Request for a change of placement allocation

Criteria to apply for a change of placement allocation

Please read this policy to the end before contacting the placement team with questions regarding a move of placement location.

Placements are complex to allocate, and the process is completed based on a range of factors, including prior placement experience, declared conflicts of interest, student location, and the availability of suitable placements with our trust and placement partners. We do all we can to ensure that every student has an appropriate breadth of placement experiences to enable them to register with their professional body at the end of their course. Placements are allocated up to 16 weeks in advance of the start of the placement, so making changes at short notice is always a significant challenge. We recognise, however, that on occasion a placement may need to be changed if deemed inappropriate.

For your placement to be reviewed, it must meet one or more of the following exceptional circumstances:

• Travel time greater than 90 minutes each way by car or 120 minutes each way by public transport. Where students live outside of the county or POD location, we may be unable to provide placements within the published travel time expectations.
• A duplication of placement area, i.e. two placements in the same location. This does not include similar areas, e.g. a COTE ward is not the same area as a stroke ward.
• A previously disclosed conflict of interest with the placement area has not been taken into consideration.
• A new conflict of interest which has not previously been disclosed. This could include situations such as having a relative who is an in-patient or client at the placement, a member of staff on the placement who is a relative or where the placement is directly associated with a bereavement in the student’s life.
• New health issues, or pregnancy, where an OH review or treating clinician identifies that health could be compromised in a particular clinical environment. In this case, an HAP will need to be completed and the circumstances reviewed to ensure that the student is fit to attend placement. It is usual that placements will need to be paused whilst this review is conducted. Student and patient safety remain our primary concern at all times.

We will review placements when requested, with the aim of moving students whose placements fall into one of the above categories.

Please note, however, that placement capacity is extremely limited, and we cannot make any promises or guarantees that placements can be changed even if they do meet one of the above criteria.

Unfortunately, placements will not be swapped if they do not fall into one or more of the above categories.

Can I arrange to swap my placement with another student?

Unfortunately, we cannot allow students to swap their placements with another student under any circumstances. The rationale for this is that we cannot be certain that one student is not placing undue pressure on another student to swap placements when they would rather not move. If we agree that your placement needs to be moved to an alternative location, we will make all of the arrangements.

Can I arrange my own placement?

No, we cannot accept placements arranged by students without prior permission from the placements team. Trust partners have explicitly requested that students are asked not to approach placements directly.

Additionally, setting up a placement is a lengthy process that requires us to review a range of practical, contractual, and legal requirements, not least ensuring that students are appropriately insured to be in that particular practice environment.

What circumstances will not be considered for a move to a new placement location?

Whilst this list is not exhaustive, the following will not count as exceptional circumstances for the purpose of reviewing a placement allocation:

• Concerns about routine childcare/carer responsibilities
• Previous experience with the client group
• Personal preferences, interest or disinterest in a specific client group
• Concerns over public transport and travel if it is within the travel time guidance
• Concerns regarding medical conditions, including COVID, unless stipulated in OH report
• Concerns over shift times
• Disruptions to shared travel arrangements
• Moving house
• Risk of adverse weather
• Paid work commitments or constraints arising from paid employment
• Planned health appointments
• Disabilities for which reasonable adjustments have been made
• Pressure of academic work
• Poor time management

If you feel your placement allocation needs to be reviewed, please complete the form below to request a review, and a member of the team will review it. You must complete the form to request a review within 5 days of the placement being released via ARC.

Request for a change of placement.

What happens once the form has been completed?

Once your request to review your placement has been processed, you will receive an email notification to your university email address with the decision, a request for further information or next steps in the process.

Where the decision is made to move your placement to an alternative location, we will endeavour to provide the new placement details as soon as possible; however it will not be possible to guarantee any timescale for the new placement to be released as we need to undertake a range of processes in order to secure the agreement from the placement provider to host the placement often at very short notice.

What happens if the request to move placement is declined?

If your request is declined, you will be expected to attend your allocated placement as planned. This decision is final, and failure to attend placement without a valid reason will result in the failure of your placement, which will impact your ability to progress in your studies.

Can I appeal the decision if the request is declined?

If you feel that you have grounds to appeal the decision not to change your placement allocation, you should contact your course lead in the first instance. A panel will be convened, consisting as a minimum of a representative from the placements’ allocation team and a representative from your course team.

Please note that decisions will only be considered for review if they were not conducted in accordance with the above policy. As such, you will need to demonstrate where the policy was not followed and provide that evidence to the review panel.