yaprak.

The video of the winning research for 2016 will be available to watch soon so check www.cpcab.co.uk/researchaward for updates.

CPCAB Assessors – Vacancy

We are currently looking to increase the number of our assessors for levels 4 and 5. If you have substantial experience of teaching at this level, with some assessment and ideally some moderation/verification under your belt we would be interested in hearing from you! The role would require you being able to commit to marking a number of audio recordings, written papers and case reviews; the volume is variable throughout the year. We will offer you standardisation training and support to familiarise you with the requirements of the role.

Please contact either Heather Price (Qualification Leader, Level 4), Caroline Waite (Qualification Leader, Levels 5 & 6) or Marina Richards, External Assessment Service Manager.

Or contact us by phone on 01458 850350... we are keen to hear from you even if it's just for an exploratory chat!

Training Assessment and Quality Assurance

Tutors sometimes ask about appropriate qualifications for staff at centres involved in assessment, moderation and internal quality assurance. This document will give you a brief overview of the TAQA (Training Assessment and Quality Assurance) qualifications available from a range of awarding bodies. It also includes the qualifications for External Quality Assurance which CPCAB would expect EVs to hold and historic versions of all these qualifications.

Counselling Skills and Studies (SAGE Books)

SAGE Publishing are looking for comments from students about Counselling Skills and Studies by Fiona Ballantine Dykes, Traci Postings, Barry Kopp and Anthony Crouch. These comments would be used in the promotion of the second edition. So if you like the book, please send your comments (a line or two at most) with your name and the name of your college to charlotte.meredith@sagepub.co.uk.

SAGE has also advised us that they have had to re-jig their discount codes and the original CPCAB code no longer works. The new code is UKCOUN25, which should be entered at the checkout stage on the SAGE online shop. Our contact, Camille, has also suggested that you contact her direct if you are interested in purchasing bulk orders for a course.

Tutor CVs

A reminder that it's important to use the standard CPCAB CV template when submitting CVs for new tutors or updating information for existing tutors. Using the correct form will make life easier for our Counselling Professionals and they will be very grateful! More importantly, it will enable us to offer a more speedy and reliable service. We have recently produced an online version which we hope you will find helpful. You'll see that you can print a copy for yourself, attach a document if you need to and return to it at a later date if anything changes.

Do remember that you will need to update your CV if you are planning to teach for a higher level than the one for which you are currently approved. Failure to update your details will result in a delay in registering your groups and a possible late registration fee. If you aren't sure about the level for which you're approved, do give us a call and we'll check for you.

Humour

The humour spot in this Update is available as a greeting card from Gathered Images and we thank them for their permission to share it. More hilarious (sometimes naughty) cards and other products are available on their website.