The Latest Bulletin

If you are a member of the Social Workers Union you are now eligible to join Neil’s online learning community (the Avenue Professional Development Programme) for half price. You can also sign up for e-courses at a one third off discount. To find out more about what amounts to Neil’s online tutorial group, visit www.apdp.org.uk. To find out how to get the special SWU member discounts, contact SWU directly.

It is widely recognised that there is much learning to be gained from reviewing our mistakes, looking at what went wrong and how and why it did. However, what is often given far less attention than it deserves is the immense learning to be gained from what goes right. If we are being successful in most of what we are doing, then we can learn a great deal from asking ourselves what it is that we are doing that is so effective. This can then give us the opportunity to look at how we do it even better, to build on our strong points, rather than just build up our not so strong points. Mistakes are quite rightly seen as a good source of…

Love it or loathe it your job can play a role in defining you. When these business people faced life-changing injuries and illnesses they set about creating their own companies which would work for them. Click here to read more

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), one in four adults experience mental illness every year. Yet, due to a variety of factors including stigma and lack of services, many do not receive the care they need. In turn, this greatly impacts the workforce, resulting in loss of productivity due to mental health-related absences, staff turnover and lack of job satisfaction. But thankfully, companies are putting more effort into building appropriate mental health dialogue and services in the workplace. Employers are turning talk into action and are developing programs, services and top-down examples of acceptance and empowerment for those seeking help. Click here to read more

The social economy constitutes a range of organisations that have a core social mission, including social and community enterprises; voluntary and community sector organisations; housing associations; co-operatives and mutuals; informal self-help initiatives; social finance and support providers; and alternative business models. The report develops several recommendations for how UK cities can engage the social economy to lead an inclusive growth agenda. The project was undertaken by a team at Middlesex University and The Open University. Click here to read more

Automation, artificial intelligence, the growth of the informal economy and shifts away from command-and-control power cultures are all trends that are profoundly shaping the workplace. But what will the future workplace look like? Of course, the honest answer is that we don’t really know. This is why at Forum for the Future, we create scenarios to explore how those trends we are certain about – for example, urbanisation – might interact with uncertain trends, including those surrounding the speed and impact of automation in the workplace. In order to create our scenarios – in essence, stories of different possible futures, and in this project, specifically created to explore how global trends may change our world and our workplaces in 2036 – we…

Well-being is an important topic which is increasingly being recognised as encompassing, but being more than, just good health. Important though good health is to a general sense of well-being, there are other factors that make a difference – a sense of purpose or worth, for example – and in this e-book some of those other dimensions are explored. But it is also acknowledged how difficult it can be to keep your own well-being up there on your ‘to do list’ when life gets hectic – the very point when the last thing you need is for your well-being to be challenged. The e-book begins by raising awareness of, or reminding you that, it is important to not lose sight…

A life without challenges may seem appealing when we are under pressure, but in reality it would be bland, boring, unstimulating and a recipe for a miserable life. However, going to the opposite extreme of having challenges that are too difficult or too numerous can be very problematic. It can be a recipe for stress and worse. So, what we need to find is a balance of challenges, a level of challenge that does not leave us bored, but nor does it overwhelm us. This is not always easy, but it is certainly worth the effort to achieve that balance whenever we can. It won’t be a one-off job whereby we achieve that balance and everything is fine thereafter. Life…