We know that learners might experience or witness discrimination in learning settings, including the classroom or practice placements.
Learners can consider the information set out in the Experiencing Discrimination and Witnessing Discrimination sections of this resource.
Relevant guidance
Our Guidance on Conduct and Ethics for Students sets out our expectations for learners.
While we do not regulate students, we do expect them to understand our standards of conduct, performance and ethics in preparation for when they are registered.
The guidance does not provide answers to every situation you may face. However, we hope that it will help you and encourage you to ask for extra information and support from your education provider.
Guidance on conduct and ethics for students
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- You should treat people fairly and be aware of the potential impact that your personal values, biases and beliefs may have on service users and carers and in your interactions with colleagues.
- You should take action to ensure that your personal values, biases and beliefs do not lead you to discriminate against service users, carers or colleagues. Your personal values, biases and beliefs must not detrimentally impact the care, treatment or other services that you provide.
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- You should ask for help when you need it.
- You should be aware of and follow any guidance issued by your education provider or practice placement provider for working with service users and carers.
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- You should make sure that you take all appropriate steps to limit the risk of harm to service users, carers and others.
- You should follow your education provider’s or practice placement provider’s policy on managing risk.
- You should be aware that you may put your service users or yourself at risk if your performance or judgement is affected by your physical or mental health
- You should seek appropriate support and adapt your study or stop studying if your performance or judgement is affected by your physical or mental health and could put service users, yourself or others at risk.
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- If you are worried about the safety or wellbeing of service users, carers or others, you should speak to an appropriate member of staff at your education provider or practice placement provider promptly.
- You should inform an appropriate member of staff at your education provider or practice placement provider if you witness bullying, harassment or intimidation of a service user, carer, a learner or a member of staff at your education provider or practice placement provider.
- You should put the safety and wellbeing of service users before any personal concerns, for example about assessments, marks, other work related to your programme, employment prospects or other personal gain.
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- You should make sure that the records you keep are clear and accurate.
- You should follow your education provider’s or practice placement provider’s policy on record keeping.
We have further helpful resources for students learners on our Student Hub, including:
- Health and disability case studies
- Health, disability and becoming a health and care professional
- Supporting learners to speak up
Many education providers have resources to help prevent discrimination and support learners if they experience or witness discrimination. Learners could consider searching their education provider’s website or contacting their provider’s student centre for:
- Active bystander trainings.
- EDI resources, such as toolkits.
- Speak up reporting processes.
- Groups or communities to support inclusivity and diversity.
Testimonial from a student in occupational therapy, Scotland
“Whilst in my practice placement with a youth group for underprivileged children, I witnessed a member staff display discriminatory behaviour towards the children in her care.
Her behaviour included:
- Treating a neurodivergent child unfairly because of their disability
- Singling out and giving less support to a child from an ethnic minority background in front of others
- Using fear, shouting, and humiliation instead of support, which failed to provide care and safe space for these children.
Within the placement, there were 8 students including myself, and within the first day there was an incident which concerned us. We had a discussion as a group on which would be the best way to handle this, and I concluded I needed to take action. I asked to speak to the manager of the placement setting about the concerns. She was very supportive of the information being received and asked if I could write it in an email for documentation purposes. I reached out to my personal tutor and the lead of the module at my university and asked for support to construct this email.
After the incidents that occurred, I was glad I could communicate this to the manager. She reassured me that the worker in question would be provided more training and support.”
How this student is meeting our standards
We recognise that reporting an incident of discrimination can be particularly challenging and uncomfortable for learners in practice placement settings. Learners may fear receiving a bad mark or souring a relationship in retaliation for reporting an incident. But registrants and learners have a responsibility to report concerns about safety. Our Guidance on Conduct and Ethics for Students states:
“You should inform an appropriate member of staff at your education provider or practice placement provider if you witness bullying, harassment or intimidation of a service user, carer, a learner or a member of staff at your education provider or practice placement provider.” (Standard 7)
In this testimonial, the learner acted appropriately by reporting the incident to the practice placement provider. She sought support from her peers and asked for help from a supervisor when she needed it (Standard 3). She made a record of the incident and sought support in ensuring the record was clear and in line with her education provider’s policy (Standard 10).
Education providers must have procedures in place to support learners in reporting incidents like the one in this testimonial. You could consider contacting your education provider to learn more about their reporting policy.
