Humansolutions Bulletin - August 22nd 2023

A key text for challenging ageism and promoting dignified practice. Dr Sue Thompson presents invaluable guidance on how to take care of older people in positive empowering ways that avoid common ageist assumptions and practices. This is an essential guide to good practice in eldercare. Available from https://neilthompson.info/shop/ or Amazon

Speaking openly and honestly is more likely to be effective than dropping hints. This is because: (i) people often don’t tune in to the hint; it goes over their head; and (ii) if they do get it, they may resent it – they may feel that you are trying to manipulate them, rather than communicate with them in a genuine way. Despite these problems with hinting, it is a very common occurrence for people to risk alienating others in this way. Learning and practising the skills involved in sensitive and tactful direct communication without ruffling anyone’s feathers are much wiser steps to take. Click here to read more

The CIPD’s 2022 Resourcing and talent planning report, produced in partnership with Omni RMS, explores the difficulties that UK employers are facing in recruiting and retaining people during the cost-of-living crisis. Now in its 23rd year, the report and supplementary case studies help employers and their people teams make informed decisions about people management and investment. While these findings are based on UK data, the broader trends and implications should be of interest wherever you are based. Click here to read more

I’m part of the ‘Exploring Stigma and Poverty’ design team, a group that’s been created to look at the issue of stigma and the impact it has on poverty. Our discussions and exploration have been deep as well as wide-ranging. When we met in January 2023 we looked at the impact stigma has on society as a whole, but also on us as individuals. We called this latter part, ‘making visible the invisible’ as we feel that there is little focus on how damaging stigma is on the individuals that experience it. We drew on our collective experience of stigma. This took some of us back to our childhoods. It’s been a very reflective experience and really made me think…

By law (the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998), you can make a whistleblowing disclosure to one of the following: your employer a legal adviser government ministers – this only applies if you work for a statutory body another person who is responsible for the wrongdoing a prescribed person or body any other person or body if there's a good reason to, or if it's related to an 'exceptionally serious failure' – for example, the police or media You must also make sure your disclosure is made with 'reasonable belief' and is: a qualifying disclosure in the public interest When making a disclosure, it's good practice to consider the list in order. But there might be cases when you do not…

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