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Placement structure and student support

University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT) organise placements in three block of three weeks over a two-year period, with some flexibility when necessary. These dates are set with education providers, allowing multiple education providers to send students simultaneously across different sites. Students follow the shift patterns of the department, allowing them to be present for handover and reflecting later career expectations. They may choose to do different shift types such as earlies and lates, in discussion with the department hosting them. Eight weeks prior to the first placement block, the options for areas where students can undertake their industry placement are shared with education providers. Once the placement allocations have been confirmed, the students are then responsible for emailing areas directly to introduce themselves and discuss specifics, including their preferred site. This process repeats for the second and third blocks. 

Students are encouraged to spend time in different areas for their first two placement blocks. For the third placement block they can return to one of their first two or try another. This flexibility finds a good balance between allowing students to focus on areas of interest to them, while offering them the opportunity to discover the range of health and care careers available. Some of the options available for students include community services, pathology, pharmacy, speech and language therapy and paediatrics. 

West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust follow a block placement model where students attend for three days a week in their clinical placement area after a two-week induction. The practice education team visits daily to check attendance and wellbeing. The students have a one-hour learning and reflection session per week, held away from the clinical area, hosted by the practice education facilitator. This has been particularly successful and allows the students to mentor each other, share learning and address concerns with the team. Based on feedback, the model shifted from three rotations to one placement area. The trust is now considering a hub and spoke model based on recent student feedback, highlighting the importance of feedback for finding a model that suits for a particular employer and students. 

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust offer a rotational placement model that changes every six weeks with students in four different areas, with potential spoke days elsewhere. These areas are decided based on where the student lives and their access to a car, public transport etc. In the second year, students can suggest areas that are of particular interest and the trust will attempt to match students with relevant teams. Rotations are varied, and could include community nursing teams, rehabilitation wards, cardiology wards, spending time with diabetes specialist nurses and working with allied health professionals such as in radiology or occupational therapy. 

Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust found that one day a week with students did not work well, so now have three block placements across the two years. Trust staff also visit education providers between placements to remain visible and help address any student concerns. 

In the first year the trust prioritises developing professional and public facing skills using a variety of outpatient settings. To help broaden their skills and to support multidisciplinary working, the learners are spoked from their main placement to different clinical areas. In the second year, students are placed across many disciplines including cardiac, medical and surgical wards, working with healthcare support workers. Where possible, spoke days are provided to develop their areas of interest, for example one student has spent time with learning disability nurses. 

The education team visits twice daily to check attendance and wellbeing. They also host a weekly reflection space for students to develop their learning and offer wellbeing walks for those needing support. This time is often used as a micro coaching session where the student is given some goals that they feel confident in achieving. The trust has found that staff enjoy having young people on the ward, teaching them confidence, resilience and clinical skills and have adopted the idea of ‘coaxing not coaching’. 

Engagement with education providers 

County Durham and Darlington started monthly meetings with its six education providers to align processes and discuss concerns, which has evolved into a supportive provider network. This sets clear guidance and expectations from the outset for students and has improved communication with education providers by developing policies for absences, discipline and recruitment. It has also found that having one single point of contact for each education provider and one trust contact for students streamlines the sharing of updates, changes or concerns. 

UHMBT engaged with senior stakeholders to advocate for the benefits that T Levels can bring to the organisation, particularly regarding the retention of local talent. It also mapped T Levels to the wider talent pipeline, looking at apprenticeship routes after finishing the qualification. This translated into a pledge to support a large number of students with three local education providers, which allowed the trust to offer these education providers certainty that there was capacity to grow the programme. 

Royal Surrey work closely with local education providers to learn from its early cohorts. The practice education team looked at how they could best map the learning required from the T Level syllabus to practical learning to ensure students gained the most out of placements. 

West Suffolk recommend that employers start the relationship with students in their college setting, so the students are familiar with the practice educators and hospital staff when they come onto placement. 

Induction process and end of placement support 

West Suffolk meets students prior to them starting at college, joining for induction days so the students are introduced to the trust and have an awareness of what their industry placement could look like, reinforced by ‘keeping in touch’ sessions every two months during their first year. Students then complete their two-week induction in the June prior to their second year. This is based in the education centre on the hospital grounds where students undertake the HCSW induction and Care Certificate training. 

Towards the end of their industry placement, students meet the apprenticeship manager to explore apprenticeship opportunities in the organisation and can get support for bank applications. The students attend a presentation day upon completion of their placement, where they receive a placement certificate and a certificate of achievement for their Care Certificate learning. Senior managers, including the CEO, are invited to this event to raise the profile of the industry placements, reflect their commitment to T Levels, and present to the students. The students are also asked to share reflections and receive a small gift of thanks. 

County Durham and Darlington’s T Level coordinator visits the college prior to the commencement of the placement to interview the students and support with the recruitment process. This includes DBS and identification checks and the completion of e-learning modules. The students then attend a week-long induction where they join new to care healthcare support workers for training. The students will receive an email before their placements with contact details for their placement leads, mentors, and other relevant information. During placement the T Level coordinator visits the students on a regular basis and requests feedback to gain insight and offer improvements for future cohorts. 

At the end of the placement year, the T Level coordinator visits the colleges to support students with interview questions, hold a session on the trust’s vision and values and introduce students to different NHS job platforms. 

UHMBT visit education providers a few weeks before the students start on placement, to offer an induction session. UHMBT also provides the students with a bespoke lanyard that they can show members of staff whilst on placement that outlines what tasks they can support with and what they are unable to do. This has been very successful in building understanding of the students’ responsibilities. In the second year, students undertake an hour-long refresher induction session to ensure they feel welcomed and prepared to return to the trust. Whilst induction does not form part of the 35 hours of work taster activities, mandatory training for students is counted. 

Royal Surrey holds a two-day classroom-based induction session, that is tailored for first- and second-year students. This session addresses hopes and concerns as well as an opportunity to complete statutory mandatory training. The students are also invited to visit the trust prior to starting on placement to familiarise themselves with the environment. For their first and last placement with the trust they hold a formal tripartite meeting with the learner and their education provider, and their industry placement experience culminates in a final review highlighting the student’s achievements, areas for further development and references. 

The talent pipeline 

West Suffolk invite all students in the cohort to careers and training days, including those on placement in other organisations. This can be scaled up easily and builds the profile of the organisation. Students can apply to join the bank on turning 18, to earn whilst they study and continue in the organisation after finishing placement, although the importance of completing the T Level course is stressed as priority. 

Royal Surrey finds that offering industry placements supports local communities, invests in the future workforce and helps young people develop essential soft skills such as communication and interpersonal skills for the workplace. While the trust focuses on teaching skills related to health and care, they also emphasise the importance of life skills such as using public transport, punctuality, speaking to the public and maintaining a professional image. 

The trust also believes that T Level students who subsequently commence a university programme have a better awareness of; the challenges of working whilst studying, placement hours and expectations of working in a hospital or care setting. By supporting T Level industry placement, the trust hopes this learner insight will improve pre-registration attrition rates.

UHMBT engage proactively with social care colleagues and education providers to recommend students spend time in a social care setting. The trust believes this is useful as social care is a crucial part of the wider health and care system. While offering social care placements is at the education provider’s discretion, it recommends that, if offered, it should not always be a student's first placement. This approach ensures that the placement is regarded with the same esteem as other placements and is not perceived merely as an introductory experience.

Working with health and care colleagues

West Suffolk’s education team do trust-wide presentations through organisational education committees, to raise the profile of T Level industry placements. This includes one-to-ones with ward managers to discuss placements and any concerns or questions they might have. The trust also uses this time to ensure that staff are aware of the knowledge and skills that students develop on their T Level to make sure this is well understood before hosting students, ensuring they receive a worthwhile experience.

It works with other employers in the area to align placement structures and administration. This is generally across the ICS, but it is also helpful to link in with other organisations who have students from the same education providers.

Royal Surrey work closely with colleagues organising other education placements to find suitable times that would not place too many students in an area simultaneously. The trust would like T Levels to feature in their talent pipeline planning offering an alternative route to development opportunities that are currently available. Webinars were held with colleagues looking at the benefits to the local community and how T Level students could move into apprenticeships.