Clinical Psychology trainees are usually on placement on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, with academic days being Thursdays and Fridays. Practice learning on placement is coordinated with the academic programme into three year-long stages of training.
First year
In the first year, there is a focus on the working-age adult phase of the life cycle. The teaching programme focusses on the psychological problems experienced in adulthood, individual-based approaches to psychological therapy and working in teams and groups.
Attention is also paid to the needs of families and social networks as important context. In parallel, placements are in adult services and reflect the wide range of generic and specialist services in the NHS for adults with mental health problems, including psychological therapies services, community mental health teams, assertive outreach teams, early intervention teams, eating disorders units, physical health, and acute services.
Recently we have developed new partnerships in the third sector to offer placement experiences beyond the NHS, for example offering innovative work in homelessness charities. In any placement, it can be helpful for the co-ordinating supervisor to link up with other supervisors to provide a variety of experience.
Trainees also have a unique opportunity during the first year to take part in our placement advisor scheme where they meet regularly with someone who has used local services or supported someone who has, in a learning and mentoring relationship. The scheme enables trainees to meet with local service users and carers outside of a clinical setting and to learn from their experiences and ideas.
A service evaluation project (the Quality Improvement Project or QIP) is conducted on this placement, and there is also an Assessment of Clinical Skills (ACS) submission. For this, a recording of some of the trainee’s clinical work with an adult service user is presented, and the competencies involved are discussed and assessed.
"The support from placement has enabled supervision to be an enjoyable experience. My supervisors also had contact with me prior to starting which made beginning and preparing for placement easier for me." Alternative Handbook for Postgraduate Courses in Clinical Psychology 2023
Second year
In the second year, trainees' placements are organised in services for children, young people, and families, and for people with disabilities (learning disabilities and other long-term disabilities that impact significantly on people's lives and wellbeing), usually taking the form of two six-month placements.
Teaching covers these client groups and focuses on systemic approaches to working with service users, their families and carers and multidisciplinary and inter-agency working. Two Professional Practice Reports (PPRs), one about a piece of psychological work with children and their families, and the other about work with people with disabilities, are required as assessed submissions.
Third year
In the third year, trainees move on to placements in older people's services and to a supplementary placement designed primarily to meet any outstanding training needs or consolidation of competencies, but also as far as possible, to meet particular interests.
Supplementary placements may be with any client group. For instance, they can include placements with looked after children, specialist paediatric services, forensic or neuropsychology services, or involve more advanced training in a particular therapeutic modality.
Third year placements may be organised as either two discrete placements or be woven together concurrently across the year. Once again, the focus of placements is mirrored in the academic syllabus, including organisational and leadership competencies.
Placements may be complemented by the options teaching (e.g. systemic practice with children, neuropsychology, EMDR) that trainees select in their third year. One PPR, from either a supplementary or older people's placement is submitted during the final year, along with the write up of a community engagement project.
Further information
A full and detailed description of all aspects of placements, including assessment and supporting documentation, is given in the Practice Learning Handbook.
The following websites give information about the main Trusts contributing to the Salomons Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology:
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