Placements Overview

Practice placements are an integral part of training in clinical psychology at Lancaster. Practice placement work constitutes over 50% of the time that a trainee spends on the programme which is in line with the British Psychological Society Accreditation Standards. This section addresses the management, governance and assessment of this element of the programme.

The programme’s Clinical Director manages and oversees the entire placement planning and support process. The day to day activity involved in accessing, arranging supporting and reviewing practice placements is devolved to a team of clinical tutors and administrative support. Strategic development of these processes is led by the Placement Team led by the senior clinical tutor (placements).

Placement range of experience

The placement programme is designed to offer trainees practice experience of the range of clinical psychologist activities. This can range from therapeutic work with individuals, families and groups across the age range and across a diverse range of contexts, working practices and presenting difficulties to consultation, leadership and service development. The main function of achieving this diversity is to afford the trainees appropriate opportunities to nurture and develop their skills and competencies to the level required by the Standards of Proficiency (SoPs) set out by the HCPC for Practitioner Psychologists (including those specific to the practice of clinical psychology) and to be confident in achieving these standards by the completion of their training. A trainee will typically have clinical experience   with populations across the lifespan, as well as in contexts where cognitive/neuro diversity or challenge is present (for example working with people who have a learning disability and/or people with cognitive change/deterioration).. Placements are selected based on opportunities for competency development and that are appropriate for an individual trainee’s training journey. We also look to develop skills which relate to the broader role of a clinical psychologist in a modern NHS climate (e.g. leadership, service development) or in ‘non-clinical’ settings, such as in community based or third sector work contexts. The focus is on trainees accessing the appropriate learning opportunities to build their competence to that of a fully trained clinical psychologist over the whole length of the programme; paths to this end may differ, and being flexible in this way will always be designed around achieving this end.

Time spent on placement

Pre-thesis hand in

The general plan is for trainees to be available for placement work for three days each week.

Post-thesis hand in

From the end of May in their third year, trainees are available for placement work for four days each week until the end of the programme. Where trainees are late in their thesis submission, they should still attend placement for the extra placement days unless other arrangements have been specifically made and approved by the directors. This fourth day of placement activity, can under some circumstances (and with careful planning with trainees, clinical tutors and supervisors) be used to undertake a separate placement activity to the main placement.

Placement Schedule over Three Years (2021 cohort onwards)

Scheduling involves three clinical practice  placements (Jan-Sept in years 1, 2 & Jan-Aug in year 3) with a project focused block at the start of year 2 and a shorter community focused placement at the start of year 3. Placement preparation activities will take place in the extended induction block at the start of year 1. The end of the third longer placement is on 31^st August in line with the end of the contract of employment. A broad outline of placement activity is set out below:

Placements are organised by expected competency development in order to scaffold the trainee’s learning and orientate clinical supervisors to what is expected to be focused on during the placement. The curriculum will broadly match the focus of each placement in order to facilitate learning and application. Placement allocation is made in conjunction with the North West DClinPsy training programmes based in Liverpool and Manchester.

Should trainees intercalate (e.g. through illness or maternity leave), this may necessitate a variation in this schedule.

Placement support and monitoring

Once a placement is allocated, the clinical tutor will make contact with the supervisor and plan the support for the placement. Clinical tutors are responsible for:

• supporting the trainee on placement
• liaising between the programme and the supervisor
• supporting the supervisor in any of their placement related needs
• planning placement reviews (a minimum of two per nine month placements)
• arranging end of placement reviews with supervisors
• quality assurance reviews
• pre-placement or start of placement meetings as needed if the clinical tutor and supervisor agree they would be useful to facilitate preparation of the placement for the trainee (for example, for a trainee with a support plan or other specific support needs)

Trainees can expect to have 90mins of formal clinical supervision per week on their first placement and 60mins per subsequent placement which is pro rata for part time trainees as 60mins of formal supervision per week on first placement and 40mins per subsequent placement.

Start of the Placement

The placement contract should be drawn up between the trainee and the supervisor. This should be sent to the Programme Coordinator (Placements) and the trainee’s clinical tutor by the end of the first two full weeks of the placement. The establishment of the placement contract is the first priority at the start of any placement. The trainee’s clinical tutor will review the contract for appropriateness. Supervisors and trainees are also strongly encouraged to form a psychological contract regarding the supervision process at the beginning of the placement. In addition, an appropriate induction to each placement must be carried out, including identifying any risk or safety issues that are specific to the placement and service specific procedures that may be relevant to the trainee’s work on the placement. These matters will be subject to individual service policy. However, the placement contract does specifically ask that trainees be made aware of the practice placement provider’s extant Equality and Diversity Policy, including how these apply to the trainee and how they will be implemented and monitored (to ensure compliance with the HCPC SET 5.5).

Placement review processes

A key role of the Clinical Tutor is to support the placement process for both trainee and supervisor.  A first contact made is by the trainee’s clinical tutor to the clinical supervisor(s) to arrange the Quality Assurance placement review prior to the trainee starting on placement. The clinical tutor is responsible for setting up subsequent Placement Review meetings which both trainee and clinical supervisor(s) attend. There is a minimum of two reviews per clinical placement (i.e. Direct, Indirect and Influencing and Leadership placements). The clinical tutor is available to be contacted by either supervisor or trainee to support any issues arising from the placement. Further review meetings will be arranged as needed.

When placement reviews are arranged by the clinical tutor, supervisors will be asked to ensure that they have completed the Supervisor Assessment of Trainee (SAT) form in draft form, to be sent to the clinical tutor one week in advance of the arranged review date. This draft can then be used by supervisors when completing the SAT form at the end of the placement, adding any elements that had been evidenced in the remaining time on the placement.

Similarly, trainees would be asked to send tutors their draft Placement Audit & Log (PALOG), one week in advance of the review. During the meeting itself, these draft documents would inform the respective conversations, as set out in the schedule below.

Reviews will take place either at the placement location or via MS Teams (or other video conferencing facility). Broadly following procedures outlined in the BPS Guidelines on Clinical Supervision, the placement review will incorporate the following structure: –

• Tutor meets trainee (focus on  the PALOG)
• Tutor meets supervisor (focus on the SAT & PALOG)
• 3-way meeting between tutor, trainee and supervisor, in order to collectively review the trainee’s progress, provide feedback to the trainee and the supervisor, and agree appropriate goals for the remainder of the placement

The SAT and PALOG do not cover everything that might be discussed but it is the tutor’s role to check that all issues have been addressed – so even if the above documents don’t address, for example, finding an appropriate piece of clinical work to use for an assignment, the tutor will be checking these issues out.

Although the time allocated to meeting with the trainee and supervisor separately and collectively may vary depending upon individual need, it is advisable for supervisors to allow two hours for the meeting.

After the placement review, the tutor will e-mail the supervisor and trainee with a short summary of the meeting (within, ideally, two weeks of the visit). The e-mail will set out key points arising from and agreed during the review. This e-mail will also be saved, along with the draft documents (already submitted) as attachments. This will form the record of the placement review, and will be stored by programme.

This allows any concerns to be noted and any action plans to address these concerns to be recorded. For example, an opportunity for the achievement of a particular type of learning objective may have been lost on placement, and this record would acknowledge that this learning might need to be replaced by a different, more achievable objective in the placement circumstances.

End of Placement

Whilst the clinical tutor provides the support throughout the placement, further placement reviews with supervisor and/ or trainee are only scheduled should a query or difficulty arise. If concerns have been raised, at the end of placement, the clinical tutor contacts the supervisor to confirm that the trainee’s progress on placement has continued as planned, and to respond to any difficulties or queries they have, both generally and specifically in completing the Supervisor’s Assessment of Trainee or SAT form. If no concerns have been raised, supervisors are offered an opportunity to review their own supervisory practice.  A trainee Individual Training Plan (ITP) meeting is held between the trainee and the tutor pair in the time period following the end of the placement to review progress.

BPS Guidelines on Clinical Supervision

Practice placements are an integral part of the whole programme of training in clinical psychology at Lancaster. Practice placement work constitutes over 50% of the time that a trainee has during their time on the programme. This document addresses the management, governance and assessment of this significant element of the programme.

The programme’s Clinical Director manages and oversees the entire placement planning and support process. The day to day activity involved in accessing, arranging supporting and reviewing practice placements is devolved to a team of clinical tutors and administrative support. Strategic development of these processes is led by the Placement Development and Implementation Group (PlaDIG) led by the senior clinical tutor (placements).

Placement range of experience

The placement programme is designed to offer trainees practice experience of the range of clinical psychologist activities. This can range from therapeutic work with individuals, families and groups across the age range and across a diverse range of contexts, working practices and presenting difficulties to consultation, leadership and service development. The main function of achieving this diversity is to afford the trainees appropriate opportunities to nurture and develop their skills and competencies to the level required by the Standards of Proficiency (SoPs) set out by the HCPC for Practitioner Psychologists (including those specific to the practice of clinical psychology) and to be confident in achieving these standards by the completion of their training. A trainee will typically have clinical experience with populations across the lifespan as well as in contexts where cognitive/neuro diversity or challenge is present (for example working with people who have a learning disability and/or people with cognitive change/deterioration). Placements are selected based on opportunities for competency development and that are appropriate for an individual trainee’s training journey. We also look to develop skills which relate to the broader role of a clinical psychologist in a modern NHS climate (eg leadership, service development) or in ‘non-clinical’ settings, such as in community based or third sector work contexts. The focus is on trainees accessing the appropriate learning opportunities to build their competence to that of a fully trained clinical psychologist over the whole training period; paths to this end may differ, and being flexible in this way will always be designed around achieving this end.

Time spent on placement

Pre-thesis hand in

The general plan is for trainees to be available for placement work for two days each week.

There may be occasional extra teaching days and meetings, but these should be rare and it is anticipated that trainees use some of their private study/research time, if necessary, for these extra commitments. Private study allocation will be half a day each week, so there is room for negotiation between supervisors, trainees, and the programme staff about allocation of time for commitments that fall outside of placement activity.

Each week there is also one day set aside for teaching. Once on placement the general pattern for the 2021 and subsequent intakes is that teaching alongside the direct skills placement is on a Wednesday, for the indirect skills placement and project block on a Tuesday, and Mondays for the community focus placement and influencing and leadership placements. Part time trainees will also be expected to join research teaching at the start of their year 2 on a Thursday. This will take place over 4 weeks with no other teaching scheduled at this time. For trainees in the 2020 cohort and below, teaching in year 1 is on Wednesday, year 2 on Tuesday, Year 3 on a Tuesday, Year 4 on a Monday. Part time trainees will also have breaks in their teaching scheduling during which time study time is scheduled and will be required to join the cohort below for some of the scheduled teaching.

Post-thesis hand in

Following submission of their theses (usually from July of the final year) trainees continue to be available for placement work for two days each week until mid August when teaching ends. Following this trainees attend placement for three days each week until the end of the course. This third day of placement activity, from mid August onwards, can under some circumstances (and with careful planning with trainees, clinical tutors and supervisors) be used to undertake a separate placement activity to the main placement.

Placement Schedule (2021 cohort onward)

Placements on the Lancaster University Part Time DClinPsy fall into the following pattern across the 4 years and 4 months. The order of placement activity is the same as for full time peers (i.e. Direct Skills placement, Project block, Indirect skills placement, Community focussed placement and Influencing and Leadership placement) but is spread out over a longer period of time. Placement preparation activities will take place in the extended induction block at the start of year 1. A broad outline of placement activity is set out below:

Placements are to be organised by competency rather than specialty in order to scaffold the trainee’s learning and orientate clinical supervisors to what is expected to be focused on during the placement. The taught curriculum will broadly match the focus of each placement in order to facilitate learning and application, and will be directly alongside placements for the part time route as much as possible (trainees stay with nominated cohorts for teaching activities to facilitate contact with other trainees and undertake group learning). Placement allocation is made in conjunction with the North West DClinPsy training programmes based in Liverpool and Manchester.

Should trainees intercalate (e.g. through illness or maternity leave), this may necessitate a variation in this schedule; in this case trainees’ attendance at teaching sessions will be negotiated so that they will have appropriate access to teaching content to support them on their placements.

Placement Schedule (2020 cohort and earlier)

Placements on the Lancaster University Part Time DClinPsy fall into a precise pattern across the 4 years and 4 months. For the first 37 months of training, four placements take place; these occur from Oct – June, July – March, April – Nov and Dec – Oct. In the final year the placement starts in Nov and finishes in Dec the following year. The broad nature of the services within which each of these placements is provided is given in the table below:

This pattern allows the three doctoral clinical psychology programmes across the north west to share and integrate their placement arrangements, selecting placements from the whole pool of placements available within the north west. This consistent order of placements also enables the programme to match the contents of the taught curriculum that runs alongside the placements to the broad needs of each placement. Should trainees intercalate (e.g. through illness or maternity leave), this may necessitate a variation in this schedule; in this case trainees’ attendance at teaching sessions will be negotiated so that they will have appropriate access to teaching content to support them on their placements.

Placement support and monitoring

Once a placement is allocated, the clinical tutor will make contact with the supervisor and plan the support for the placement. Clinical tutors are responsible not only for supporting the trainee on placement and arranging for any trainee specific needs to be met, but also for liaising between the programme and the supervisor and supporting the supervisor in any of their placement related needs, including planning placement reviews (2 per practice placement) and arranging end of placement reviews with supervisors. In addition to quality assurance visits, pre-placement or start of placement visits might be offered if the clinical tutor and supervisor agree they would be useful to facilitate preparation of the placement for the trainee (for example, for a trainee with a support plan or other specific support needs).

Trainees can expect to have 90mins of formal clinical supervision per week on their first placement and 60mins per subsequent placement which is pro rata for part time trainees as 60mins of formal supervision per week on first placement and 40mins per subsequent placement.

Start of the Placement

The placement contract should be drawn up between the trainee and the supervisor. This should be sent to the Programme Coordinator (Placements) and the trainee’s clinical tutor by the end of the first three full weeks of the placement. The establishment of the placement contract is the first priority at the start of any placement. The trainee’s clinical tutor will review the contract for appropriateness. Supervisors and trainees are also strongly encouraged to form a psychological contract regarding the supervision process at the beginning of the placement. In addition, an appropriate induction to each placement must be carried out, including identifying any risk or safety issues that are specific to the placement and service specific procedures that may be relevant to the trainee’s work on the placement. These matters will be subject to individual service policy. However, the placement contract does specifically ask that trainees be made aware of the practice placement provider’s extant Equality and Diversity Policy, including how these apply to the trainee and how they will be implemented and monitored (to ensure compliance with the HCPC SET 5.5).

Placement review processes

A key role of the Clinical Tutor is to support the placement process for both trainee and supervisor.  A first contact made is by the trainee’s clinical tutor to the clinical supervisor(s) to arrange the Quality Assurance placement review prior to the trainee starting on placement. The clinical tutor is responsible for setting up subsequent Placement Review meetings which both trainee and clinical supervisor(s) attend. There is a minimum of two reviews per clinical placement (i.e. Direct, Indirect and Influencing and Leadership placements). The clinical tutor is available to be contacted by either supervisor or trainee to support any issues arising from the placement. Further review meetings will be arranged as needed.

When placement reviews are arranged by the clinical tutor, supervisors will be asked to ensure that they have completed the Supervisor Assessment of Trainee (SAT) form in draft form, to be sent to the clinical tutor one week in advance of the arranged review date. This draft can then be used by supervisors when completing the SAT form at the end of the placement, adding any elements that had been evidenced in the remaining time on the placement.

Similarly, trainees would be asked to send tutors their draft Placement Audit & Log (PALOG), one week in advance of the review. During the meeting itself, these draft documents would inform the respective conversations, as set out in the schedule below.

Reviews will take place either at the placement location or via MS Teams (or other video conferencing facility). Broadly following procedures outlined in the BPS Guidelines on Clinical Supervision, the placement review will incorporate the following structure: –

• Tutor meets trainee (focus on  the PALOG)
• Tutor meets supervisor (focus on the SAT & PALOG)
• 3-way meeting between tutor, trainee and supervisor, in order to collectively review the trainee’s progress, provide feedback to the trainee and the supervisor, and agree appropriate goals for the remainder of the placement

The SAT, PALOG do not cover everything that might be discussed but it is the tutor’s role to check that all angles and issues have been addressed – so even if the above documents don’t address, for example, finding an appropriate piece of clinical work to use for an assignment, the tutor will be checking these issues out.

Although the time allocated to meeting with the trainee and supervisor separately and collectively may vary depending upon individual need, it is advisable for supervisors to allow two hours for the visit.

After the placement review, the tutor will e-mail the supervisor and trainee with a short summary of the meeting (within, ideally, two weeks of the visit). The e-mail will set out key points arising from and agreed during the review. , This e-mail will also be sent to the Placement Administrator, along with the draft documents (already submitted) as attachments. This will form the record of the placement review, and will be stored by programme.

This allows any concerns to be noted and any action plans to address these concerns to be recorded. For example, an opportunity for the achievement of a particular type of learning objective may have been lost on placement, and this record would acknowledge that this learning might need to be replaced by a different, more achievable objective in the placement circumstances.

End of Placement

Whilst the clinical tutor provides the support throughout the placement, further placement reviews with supervisor and/ or trainee are only scheduled should a query or difficulty arise. At the end of placement, the clinical tutor contacts the supervisor to confirm that the trainee’s progress on placement has continued as planned, and to respond to any difficulties or queries they have, both generally and specifically in completing the Supervisor’s Assessment of Trainee or SAT form and to provide an opportunity for supervisors to review their own supervisory practice.  A trainee Individual Training Plan (ITP) meeting is held between the trainee and the tutor pair around the time of the end of the placement to review progress.

BPS Guidelines on Clinical Supervision