The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is a free, independent service which can investigate individual complaints about councils, all adult social care providers (including care homes and home care agencies) and some other public service organisations. If they decide to investigate, they look at whether organisations have made decisions the right way.
Before making a complaint to the LGSCO, the constituent must first complain to the organisation involved to give them a chance to resolve the issue. They must go through all of the stages of that organisation’s complaints process, and the LGSCO’s website lists some tips for making a complaint. If, after the organisation’s complaint process has been completed, and the constituent is still not satisfied, then they can complain to the LGSCO – but only if it is a matter which they are able to investigate. The LGSCO will not investigate unless the organisation’s complaint process has been completed.
The types of issue the LGSCO can investigate include
Adult social care
Children’s Services
Education
Housing
Benefits and tax
Planning and building control
Environment, regulation and waste services
Transport and highways
Leisure and culture
Corporate services, elected members and personnel
You should check on the LGSCO website to make sure that the matter you wish to raise is one that they cover.
The best way to make a complaint to the LGSCO is for the constituent to fill in the complaint form on their website: https://www.lgo.org.uk/how-to-complain It is better that the constituent does this themselves, if possible – it’s quite simple and does not need to be an essay, just a paragraph will do. It is preferable to use the online system, so that it keeps the telephone line free for those who are not able to go online.
Those who are not able to use the online system may telephone 0300 061 0614 to speak to an adviser.
The telephone line is open:
Mondays 10am till 1pm Tuesdays 10am till 1pm Wednesdays 1pm till 4pm Thursdays 10am till 1pm Fridays 10am till 1pm
Migrant Help exists to protect people affected by displacement and exploitation, helping them thrive as individuals and recover from their trauma. They support those most in need and least likely to find support elsewhere, whilst aiming to bridge community gaps and bring services and support together.
You can read more about Migrant Help here: https://www.migranthelpuk.org/
Whilst there is no MP hotline for Migrant Help, they have provided some information on how to help your constituents:
In Your computer is more than a typewriter, I wrote about how you can improve the appearance and legibility of documents by fine tuning spacing between lines of type, between paragraphs, and around headings. Perhaps I made it sound like hard work. Now I’ll explain how to make life easier with the use of Styles.
If you look at professionally designed publications, you will notice a regular and repeated pattern to the design of text, headings, captions, etc. So it was in 1984 when my wife Noi and I became the design and production team for a small serious magazine, Inside Asia. The editors wanted to follow the pattern of other serious news and analysis magazines, particularly Time, and Far Eastern Economic Review. I promised our typesetters that we would communicate our requirements as clearly as possible.
In those days that involved working with typescripts, prepared with a large left margin; taking a fine red pen; and writing typographic instruction and British Standard marks (BS 5261 – 1976) to comprehensively ‘mark up’ the copy. Our repertoire included standard text paragraphs in Times New Roman, justified, with an indented first line; block quotes indented left and right with space above and below; subheadings in Helvetica Bold; headlines in Franklin Gothic bold; an enlarged ‘standfirst’ paragraph; and photo captions.
Marking up copy for a 48-page magazine could get pretty boring. Then we had a bright idea. On our next trip to Bangkok, we took artwork for a set of 20 rubber stanps, and got two sets made. The face of each stamp had comprehensive typesetting instructions, and to the wooden handles we added a more generic name such as ‘Subhead’. Even our editors could understand those! And so we accelerated the mark-up of copy.
Setting up and using paragraph styles today
In word processors like Microsoft Word or OpenOffice, and in more capable publishing software such as Adobe InDesign, FrameMaker or Affinity Publisher, you can set up your own ‘box of rubber stamps’. Most programs come with a ready-to-use set, but you can add to them and redefine them.
In the software I’m using to draft this, my redefinition of the style ‘Text body’ specifies the font Georgia, at 11pt size, and colour black; custom linespacing of 3 mm; no indents left or right, or to the first line; with an extra 3 mm space after each paragraph. To apply the style, I place my text cursor anywhere in a paragraph, or select a range of paragraphs; and click ‘Text body’ from a styles menu – and that’s it! Now, all those paragraphs have consistent formatting, done in the twinkling of an eye.
It can be time-consuming to set up a customised set of styles, and you wouldn’t bother if ywriting just a letter or a quick memo; but if you are asked to prepare a thirty-page report with three levels of heading, block quotes from other documents, and several ranges of bullet points, you will give yourself a big Thank You for doing so.
Here’s a bonus tip: once you have made that document, you can save it as a Template. Even if you delete all of the contents, the Styles will still ‘haunt’ the template ready for the next report you have to make.
Several times I have been called in by organisations to prepare sets of template documents. I’ve done it in Word, PageMaker, and notably in FrameMaker, a serious software package for creating documentation, books and software manuals.
For example, Incomes Data Services was publishing six regular journals. They wanted to refresh the designs, and give them a more co-ordinated appearance. Their production team knew how to use Paragraph Styles, but they were wary of setting them up. First I analysed the journals and the kinds of content in them, then I took sample copy from old editions, and went through numerous iterations of designing, printing and co-evaluating until everyone was happy.
More elaborate paragraph styles
The definition of a paragraph style can include whether a paragraph is a bullet item, and if so, what symbol to use for the bullet, what colour it should be and with what amount of indenting. Or a heading might be numbered. For my friend’s PhD thesis we had a FrameMaker template with headings numbered to four levels deep (e.g. 3.14.6.2). When her supervisor suggested she move one chapter, the whole lot re-numbered themselves ‘automagically’!
Other useful definitions you can make could include forbidding a multi-line bullet point from breaking over a page boundary, or forcing a heading to stay on the same page as the next three lines of text. In narrow columns where the text is justified left and right, you will probably want to permit hyphenation, and in more sophisticated software you can set rules for how extra space will be distributed between words and characters, and the minimum number of characters before or after the hyphen.
Paragraph styles can be based on previously defined paragraph styles. The Incomes Data Services journals were a case in point. First I set up the style ‘Body para’, with each first line being indented 4 mm. Then I made a derived style called ‘First para’ — exactly the same except with no first-like indent. I then set up ‘Bullet point’ based on ‘First para’, but with the appropriate bullet symbol, a tab, and an indent from the left margin…
Character styles
A character style is usually created as an override to the normal setting for text. I first encountered this when using a specilist document editing programme called FrameMaker to prepare training materials, where I would want a special emphasis on a technical word being defined for the first time. I wanted it formatted as a sans-serif font, bold, and with the size minutely adjusted. I set that up on a menu of character styles and used it as needed. Otherwise, I know I would have gone mad!
Everyone working for an MP, in whatever capacity, will find themselves creating documents for a variety of purposes. In this guide Conrad Taylor, who has been doing this for many years, will look at ways to make the documents you create on computers more attractive, more professional looking and more legible.
As a starting point may I introduce you to Robin Williams – a Californian graphic designer, writer and teacher, whose career has run spookily parallel to my own. We’re even the same age.
In my case, I learned graphic design working on magazines and newsletters, but was drawn to the production of reports, documentation and learning materials. In the early 1980s, I handed copy to professional typesetters, specifying and proofreading phototypeset matter. Then, in 1985, I discovered what was heralded as ‘Desktop Publishing’. Companies were sold the promise that if they bought a DTP system, their staff could produce professional documents in house. What was not mentioned, was that there was more to that than buying a Mac or PC and installing PageMaker. It also required a software upgrade to the ‘meat computer’ running between your ears.
For nearly 20 years, I trained people how to become better document and magazine designers using computers. In parallel, Robin Williams was doing the same. In the early 1990s she wrote a book provocatively titled, ‘The Mac Is Not A Typewriter’. She soon followed that with another, ‘The PC Is Not A Typewriter’. Both are still available via online booksellers. What I’m about to tell you is similarly drawn from my own experience of design and publishing, applied to today’s technology.
More prosaically, I can improve the typography of my everyday documents by typing the ‘en dash’ (–) and the ‘em dash’ (—), and create a proper ellipsis character… (By the way, ‘en’ and ‘em’ are valid words from the world of typesetting – and you can use them in Scrabble!)
How you actually do this depends on two things: your computer’s operating system, and the ‘character set’ contents of the font you use. When the Macintosh came out, Apple devised a set of easy-to-remember keypress sequences to access the extended characters: thus, [é] is Alt-e immediately followed by e, and ç is simply Alt-c.
On the latest Macs you can hold a key down to see the most common extended characters
For Windows systems it’s a bit more clumsy. It requires you to have a keyboard with a numeric keypad at the side. Hold down the Alt key, and on the numeric keypad, type the three or four digit code for that character, then release the Alt key, and the character will appear at the cursor position. For example, the en dash is invoked with [Alt 0150].
There are several reference pages on the Web to help you with these Windows character codes, for example https://www/alt-codes.net.
Over time, font standards have changed, some fonts have thousands of available characters, and now there are characters you can’t access with a keyboard shortcut or an [Alt] numeric code. If you need that (e.g. to refer correctly to the Polish city of Łódź), learn how to access the Windows character map utility, or its equivalent for Mac or Linux. Or you might have it built in as a facility in your software. I am writing this in OpenOffice (it’s free!) and under the Insert menu I can invoke a table of the characters in the font I am using, with the menu item [Special Character…].
The importance of controlling space. And spacing
In typography, we can say that type matter consists of ‘Ink’ and ‘Space’. My focus here is the space between lines, and between paragraphs. The appearance and professionalism of your documents will be transformed!
Most office documents are printed to A4 paper, with rather narrow margins; OpenOffice defaults to margins of two centimetres each side. The column of type is therefore wider than you would find printed in a book or magazine. As your eye scans back from the end of one line to the beginning of the next, it is hampered by the need to identify which line to latch onto. Furthermore, as you read each line, the type above and below tends to intrude into your central field of high-resolution vision which is what you need to concentrate on.
Matters can be improved hugely by varying the ratio between the type size and line spacing. I’m writing this draft using a TrueType font called ‘Georgia’, at size 11pt. If I use the normal ‘single linespace’ configuration the channel of space between the lines appears rather squeezed. To compensate, I deliberately use a ‘fixed linespace’ setting of 5mm. Immediately, legibility is improved and the tone of the page is lightened.
And what of the space between paragraphs? I never make inter-paragraph space by pressing the carriage return key twice. Instead, I’ve set up the Body Text style so each paragraph inserts an extra 2.5mm space after it. As for my subheadings, in Arial 13pt, they get 4mm extra space above, and 2mm space below, bringing them into a better logical relationship with the text that follows.
Isn’t this a lot of work to do? Not really, because I’ve set up formatting stored in a list of Paragraph Styles. With a single click, I can tell a paragraph – ‘you are a Text Body paragraph, so behave according to the formatting definitions I’ve set up for you!’ And it does what it’s told. In my following article I shall describe in detail how you can make use of this powerful feature of just about all modern word processors and publishing software.
There is a comprehensive set of tutorial on aspects of Microsoft Word on the Microsoft Support website at
CSSC is a membership-led organisation, supporting the health and wellbeing of the civil service and public sector since 1921. Through exclusive benefits, savings and partnerships, CSSC provides free family days out, retail savings and great value leisure, gym, sport, fitness and recreation opportunities.
What’s in it for you?
On average, CSSC members save over £500 a year on their shopping, days out, experiences, health and fitness, while sharing brand-new magical, memorable moments they’ll never forget.
All CSSC members enjoy instant access to:
Free year-round, family entry to all English Heritage and Cadw sites.
Unlimited entry to both Kew Gardens and Wakehurst.
Free access to our CSSC life health and wellbeing platform, with access to Sworkit’s live and on-demand courses, classes and instructor-led fitness videos.
Up to 33% off memberships at over 4,000 gyms, spas and leisure centres.
Huge discounts off family days out to theme parks, cinemas and zoos.
Up to 10% cashback at thousands of popular online and high street retailers.
Over 40 different sports clubs and communities to join and connect with.
Loads of local, volunteer led, events, trips and activities across the country.
As well as thousands of savings, offers and opportunities to help the public sector to live their best lives, CSSC members benefit from financial support to play sport, exclusive events where they can meet their heroes and play at national venues and join team challenges to foster and grow good health, wellbeing and happiness.
How to join
Membership £5.99 month which you can pay by direct debit.
PolicyMogul is rolling out a free political monitoring and research platform to all parliamentarians and staff
PolicyMogul is a political monitoring and research platform that helps MPs and their staff stay on top of political developments and avoid missing important information from constituents and others.
This resource will help in the preparation of debates, meetings and constituency work, and includes up-to-the minute developments, tailored to your MP’s interests, such as:
Updates from government departments and all official sources
Extracts from Hansard
Material from the House of Commons Library
Consultations from the government and elsewhere
Tweets from other parliamentarians and political commentators
Policy asks and briefing material from charities and other organisations
Your account has already been prepared based on the known interests of all parliamentarians. By default you will receive a daily summary at 9am of all relevant news. The frequency and subject matter of alerts can be adjusted at any time.
MPs’ offices are receiving a large number of requests for assistance from constituents with relatives, friends and colleagues stranded in Afghanistan. Please contact only your own MP. If you copy in other MPs, you will hinder their ability to help their constituents.
In order to help your MP to assist you in the most efficient way, please give them as much information as you possibly can.
About you, the constituent:
Full name (not just initials)
Full postal address
email address
telephone number
If you are not a British national and are in the UK on a visa, please provide your Home Office reference number.
If you are not a British national, have you ever worked for the UK Government, UK Armed Forces or British organisations in Afghanistan?
About the people you are trying to help:
Please supply as much information about each individual in Afghanistan as you possibly can:
Full name
Date of Birth
Nationality
Relationship to constituent
Passport / travel document / identity card number
Individual(s)’ contact details
If they are not a British Citizen:
Home Office reference number
Have they already obtained a visa?
Do they have a visa application pending (if so, please provide the reference)
Have they ever worked for the UK Government, UK Armed Forces or British organisations in Afghanistan? If so, please give details, e.g.
Working for the UK or Consular services
Journalist or worked with British News Agencies
Current of former Chevening scholar
Member of civil society group for women’s rights
Afghan Government Official or Judiciary
Official working in Counter-terrorism and counter narcotics
Employee of a charity, humanitarian organisation or NGO
Your MP will log your case and give you a reference number. Please make sure that you use this reference number in all of your future correspondence with them as it will help them to find your case more quickly.
This page summarises the schemes in place to assist British nationals and others remaining in Afghanistan. It also signposts key resources and helplines.
Support for British and non-British nationals in Afghanistan
If you are a non-British National in Afghanistan, or are the family member of a non-British National in Afghanistan, and in need of assistance, you should call +44 (0)2475 389980. This number is currently staffed from 09:00 to 23:00, but will become 24 hour on Monday 23 August 2021.
New number for people in the ARAP scheme to call: +93 (0) 79 290 7303 This is an Afghan mobile number but is operated by the MOD’s ARAP call centre 24/7 from London for ARAP applicants (not MPs, advocates etc).
Applicants are told to message (not ring) & the team then ring them back.
Foreign & Commonwealth Development Office Information
UNHCR website with links to different countries evacuation/support schemes and info on what refugees in third countries should do: https://help.unhcr.org/
Online safety resources for Afghanistan’s human rights defenders
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.
Members’ Staff Roadshows – Refreshed: Launch event for the North West region
The Members’ Services Team (MST) have recently taken ownership of the regional constituency events (or roadshows). We very much intend to return to face to face roadshows in due course, but in the meantime we have consulted MPs’ staff and other stakeholders on what our virtual roadshows might look like. We are therefore piloting a new type of virtual roadshow that will have two phases:
A short launch event on MS Teams, where the MST will ask you what you would like included in the roadshow. The first launch event is on Thursday 15th July at 09.30 for the North West region.
As well as constituency based staff, we want to hear from staff who work in Westminster, whose constituency is in the North West. If you work for an MP in this region, you will receive an email asking you to vote on whether you will attend, and if you vote yes, you will then receive an invite to the roadshow itself. At the launch event, you can let us know what subjects you would like to discuss, and which of the break-out groups we are planning will be beneficial for you. We will not be having presentations from House services, but staff from those services will be at both the launch event and the roadshow itself. Your views will be key and we really want to hear from you.
The actual roadshow event will then follow the launch event between 4-6 weeks later. For the North West region, the roadshow is on the 7th September at 09.30 and will be virtual.
It is really important that you register for the event, so please vote; and if you haven’t received an email, please contact mst@parliament.uk.
The next event will be for staff working for MPs in Scotland, and further details will follow.
The Members and Members’ Staff Services Team (MMSST) provides a variety of services specifically for Members and Members’ staff. The service incorporates several main elements including a HR service for Members and their proxies, and a programme of events, training and pastoral support to all Members’ staff.
MMSST is based in the Portcullis House Hub. The team are available for virtual meetings via Microsoft Teams and for in-person meetings across the Parliamentary estate.
Full details of their services can be found on ParliNet.
support with organising travel and accommodation for events.
The Travel Office offers specially negotiated discounts on many fares, in particular on air travel, and on the costs of hotels.
The Travel Office is provided by Reed and McKay and they have an excellent online booking system and a mobile app. Once you have set up your account, you will have to ask Reed and McKay to add you as a delegate so that you can manage bookings on behalf of your Member or other colleagues.
The Reed and McKay site also has a section called ‘Sherpa’ which gives up-to-date visa and travel information. Simply put in your destination and it will tell you what visas are required and will let you click through to the correct place to apply.
Taxis
Please note that the Parliamentary Travel Office does not offer a taxi booking service.
Overseas Travel
If you or your MP are travelling overseas on Parliamentary business, you can find information about services available to you on the intranet:
Overseas Travel Advice, Guidance and Vaccination Arrangements – St Thomas’ Hospital
Members and staff of both Houses together with their accompanying staff/partner travelling overseas on office business may obtain travel advice, vaccinations and medication from the Occupational Health Service at St Thomas’ Hospital.
For further information and to book an appointment, click here.
For information on travel insurance, please see the intranet page here: Travel insurance
Important – Post-Brexit British Passport Validity
To be eligible to travel to most European countries, on the day of travel, British passport holders must:
Have at least 6 months left on their passport, and
Have a passport that is less than 10 years old, even if it has 6 months or more left
These rules also apply to Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. They do not apply to travel to Ireland.
Please check your passport expiry date before booking any travel and renew it as soon as possible if it does not meet the new criteria. Failure to do so may mean your passport is invalid and you may not be able to travel.
You can check here for the country you’re visiting.
Get country-by-country advice about travelling abroad, including the latest information on coronavirus, safety and security, entry requirements and travel warnings.
