Additional costs
1. Occupational Health Check costs covered by the University.
2. All students are required to pay for their Disclosure and Barring Service check which currently costs £52.
3. The following items are not compulsory but students may choose to buy a pen torch (£2), a polo shirt with SLT logo for placements (currently £11.74) and AAC resource creation materials (up to £10).
4. Placement costs
Students will attend clinical placements in a range of locations across the South West and must be prepared to travel and stay away from their university accommodation as needed. This means that students may incur additional costs for travel and temporary accommodation for the duration of their placements. Students are responsible for finding their own accommodation but we have a local information network that students can use to share ideas about places to stay/lift sharing etc.
We endeavour to allocate placements in locations that enable students to use their current or family residences as a base, but this is not always possible. If we know of nursing or other subsidised accommodation we will provide students with contact details of that (e.g. Bristol hospitals).
Placement examples
You may have placement in the Plymouth area that means the only costs incurred (if any) are for local bus travel.
A placement may be further afield eg in Exeter, Truro, Bristol or Dorchester and a student may choose to drive or catch a bus or train to these locations which will incur additional costs.
This website allows you to calculate potential travel costs for driving to placement locations https://journeyprice.co.uk/, for example petrol costs Plymouth to Exeter return is £16.77 and Plymouth to Penzance return is £29.05. A return train ticket Plymouth to Bristol may cost between approximately £30-60.
Claiming Back Placement Expenses
NHS Business Services Authority administers the Learning Support Fund (LSF) which provides supplementary funding to the higher education student loans support from the government, for eligible new students who have started pre-registration healthcare courses on or after 1 August 2017.
Applicants for any of the Learning Support Fund allowances must normally be eligible for tuition fee and maintenance loan support from the Student Loans Company. When you apply online for any of the LSF allowances, you will be asked to provide your current student loan award notification to show that you meet the eligibility criteria.
Students who choose not to claim a student loan (either on religious grounds or personal reasons) may still be eligible to access the Learning Support Fund; however, their eligibility will be assessed by us on a case by case basis.
The LSF is administered by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) Student Services.
Full information is available here
Travel and Dual Accommodation Expenses
You are able to claim back expenses for travel to practice placements each day for costs incurred over and above your usual daily travel costs to attend university.
Rates payable 2017/18:
You may be able to claim the cost of taking temporary accommodation near to your practice placement site if it is not possible or practical for you to travel there from your normal term time address on a daily basis. The reimbursement rate for this is up to £55 per night
In addition there is an Exceptional Support Fund of up to £3000 per student to support eligible healthcare students who find themselves in genuine and unforeseen financial hardship during their studies. Please see NHSBSA website for full details.
