Joint NIACE & UCU 2011 annual conference

Tuesday 1 February 2011, 10am to 3.30pm, Carlow Street, London
 
Why is it that, despite progress made to improve participation and achievement in learning for people with mental health difficulties, the mental health and well-being of staff working in the FE sector is still largely an ignored issue? Why is it that what we are prepared to do to support our learners, we are unprepared to do for ourselves?
 
This joint NIACE & UCU 2011 annual conference was supported by LSIS and targeted at trade union representatives in the FE sector; and principals, senior managers, HE managers and governors in the FE sector.
 
The conference provided delegates with the opportunity to hear about good practice in promoting positive mental health and wellbeing for staff in the FE sector.  Speakers provided the policy context to promoting positive mental health and well-being in FE as well as the business and social case and included:

• Dame Carol Black, National Director for Health and Work, Cross-Government Health, Work and Well-being Strategy Unit on why promoting mental health in the workplace makes sense [6mb]
• Sam Mellor, Head of the Healthy FE programme at the Department of Health on why staff well-being must be part of healthy FE [83kb]
• Michele Sutton, Principal of Bradford College on being a healthy FE college and what the benefits have been [1mb]
• Stephen Court, UCU Senior Research Officer on UCU stress and bullying surveys [539kb]
• John Bamford, UCU Health and Safety Officer on UCU policies on Mental Health
• Helen Pettifor, Director for Programmes, LSIS on why staff mental health and well-being is a quality issue [2mb]

Structured group discussions addressed:

• What the major challenges will be for promoting mental health in the FE workplace
• Who should lead this work in the sector and within organisations
• What delegates can take away from the conference that will make this happen in organisations
• What key messages need to be fed back to policy makers about this issue.