University of Leicester

Clinical Practice Placements

Trainees attend placement three days a week. Placements are organised in line with the core competency approach to training. This means that trainees will undertake six placements with opportunities to develop competences in the required range of settings, clients and modes of work. Attendance at placements is mandatory, as is attending the University and NHS Trust induction programmes. Year 1 is focussed on individual work, Year 2 on systemic work and Year 3 on leadership and consultancy.

Academic Teaching

Teaching is organised in blocks at the start of each autumn term, followed by set day/s of teaching for each year group (Monday for Year 1 (Monday and Tuesday for the first term), Tuesday for Year 2 and Wednesday for Year 3).

Teaching is organised into modules that align with the focus of placement and academic activities.

A range of teaching approaches is employed, including: 

• lectures and workshops by clinical colleagues who are experts in their field
• research methods to support trainees in academic course requirements
• the use of actors for clinical skills teaching
• regular reflective practice seminars across the three years. 

Attendance is mandatory at all teaching days throughout training. Occasional seminars are arranged across all cohorts and these are also mandatory.

Trainees are allocated one study day a week throughout the year, except during block teaching.

The DClinPsy is a three year, full time campus based training course. Whilst some teaching sessions and meetings may be conducted remotely, the majority of this will take place in person on campus. The University expects that research students registered full-time shall normally reside in Leicester or within easy commuting distance of the city.

We do understand that, for a variety of reasons, you may choose to live outside of Leicester while you train. However, as registered students, all trainees are required to abide by the Senate Regulations and this does mean they are expected to attend the university in person for the duration of training as and when required. This can include teaching, assessments, processing or other access and use of research data, and other course events as planned during the course of training. For those trainees who live some distance from the university, this may have considerable time and cost implications.

Research

A report of a small-scale Service Evaluation project involving placement-based research will be submitted in the second year. 

A more extensive research project of clinical relevance must form the basis of a doctoral thesis submitted in the third year. In line with the doctoral status of the Course, this thesis must constitute an original and substantial contribution to knowledge and/or clinical practice. Thesis requirements are conducive to supporting publication in a scholarly journal. Trainees choose their own research topic, but this is often shaped by the availability and expertise of supervision across the School of Psychology and Vision Sciences and the College of Health Sciences. At present core staff research interests include:

• Clinical health psychology 
• Trauma-informed practice in legal contexts
• Carer populations
• Family systems and interventions
• Diversity, identity, social inequalities, and anti-discriminatory practice
• Wellbeing and resilience of staff groups and student populations
• Health professional behaviour change

Trainees are allocated 30 research days to be taken in the second and third years.

In line with the adult learner model, and as postgraduate research students, the Leicester course strongly encourages trainees to take ownership and responsibility for the development and completion of their research projects, with support from allocated research supervisors.

Assessment

Assessment formats vary in recognition that trainees have different strengths in different styles of assessment, and include: 

• Written assignments: critical appraisal, literature review, case studies
• A computerised statistics test
• Clinical skills assessments
• Small-scale Service Evaluation project
• Clinical placement performance ratings
• Doctoral thesis

To be awarded the degree, trainees must achieve a satisfactory standard in all elements of assessment.