Introduction

Thank you very much to you and your team for all of your hard work supporting our students on placement. Practice Placements are a vital part of students’ learning, enabling them to apply the theoretical knowledge and practice from university. Practice Placements can help students to develop their practical skills, critical thinking and reasoning skills, communication and team working. At the University of Portsmouth, we feel passionately about the importance of students gaining a wide experience of physiotherapy and we are extremely grateful for your support with this. Our students are hard-working, motivated individuals and we feel that their involvement on placement can also bring huge benefits to the workplace. The following pages provide some information about when our placements are, what teaching is done prior to each placement, and what you can expect from our students whilst on placement with you. This information is specific to those students studying MSc (pre-registration) Physiotherapy at the University of Portsmouth. 

We use the CSP's Common Placement Assessment Form (CPAF). We are now using the new, shorter version of the CPAF which came out to Higher Education Institutions in September 2024.

Educator Training

In addition to reading this online information, we ask that practice educators attend training on the CSP’s Common Placement Assessment Form (CPAF), in line with CSP guidance. We run CPAF training in collaboration with the University of Winchester, the University of Southampton and the University of Chichester. If you have attended training from either of these institutions you do not need to attend another session.

We also run regular educator training alongside our colleagues from other universities, details of which can be found on the main NHS Futures page. Please get in touch if you have any questions. In addition, please see the link at the bottom of this page for general guidance developed with Health Education England around supporting AHP students when on placement.

We are here to support you throughout the placement process and strive to keep good communication between placement providers and the University. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Contact details are on the last page.

LINK TO: HEE resources for AHP practice educators