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Q. Can I arrange my own placement?
A. The placement team at SHU will work closely with your employer to source, organise and allocate all placement blocks for apprentices, in discussion with yourself as an apprentice to ensure that you achieve a broad profile of experiences. If you do have any local contacts or suggestions please do pass them onto our placement team who will then follow up on this, but please do not contact anyone directly- all placement requests and confirmations must come through the central placement team within organisations and SHU. They can be contacted on this email address ahpplacements@shu.ac.uk
Q. What type of placements should I expect?
Apprentices can have placements within their own organisation but not the setting they currently work in or where there may be a conflict of interest. Apprentices can also go outside of their own organisation for placements and where possible reciprocal agreements across regions can help to facilitate this. Placement blocks are part of off-the-job learning and apprentices should be treated as 'student learners', which means that this should be 'new learning' for the apprentice and different than their employed (on-the-job) role. Apprentices will need a named and suitably qualified placement educator to support and assess their learning. Placement blocks should allow apprentices to gain a breadth of experiences across a range of settings and specialities and which addresses all 4 pillars of practice: Clinical, Leadership, Education and Research. Clinical placements may include a range of settings, specialities and pathways such as mental health, physical health, acute, community and outpatients settings. On some courses (Occupational Therapy) you may also complete an extended scope placement. Please see profession specific information pages for further information.
Q. How many hours of placement do I need to complete?
A. The expected hours of work for placement are 37.5 hours per week, but this may vary between placement setting and hours will need to be negotiated and agreed with your placement educator. For most courses, the guidance is that you should aim to complete around 1000 hours of clinical placement experience, for some courses this is guidance only (Physiotherapy). Due to some PSRB requirements this 1000 hours is a mandatory requirement to complete (Occupational Therapy and Dietetics). You will be required to record your placement hours and any concerns of not meeting the requirements discussed with your course and placement team. Where there is a shortfall of hours you may be required to extend placement blocks or complete an additional block of learning and this would need to be discussed and agreed with your employer. Non-clinical work that is contributing to your placement learning such as completing a presentation or case study or tasks given by your educator can be recorded as placement hours (if agreed by your placement educator).
Q. What happens if I am on a 30 hour apprenticeship contract?
A. Apprentices should not be on a contract of less than 30 hours per week. If you are on a 30 hour contract you can choose to increase your hours on placement if you are able to do so and this has been agreed with your employer, but this is not expected. Otherwise, you would complete 30 hours per week of placement and you should negotiate with the educator how best this would work, depending on your normal working pattern and the placement service needs. For some courses where number of placement hours are mandated there is the requirement to extend the placement block by one week to ensure the minimum number of placement hours are achieved- this should be discussed with course teams and employers and placement providers made aware for planning.
Q. What happens if there are Bank holidays during my placement?
A. This will vary depending on services, so you will need to discuss your working pattern and hours with your practice educator. You would also need to discuss this with your current employer as to your normal contracted working hours and how this would be managed. If you did not work a bank holiday and as part of your employed contract you would normally do so, then you may be required to take this as annual leave.
Q. Can I work more hours than my normal 37.5 hours contract?
A. This would not be common practice or expected, but if your placement required more hours that your normal contract, you would need to discuss this with your practice educator and employer. Your placement hours should average out at 37.5 hours per week.
If you wanted to work in your employed organisation in addition to your placement hours, we would not expect this and you would need to agree this with your employer based on working time directives and your own well-being. This would not contribute to your placement learning/hours or off-the-job learning.
Q. What happens if I do not want to go on the placement I have been allocated- can I submit a placement change request?
A. During the allocation process the placement team will do their best to consider individual apprentice circumstances, this includes your location and distance of travel, whether you drive, caring responsibilities (registered and non-registered) and breadth of experience and learning contracts. Please do bear in mind the apprentice expectations around this and that you may be able to negotiate working hours/patterns with your practice educator. Once your placement has been released, you have 5 working days to be able to make a placement change request - there is a policy for this. You can find the link to the policy and request form here. Once your form has been submitted, a panel will meet to discuss your appeal and you will receive an outcome via email by the end of the next week. Non-mitigating circumstances include travel under 90 minutes, routine child care responsibilities (non-registered).
Q. Where do I find the assessment paperwork for my placement?
A. All assessment guidance and marking criteria information and paperwork can be found on the profession specific placement websites and profession specific information page on this website
Q. What uniform do I wear for placement?
A. Apprentice funding does not professional body subscription or cover uniform costs. You will need to apply for a student ID card from the University when you start the course. You would need to check on the uniform policy of the organisation you were completing a placement within. Most organisations would require a tunic or polo shirt and this could be your current professional uniform. If you required a new uniform then you would have to liaise with your employer about funding for this. Your employer can purchase a Sheffield Hallam Student uniform (but this is not an expectation), this is a white tunic with maroon trim and says student and has black trousers- it can be ordered here: https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/healthtechnicalteam/uniform-kit/
Q. How far should I expect to travel to placement and can I claim travel costs back?
A. You must expect to travel to placement due to the possibility of working outside of your own organisation. Normally this will be up to an hour travel each way (from your home location), but there could be exceptions where travel is up to an hour and a half each way. Apprentices cannot claim travel time/petrol back from the University as apprenticeship placements are not covered by the levy. If you incur travel costs whilst travelling to/from or during placement (such as on a community placement) then you would have to negotiate reimbursement through your employer.
Q. Can I take leave during my placement?
A. You should not plan to take any leave during placement blocks. If you had something booked before starting the course and/or you require leave for an exceptional circumstance (e.g wedding) then you would have to discuss this with the course and placement team to see if an adjustments can be made.
Q. What happens if I am ill during my placement?
A. Please discuss the sickness reporting process with your placement provider, this will normally involve you contacting your educator to inform them that you are unwell and unable to attend placement. Please also inform your academic advisor so they can support and advise where needed. If you take a significant amount of time off during a placement, you would have to discuss if you can complete the required amount to continue and be fairly assessed- course teams will discuss the specific requirements with you. In some cases you would not be able to complete the placement. You must also follow your normal (employed) organisational absence reporting process and inform your employer of any absences during placement.
Q. What happens if I need to defer a placement?
A. If you are unwell and your health circumstances change (physical and mental) you have a responsibility to inform the course and placement team. In some situations this may require you to be referred for an occupational health assessment to ensure you are clear to go out on placement and ensure reasonable adjustments can be put in place if required. If you need guidance and support regarding your health you should contact the Hallam Help support services and ask to speak with a student support advisor: https://www.shu.ac.uk/myhallam/help-and-support
If you are unwell or taking a break in study and cannot complete a placement at the planned time, you would need to complete a catch- up placement block when it is suitable to do so. The placement block would fit into your course calendar where there are periods of on-the-job learning, but the exact dates would need to be discussed and agreed with your and your employer. Normally the placement will be caught up in the next placement block. If this catch- up block comes after another placement then the first one you complete would become the one you missed and so marked at that level.
Q. How will I be prepared for and supported during placement?
A. Apprentices should be supported by their employer to ensure they meet all the mandatory requirements to complete placements. This includes DBS checks, immunisations, online mandatory training packages ( such as infection control, prevent, safeguarding, Equality) and practical mandatory training such as Basic life support and moving and handling. All apprentices will receive preparation sessions from the course teams before they go out on placement to manage expectations, ensure safety and consider developmental needs. During placements you and your educator will receive support from the course teams to monitor progress (this may be in person or online/telephone calls).
Q. How are additional needs supported during placement?
A. At the start of the course you will complete a placement preference form which contains information about preferences, additional needs (e.g carers responsibilities), number of working hours, driving status etc. If you have a learning contract for any learning or health (both physical and mental) needs then reasonable adjustments should be discussed with the educator and put in place to support you. Please see support on placement for additional information.
Q. Does placement learning count as off-the-job learning?
A. Yes placement is 'new' learning so this all counts as off-the-job learning and should be recorded on Maytas as such. Evidence of the learning during placement should also be collected and stored within your Pebblepad Portfolio. This could be case studies (confidentiality maintained), reflections, service-user feedback, feedback from educators or MDT etc. You may also need to record placement hours and learning on additional documents due to HCPC/PSRB requirements and for module/course assessment- the course teams will inform you of this.
Q. Do I get study time during my placement?
When and how study leave is taken is at the discretion of your educator and can be integrated into the placement at a time appropriate for your learning. For example, study time may be after a significant learning experience, such as an assessment, intervention or meeting to allow for timely reflection, or this may be timetabled at a time when the educator is not available to support you. This is to allow for greater flexibility with educators. Any study time granted is a MAXIMUM of 3.5 hours a week.
Study leave is not for general assignment work but may be used for tasks that are related to placements, such as reflection or for reading around issues encountered on placement. The focus of study leave should be agreed with and reviewed by the educator, and you may be expected to evidence what you have done with your study time.
Q. What happens if I fail a placement?
A. If you were struggling to achieve during placement, we would follow the failure to progress process where you would be supported. If you were then unsuccessful in passing the first sit placement, you will have a referral attempt. You will need to discuss when this referral attempt takes place with your course team. If you retake a placement and fail at this point you are unable to resit the placement module, and we will discuss this with you and your employer.
Q. As a practice educator do I need access to any systems?
A. As a practice educator you do not need access to any systems (such as PEMS, PARE), you can access all assessment paperwork via this website and the learner will submit their final forms. If a learner wants to share a document with you from Pebblepad they can share this with you, without you needing access to their portfolio.
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