The SEEL placements timeline below summarises all aspects of the process and when they will occur this year.

Date	Action
03/11/2023	Y1/2 and Y2/3 Information sheets on Bursary deposits finalised by SCEC
13/11/2023	SCEC admin at UCL circulate Y1/2 and Y2/3 Information sheets on Bursary Deposits to PEPs of Placement Providers
13/11/2023	SEEL bursary website (hosted by UCL) goes live
13/11/2023 to 13/05/2024	PEPs e-mail SCEC admin at UCL and Dr Sarah Wright at Southampton, to pledge £19,960 per bursary requested for new trainees.
13/11/2023 to 19/04/2024	Current Y2 TEPs e-mail programme directors by 19/04/2024, cc. their PEP, to notify either (a) that they will be changing placement and will be completing a Trainee Preference form by 24/05/2024, OR (b) that they and their PEP have agreed their bursary placement will be extended into Y3. PEPs email SCEC Lead admin at UCL and Dr Sarah Wright at Southampton to pledge and arrange bursary payment.
13/11/2023 to 19/04/2024	PDs liaise with deferred trainees who will be returning to Y3 and ensure that they are included in either (a) or (b) above
14/05/2024	SCEC Lead Admin emails all SEEL PEPs with a copy of the bursary list to double check by Thurs 16/05/2024
17/05/2024 - 10am	List of bursary providers finalised on the website and SEEL trainees download and complete preference forms
24/05/2024	Deadline for receipt and checking of current Year 1 trainee preference forms by PDs or their deputy
Fri 24/05/2024, 10.00am	Deadline for receipt by Southampton of any Year 2 trainee preference forms from PDs - send to s.f.wright@soton.ac.uk
Fri 24/05/2024, 10.30am	Deadline for sending to SEEL Lead Admin at UCL of one Word document per programme in which all current Year 1 trainee preference forms from that programme are collated. Send to edadmin@ucl.ac.uk, cc v.hill@ucl.ac.uk
06/06/2024	SEEL Placement Panel meeting matches trainees to Placements
11/06/2024	PDs informed of provisional Placement Panel matches and PDs inform trainees (who are required to keep the information confidential until confirmed) to check for errors. Notification of any substantive errors to SEEL Lead by Thursday 13 June 5.00pm
18/06/2024	PEPs informed by SEEL Lead Admin of trainees matched by the Placement Panel allocation to their Providers, cc PDs who will confirm to trainees.
14/06/2024 to 21/06/2024	SEEL trainees write to PEPs introducing themselves.
21/06/2024	Southampton checks allocations, agrees total amounts payable to each University for their Year 2 and Year 3 trainees and alerts UCL, UEL, The Tavistock and the Institute of Education how much they need to invoice Southampton for.
19/07/2024	All Universities to have invoiced Southampton for their share of the bursary monies by 19th July. Where LAs have only paid one instalment, a second invoice will be needed in February for the reamining 5/12s. Should a trainee then not take up a placement it will be up to the respective host University to negotiate with the placement provider for retunr or retention of that bursary.
19/07/2024	Payment of Southampton invoices by LAs (payment for all or part of the bursaries requested for 2024-25 may be made from 01/12/23). 31st July is the final deadline for payment of the 2024-25 invoice except where an arrangement has been made for 07/12 of the amount to be paid by 31st July 2024 and 05/12 by 28th February 2025.
16/08/2024	Southampton to have paid all the invoices so that universities now hold the funds to pay their own trainees.
01/09/2024	Universities can distribute individual trainee bursaries.

The SEEL Placements time line summarises all aspects of the process and when they will occur this year. In offering a bursary, Placement Providers are agreeing to the requirements of the Department for Education Practice Placement Partnership Framework and affirming that they can offer the range of experiences appropriate to the level of training as well as appropriate supervision (click here for a copy).

Matching of new trainees to placements in LAs providing bursaries will be carried out by a Panel of 6 PEPs, members of the SEEL Consortium Executive Committee, on 6th June 2024.The matching is carried out strictly on the published criteria, trainees are identified only by the code number assigned to them by the DfE. Placement Panel members have no knowledge about the trainee's name, gender or the university where they are training. For information about the Placement Panel process and criteria click here.

All placements requested are initially for ONE year. However with trainee and placement provider agreement, and assuming funding is available for a bursary, the placement may continue into year 3. This arrangement does not apply to trainees from the University of Southampton which operates a two placement model with trainees having one placement in Year 2 and a contrasting one in Year 3.

Contingency

In the event that a Local Authority is unable to fund a full bursary, the Chair of the SEEL Placement Panel will consider applications for joint bursaries funded by two Local Authorities.

At the time of placement the University/TEP will provide the placement provider with information on the TEP’s development needs and concerns about any aspect of training. Communication will be with the PEP and nominated supervisor.

Matching of new trainees to placements in LAs providing bursaries will be carried out by a Panel of 6 PEPs, members of the SEEL Consortium Executive Committee, on 6th June 2024. Given the wide geographical area in which placements are offered, trainees attending SEEL universities must apply for a placement within the region. All placements are allocated by the SEEL placement panel following clear, published criteria. For the information about the placement panel process please click here.

Click here for a copy of the trainee preference form that SEEL trainees from the UK will be asked to complete in order to express your preferences for the available placements, and to ask the panel to consider any relevant circumstances relating for example to medical conditions affecting your ability to drive that may impact on placement. The available placements are listed on the website, together with information about whether use of a car/other independent means of transport for the placement is essential, desirable, etc. In all but a few inner city services, and for individuals who have a disability that precludes driving, EP services in the UK are organised on the basis of car use by team members. There is an expectation of independent travel around schools and other sites on placement. Trainees must select at least 1 placement based outside of London. Trainees cannot select more than two placements based in inner London or more than two placements based in outer London - click here for a list of inner and outer London boroughs. Click here for a map highlighting all London boroughs.

Placement preference forms need to be sent to trainees' own Programme Director, who then needs to collate these into a single document and send them by May 24th 10.30 am to edadmin@ucl.ac.uk, cc v.hill@ucl.ac.uk Please ensure that any special considerations (as detailed on the form) are validated by the programme director.

The Placement Panel will operate completely independently, matching trainee placements strictly in accordance with the published criteria, and the information you provide in relation to them. You should refrain from making direct contact with PEPs about specific placements. There is no scope for lobbying of panel members and any such communication, by you or on your behalf, with members of the Placement Panel would constitute unprofessional behaviour and trigger course disciplinary processes.

Please note that while every effort will be made by the panel to place TEPs in one of their preferred placements, there may be occasions where it is not possible and a trainee may have a placement not listed in their choices. Should this be the case the panel will make every effort to minimise the travel distance for the individual trainee.

Each trainee undertaking a bursary placement in 2024-25 will receive a bursary of £19,460 which includes a contribution towards travel/books, usually of £500, but with an additional £500 per pledged bursary being available to each programme to support trainees with travel costs associated with home to placement travel.

Click here to access the SEEL statement on professional placements

*Please note: these bursaried placements are only available to UK trainees, not international trainees.*

NOREMIDSW trainees who wish to apply for a SEEL placement may do so by downloading the placement preference form from the website. Placement preference forms need to be sent to trainees' own Programme Director, who then needs to collate these into a single document and send them by May 24th 10.30 am to edadmin@ucl.ac.uk, cc s.f.wright@soton.ac.uk Please ensure that any special considerations (as detailed on the form) are validated by the programme director.

Where there is a clear fit, NOREMIDSW trainees will be allocated a SEEL placement on June 6th at the panel. Relevant NOREMIDSW programme directors will be notified about the allocated placements a week AFTER the panel has met. Any remaining SEEL placements will also be offered to NOREMIDSW via Caroline Bond Caroline.Bond@manchester.ac.uk) on 14th June. This is to allow for any errors in the original SEEL allocations to be dealt with before the agreed allocations and remaining placements are handed over to NOREMIDSW. Individual trainees (with a copy to their PD) need to notify edadmin@ucl.ac.uk, cc s.f.wright@soton.ac.uk of their intention to accept these placements by 20th June at the latest. Any placements not confirmed by this time will be assumed not to be taken up and PEPs will be notified accordingly.

NOREMIDSW trainees should note that accepting the offer of a placement means that they will receive the agreed SEEL bursary of £19,960. Once a placement has been confirmed by UCL, the HEI will need to make arrangements to invoice the individual Local Authorities where their trainee(s) is placed. This is essential as Southampton does not hold begin invoicing LAs until allocation has been agreed at panel and then will only invoice for SEEL trainees.

It should also be noted that for NOREMIDSW trainees who have a SEEL bursary in Year 2, the responsibility for invoicing for the continuing Year 3 bursary falls to the host university.

In applying for a SEEL placement, NOREMIDSW trainees should be aware that inner London placements are almost always filled by SEEL trainees and any requests for these would be extremely unlikely to be fulfilled.

UCL is the lead training provider in the South East, East and London (SEEL) Consortium which was founded in 2008 at the instigation of employers of educational psychologists. The primary aim of the SEEL consortium is to ensure the delivery of high quality training within the region, that meets the needs of service users and delivers government agendas. A unique combination of factors, relating to population density and a radial network of communications with London as the hub, has required a collaborative approach to EP training between the programme providers in the region.

The partner higher education institutions (HEIs) in the SEEL Consortium have extensive experience and the highest reputation as providers of initial professional training for educational psychologists. Each of the partners has individual experience of managing EP training for periods ranging from 41 to 81 years, under a variety of funding arrangements, meeting the quality assurance (QA) requirements of the British Psychological Society (BPS), the professional body. Each of the five programmes also have Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) approval, and have therefore been ascertained as fully compliant with a range of key requirements in relation to the delivery of high quality training, assessment, supervision and support to trainees. HCPC approval also provides evidence that key quality assurance standards are met by each programme. All SEEL programmes are well-resourced in terms of staffing, teaching and learning facilities and materials, libraries and computing facilities, and research support, necessary for the award of a doctorate qualification.