Work Experience and Vocational Placements

1. Purpose

Many of our learners have decided education is not for them, when really it is classrooms that have not worked. Vocational learning and time with real employers can change that answer and build post-16 routes. This policy makes sure every taster and placement is worthwhile, safe and properly agreed before a learner sets foot on an employer's premises.

2. Scope

This policy covers every AP learner, whoever commissions their place, taking part in employer visits, vocational tasters, sessions with trade or salon partners, sport and coaching through Dreams Are Real CIC and Dream Chasers Basketball Club, and work experience placements. Unpaid placements for young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), arranged through Dreams Are Real CIC outreach, are separate from the AP and are covered only in section 18.

3. Law and guidance

• Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026 (KCSIE). Where an employer's supervisor supervises a work experience learner on more than three days in any 30-day period, that is regulated activity for the supervisor. Under-16s cannot have a DBS check.

• Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. Employers must assess the risks to young people before they start, taking account of their inexperience, lack of awareness of risk and immaturity (regulations 3 and 19), and must tell the parents of a child below school leaving age about the risks and the controls in place (regulation 10).

• Education Act 1996, section 560. Work experience for a child of compulsory school age is lawful in their last two years of compulsory schooling (Years 10 and 11) when it is arranged or approved by the local authority or the school's governing body.

• Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974; Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969.

4. Roles and responsibilities

• The Head of AP owns this policy and the employer panel, approves every placement, and makes sure the conditions in section 7 are met.

• The placement lead is a member of staff named by the Head of AP for each placement. They visit the employer, complete the placement risk assessment, prepare the learner, and supervise or check in during the placement.

• The Director signs placement agreements, checks that Care Cove's own insurance covers each new type of activity, and acts as case manager for any allegation.

• The DSL advises on learner-specific and contextual risk and handles any safeguarding concern raised on placement.

• The key mentor links the placement to the learner's child plan and post-16 plan.

• Employers meet the duties in their placement agreement and the law.

5. What we offer

We are building a full employer panel across all six sectors by the end of the first term (18 December 2026).

6. Types of activity

• Visits and tasters are short sessions led and supervised throughout by Care Cove staff, at an employer's premises or with a partner tutor. They suit every learner, including those in Key Stage 3.

• Work experience placements are where a learner spends time working with an employer over one or more days. Placements are for learners in Years 10 and 11, or older, and each placement is agreed in writing with the referring school or commissioning local authority, in line with section 560 of the Education Act 1996.

Placements take place on the learner's agreed Care Cove days and never add to them. Because Care Cove is not registered with Ofsted as a school, we must not provide full-time education, and a placement must not take a learner over their part-time pattern.

7. Before any placement

No learner attends any placement or employer-based taster until all of the following are done and recorded on Care Cove Connect.

7.1 We have visited the employer

The placement lead visits the workplace before the first placement. They check the work the learner will do, the hazards, the supervision available, welfare facilities, and anything that makes the setting unsuitable, such as alcohol service or adult-only areas. They also check the employer understands their safeguarding responsibilities. The visit is repeated every year, and sooner if anything changes.

7.2 A placement agreement is signed

The written agreement is signed by the Director and the employer, and shared with the learner and parent. It sets out:

• the dates, hours, tasks and the named supervisor;

• the employer's health and safety duties, including the young person's risk assessment and a site induction;

• the employer's safeguarding duties (section 13), with the contact details of Care Cove's DSL and Head of AP;

• that employer staff do not contact the learner through personal phones or social media;

• what happens if there is an accident, a concern or the learner is absent.

7.3 A risk assessment is in place

The employer provides its young person's risk assessment, as the Management Regulations require. The placement lead completes Care Cove's placement risk assessment, which adds learner-specific risks from the learner's record: medical needs, SEND, behaviour, exploitation risk, known conflicts and the travel route. Any extra controls, such as more supervision, are written in. We keep this proportionate, and avoid duplicating checks the employer has already done well.

7.4 The supervisor has been checked

The employer names a supervisor, and the placement lead meets them. If the supervisor will supervise the learner on more than three days in any 30-day period, that is regulated activity, and we ask the employer for confirmation that the supervisor holds an Enhanced DBS certificate with a children's barred list check. If that cannot be confirmed, a member of Care Cove staff supervises the learner throughout. The DSL checks there is no known concern about the supervisor or setting. Learners under 16 are supervised by Care Cove staff on every placement in any case (section 8).

7.5 Employer's liability insurance is verified

The placement lead sees the employer's current employer's liability insurance certificate and keeps a copy, and confirms that the cover includes work experience learners. For tasters on an employer's premises, we also check public liability cover.

7.6 The learner is prepared

Before their first placement, each learner has preparation sessions with their key mentor or the placement lead. These cover what the work involves, health and safety basics, what to wear, the journey, how to behave and the Respect Code, who to tell if something worries them, and what adults at work should and should not do. The learner agrees to the placement and their views shape it.

8. Supervision on placement

Learners under 16 are supervised by Care Cove staff throughout every placement, rather than being left with the employer. Learners aged 16 and over have the level of Care Cove supervision set out in their placement risk assessment, and always at least a daily check-in and a visit from the placement lead during each placement week. Sport and coaching placements involve younger children. Learners are themselves children and cannot have a DBS check if they are under 16, so they are never left in charge of children or alone with a younger child. A DBS-checked adult always supervises them.

9. Parental consent

A parent or carer gives written consent to each placement, recorded on Care Cove Connect. Before they consent, we give them the information about the risks and the controls in place that regulation 10 of the Management Regulations requires, along with the placement details. Consent for one placement does not cover another.

10. Health and safety induction on site

On the first morning, the employer gives the learner a health and safety induction covering fire procedures, first aid, hazards, any PPE (which the employer provides free), areas they must not enter and who to ask for help. The Care Cove staff member present, or the placement lead at their first check-in, confirms the induction happened and records it. The learner only does the tasks listed in the agreement.

11. Travel

The learner's route to the placement is assessed under the Transport and Escorting policy, using their contextual risk map. Where independent travel is not practical or safe, we arrange and pay for transport, or Care Cove staff travel with the learner.

12. Attendance and daily check-ins

Placement days are recorded in the Care Cove Connect register in the same way as days at Townhead Street, and shared with the referring school. If a learner does not arrive, the employer phones Care Cove at once, and we follow the same-morning absence procedure in the Attendance and Children Missing Education policy. The placement lead or supervising member of staff checks in with the learner every day of the placement and records how it is going.

13. Safeguarding on placement

The employer agrees to:

• tell Care Cove's DSL straight away, by phone and the same day, about any concern for the learner's safety or wellbeing, including anything the learner discloses;

• listen to the learner but not investigate or promise to keep a secret;

• tell the Director or DSL straight away about any allegation that a member of its staff has harmed the learner or behaved inappropriately.

The DSL follows the Safeguarding and Child Protection policy. An allegation about an adult at the placement is handled under the Managing Allegations Against Staff and Low-Level Concerns policy, including contacting the LADO within 1 working day, and the placement is suspended while it is looked into. Learners know they can tell any Care Cove adult about a worry, and staff ask about the placement at every check-in.

14. Behaviour and the Respect Code

The Respect Code applies at work as it does at Townhead Street. If there is a difficulty, the Care Cove member of staff deals with it calmly and privately, using the same restorative approach as on site. An employer never sends a learner home alone; they phone Care Cove, and we collect the learner. A placement is never ended as a sanction. If a placement is not working, the Head of AP reviews it with the learner, family and employer, and adjusts or replaces it.

15. Stopping a placement

The Head of AP suspends a placement at once if a learner is at risk, the employer does not meet the agreement, or a safeguarding concern is raised. Any accident or injury on placement is recorded on Care Cove Connect, investigated and reported to the commissioning local authority's contract manager under the Health and Safety, including Fire and First Aid policy.

16. Accredited outcomes

Where it suits the learner, placements lead to short accreditations delivered with partners. These include Level 1 Health and Safety in a Construction Environment leading to the CSCS labourer card where the learner meets the scheme's requirements, Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene, emergency first aid and sports leadership awards. Results are recorded on Care Cove Connect, given to the learner and shared with the referring school.

17. Evaluation

After each placement, we collect feedback from the learner, the employer and the parent or carer, and record it on Care Cove Connect. The key mentor uses it to update the learner's child plan and post-16 plan. The Head of AP reviews the employer panel each term, including any concerns, and stops using any employer that does not meet our standards. Placements with Dreams Are Real CIC, where the Director is also a director, meet every condition in this policy and are recorded under the Conflicts of Interest policy.

18. NEET placements through Dreams Are Real CIC

Care Cove offers unpaid placements to young people who are NEET, reached through Dreams Are Real CIC's outreach work. These young people are not AP learners. The placements are separate from the AP and are never counted in AP outcomes. The Head of AP leads them. Each placement lasts four weeks and has an induction, a named supervisor, a weekly review, a written reference and onward support. We also apply safe practice: a risk assessment, a placement agreement and a safeguarding route to the DSL. A young person on one of these placements who has any contact with AP learners is treated as a volunteer under the Safer Recruitment policy, never counts towards ratios and never works unsupervised with a learner. The Administrator keeps agreements, timesheets and destinations on record.

19. Monitoring and review

The Head of AP reports on placements, accreditations, concerns and employer panel growth to the Social Work Management Committee every term. This policy is reviewed every year, or sooner after a serious incident, a change in law or guidance, or a contract change. It is available to the commissioning local authority on request at any time.

20. Related policies

• 01 Safeguarding and Child Protection
• 02 Safer Recruitment
• 03 Managing Allegations Against Staff and Low-Level Concerns
• 07 Behaviour, Rewards and Restorative Practice
• 11 Attendance and Children Missing Education
• 13 Curriculum, Teaching and Assessment
• 15 Health and Safety, including Fire and First Aid
• 16 Transport and Escorting
• 26 Off-site Learning and Educational Visits
• 31 Conflicts of Interest
• 37 Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance
• 41 Volunteers and Student Placements

Appendix A: Pre-placement checklist

Document control and ratification

This policy is signed off by the Designated Safeguarding Lead and the Head of Alternative Provision, and ratified by the Social Work Management Committee. It is reviewed every year, or sooner after an incident or a change in law, statutory guidance or contract requirements, and it is available to any commissioning local authority on request.