Work to improve children’s mental health, emotional well-being, learning capabilities and social relationships.
This occupation is found in Education and Social care settings. Play Therapists work in a range of settings such as primary schools, early years centres, sure start centres, child and adolescent, mental health services, voluntary, private sector or organisations concerned with children’s welfare.
The broad purpose of the occupation is the employee will work to improve children’s mental health, emotional well-being, learning capabilities and social relationships. The aim is to enable their full potential by using therapeutic play and a wide range of media and resources. These include sand worlds, clay, puppets, masks, creative visualisations, dressing up, role play, games, messy play, water, drawing and painting and therapeutic stories written for individual children. Play therapy is used both as a long-term intervention for healing chronic issues and as a short term one to prevent slight/mild problems developing into more serious ones.
Play therapy is essentially a non-talking therapy because children very often either cannot or do not want to talk about their problems, which may include traumatic experiences.
Working within the legal and ethical requirements of a Play Therapist alleviating children's mental health, emotional and behaviour issues and keeping them safe. The employee will comply with the standards of the Professional Standards Authority Accredited (PSA) Register of Play and Creative Arts Therapists managed by Play Therapy UK. The employee in this occupation works within parameters of safeguarding legislation to protect children from harm (all types of abuse) responding to disclosures as defined within legislation. In their daily work, Play Therapists interact and work with parents/carers and professionals concerned with children's welfare.
Play Therapists are responsible for alleviating children's mental health, emotional and behaviour issues and keeping them safe. They use a holistic model which integrates: working with the unconscious mind which comprises mental processes that are inaccessible to consciousness but that influence judgements, feelings, or behaviour; the preconscious mind which contains thoughts and feelings that a child is not currently aware of, but which can easily be brought to consciousness as it exists just below the level of consciousness; as well as the conscious mind, which consists of all the mental processes of which we are aware; direct approaches where the Play Therapist prescribes the activities that the child undertakes in the sessions (less common); and indirect approaches where the child themselves chooses what to do (more common)
The therapist communicates with the child using the media that the child has chosen. The therapist also bases the therapy on how the child presents i.e. their behaviour at the start of and during the session e.g. angry, sad, shy, utilising what the child brings to the sessions with the child leading the process rather than 'doing therapy' to the child. The Integrative Holistic model of play therapy is validated by a substantial practice evidence base proving that it is highly effective for helping children to overcome their problems.
It is used successfully with a wide range of children's presenting conditions including, but not limited to: suffering from traumatic experiences, lack of engagement, language difficulties (elective mutes), learning disabilities, family and social relationship difficulties; anger management; attachment issues; all categories of abuse; lack of self-esteem; anxiety disorder; bereavement and loss; experience of domestic violence; lack of confidence; autistic disorder; anti-social behaviour; Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD: a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that is more frequently displayed and is more severe than is typically observed in individuals at comparable level of development); adjustment problems and bullying.
Typically, Level 6 with a minimum of 2 years’ experience of working with children, parents and or carers or Level 5 through required prior Leaning (RPL) minimum of 5 years’ experience of working with children.
| Duty | KSBs |
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Duty 1 Fulfil the legal and ethical requirements of a Play Therapist and the standards of the Professional Standards Authority Accredited (PSA) Register of Play and Creative Arts Therapists managed by Play Therapy UK |
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Duty 2 Organise and manage a caseload of clients and the resources available |
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Duty 3 Allocate referrals received from a wide range of stakeholders including parents, carers and professionals and develop an appropriate treatment plan |
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Duty 4 Conduct interviews with parent/carers and referrers to identify needs, constraints and other relevant social, medical and educational information. Obtain consent from the person legally responsible for the child to proceed with therapy and record and process data within the relevant Data Protection Policy, conforming to the 2018 Data Protection Act |
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Duty 5 Assess a child’s initial mental health and emotional well-being needs, using the psychometric instruments designed for assessing children and infants together with their parent/carers' hopes and expectation and needs for their child's therapy. Recommend which intervention, if any, may be the most appropriate |
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Duty 6 Deliver the treatment plan in accordance with the Integrative Holistic Model |
K3 K4 K6 K7 K8 K9 K10 K12 K13 K14 K15 K16 K17 |
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Duty 7 Make sure that the children take an active role in the therapeutic process through verbal and non-verbal communication |
K4 K6 K7 K8 K9 K10 K13 K14 K15 K16 |
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Duty 8 Support children to form their own strategies for dealing with traumatic experiences |
K4 K6 K7 K9 K10 K12 K13 K14 K15 K16 |
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Duty 9 Evaluate play therapy sessions by following the child's processes during each individual or group session, intervening if necessary, to keep the child safe. Also, track the child's progress in preparation for clinical supervision |
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Duty 10 Analyse progress and issues that have arisen in the session that need to be taken to clinical supervision for advice and support |
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Duty 11 Consult and meet regularly with parent/carers and referrers to assess the client's progress, adjusting the therapeutic objectives and means of achieving them. Discuss the results of any interim or ending assessments. Agree if the number of sessions needs to be increased or ended taking appropriate action |
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Duty 12 Report and communicate appropriately to stakeholders and professionals identifying the on-going needs of the child |
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Duty 13 Manage the physical and emotional safety of the children through the use of approved check lists and procedures covering the use of equipment, materials, the playroom and the working environment |
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Duty 14 Provide joined up working by briefing, consulting with and supporting colleagues in the wider education, health and social care team giving your professional judgement (within the boundaries of your qualifications and experience) as required. Exchange data that is for the benefit of the children using agreed data protection protocols and formats. whilst also maintaining ethical/professional boundaries |
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Duty 15 Protect the children’s and parent/carers’ right to confidentiality through recording of data relating to the children therapy using an approved digital record management system so that the data is available for practice-based evidence, quality assurance, service audit and research activities |
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Duty 16 Implement their own continued personal and professional development plan |
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Duty 17 Keep up to date with the latest findings of child therapies |
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Duty 18 Implement the learning and action points which arise through clinical supervision |
K1 K3 K8 K9 K10 K12 K13 K14 K15 |
K1: What is required of a play therapist by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), government and professional bodies
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K2: The importance of play and attachment theory in child and adolescent development and its role in play therapy
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K3: What is required to be fit for play therapy practice taking into consideration physical and mental health and social factors
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K4: How to manage the equipment used in play therapy practice to ensure that it meets the needs of the children irrespective of their physical developmental needs
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K5: Psychopharmacology for working with children receiving play therapy
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K6: Requirements to manage a playroom/ play space for therapeutic uses
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K7: The workings of and the relevant components of children's brains, and how the mind is created and changed
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K8: The Integrative Holistic model of Play Therapy for children who have mental health and emotional well-being issues not exclusive to trauma, loss, neglect, abuse, anxiety, relationship issues
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K9: How to use a wide range of therapeutic activities including creative arts media for play therapy purposes
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K10: Indirect and direct play therapy modalities, as appropriate with individual and with groups of children to build positive relationship with the child
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K11: Effective and efficient referral procedures for play therapy
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K12: Research relating to the efficacy, effectiveness and efficiency of children's mental health and emotional well-being of play therapy interventions
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K13: Physical safety risks and how to mitigate them in play therapy practice
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K14: How to respond therapeutically to a client when the client plays and moves within the 4 quadrants of the Play Therapy Dimensions Model
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K15: What is required to work ethically with clients
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K16: The importance of therapeutic boundaries within clinical working
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K17: How attachment and child development theories are related to play therapy practice
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K18: How to record, process and store sensitive data in-line with GDPR
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K19: Effective reporting with stakeholders, parents and professionals identifying the on-going needs of the child.
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S1: Apply in practice play in child development with children and early adolescents
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S2: Identify, acquire and manage the safe use of materials and equipment for use in the playroom for therapeutic purposes these are: paper, art materials, clay, sand, sand trays with symbols, musical instruments, puppets, dressing-up clothes, water, movements items, this is an example of the minimum therapeutic media required which would be adapted to meet the physical needs of the children
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S3: Recognise personal issues that arise as a result of sessions with children, clinical supervision and training; takes actions such as personal therapy or CPD to deal with these
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S4: Apply neurobiology to work with children in observation, assessment, during sessions and reporting upon clinical outcomes
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S5: Manages the consultation process through interview and discussion skills, adequate assessment of client needs, obtaining consent, agreeing a therapy contract including therapeutic objectives or making a referral to another professional concerned with children’s well-being if the case is outside their competence or resources
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S6: Make clinical assessments using psychometric tools such as the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)
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S7: Applies a theoretical framework to play therapy practice including child development and attachment theory
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S8: Use the Integrative Holistic Model of Play Therpay: therapeutic stories, clay, role play, drawing and painting, puppets, games, sand-play, music, movement, creative visualisations, masks, dressing up, blocks/lego, water, messy play, relaxation
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S9: Decide and practice when to work indirectly or directly, and with unconscious or conscious processes using the Play Therapy Dimensions Model as a guide to session activities
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S10: Plan and use play therapy for groups of children
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S11: Establish, agree and enforce boundaries to keep the children safe
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S12: Respond to different children’s behaviours such as aggressive/acting out or passive children in play therapy sessions
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S13: Assess and deliver play therapy interventions with a variety of conditions on a spectrum of needs from low risk to high risk as measured by the SDQ and other factors
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S14: Apply ethical principles to ensure personal safety within individual or group play therapy sessions.
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S15: Manages the handling of sensitive clinical data in practice
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S16: Ability to effectively communicate to stakeholders, parents and professionals identifying the on-going needs of the child
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B1: Integrity and coherent in dealings with others
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B2: Demonstrate at all times a personal commitment consistent in their approach
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B3: Demonstrate empathy through communicating and understanding of another person's experience from that person's perspective (including the children's)
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B4: Resilient through having the capacity to work with parents' and children’s concerns without being personally diminished
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B5: Ability to make decisions in the best interest of the child when needing to refer to others
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B6: Demonstrate how to apply appropriate criteria to inform decisions and actions regardless of personal views without discrimination
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B7: Show compassion through kindness, consideration, dignity, empathy and respect
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B8: Respect confidentiality of the child and parents, recognising the differences between a therapeutic role as compared to eg a teaching role
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Apprentices without level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this level prior to taking the End-Point Assessment. For those with an education, health and care plan or a legacy statement, the apprenticeship’s English and maths minimum requirement is Entry Level 3. A British Sign Language (BSL) qualification is an alternative to the English qualification for those whose primary language is BSL.
This standard aligns with the following professional recognition:
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this apprenticeship will be reviewed in accordance with our change request policy.
| Version | Change detail | Earliest start date | Latest start date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Approved for delivery | 23/06/2021 | Not set |
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