The Latest Bulletin

Other books by Neil are available from here

Perhaps in an ideal world things would never go wrong. But, of course, we don’t live in an ideal world, and things will inevitably go wrong from time to time for each and every one of us. We can do our best before we reach that point to try to make sure that any such problems are avoided or, if they do happen, that their impact is kept to a minimum. But, we can never guarantee that something will not go wrong somewhere along the line. Rising to the challenges of things going wrong is an important part of life, of course, and also offers us a significant source of learning. So, where does that leave us? Well, this is…

Aspirations are often suggested as an explanation for childrens' outcomes. This report, on the occupational aspirations of children, jointly published with the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, provides evidence on career aspirations among boys and girls of different ethnic groups, using the Millennium Cohort Study. One of the key findings is that ethnic minority children have higher aspirations than white British children. Among most ethnic groups, boys have higher aspirations than girls, especially at age 7, when parental influences are more influential compared to age 16, when peers and teachers have an effect. The one exception are Bangladeshi girls, who have higher aspirations than Bangladeshi boys at age 7: there is no evidence that any ethnic minority parents have lower aspirations for…

Fewer than 1% of our population works hard to divide us. To pit people against one another for their selfish aims. These are the pundits, divisive politicians, media companies and short-term trolls who have decided that schisms and fights are a good way to achieve their aims. But if everyone is demonizing the other, then everyone is the enemy to someone. We end up spending our time fighting each other instead of fighting for the things that really matter. We end up focusing on the current thing while something more important shrinks away in the background. It’s possible to be fierce, fierce in your dedication to change, to what’s right, to making things better–without finding the source of your power…

Social work employers and educators must do more to ensure practitioners are supported in handling emotional distress, according to sector leaders. Speaking at Community Care Live on the issue last week, Paul Angeli, assistant director of children’s social care and youth inclusion at the London Borough of Merton, said emotional distress was at the core of all social work, but employers and managers did not take it seriously enough. “Distress is the stuff of social work and if it’s not then I don’t know what is, because when you hear a distressed child or a vulnerable adult, if you’re not hearing that distress than as a social worker what is your job? What are you doing? Your job is to…

The CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, and Mind, the mental health charity, have today jointly published a revised mental health guide for managers to improve support for those experiencing stress and mental health issues at work. The updated guidance follows recent CIPD research which found that less than one in three organisations (32%) train line managers to support staff with poor mental health. Mental ill health is now the primary cause of long-term sickness absence for over one in five (22%) UK organisations. A recent Mind survey of over 44,000 employees also found that only two in five (42%) felt their manager would be able to spot the signs they were struggling with poor mental health.…

Other books by Neil are available from here

The word ‘cynic’ comes from the Greek word for dog, so to be cynical literally means to be dog like, in the sense of not caring, of being happy to let the world pass you by. It involves not making an emotional investment, of being detached and disengaged. For many people cynicism is an emotional coping mechanism – if you don’t put your heart into something, you are much less likely to get hurt by it. And, without that emotional engagement, the result is likely to be negativity and defeatism. You can’t succeed at something if you don’t engage with it. But, equally, you can’t fail, which is a big part of the appeal of cynicism as a coping method…