Placement allocation

Competency skills focused practice placements

There are three long practice placements focusing on clinical skill development (direct, indirect and leadership/influencing). For Direct skills and Indirect skills focused placements the Placement Team take the lead in sourcing placements and allocating. For Influencing and Leadership placements – trainees have more input into the choice of the placement dependent on their experiences and needs in order to successfully complete their training.

Once Direct and Indirect skills focused placements have been identified, a placement allocation process takes place approximately 2 months  before the scheduled start of that placement (for out of sync trainees this will be on a case by case basis). The process involves key members of the programme team and considers information indicated by trainees in their ‘placement preference form’ and learning needs identified from the previous placement. Allocations are made on achieving the best fit between identified learning needs of the trainee (which is the most important factor) and other factors such as geography/other identified needs (e.g. health/carer needs). Influencing and Leadership placement allocations have a slightly different process which takes place over a longer time period and involves close liaison with Manchester and Liverpool programmes. Placements are made across the whole of the north west of England and may be located in Lancashire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside or Cumbria.

Any requests for out of area placements are only agreed in exceptional circumstances, and must be made to the Clinical Director.

Community focused placements

There is one community focused placement during the training schedule. The allocation of this placement will be facilitated by experiences the trainee has had prior to the placement in terms of working with populations from across the lifespan and range of ability level. Trainees seek out organisations which they consider to meet their learning needs. This process begins once the Influencing and Leadership placement allocations are made so that trainees can make informed decisions about any areas they need to experience before the end of training.  Clinical tutors follow up possible placements to ensure that they are fit for purpose. This placement is not formally assessed and can be undertaken within the programme commissioned boundaries across the whole of the north west of England and may be located in Lancashire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside or Cumbria.

Core placements

The first four placements are typically referred to as “core placements”. Once placements have been identified, a placement allocation process takes place approximately six weeks before the scheduled start of that placement (for out of sync trainees this will be on a case by case basis). The process involves key members of the programme team and considers information indicated by trainees in their ‘placement preference form’ and learning needs identified from the previous placement . Allocations are made on achieving the best fit between identified learning needs of the trainee (which is the most important factor) and other factors such as geography/other identified needs (e.g. health/carer needs). Placements are made across the whole of the north west of England and may be located in Lancashire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside or Cumbria.

Fifth/specialist placement

Allocation to the fifth placement is more bespoke to the learning and development needs of each trainee. Any identified core competency related learning needs not achieved during the first four core placements will need to be addressed on the fifth placement. Trainees in such a position will be allocated a fifth placement to address their learning needs. If a satisfactory level of core competence has been achieved, trainees have the opportunity to seek a placement in an area of speciality interest or build on previous experience in one of the core placement areas.

Trainees are expected to start thinking about ideas for their fifth placement in advance of the placement start. A fifth placement showcase day currently forms part of the autumn curriculum and allows trainees the opportunity to consider in depth the range of learning and development opportunities open to them. Each trainee will also have an individual meeting with their designated clinical tutor to discuss their learning needs and placement preferences, following which they are asked to communicate final preferences to the clinical tutor organising fifth/specialist placements. This tutor reviews all expressed preferences in conjunction with the other two North West DClinPsy programmes. Trainees are asked not to approach any potential supervisors until they are told they can do so by the tutor organising the fifth placement. This is to prevent supervisors in popular placements being approached multiple times. Trainees are also asked not to make ‘definite arrangements’ with a supervisor. Allocations to fifth placements are, and can only be made, by the organising tutor in liaison with the other two North West programmes.

Our policy across all three Programmes in the North West is to give priority to core/direct/indirect skills placement provision, so trainees are less likely to be allocated to a placement/supervisor who is used for a core placement (unless that supervisor can offer two placements or the demand for core placement provision is low).

Fifth/specialist placements are typically in the North West region. Any requests for out of area placements are only agreed in exceptional circumstances, and must be made to the Clinical Director.