Time: 14:30 – 15:30 Date: 8 May 2025 Location: Online via MS Teams
The Casework Discussion Forum takes place each month via MS Teams.
The topic for May’s forum meeting will be a Local transport Q&A (UK wide). We’ll be joined by Roger Tyers and Mike Benson from the Library’s Business and Transport team, and Iona Stewart from the Library’s Social and General Statistics team.
The forum is complemented by a dedicated Teams chat which enables you to share ideas and best practice, with support being on hand from the Library should specialist knowledge be required.
You do not have to be a caseworker to attend these sessions – they are open to any Members’ staff who handle casework.
A free seminar from the Pensions Policy Institute, kindly sponsored by Phoenix Group.
Time: 12:00 – 13:00 Date: Tuesday 13 May 2025 Location: Central Hall Westminster, Dinsdale Young Room, Storey’s Gate, London, SW1H 9NH
Pensions are important, but can be very confusing.
We can help with this
The Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) would like to invite you to join us for an introduction to the UK Pensions System. This seminar, which is free to attend and kindly sponsored by Phoenix Group, is open exclusively to all staff working within Parliament who have an interest in pension policy.
There is no getting away from it, the current UK Pensions system can be confusing. This seminar, delivered by the PPI’s Senior Leadership Team, will provide a high-level overview of the current system, and the issues faced by industry, policymakers, and those saving for and in receipt of income in retirement.
Specific topics which will be covered include:
The State Pension – historical background and where we are today
Automatic enrolment – historical background and where we are today
Adequacy
Retirement income – comparisons with the rest of the world
Private pensions – what is available, where we are today with CDC, industry challenges and the changing landscape
The Gender Pensions Gap – differences and explanations
Investment – Mansion House, Illiquids, ESG
New developments – Dashboards, Small Pots, and Lost Pensions
Why choose this seminar? Our Independence sets us apart: The PPI focuses on the facts. The Knowledge Sharing Seminars will be delivered from the PPI’s independent perspective and will provide you with the facts on the UK Pensions System.
We hope you can join us, and we look forward to unravelling the world of pensions for you!
Please feel free to forward this invite to colleagues within Parliament who may be interested in attending this free seminar.
The Pensions Policy Institute: is an educational research institute. Our aim is to improve information and understanding about pensions policy and retirement income provision through research and analysis, discussion, and publication.
Phoenix Group: You may be aware of Phoenix’s customer brand, Standard Life, who together with their other brands make Phoenix one of the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement business.
People who move to the UK can often make it their permanent home after a while by applying for indefinite leave to remain and then British citizenship. We’ll discuss how this works, how long it normally takes and recent announcements in this area from both the Labour government and Conservative opposition.
Cash access, use and acceptance are declining. Recent legislation has tried to address the issues this causes for people reliant on cash. This talk will outline the law in this area and how caseworkers can help constituents with cash access requests.
By Jennifer Lees-Marshment Professor of Political Management and Marketing at The University of Dundee
Wednesday April 2nd at 2pm
This workshop will present practical recommendations for supporting staff in political offices. These were created by interviewing political advisors who worked for Prime Ministers, Ministers and MPs in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand about what they had found worked best within the realities of politics and government.
Participants will also get the opportunity to reflect on which recommendations they might consider implementing, and to share any additional practices they have found useful.
This will be of interest to existing and prospective staffers and special advisers, and those already support and manage colleagues, teams or offices or aspire to in the future.
Brief author intro Jennifer Lees-Marshment is Professor of Political Marketing and Management at The University of Dundee and interviewed over 65 advisors who worked for Prime Ministers, Ministers and MPs in the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Canada to identify over 50 best practice recommendations for improving the support and management of political staffers.
Time: 10:30 – 11:30 Date: 8 April 2025 Location: Online via MS Teams
The Casework Discussion Forum takes place each month via MS Teams.
For the April 2025 forum we will be joined by staff from the Home Office MP account management team. The session will provide an overview of the Home Office MPAM team and a chance for the team to hear feedback from caseworkers.
The Bank of England wishes to invite Members of Parliament to a briefing in Portcullis House on Thursday 27th March from 9.30-11.00:
How the Work of the Bank of England Affects Your Constituents
The Bank’s wide-ranging work – on interest rates, the safety of the financial system, managing the UK’s high-value payment system, and supplying genuine, difficult-to-counterfeit banknotes, among other areas – directly affects people and businesses up and down the country.
With an interest rate decision on 20th March, this will be an ideal opportunity to ask your questions and learn more about the work of the Bank of England.
The topic for March’s forum meeting will be the Police complaints system (England & Wales).
We’ll be joined by William Downs from the Library’s Home Affairs Section for an overview of the police complaints and conduct system, including recent changes to the conduct system, common misunderstandings of police complaints and a Q&A.
The guest speakers at the January Caseworker Discussion Forum will be from Full Fact, the fact checkers and campaigners who find, expose and counter the harm done by bad information.
