At the end of May the UN’s final report on the impact of austerity on human rights in the UK was published. Philip Alston, the UN rapporteur on extreme poverty sets out a damning 21 pages.

“Close to 40 per cent of children are predicted to be living in poverty by 2021. Food banks have proliferated; homelessness and rough sleeping have increased greatly; tens of thousands of poor families must live in accommodation far from their schools, jobs and community networks; life expectancy is falling for certain groups; and the legal aid system has been decimated.”  

He describes a government which has remained determinedly in a state of denial. In response, perhaps not appreciating the irony, the UK Government have dismissed the report as ‘barely believable’.

Reading it I felt the opposite – that it was a horrifyingly accurate picture of the society we have come to expect if not quite accept. I wonder if ‘barely believable’ rings true for the many organisations supporting communities dealing with the many and varied impacts of austerity?

I thought I’d at least sign the petition to make sure it’s debated in Parliament but was disappointed to see that there was one posted at the end of last year (after the interim report) which only attracted 63 signatures and has now closed. One on greyhound muzzling got twice as many. But seriously, in allowing Government to dismiss the report without any kind of fuss we’re basically sending a message that they can go right ahead.

And I do believe that our collective attitudes and diminishing expectations are part of the problem. Alston describes the bottom line being that “much of the glue that has held British society together since the Second World War has been deliberately removed and replaced with a harsh and uncaring ethos. A booming economy, high employment and a budget surplus have not reversed austerity, a policy pursued more as an ideological than an economic agenda.”

Scotland and Wales are recognised in the report as having taken certain steps to protect people from the worst impacts of austerity, but that there are quickly limits to the mitigation that is possible. I’d imagine more is always possible, but the role of Scottish Government is surely not to mitigate the negative impacts of decisions in Westminster.

I wondered if Edinburgh at the very least should be sending a message that we’re not prepared to live in the society described by Philip Alston and we’re not prepared to see the difficult reality of many people diminished.

EVOC as a first step are committing to find a way to meaningfully raise this with local partners in Edinburgh such as the NHS, City of Edinburgh Council and the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board. Nationally we will try to get a motion raised in Holyrood.

Any feedback or ideas? Please do get in touch, I’d love to hear from you.

maria.arnold@evoc.org.uk

Duncan W Wallace

Coach, Government Advisor and Organisational Development Consultant

“Brilliant, practical way of building a training course”…. The “Training for Trainers course was very helpful in learning the do’s and don’t as well as how to design a programme incorporating all learning styles.”…. “Duncan’s course is well-structured and inclusive of different professions (not always a given!”

This week I’ve been training 8 trainers on the Training for Trainers course I do with EVOC. The trainers were all from different types of organisations doing a range of training from trauma courses to legal courses. Collectively their training courses reaches into most areas of the world that i care about deeply, work that is improving social justice because staff and volunteers are getting properly trained.

Which means I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the importance of learning to learn. When we learn, we breath better, we grow, we love our work a bit more. Yet so often the learning provision, the training courses and the context of our busy busy busy organisations don’t give us permission to take time to learn… Or that’s what we tell ourselves, and thats why we put up with poor learning provision in organisations. Some of the CEO’s that i work with as a coach get frustrated with this. Many of the staff and volunteers i work with are a bit de-moralised by the sense of having to not just do more for less, but actually not being adequately supported in the process.

We do all learn differently, and if you haven’t done a recent Learning Styles Questionnaire then i recommend you do. Because actually getting to know you learning styles is a really important part of learning how to pick the best routes for your own professional learning. Many people don’t learn much from talks and presentations. Many people only learn from books and presentations. video link to social conformity and learning styles

I recommend you look for the work of Kolb plus Peter Honey and Alan Mumford on Learning Styles to dig a bit deeper than the surface on understanding how you or others learn best.

Yet there is a hilarious and challenging other aspect to all this which is the factor of Social Conformity. If you haven’t studied behavioural science, then have a look at this simple science experiment from the National Geographic folk. Even the experienced trainers i was working with this week were shocked at how quickly social conformity in all types of groups becomes a major asset or deficit in learning.

Which is very much why i tend to use the Juggling Together activity to illustrate the ability of teams, systems and organisations to learn and handle pressure well. Within 5 minutes i got those people juggling 50% more things than they thought they were capable of. 5 minutes of coaching and the group becomes stronger and more capable. We live in a world that wants more for less, driven by efficiency. Yet efficiency cannot be achieved without learning systems. Co-creating learning systems and co-creating learning organisations is one of the core capacities that i build. I’ve been an Organisational Development practitioner for 20 years now, and the key thing is always to learn, to capacity build. To develop the capacity of the community. It is a form of community development. This is important because culture always eats strategy for breakfast, as Peter Druker is famous for pointing out.

If you would like to learn more about all this, or better still, invite me to come in to your organisation and review with you your learning culture, then that would be a total pleasure.

My experience is that organisations, businesses and governments that don’t enjoy learning together, don’t progress, are not efficient and create more inequalities or climate change without realising it. I can help you reverse this.

“The course was very useful in writing and evaluating training”

I also love co-training, co-consulting alongside internal leaders and of course i have a lot of fun training folk too. My next training for trainers course is with SCVO at the beginning of June, its at an introductory level, which is always good fun.

EVOC and NHS Lothian have been working together since December 2018 to consult people about Urgent Care Out of Hours. We have met with groups of older people, carers and people accessing mental health services in North West Edinburgh, and more widely, during February to hear people’s experiences.

We have gathered everyone’s views to produce a report which will be used to inform the Out of Hours Primary Care Transformation Programme, which aims to improve services so that people get the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

We were pleased to work with Media Education and some of those consulted, to produce this short film about people’s experiences of accessing urgent care out of hours. Many thanks to all involved. 

 

Hi, folks.

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who took part in the survey, focus groups, discussions and the event. Your thoughts and opinions have been invaluable and will serve as a great foundation for where we go from here.

The findings from the research period painted a picture of what the Edinburgh recovery community feels needs to happen next. Essentially: open 7 days a week, central, fixed location, a safe place staffed in large part by those in recovery which provides personal development opportunities.

Click here for the report covering the whole research process, the findings and the recommendations for what will happen next. The recommended next steps in the report were agreed at the Edinburgh Alcohol and Drug Partnership (EADP) Core Group meeting on 11th March.

One of the most exciting things this means is that more money will be allocated to the future project. In the past, the EADP had been supporting Serenity to the sum of £60,000 a year. However, based on the needs for the new project and the strong case made by all involved, this funding has been increased to £175,000. Along with this sum, we’re aiming to find complementary funding streams to further support the project.

It’s a complex project and there needs to be considerable planning and appropriate structures put in place. It needs to be robust, and sustainable, so it’s going to require time and continued input from the recovery community. We’re hoping that about this time next year , the new project will open its doors for the first time.

Of course we need to be doing something else in the meantime! What came across strongly in the research was the importance of the social aspect of the recovery community. The sense of safety, friendship, opportunity and community at Serenity made a massive difference to many people.

So EVOC, working in partnership with people and organisations across Edinburgh, are starting to put together a programme of recovery inspired and focused events, activities, outings, groups and opportunities. The hope is to get this off the ground as soon as possible, with consistent input from the recovery community. We’ll be looking for ideas of what could be held or organised in the coming weeks and months. The community has a fantastic wealth of talent and we want to encourage members to come forwards with any skills or ideas they’d like to share. The community’s input has been instrumental in getting this far and will continue to be central in shaping both the interim and the longer term project.

Please get in touch with any ideas or questions – you can put comments on the e-mail, give me a call or I can come and meet you.

Mike McCarron
michael.mccarron@evoc.org.uk
0131 555 9100