Placement partners information

Thank you for looking to join Edge Hill’s ever increasing partnership network and agreeing to support our trainees on placement. Your desire to support us is an invaluable contribution towards the learning and development of each and every trainee.

Please submit placement offers via our online placement request portal. If you would instead prefer to discuss placement opportunities via email or over the phone, then you can get in touch with our Partnership Development Support Team who will always be happy to help and who can direct you to the appropriate person. Our Partnership Development Support Team can be reached by emailing [email protected]

Please bear in mind that when you submit your offers to support our trainee teachers, this will constitute automatic agreement to adhere to our Partnership Agreement. We would therefore suggest prior to submission of your offers, you familiarise yourself with the terms of our Partnership Agreement, which can be found at the following link.

Following your generous offer to support our trainees, whether this be via our online placement request portal or by contacting the Partnership Team, we will work behind the scenes to identify the most suitable trainee for you

As a Faculty understand that agreeing to mentor a trainee can seem like a big responsibility to take on, especially knowing that you will be formative part of this trainee’s journey to become a teacher. We have therefore looked to make the process as simple as possible for you, and in doing so have created our Faculty of Education ‘Mentor Space’.

Within the Mentor Space, you will find all the information and necessary documentation you require to provide high quality mentoring to your trainee. Amongst other things, this includes the following;

Our mentor training package (both mandatory and optional).

• The Edge Hill University ITE curriculum.
• Our Mentoring Research & Evidence base. 
• Placement handbooks & documentation. 
• Abyasa Guidance (our online platform to record trainee progress).
• Intensive Training & Practices (ITAPs)
• Our Mentor Space can be accessed directly via the following link.

Thank you again for being part of the training of the next generation of teachers, and should you have any additional questions about our Mentor Space, please get in touch with us at; [email protected]  

As an accredited provider of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) the University is bound by the ITT Criteria and supporting advice (2024/5) which sets out the following requirements and adheres to these for all ITE and Work Based Learning Experiences:

“Providers must ensure that, before anyone is admitted to an ITT programme, they have been deemed suitable to train to teach… Accredited ITT providers should conduct interviews, run appropriate pre-selection checks, and assess if an applicant has the potential to undertake an ITT course and meet the Teachers’ Standards by the end of their training.”

 Part of this criteria requires providers to have regard for the Department for Education’s statutory guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education, when carrying out duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.  This includes ensuring that entrants on all routes have been subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) criminal records check, including a check of the children’s barred list, and that records are kept showing that trainees have obtained these. Our procedure in response to this DBS requirement is that every student goes through an enhanced DBS check and, where something is raised on the DBS, this is investigated via a DBS disclosure panel comprising representatives from partner schools, settings or colleges and from the Faculty of Education.

Once DBS checks have been completed, the trainee will receive a university administered letter to confirm that the trainee has passed this check, with this letter containing their DBS reference number and date of clearance. Trainees will have access to a digital copy of this letter and will therefore be able to produce this upon request. Please be aware that the university are only able to share information relating to the level, date, and DBS number with prior permission from the trainee. We are not able, under any circumstances, to share details of the content of DBS certificates with third parties such as schools or colleges.

Beyond this you as a school or college may request to see DBS certificates from a trainee who is due to join you for their placement. It is then up to the trainee whether they want to share this information, however, should the trainee refuse you are within their rights to refuse access to your setting.

All trainees will also undergo mandatory safeguarding and prevent training before being approved to attend their professional practice.

Should you wish to have more information about our DBS policy, you can access our ‘DBS letter to schools’ at the following link. You can also access further details on our Safeguarding policy.

In recognition of the valuable support provided by settings in supporting placements, most Faculty of Education placements offer a financial contribution, to be utilized by the setting however they wish.

Payments are fixed amounts, which are agreed, prior to the release of the placement request documentation, for the following academic year.

The confirmation of a placement allocation forms an agreement between Edge Hill University and the partner setting. Therefore, acknowledgement of the placement allocation is made in writing by email to each setting and should confirm the requirements and any corresponding payment amount as a formal record and to serve in the absence of a purchase order.

We do not require an invoice for payment to be released, as we have robust internal process to capture this, to reduce the workload for both parties.

How will we be paid?

All payments are processed by BACS transfer. Unfortunately, we are no longer able to issue payment by cheque and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

If we have not made payment to you previously or in a number of years, we will need to activate your supplier account before any payment can be released.

To do this, we would need you to provide your settings bank details, preferably on your letter headed paper (for audit and security purposes), so that we can release the payment.

To activate your supplier account please email the Partnership Finance Officer, Rebecca Fradley at [email protected] and provide the following information:

• school name
• postcode
• bank account name
• bank account number
• sort code
• email address for remittance advice

When will payment be released?

Payments are released after the placement has been completed and following the submission of the relevant paperwork. Edge Hill University is unable to make any payments to settings without the auditable documented evidence being submitted to and received by us, to confirm that the placement has taken place as agreed. This is a requirement under Edge Hill University’s Financial Regulations for audit and monitoring purposes. Payment will be issued on the next available payment run following the submission of the documentation.

We operate BACS payment runs twice per month, normally the second and last Friday of the month.

What is required for payment to be released?

We do not require an invoice to initiate the release of payment and respectfully request that partner settings do not submit invoices, as this can cause confusion and delays in our financial processes.

Attendance Logs are now the required evidence to trigger all payments. This could be via an Inplace Survey, Abyassa survey or physical copy of an attendance record (which can be emailed to the relevant department or uploaded by the trainee).

Where does the documentation to trigger payment need to be sent?

Although students are asked to submit the documentation, we recommend that settings request to be copied into the submission email, for their confirmation that this has been actioned. We recommend copies of the relevant documentation be retained by the partner setting for future reference in case of any issues.

The email address for the submission of the documentation is as follows:

Full completion of placement (including enhancements):

• Department of Primary and Childhood Education – [email protected]
• Department of Early Years Education – [email protected]
• Department of Secondary and Further Education – [email protected]

Part completion of placement:

• Partnership Development Team – [email protected]

How will we know when payment has been sent?

You will receive remittance advice via an automated email from [email protected] to confirm when the payment has been released, this will contain the student’s names to which it relates. Payment should then appear in your bank account within three working days of the remittance email being received.

If you have not received a remittance email, please check any spam folders in the first instance, as these are automatically generated, and they can often be filtered as junk by the high security of school email accounts. If you are still unable to locate this, please email the Partnership Finance Officer, Rebecca Fradley, who can look into this and provide a copy for your records.

What happens to the payment if students do not complete their placement in full?

In circumstances where students do not complete their placement in full as originally agreed, for whatever reason, any payments will be subject to a reduction on a pro-rata basis, to fairly represent the work undertaken. An Early Conclusion of Placement Form should be completed by the setting and returned to [email protected]. A blank copy of the Early Conclusion of Placement Form can also be obtained from this email address.

More details of this can be found within the Partnership Agreement.

Please email the Partnership Finance Officer, Rebecca Fradley, for any further information or queries relating to payments for placements or other partnership activity.