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Valuing staff and providing security: Social enterprises in social care

Valuing staff and providing security: Social enterprises in social care

From a startup tackling isolation among the rural elderly population in Devon, to a veteran organisation working in a number of northern towns and cities, social enterprises are playing a part in meeting the growing need for social care services across the country. In a recent survey, 10% of social enterprises listed social care as their principal activity. But why are they involved, and what are the benefits for staff and service users? Many say it’s because of financial and demographic pressures, but also policy changes in recent years, notably trends towards personalisation and social value. Leading Lives, a Suffolk-based co-operative and social enterprise, won Social Enterprise UK’s Health and Social Care Award in 2015 and provides care for adults with…
Dr Neil Thompson
January 12, 2017
World Autism Awareness Week

World Autism Awareness Week

Getting involved with World Autism Awareness Week (27 March–2 April 2017) will change lives. We are asking you to raise money and awareness so that as many people as possible learn about autism. So we will quiz, bake, walk, collect… Until everyone understands. Click here to read more
Dr Neil Thompson
January 12, 2017
Neil Thompson’s Lesson for Livinng – Celebrate your successes

Neil Thompson’s Lesson for Livinng – Celebrate your successes

Some you win, some you lose is a well-known saying. We can’t realistically expect to succeed in everything we do, so we have to learn to take the rough with the smooth, of course. However, my concern is that life can be so pressurised much of the time that we do not take the opportunity to savour those successes; we perhaps feel we are too busy to stop and focus on what has gone well because we are too busy rushing on to the next challenge or dealing with things that aren’t going so well. This is not just a pity to miss out on the positive feelings associated with success, it’s also a problem in at least two ways…
Dr Neil Thompson
December 15, 2016
Mental health and stigma

Mental health and stigma

One in four of us will experience a mental health problem every year - that means that, right now, one of your friends, colleagues or loved ones is going through it. But too many people with mental health problems are made to feel worthless or isolated. The way you act towards someone with a mental illness can change their life: by opening up to mental health you can make a real difference. Click here to read more
Dr Neil Thompson
December 15, 2016
Lessons from Europe: how projects supporting care leavers are transforming lives

Lessons from Europe: how projects supporting care leavers are transforming lives

In France and Spain support programmes are helping vulnerable young people access employment and secure housing, or continue with education. More than 4.5 million young people in the European Union – approximately 20% – are unemployed, and long-term youth unemployment is at a record high. Patterns of employment are often characterised by temporary, part-time or short-term work, and this is certainly the case for young care leavers – if they are employed at all. At the age of 18, care leavers are more likely than other young people to not be in employment, education or training, to be socially excluded or homeless and make up a disproportionate percentage of the prison population. It is therefore crucial that public social services…
Dr Neil Thompson
December 15, 2016
5 steps to conflict resolution in the workplace

5 steps to conflict resolution in the workplace

Conflict in the workplace is inevitable, or at least, it should be. Managers should begin to worry as soon as they start noticing their workplace is free from conflict. You might be reading this and thinking, “Why should we invite conflict?” I’ll answer that by saying: you need to know the difference between good conflict and bad conflict. If we take a look at the origin of the word conflict, we might begin to get a clearer picture of why it’s necessary in the workplace. Conflict is derived from the Latin words ‘com’- meaning ‘together’ – and ‘fligere’- meaning ‘to strike’. So conflict essentially means ‘to strike together.’ That means when you’re in a meeting with a colleague and you…
Dr Neil Thompson
December 15, 2016
‘Just say death!’ Plays teach healthcare workers about end-of-life care

‘Just say death!’ Plays teach healthcare workers about end-of-life care

Seth Goodburn seemed fit and well until two weeks before he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died just 33 days after diagnosis, spending much of that short time in hospital. In the emotional whirlwind of coping with the poor prognosis his wife, Lesley, felt their hopes for Seth’s end-of-life care were sidelined by medical professionals trying to do their job. “The NHS focuses on the medicine and trying to fix people even when that’s not possible,” she says. “A lot of the conversations and decisions that we might have made were overshadowed by dealing with what was the next medical treatment and intervention.” There is an ongoing conversation in the medical profession about how to care for terminally ill…
Dr Neil Thompson
December 15, 2016
Neil Thompson’s Lesson for Living – Use mind maps

Neil Thompson’s Lesson for Living – Use mind maps

There are many occasions when it is useful, if not essential, to have a record of our thoughts and/or the events to which they relate. Some people seem never to make notes; they simply rely on their memory, which, of course, is not a wise strategy, as it involves leaving to chance what is recalled and what is not. Other people, I’m aware, make copious notes, but never refer to them again – they just file them away as if having them somewhere to hand will be of value. Yet others have no filing system, so their chances of finding any notes they may have taken are relatively slim anyway. So, when it comes to making notes, there is no…
Dr Neil Thompson
December 1, 2016