Consultation with dietician

This section covers the National Partnership Agreement and workplace agreement contract with placement providers.

Healthcare education

This is changing as the NHS is no longer funding undergraduate programmes leading to professional registration.

In September 2017 students will be required to pay tuition fees.

However, until September 2019 Health Education England (HEE) will continue to provide funding to placement providers per student placement to support the development of the placement learning experience.

  • Use of public money requires effective measures in place to ensure improvement in patient care, effectiveness and efficiency.
  • Contemporary healthcare reflects expectations of raised levels of service improvements, across government funded programmes.

The National Partnership Agreement (between placement provider and HEE) and the Workplace agreement (between university and Placement Provider) 

Higher Education Institutes (HEI) will provide:

  • Appropriate preparation of students commensurate with practice learning opportunities. Mandatory training in Basic Life Support, manual handling and fire safety and prevention act together with criminal record and occupational health screening. In addition, Placement Development Teams are exploring improvements on preparation for practice.
  • Preparation and training in supervision, mentorship and assessment of practice learning. The HEI provides mentorship preparation courses, either as stand-alone modules or as part of an honours degree or graduate certificate/diploma in practice education. As part of this the University offers accreditation of a variety of prior courses or experiences to the HCPC/NMC approved mentorship module.
  • Support for placement provider activities related to the quality of learning environment. Development of best practice and evidence for self-assessment and ongoing Quality Monitoring Evaluation.

The placement provider will:

  • make appropriate and sufficient staff available to ensure quality experience and assessments
  • provide and support the appropriate professional development opportunities to support this
  • provide facilities to support student learning
  • ensure appropriate induction to the practice area
  • maintain a local register of mentors
  • national monitoring requirements: provide ongoing quality monitoring and evaluation information through Practice Quality Report updating.

Placement Development Teams (PDTs)

Comprise of an academic lead from the University and a practice lead from each Trust, supported by university academics, placement administrators and practice staff from nursing, midwifery and health professions who together:

  • provide a strong link between universities and placement providers across all NHS Trusts and private sectors in the Southwest to implement the National Contract
  • provide one point of contact for all undergraduate programmes leading to professional registration
  • provide corporate preparation and support for all non-medical learners within their Trust/private sector
  • provide preparation and support for all mentors
  • develop and negotiate quality placement opportunities and correlate ongoing quality monitoring and evaluation.

Placement development teams support students and/or placement staff:

  • new placement area
  • new mentor/PPE
  • student with poor overall profile
  • student with significant disability adjustment requirements
  • visit requested from student
  • visit requested from placement
  • assist with ongoing quality monitoring and evaluation
  • to support a professional body visit.

Placement leads also decide on student allocations against the curriculum needs and mentor availability.

Placement academics also provide mentor updates.

To find your local PDT contact please refer to your Practice Environment Profile or the contact section on POPPI.