The Wellness Working Group is a cross party group of MPs’ staff with the aim of placing a focus on staff welfare and improving support for MPs’ staff well-being.
Supporting one another makes a huge difference, so if you would like to learn more about the group, or to join, please see their page here: Wellness Working Group
Please note that links to the old Parliamentary intranet have been removed as of October 2023. Please use search on ParliNet to find relevant current details, if available.
https://parlinet.parliament.uk/house-of-commons-members-staff/
The House has produced a risk assessment and guidance to support Members in safely re-opening constituency offices.
The guidance advises Members to consider whether it is necessary to open constituency offices and if so provides practical guidance on the steps to take to ensure the safety of Members, their staff and others.
For any questions regarding this guidance, please contact the Parliamentary Safety Team on
[email protected].
The extremely popular regional roadshows were suspended because of COVID-19. However, worry not, for the Customer Team has taken them online instead.
Rather than full day events, they have been broken down into 90-minute sessions, giving you a chance to learn about the range of services available, to influence future service provision and to share experience and knowledge with other staff working in your Region.
For full details, please go to the intranet page here: https://intranet.parliament.uk/business-news/news-current-issues/events/regional-constituency-events/
The current schedule is:
More dates will be added later.
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs have updated their very helpful booklet, explaining how they can help you to help your constituents.
If you would like a copy of the updated version, please email us and we’ll send you the PDF.
*** Please note that we are only able to send these documents to current Members of the Senedd, Members of Parliament and Members of the Scottish Parliament and their staff with intranet email accounts. It is not available to members of the public. ***
Advice for employers carrying out ‘right to work’ checks during the coronavirus pandemic.
It is still necessary for employers to check that their employees have the right to work in the UK and it remains an offence to knowingly employ anyone who does not have the right to work in the UK.
Right to work checks have been temporarily adjusted due to coronavirus (COVID-19). This is to make it easier for employers to carry them out.
Please see here for full details: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-right-to-work-checks
The House of Commons Library is running a series of online training sessions on 25 and 26 June to help MPs’ staff deal with Covid-19 related casework. The programme covers:
And much more…
Take a look at the full programme on ACT and sign up by 22 June to reserve your place.
Extremism is possible in any ideology, including (but not limited to) politics and religion. Extremism can affect mental well-being, amplify hostility and threaten democratic debate. The global reach of the internet poses social and technological challenges for safeguarding citizens from extremism online. When the Commission for Countering Extremism surveyed over 2500 members of the public in 2019, 56% agreed that a lot more should be done to counter extremism online. This POSTnote outlines how the online environment can be used for extremist purposes, how exposure to online extremism can influence people and potential strategies to counter extremist content online.
Find the full POSTNote here: https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0622/
Evidence suggests that food fraud continues to be an issue in the global food supply chain. This POSTnote provides an overview of food fraud, including its drivers and impacts. It discusses methods for food authenticity testing, broader strategies to prevent food fraud and impacts of EU exit.
Find the full POSTNote here: https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0624/
The UK’s flood risk from rivers, surface water and ground-water is projected to increase with climate change. Natural flood management (NFM) can be described as using the natural features of the land to store and slow down the flow of water. NFM is being piloted across the UK and its expansion is an objective of the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan. This POSTnote examines the evidence for the effectiveness of NFM at reducing flood risk, and successful governance approaches to implementing NFM measures.
Find the full POSTNote here: https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0623/
On 25 and 26 June 2020 the House of Commons Library is offering a series of sessions which are aimed at helping Members’ staff deal with casework arising from the coronavirus pandemic. The sessions will also be of wider interest to Members’ staff interested in policy development.
The sessions will be provided online via MS Teams and will be recorded, so if you miss one you can listen later.
The cut-off date for signing up is Midnight on 22 June 2020.
You must have a Parliamentary network account to access this. See here for more details: https://parliament.learningpool.com/course/view.php?id=1735