News

News

The Parliamentary Staff Awards 2021

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Parliamentary Staffers Awards now open!!

Prospect Magazine and MAPSA are delighted to announce that entries to the third annual Parliamentary Staffers Awards are now open, so please get nominating!! We know how difficult the last year has been for staff and offices of every MP and Peer, with unprecedented increases in workloads and stress, alongside the challenges of working remotely. We also know that staffers have risen to the challenge amazingly and now is the time for you to be recognised and rewarded for that.

The awards serve as a way to recognise all the hard work and contributions carried out by staffers on both parliamentary and constituency work, with the winners being announced at a ceremony in parliament in the autumn.

We are delighted to have warm words of support from the Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle: “MPs’ staff are the unsung heroes – they routinely stay late, work under pressure, have to deal with all manner of enquiries, and yet still manage to make us look good and ensure the smooth running of our offices. I think the Parliamentary Staffer Awards’ event is a fantastic way of saying ‘thank you’ to this amazing group of people for what they do for us, and the impact they have on the lives of our constituents.”

Entries are now open with the ceremony taking place on Tuesday 9th November 2021 on the Terrace Pavilion, Houses of Parliament. 

Full details and entry links can be found here: The Parliamentary Staff Awards 2021: Entries are now open – Prospect Magazine and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact [email protected] 

Wellbeing Hub for Members’ Staff

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The Wellbeing Hub for Members’ staff can now be accessed directly from your desktop using the orange and blue icon which should now have appeared.

The Wellbeing Hub brings together all resources into one place, with information on what support services are available and ideas, tools and templates to support you with your wellbeing. It is designed by Members’ staff who understand the challenges of your roles and have tailored the resources accordingly.

The site was created by the Wellness Working Group, a cross party group of Members’ staff, with the support of the House. Please feel free to get in touch with us on [email protected] to hear more about their work or tell them your thoughts on the Hub. 

If you are looking for some support or if you are interested in what more you can do to support your team’s wellbeing at this difficult time, then visit the Wellbeing Hub via the desktop icon to find tools to help you.

Hollie Gazzard Trust and MSSS talk on personal safety

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This is an event from the Wellness Working Group

Wednesday 14 July 14
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Nick Gazzard from the Hollie Gazzard Trust talking to the group about Hollie’s story and the work of the Trust. He will be joined by Neil Cahalin from Member Security Services at the House to speak about available personal security measures available through Parliament.

About the Hollie Gazzard Trust:

Hollie Gazzard was murdered by her former partner following domestic abuse and stalking at the age of 20. Hollie’s dad, Nick is determined to raise awareness and help educate other of these issues and what this can lead to using Hollie’s tragedy as a way of getting the message across. He will explain in detail what happened to Hollie, how he turned this awful tragedy into something positive with the creation of the Hollie Gazzard Trust as Hollie’s legacy. A key aim of the Trust is prevention and he will speak about Hollie Guard a personal safety app that has now been downloaded over 50,000 times, along with the development of Hollie Guard Extra. He will finish with a Q&A session and will answer any question about what happened to Hollie, how this has affected him as a father and the family, along with the topics of domestic abuse and stalking.

RSVP to [email protected]

National Audit Office (NAO) / Education Team

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This is a briefing / Q&A session from the Members’ Services Team.

National Audit Office (NAO) / Education Team

The National Audit Office is the nation’s independent spending watchdog. It reports to, and is funded by, Parliament to value for money reports on subjects ranging from HS2, Defence contracts, local authority finances, Covid-19, to environmental sustainability. In this session, Adrian Jenner and Sadie Smith from the NAO will give a brief overview on how they can assist Members’ staff with queries on major programmes and Departmental spending, and point them in the direction of resources which can assist with drafting speeches, briefing papers, articles, and constituency correspondence.

We will also hear from the Education and Engagement Outreach Team who do brilliant work organising events, tours and activities to promote the work of Parliament. They will provide an update on their work and give details of activities to help Members’ offices better engage with their constituencies.

If you would like to register a question ahead of the event, please email [email protected]. You will also be given the opportunity to ask questions during the session.

10:00 – 11:00
Tuesday 13 July 2021

To register, please go here: https://parliament.learningpool.com/mod/facetoface/view.php?id=4536

Regional Roadshows – calling North West Members’ staff

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The regional roadshows are getting a revamp and the Members’ Services Team would love to hear your thoughts on what should be included. All MPs’ staff are invited to contribute.

If you are available 15 July 9.30 – 10.15am and would be willing to provide them with some feedback about what should be included in the 7 September North-West roadshow then please contact [email protected] and they will send you a calendar invitation to the Teams meeting.

Further information on roadshows can be found here: https://w4mp.org/w4mp/w4mp-guides/support-in-your-job/members-staff-roadshows/

The Well Gardened Mind

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This is an event from the Wellness Working Group

Thursday 8 July 2021

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Author of the Sunday Times Bestseller, The Well Gardened Mind, Sue Stuart-Smith will join us to talk about the benefits of nature for wellbeing.

“In a powerful combination of contemporary neuroscience, psychoanalysis and brilliant storytelling, The Well Gardened Mind investigates the magic that many gardeners have known for years – working with nature can radically transform our health, wellbeing and confidence.”

https://www.suestuartsmith.com/book

RSVP: [email protected]

Cultivating the inner capacities of the mind and heart – Director of the Mindfulness Initiative

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This is an event from the Wellness Working Group.

Tuesday 29 June 2021

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Jamie Bristow is Director of The Mindfulness Initiative, a policy institute about mindfulness and compassion training that grew out of a programme of mindfulness teaching for politicians in the British Parliament. The Mindfulness Initiative provides the secretariat to the UK Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group and helped politicians to publish the seminal Mindful Nation UK policy report. Jamie now works with politicians around the world to help them make capacities of mind and heart serious considerations of public policy and has supported the introduction of mindfulness training in over 10 national parliaments. He was formerly Business Development Director for Headspace.

RSVP to [email protected]

Workshops from the Registrar of Members’ Financial Interests

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The Registrar of Members’ Financial Interests runs workshops for Members and their staff on the following subjects together with the next available dates.

‘Openness and Registering Members’ Financial Interests’, covering:

  • How to help your Member register and declare interests
  • The rules on paid lobbying by MPs
  • How and when to register your own interests

Thursday 17 June 2021 at 2pm
Thursday 1 July 2021 at 2pm

 

‘How to Support an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG)’, covering:

  • Register entries
  • APPG Secretariats (volunteers, Members’ staff, outside organisations)
  • Members and Officers
  • Meetings (including AGMs, inaugrals and other formal meetings)
  • Transparency and records, including APPG websites
  • Income and expenditure statements

Thursday 17 June 2021 at 12.30pm
Thursday 1 July 2021 at 11am

Booking required.  Please contact [email protected] to book a place.

New mental health training courses from Learning & Development

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Please note that, when trying to access these courses, if you receive automated messages such as “you don’t have Moodle” or “it is not for learners”, please check, in the first instance that you have valid security clearance by contacting the Security Vetting Team.  If you do have valid security clearance and still receive error messages, please contact the Digital team on x2001.

Distressed Callers (1 day)

https://parliament.learningpool.com/mod/facetoface/view.php?id=3965

Course overview

  • Core skills when supporting emotional service-users.
  • Understanding the use of empathy when communicating on the telephone.
  • Recognising the impact of our approaches when supporting challenging (distressed) callers.
  • Responding to challenging callers and those with differing needs.
  • Looking after ourselves after the call

Approach

The training will experiential to enable attendees to practice skills and build confidence through role play scenarios and the opportunity for supportive feedback and encouragement.

 

Vicarious Trauma (short Webinar sessions)

https://parliament.learningpool.com/mod/facetoface/view.php?id=3968

This is a short introductory webinar on vicarious trauma.

Vicarious trauma is a term for the emotional changes a person can experience when helping people who have traumatic stories to tell.

The session is an initial opportunity to define vicarious trauma and look at why we are at risk, how to identify the signs and how we can minimise the risk in our response.

Vicarious Trauma (1 day)

https://parliament.learningpool.com/mod/facetoface/view.php?id=3969

Regularly hearing about or responding to traumatic events can take its toll on those people who work in helping professions and supportive jobs.

Vicarious trauma is a term for the emotional changes a person can experience when helping people who have traumatic stories to tell.

It may be that you have taken a call, read something or seen images and they stick in your head and you keep thinking about it. Or you often find yourself reflecting, outside of your work, on the upsetting and emotional things that you’ve heard from people contacting your service.

This insightful and practical course provides a more in-depth opportunity to focus on your self care and well being in relation to vicarious trauma.  It will explore how to address and effectively manage vicarious trauma to keep a healthy workplace.