Make every training hour count.
Lantern is the compliance ledger for UK counselling trainees, their supervisors and their placements. Hours logged as you go, every month checked against BACP or NCPS rules, supervision signed and client hours confirmed by the people who witnessed them, so no hour is ever in doubt.
Trainees: free for your first 3 months, then £3.49 a month during the pilot. Supervisor and placement accounts are not charged at present. No card to start, no client names ever, export everything whenever you like.
9.2 client hrs · 11 sessions
Supervision minimum met (2 of 1.5 hours).
Signed by Priya Sharma · locked · fingerprint 3f9c…a41d
The gap never shows up until the paperwork is due.
Every summer, trainees discover a hole in their record when the course asks for the paperwork, and supervisors and placement managers field the panicked calls. Hours that were never signed off can't be evidenced retrospectively, and by then the months in question are long gone.
The gaps are easy to make. Supervision minimums run per calendar month, not every four to five weeks: supervision on 30 May and 1 July leaves June uncovered, and a month that misses its minimum can cost a trainee every client hour worked in it. A spreadsheet won't warn either of you.
And the questions don't stop at qualification. Professional bodies can audit practising members years later. Lantern keeps a tamper-evident record of the hours and every signature on them, ready to hand over in one click, for as long as any of you need it.
Every side of the same record
You log your hours, the rules engine keeps score, your supervisor signs each month, and the evidence is yours forever.
How it works
- 1
Log as you go
Client sessions and supervision, two keystrokes each. Repeat clients prefill themselves.
- 2
Every month gets a verdict
Your body's requirements, applied automatically, with warnings while there is still time to act.
- 3
The right people sign
Your supervisor signs each month digitally; your placement confirms client hours month by month, from an emailed link or their free account. Signed months lock, permanently.
- 4
Export the evidence
An audit-ready pack with every signature in it, whenever a course provider or professional body asks.
Have a look inside
Compliance
A verdict for every month, in time to act
Supervision minimums run per calendar month, and Lantern checks yours the moment you log. When July is heading for trouble, you hear about it in July, while there is still time to book a session, not in an end-of-course audit.
Progress
Watch the hours add up, and see the finish
Signed hours and logged-but-unsigned hours are never blurred into one number, because only signed hours are safe in an audit. Your recent pace projects when you reach each of your body's hour milestones, so the goal stays concrete.
Evidence
Evidence that proves itself
When your supervisor signs a month it locks permanently, sealed with a cryptographic fingerprint. Anyone holding your evidence pack can scan the QR and confirm the record is genuine and unchanged, years later, no account needed.
Speed
Logging that takes seconds, not Sunday evenings
Repeat clients prefill from their last session, group supervision maths is computed as you type, and your existing spreadsheet history imports in one checked, all-or-nothing pass.
Built for the way training actually goes
A rules engine, not a spreadsheet
Every calendar month is checked against your professional body's published requirements (BACP and NCPS today). Group supervision maths, calendar-month boundaries, the fortnightly supervision rhythm and forward-looking warnings are handled for you.
Evidence and accreditation packs
One click for the full evidence pack with sign-off attestations, placement confirmations and QR verification; another for the accreditation summaries membership applications ask for. CSVs for your own spreadsheets.
Warnings while you can still act
A monthly summary lands on the 1st, an at-risk warning arrives from the 21st if the month still needs supervision booked, lingering unsigned months get a nudge, your dashboard tracks how much of your client work your placements have confirmed, and your milestone bars project when you reach your body's hour milestones at your current pace.
Documents, renewals and invoices
Keep supervision contracts and insurance certificates in a private vault with expiry reminders, so renewals never lapse quietly. Invoices your supervisor sends you stay visible in the app too.
Your history comes with you
Already keeping a spreadsheet? Import client and supervision history from CSV in one checked, all-or-nothing pass.
Client confidentiality by construction
Sessions are logged against short pseudonymous codes; client session records have no free-text fields, so client-identifying details cannot be stored even by accident.
Questions, answered
Is client confidentiality protected?
By construction. Sessions are logged against short pseudonymous codes (like CL-01); client session records have no free-text fields, so client-identifying details cannot be stored even by accident.
Which professional bodies are supported?
BACP and NCPS rule packs are built in: the group supervision maths both bodies publish, the fortnightly supervision rhythm, each body's hour milestones, and NCPS's weekly caseload guidance. Choose yours in Settings; more bodies follow.
What does “signed off” actually mean here?
Your supervisor reviews the month's entries and the engine's verdict, then signs with their typed name. The month locks: nothing can be edited or deleted, only amended visibly. A cryptographic fingerprint of the signed content is stored, and anyone holding your evidence pack can confirm at Lantern's public verification page that the record is genuine and unchanged.
Who signs off my client hours?
Each party signs what they witnessed. You attest your entries are accurate when you submit a month; your supervisor signs the supervision they had with you and that the month matches what you brought to supervision; your placement, where the client work actually happens, confirms client hours, and Lantern handles exactly that: email them a one-time confirmation link (no account needed on their side, though free placement accounts exist for agencies with several trainees), or print the sheet for ink. Your course sets the precise paperwork, and the evidence pack lays all of it out for them.
Can I get my data out?
Always. Evidence pack PDF, accreditation support pack, CSV exports, and a full account export in JSON. You can delete your account yourself, and your data goes with it.
I already have months of hours in a spreadsheet. Do I start over?
No. Download the CSV template, paste your history in, and import it: client sessions and supervision sessions both. Every row is checked first and nothing half-imports, so your record stays clean.
What if my hours were disrupted by illness or a placement break?
Record a circumstances note and your supervisor countersigns it. It becomes a permanent part of your evidence pack, so an auditor sees the explanation next to the numbers.
What does it cost?
Nothing for your first three months, so you see a full sign-off cycle work before paying a penny. After that it is £3.49 a month for trainees during the pilot, and we are not charging for supervisor accounts at present. Whatever happens, your record stays yours: you will always be able to view and export everything you have logged.
Start your ledger before the next month closes.
Set up takes two minutes. Trainees: create an account, pick your professional body, log your first session. Supervisors: create an account and invite your supervisees, and their months arrive ready to sign. Placements: create an account with the email your trainees use, and their confirmation requests find you.
Create your free account