"I never lose. Either I win or learn"
Welcome to Issue 119 of Quest News. We have 12 hours of off-the-job training for our apprentices in care and education to read and learn.
Events this week:
February 10th - February 29th- Chinese New Year 2024
February 12th- International Epilepsy Day 2024
February 12th – February 18th- Student Volunteering Week 2024
February 12th- February 18th- You Can Care Week 2024
February 14th- Valentine’s Day
February 16th- Care Day 2024
February 17th- Random Acts Of Kindness Day 2024
Legislation/Regulation of the week
Health & Care Act 2022
Under the Health and Care Bill, the government is seeking additional legislative powers to ensure that the regulation of health and social care professionals is proportionate and best protects the public from harm. These additional powers are:
the power to remove a profession from regulation
the power to close down an individual health and care professional regulator
the power to remove restrictions on the delegation of functions by the regulators
clarifying that powers to introduce statutory regulation covers senior NHS managers and leaders and other groups of workers
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 40 mins)
Please remember to review this in your policy/legislation review workbook)
Videos of the week
Chinese New Year: The biggest celebration on earth
Witness how the Chinese celebrate their new year. From the norhest Haerbin to Beijing and to the very south Hong Kong, see how people of China travel, eat, perform shows and start the year of the monkey.
(Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 60 mins)
Event of the week/month
Chinese New Year 2024
Chinese New Year is upon us, with celebrations starting on Saturday, February 10 to welcome in the year of the dragon. The two-week festival marks the beginning of a new Lunar year – and a new animal in the Chinese zodiac to represent the next 12 months. Billions of people in China and around the world will celebrate, often wearing red clothes, decorating their homes with red lanterns and taking part in traditional dragon dances. In many cultures, each year is also associated with an animal from the zodiac. Often the animals are the same across different Asian countries, including China, South Korea, North Korea, Singapore and Cambodia.
(This can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 40 mins)
Safeguarding & ED & I
Guidance around reporting to an incident of Sexual Violence or Harassment
Responding to a disclosure of Sexual violence or Harassment can feel challenging. It is important to consider creating safe spaces for the learner to feel they can talk at their own speed and pace. Below are some practice points to consider;
Find a safe and confidential spot to discuss ”WHAT, WHEN, WHERE,
WHO / HOW you know them”
Give them your full attention
Avoid anything that may distract you, find a space free from interruptions
Take them seriously
Avoid making assumptions or comparisons.
Display empathy and understanding
Acknowledge the persons discomfort and courage to share “I can see this is hard to talk through, its ok take your time”
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 40 mins)
Stepping forward and speaking up: The role of challenge and escalation.
The role of effective Challenging is a key theme from 2023 Working together to Safeguard Children Guidance. It is important that ALL professionals are accountable for reporting concerns they may experience as a result of others in practice. Learning from numerous case reviews highlights the importance of us escalating concerns regarding agency input if we feel the actions of other professionals have not been in the best interest of learners or if their actions have led to missed opportunities to safeguard others.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
AI deep fakes & the risk of sextortion
Our Safeguarding Consultants are hearing more and more from young people experiencing AI deep fakes online. We want everyone to be aware of the risk of deep fakes, especially linked to sextortion. Let’s raise awareness and try and keep our personal information private.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 20 mins)
NSPCC Helpline- Raising Awareness
Alongside the Home Office, the NSPCC has launched a campaign to raise awareness of its Helpline and encourage adults to report if they have any concerns that a child may be at risk of or is being sexually abused, even if they’re uncertain about what may be going on. They have created two new films to support the campaign, one for the general public and another for professionals.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Disposable Vapes to be banned to protect children’s health
The government has announced plans for disposable vapes to be banned across the UK. To protect children’s health, the government also plans to restrict vape flavours, introduce plain packaging and change how vapes are displayed in shops to make them less appealing to children. New fines will also be introduced in England and Wales to crackdown on underage sales.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 40 mins)
Sexual Abuse in Sports: Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Mathilde Grenet, a former NCAA tennis player and founder of the safeguarding consulting firm EN GARDE. She is also a survivor of sexual abuse having been abused by her tennis coach in her youth. Mathilde share's some of her story, as we discuss the importance of protecting young athletes and how good safeguarding plays a major role in unlocking potential.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 60 mins)
Health & Safety
Working safely with display screen equipment
All employers must protect workers from the health risks of working with DSE. Incorrect use of DSE, poorly designed workstations or work environments can lead to pain in the shoulders, neck, back, arms, wrists and hands, as well as fatigue and eye strain. Our guidance covers a range of topics including:
workstations and assessments
work routine and breaks
eyesight testing
https://www.thesafeguardingcompany.com/resources/blog/can-technology-improve-how-we-monitor-mental-health-and-wellbeing/With the long, dark nights and cold weather it is easy to start feeling down. You may feel
With the long, dark nights and cold weather it is easy to start feeling down. You may feel
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 20 mins)
Top health and safety trends for 2024
What are the top trends for health and safety at work in 2024? Nick Henderson-Mayo, Director of Learning and Content at Health and Safety eLearning provider, VinciWorks, looks at some of the issues your health and safety team should have at the top of their agenda for the coming year.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
How to support someone with depression: Video
One in four of us will experience a mental health issue such as depression in our lifetime – even if you’re not affected, the chances are someone close to you may be. This could a friend, family member, your partner, or a colleague. ‘There’s still a lot of stigma around talking about mental health, particularly in the workplace, and men often find it particularly difficult to say they’re depressed,’
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Why sitting ruins our health - and how 22 minutes of exercise could help
For many of us, a working day involves spending several hours at a time sitting in front of a computer - and it is having a serious effect on our health. But research suggests that 22 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per day may lower the health risks of a sedentary lifestyle.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 20 mins)
Wider Curriculum
Parental mental illness and the role of stigma: key practice points
‘Stigma’ can be understood as a form of social devaluation and rejection of an individual or group because they have an attribute that is seen as socially undesirable. What is considered ‘undesirable’ varies across different societies, but mental illness is one of the most commonly stigmatised attributes.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Podcast: should social workers be on social media?
In this episode, we ask whether social workers should be on social media? Sharmeen Ziauddin speaks to two social work YouTubers, Yewande and Kayleigh Rose Evans. Yewande is an experienced social worker and manager in child protection. Her YouTube channel, Young Black Social Worker, focuses on social work content for students, newly qualified staff and experienced social workers. Kayleigh has worked in various different adults’ services across some of the most deprived areas of England. She shares all her insights on her YouTube channel, Kayleigh Rose Evans. Both started their channels at the beginning of the pandemic, back in early 2020, and have large numbers of subscribers and followers on YouTube and other social media platforms.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 50 mins)
Chinese New Year Celebrations and Activities
You may wonder how long does Chinese New Year last? Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year) is celebrated for sixteen days (from Chinese New Year's Eve to Chinese Lantern Festival). The preparations start half a month before Chinese New Year's Eve. Many celebration activities for this period are traditional customs, but some are quite new...
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Your chance to celebrate your social work colleagues
Social work is a profession dedicated to championing and transforming the lives of children, families and adults across the country. Practitioners work tirelessly, often beyond contracted hours, to build relationships with, advocate for and safeguard many of the most disadvantaged people in society. However, your brilliant work often goes unnoticed and, when it is acknowledged, this is through local or sector-led awards that only allow recognition for a handful.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
