The Latest Bulletin

The sixth edition of the bestselling textbook Anti-Discriminatory Practice has now been published and the second edition of The Professional Social Worker  Anti-discriminatory Practice The Professional Social Worker Other titles by Neil Thompson are available from here Neil Thompson Amazon author page

It is Edward de Bono’s name that is most closely associated with the notion of lateral thinking, although the basic idea behind it (the importance of thinking creatively and not getting stuck in tramlines) long predates his work. What de Bono did was to put the ideas across clearly and effectively. In our day-to-day lives we generally rely on established ways of thinking and behaving. Life would be intolerable if, at every step of the way, we had to think consciously about what we are going to do next or how we are going to do it. Established patterns are needed for dealing with mundane, routine matters. However, the price we pay for this convenience is that there is a…

Bob Holman, who has died aged 79 after suffering from motor neurone disease, earned a unique place in social work, when, in 1976, he resigned his professorship in social administration at Bath University to become a community worker on the city’s deprived Southdown estate. He saw his affluence and position as inconsistent with his Christian faith. He and his wife, Annette, and their two children, Ruth and David, moved from a comfortable middle-class area in the city to a home next to the estate and he started the project where he then worked. Ironically, this thrust him into far greater prominence than university life afforded, as he published widely to propagate ideas forged by his experiences. His advocacy, as well…

Britain’s equality watchdog has criticised British airlines and British Airways (BA) in particular – for their treatment of disabled customers as legal action is taken by an actor over alleged damage to her wheelchair. Chris Holmes, the disability commissioner on the Equality and Human Rights Commission and a highly successful Paralympic athlete, said carriers should cover the full cost of damage they cause to wheelchairs and mobility devices. Lord Holmes, who represented Great Britain for 17 years at swimming and won nine gold medals, specifically mentioned the case of disabled actor Athena Stevens. Stevens is taking legal action against BA and London City airport over damage she says happened when she was trying to make a working trip to Glasgow in…

It has been a hectic few weeks for our Health and Wellbeing team as this newsletter shows. With participants from across the UK and from as far away as Poland, Ukraine, Spain and the USA we have been driving our mission to improve the opportunity for those who are denied the benefits of “good work” because our systems fail to support them to remain in, or re-enter, the workplace when they also have to contend with challenging health conditions. In particular, we have identified the weak links in the UK’s current work programmes and made recommendations for improvements and we have begun to build a good practice and evidence-based toolkit through expert engagement from across Europe through our Fit for…

Just a third of employers (34%) have a formal, written policy or an informal, verbal policy in place to support working carers in their workplace, according to a new survey published today. With estimates suggesting that 3 in 5 people will end up caring for someone at some point in their lives1, employers are being urged to put mechanisms in place to empower and support working carers, before they lose out on key talent. This is according to new CIPD/Westfield Health research which finds that almost two-fifths (38%) of employers do not have any policies in place to support working carers, or plans to develop one. The report also finds that just 13% of organisations offer line manager training to…

The sixth edition of this bestselling textbook has now been published. And it won’t be long before Neil’s The Professional Social Worker will be published – just a few weeks https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anti-Discriminatory-Practice-Practical-Social-Work/dp/1137586656/ref=dp_ob_title_bk https://astore.amazon.co.uk/neilthomp-21?_encoding=UTF8&node=12

Many years ago, a trusted mentor said to me: ‘Neil, you have a lot of strengths, and you keep playing to them. How will you develop new strengths if you are constantly focusing on what you are already good at?’.  He went on to explain that what I was doing was very common, but it was also a very common way of standing in the way of my own development. What he encouraged me to do was to be clear about what areas I was not so strong in and look at how I could improve in those areas. From this discussion emerged the idea of turning weaknesses into strengths. It is easy to feel embarrassed about what we are…

"I bought the diet book, but ate my usual foods." "I filled the prescription, but didn't take the meds." "I took the course... well, I watched the videos... but I didn't do the exercises in writing." Merely looking at something almost never causes change. Tourism is fun, but rarely transformative. If it was easy, you would have already achieved the change you seek. Change comes from new habits, from acting as if, from experiencing the inevitable discomfort of becoming. Click here to read more