Queenscourt welcomes young people who wish to experience what it’s like to work in a hospice. Each year, Queenscourt commits to support local schools and colleges in West Lancashire, Southport and Formby by offering one week placements to its students. Due to the resources involved in planning a placement and the support involved during the placements, we spread the work experience opportunities throughout the year, therefore places can be limited.

We work closely with Sefton Education Business Partnership to fill placements, however, we welcome direct enquiries.

What Does Queenscourt Provide?
Prior to your arrival, staff at Queenscourt will work to put together a full timetable for your week with us. Your age will depend on which departments you work in. Students at College (17-18) will have the opportunity to spend some time with our day patients and on the ward (with their consent) whereas students at school (15-16) won’t have direct contact with patients.

School and College Students
For students aged 15-18, your working day will start between 9:00am and 9:30am start with a finish between 3:30pm or 4pm. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to request to work in a particular department. This work experience is intended to give a general picture of working life in a Hospice.

A typical week with us may include a mix of some of the following roles and experiences:

• Fundraising Assistant
• Kitchen Porter
• Café Assistant
• Housekeeper
• HR and Volunteering Assistant
• Shop Assistant – based in one of our retail outlets, you will be assisting shoppers and sorting through donations
• Complementary therapies (observational with consent from patient)
• Ward Clerk (College students)
• Day therapy companion/helper (College students)
• Projects - during the week you will meet with various employees in differing roles to interview them about their role and their career path. You will also spend some time researching Queenscourt and the wider Hospice movement and attending informal training presentations.

At the end of your week, you will meet with a member of the HR and Volunteering team to sign off your week's work experience. This will involve reviewing your placement and receiving your certificate acknowledging your placement.

You will have an allocated point of contact who will act as a mentor during your time with Queenscourt.

For Nursing Placements or Specialist Medical Placements who require a different type of work experience placement e.g. a longer term block or adhoc days or specialist study, please make a direct enquiry (contact details below).

What We Expect From You
Whether you make a direct enquiry or are placed through Sefton Education Business Partnership (or other external organisation), the person undertaking the work experience will need to make contact with us (contact details below) to discuss your possible placement. This may include coming to see us prior to your placement being agreed.

As well as learning more about Queenscourt and the work we do here, part of the experience for you as the student is to make the arrangements yourself and hopefully, at the end of the placement, have a better understanding about the world of paid work along with an increase in confidence in communicating and working with new people who you may come into contact with in a normal working environment.

So, we expect you:

• To confirm the arrangements for your placement by speaking with us directly
• To have a positive approach to the placement and the work involved
• Be proactive in your efforts to understand the work of Queenscourt and the wider Hospice movement
• Identify some personal learning points you want to take from the week prior to commencing
• Push yourself out of your comfort zone to ensure you learn something new from the experience

If anything happens prior to or during your placement which means you cannot start with us or have any issues during the placement, please raise this as soon as possible with your key contact/mentor

Contacts
If you are interested in undertaking a work experience placement, please contact one of the following people:

General Placements (Schools and Colleges 15-18)
Jo Caddy, HR Manager;
Katy Pellow, Co-Ordinator of Volunteers; or
Sandy Tomlin, Volunteer Administrator

Sefton Education Business Partnership/Work-Experience

Nursing Students (in Further Education)
Laura Webster, Clinical Services Manager

Specialist Medical Placements (in Further Education or Post Graduate)
Alison Fossard, PA to Medical and Education Director