Placement Provider Roles and Responsibilities Guidance

Pre-placement

• Provide a clear job description setting out the role and responsibilities, skills and experience required, working hours, salary, and working arrangements.
  • Remuneration should be stated at the outset, either as a set figure, an appropriate range or expressed comparatively to the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage.
• Recruit and select students using the same methods and standards that apply to regular recruitment.
• Understand and fulfil legal responsibility as an employer with regards to recruitment and equality legislation, including Right to Work checks.
• Provide an employment contract to the successful candidate(s).
• Seek to become familiar with any relevant university processes, as advised within placement communication.
• Provide required information in relation to health and safety, insurance, and due diligence.
• Prompt and monitor the completion of risk assessments (see end note*).
• Ensure that sufficient insurance cover is in place (held by the Placement Provider and the student, if appropriate) for the activities of the placement student and to others who could be affected by the placement student’s actions or inactions.
• Notify the student’s academic department of any changes to the placement within five working days, for example, if the placement is shortened or terminated.
• Be familiar with and agree to the responsibilities and expectations for all parties through a formal signed agreement.
• Arrange an induction programme and appoint a named line manager or supervisor who will act as the first point of contact throughout the placement, supervise the student, and liaise with the practitioner.

On placement

• Provide a sufficiently safe, professional working environment where appropriate, including the provision of guidelines for home working if necessary.
• Accept liability and responsibility for students on placement in the same way as for all other employees.
• Provide a structured induction and induction materials including information regarding equality and diversity and health and safety.
• Provide suitable supervision, training and support throughout the placement.
• Agree learning objectives with the placement student and include regular opportunities for two-way discussion, feedback and review sessions.
• Inform the student of any changes to the placement and provider contact details for an alternative member(s) of staff during periods when the student’s appointed line manager/supervisor is absent or on annual leave, or no longer able to supervise the student.
• Allow time, where possible, for the student to reflect on learning, or undertake any other tasks relevant to the academic assessment of their placement.
• Support the student to manage their own learning, by ensuring sufficient access to resources, support, and materials.
• Comply with health and safety legislation and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
• Treat the placement student as a regular employee, excepting the additional needs of the placement.
• Maintain good communication with the academic department by responding promptly to emails and other requests for information.
• Notify the student’s academic department of any changes to the placement within five working days, for example, if the placement is shortened or terminated.
• Report any issues or concerns that arise during the placement to the student (in all cases) and to the academic department (issues that threaten the continuance of the placement, unexplained absences) following agreed reporting procedures.
  • For compliance with UK Visas and Immigration rules, if the student fails to attend their place of work, or the employer is unable to get in touch with the student, the employer should follow their own absence policy and inform the academic department within seven working days.
• Facilitate at least one placement visit by the practitioner or their representative, and ideally at least one further check-in by email if longer than one term.

End of placement

• Complete a final review with the placement student that includes an objective evaluation of their performance, effectiveness in consolidating the knowledge and skills to the workplace, and the learning that they have gained from the placement.
• Complete any evaluation forms provided by the academic department.

*Notes on risk assessment

• Student placements typically incur risk in the following areas, some of which will be no different from your usual risk assessment considerations:
  • Work factors, relating to the hazards associated with the work itself.
  • Travel and transportation factors, if the student will be driving or travelling in relation to your business.
  • General/Environmental Health factors related to your place of work.
  • Insurance limitations: you should always consider whether your insurance covers the activities of visitors on your premises (if hosting a short visit or work shadowing opportunity) as well as your liability against the actions of new (and potentially inexperienced) employees. Universities are not liable for a student’s actions within your business while they are on placement, although they are held accountable to our Values and Dignity Principles.
  • Individual student factors, which should usually be discussed with the student by the University, college or school, rather than the employer. Exceptions are:
    • if the student discloses any personal risk factors to you voluntarily (e.g. health, disability, linguistic or of differing national expectations);
    • if the student is a minor and subject to additional risks on that basis (e.g. physical, legal or “moral”).
• A range of risk assessment templates, and example risk assessment for work environments including offices, retail and manufacturing can be found at https://www.hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/risk/risk-assessment-template-and-examples.htmLink opens in a new window