Placement principles

Once you join the university you will be directed to the placement agreement which details the guiding principles for placement learning. You will be expected to uphold the professional values and behaviours aligned to your profession’s regulatory bodies standards.

Placement planning and mapping across your course is undertaken by a specialised health and social care placements team in conjunction with the course team and practice partner organisations all of whom have the expertise to ensure your placement journey meets with the requirements for your professional body and the course.

Placements are mapped to avoid any areas where there might be a conflict of interest for example working in your own GP surgery or with a health or social care team where you may have been a service user or in your previous place of work. Placement planning is highly complex it is not possible to routinely choose your placement or swap unnecessarily. Some courses offer an elective placement where you can plan to travel abroad or nationally to gather additional experiences. 

Placements are released ideally within 4 weeks of the start date to afford time for planning and meeting the team you are to work with. Shift patterns and hours of work will align to the placement team, this may include nights and weekends.

Financial support is available for placement costs. Use the link below to find out more.

Learner Support Fund website

Different courses have different placement models – your course will have a planner with key dates when you attend theory, skills and simulation, placement, or have annual leave holidays. Placements may be in blocks or working full time for 4 or 6 weeks or your course may offer a blended approach where you attend placement and university each week. For example, you may undertake 2 placement shifts and 3 study days. All courses are full time, so you should anticipate either working or studying for the full week.

The image below shows an example of a block placement planner. Clinical placements are represented by red blocks.