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 mpsstaff-wwg@parliament.uk 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 mpsstaff-wwg@parliament.uk

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 MST@parliament.uk. 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 mst@parliament.uk 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: mpsstaff-wwg@parliament.uk

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 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 1 July 2021 at 11am

Booking required.  Please contact CommonsRegistrar@parliament.uk to book a place.

Office Restructure familiarisation sessions

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This session, aimed at MPs and their HR proxies, is run by the Members’ HR Advice Service to supplement the Best Practice Guide to Office Restructures.

The session will provide information about how to manage restructuring the office when you are considering reorganising your staffing resources to respond to changing priorities. It will cover employer responsibilities and provide practical advice about the best practice approach to managing the restructure process effectively. This will help you to ensure staff are treated fairly, properly consulted, and supported.

More information about the support available from the Members’ HR Advice Service will also be provided

See here for further information and booking:

1 July 2021 – 10:00 – 10:45 – https://parliament.learningpool.com/mod/facetoface/view.php?id=4439

 

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 mpsstaff-wwg@parliament.uk