Salford students face placement delays

Writes Sally Gillen

Social work students at Salford University will finish their courses months late because of trouble finding placements, Community Care has learned.

One student Clare Bradburn, who was due to complete an MA this month, will not graduate until March next year because of delays in starting a placement, and said fellow students had also been affected.

She said: “If they could only get, say, 30 placements then that’s the number of students they should have taken on. It’s unfair of the university to take students on when they don’t have placements for them.”

Bradburn said she had been forced to find her own placement, a practice the university discourages, because Salford had not provided one.

“If I’d known about these problems, I’d have been more wary about doing the course. What should have been a two-year course has turned into one lasting two and a half years,” she added.

She has been forced to apply for an extension to her bursary and is waiting for confirmation that she will get extra financial help.

In response, Hugh McLaughlin, director of social work and social policy at Salford University, said the vast majority of social work students started their placements on time last year.

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