Welcome to the Health and Social Care Placements Information website
Welcome to the Health and Social Care Placements Information website. As part of their professional education, all students will spend part of their course on placement. On placement, students gain experience, learning and developing professional skills under supervision to meet course and professional and statutory regulatory body (PSRB) requirements.
On this website you will find advice, guidance and supportive resources to help you make best use of placement learning experiences. You can find out what to expect on placement, how to prepare for it as well as what support and help is available during your placement. Please explore the site: read the guidance in the Policy Library, find general information about placement expectations and preparation and student support from the Placement Information;section and find information specific to your profession and course in the Profession Information section.; You can find contact details for key university staff through;Contact Us link if you need advice.
Integrated Care - Integrated Learning
You can find an overview of what students are learning and experiencing in each year of their Health and Social Care programme by visiting the Provider Information section in the Profession Information webpages for your profession. We are making very clear links with the interprofessional modules for students' practice placements. We hope this information will help guide you to support varied opportunities in order to consolidate students' learning whilst they are with you on their practice placements.
All students on placement
Students are advised that they must follow their placement provider's policies and guidelines at all times while on placement.
Students are also reminded of the University's placement learning policies and guidance, including the guidance on Travelling to and from placement safely.
If you have a genuine emergency outside normal university working hours, you can use the emergency central number on +44 (0)114 225 8888.
Covid 19
Students are advised that they must follow their placement provider's policy and guidance in relation to Covid-19.
If you have symptoms of covid-19 (link to external website), or suspect that you may have covid-19, YOU MUST NOT ATTEND YOUR PLACEMENT.
If you are a direct household contact of someone who tests positive for Covid-19, and you are a health student, you must NOT attend your placement. Please refer to the Updated PHE Guidance on NHS Staff and Student Self-Isolation and Return to Work Following Covid-19 Contact.
If you attend your placement while you have symptoms of covid-19 you will put service users/ clients/ patients and staff at risk of covid-19 infection. Please read the requirements for safe practice and avoiding harm to service users/ clients/ patients in the professional codes of conduct and ethics for your future profession:
Visit the NHS website for information about when and how to self-isolate (link to external website).
Covid-19 Immunisation - Important advice for all students in relation to placement learning
Students encouraged to have both COVID jabs this summer - Health Education England update
Health Education England (HEE) is encouraging all health and care students and learners and those starting programmes in September, to ensure they have had both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine unless they are medically exempt.
Professor Mark Radford, Chief Nurse, Health Education England is leading HEE's drive to encourage student vaccinations which will protect them, their families, and those patients they may be caring for and enable them to take part in their clinical learning placements. This follows government guidance advising that those working in social care must be fully vaccinated and a number of NHS trusts are now requiring this from all patient-facing health and care staff.
For those planning placements in social care settings, there is currently a 16-week grace period which is designed to allow time for those who have not yet been vaccinated to do so. The Covid-19 vaccine will then be mandatory for all care home workers in England, including students and learners on placements in those settings, from 11 November 2021.
HEE advises that should any students or learners opt not to have the vaccination without medical reasons, they will need to talk to their university about the impact this will have on their progression through their programme.
For further support and guidance, including for those who are exempt and may require further information on how to continue with placements, please contact your Course Management Team.
Book your coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccination
A significant number of our placement providers expect their staff to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and these placements are now requiring all students who attend placement in their organisation also to be fully vaccinated. This includes some sectors for which full vaccination will become a legal requirement from October 2021. Any delays in ensuring that you are fully vaccinated could prevent you from commencing a placement.
Students are advised that they must follow their placement provider's policies and guidelines at all times while on placement in relation to Covid processes and reporting.
Updated guidance from the NHS, Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Health Education England
