Wellness Working Group August Blog Post

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The Wellness Working Group (WWG) will be publishing a monthly blog, written by Committee Member, Lisa Young, who not only works for an MP but is a trained counsellor. They hope that by publishing this blog, you might find some comfort as well as practical tips to help you through a difficult situation.

You can find the blog on the parliamentary intranet here: https://hopuk.sharepoint.com/sites/hct-wellbeinghub/SitePages/WWG-Blog.aspx

The August 2023 post relates to receiving calls from people who are struggling to cope, and contains a link to a useful template to guide you through such a call.

Training for Members’ Staff

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The Members’ and Members’ Staff Services Team, along with Teams across the House of Commons, provides a wide range of training, learning and development activities that have been developed to support Members’ staff in their different roles and responsibilities.

To see the dates of courses coming up soon, view the Monthly Training Bulletin. You can also find all the training available to Members’ Staff on ACT.

Note: you must have a parliamentary network account and be connected to the network in order to access the above links.

Caseworker Discussion Q&A: Update from the Members’ Services Team

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Time: 14:00
Date: Thursday 17 August 2023
Location: Online via Teams

Update from the Members’ Services Team, including:

  • Training – Tom Mitchell, Training & Learning Facilitator, will update the group on the Training Ambassador Network, new starter learning pathways, as well as seeking your ideas and feedback for new training courses.
  • Engagement – Lydia Smith, Engagement Manager, will provide an overview of the engagement programme for the remainder of 2023, including an update on the dissolution roadshow events.
  • Wellbeing – Tanya Harris, Health and Wellbeing Manager, will provide an update about the Employee Assistance Programme – Health Assured.

It is nearly one year since the Casework Discussion Forum launched. We would like to use this session to gather your feedback about the Forum, suggestions on how it can be improved, and ideas for what topics you would like to see covered in 2024.

Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology – latest publications

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POST, the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, sources reliable and impartial scientific research evidence for the UK Parliament.

It’s latest publications are:

Guide to Free Legal Services to support constituency casework

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Available for MPs’ Offices Only

Guide to Free Legal Services to support constituency casework

The APPG for Access to Justice, which launched last month.

They have been working with a number of law firms to explore the types of legal problems that arise in MPs’ casework and one of the barristers involved, Toby Brown, has put together a comprehensive guidebook of all the law centres and charities across England and Wales which offer legal advice. It covers everything from immigration, domestic abuse, employment, social security, family issues and how to access legal aid.

There are enough hard copies for every MP and it would be an invaluable resource for any constituency office, irrespective of political party.

If you would be interested in obtaining a hard copy please email [email protected] and a copy will be sent to you. A PDF version is also available.

Research participants sought

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Are you a parliamentary worker who uses evidence-based information as part of your role? A new research project supported by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations is asking what sources of information you use and why. The aim of the work is to understand how evidence could be communicated to policy makers more effectively. Take part in a short online survey and you could win £100 for yourself or for charity. For more information and to take part, go to this link:

https://oxford.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/communicating-evidence-to-policy-makers-what-works-best

Background

The request to post came from Dr Caroline Wood at Oxford University, who has been awarded a grant from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) to investigate which sources of information policy makers most rely on to access current evidence on topical issues.

The aim is that the findings of this will inform a publicly-accessible ‘best practice guide’ for all those whose role involves communicating evidence to policy makers (including thinktanks, research institutions, universities, and NGOs). By understanding which information sources are favoured by policy makers, this will allow organisations with limited resources for policy engagement to focus on the channels that are most likely to be effective.

The core activity of the project is a short online survey which asks policy makers (including policy advisers and research assistants for MPs) which sources of evidence they use and why.

They are looking for as many participants as possible in order to generate enough data to glean some valuable insights and we are happy to bring it to the attention of our readers

Caseworker Discussion Q&A – Constituents and dealing with debt

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Time: 10:30 – 11:30
Date: Thursday 20 July 2023
Location: Online via MS Teams

England and Wales focus, signposting organisations in Scotland and NI

With Lorraine Conway from the Library’s Home Affairs Section

To book and view other Caseworker Discussion Q&A sessions, please visit ACT: https://parliament.learningpool.com/mod/facetoface/view.php?id=5177

MP Staff Training: Understanding Stalking & Harassment

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Time: 14:00 – 15:30
Date: Tuesday 8 August 2023
Location: Online via Teams
Open to: all Member’s staff.

This course is being run in conjunction with the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC).

The session will cover:

  • What is stalking and harassment?
  • What does the law say?
  • Motivations for stalking (inc. 5 Typologies)
  • Impact of stalking and how to manage risk
  • How and Why to report stalking

To book, please visit this link https://parliament.learningpool.com/course/view.php?id=2084

Behind the Scenes with the Official Report

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During the summer recess, the Official Report (Hansard) is offering Members’ staff an opportunity to learn how parliamentary proceedings are edited in the Official Report.

Spend an hour and a half with us and find out:

  • How Hansard reporters and editors publish MPs’ speeches
  • Which debates are read the most by constituents and how to share parliamentary contributions online
  • Who to contact with queries about the Official Report and where to read speeches before publication

We finish with a tour of the Hansard offices and the Press Gallery.

We will be holding sessions on the parliamentary estate during the summer recess on Wednesday 26 and Thursday 27 July, as well as on Tuesday 1 and Wednesday 2 August.

We welcome all Members’ staff and any questions they may have!

For more information and to book a place, please contact [email protected]