Congratulations to Steven Allain, from the School of Anthology and Conservation, who won an award at this year’s NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording 2022. Steven won the 2022 NBN Award for Wildlife Recording – Terrestrial.

The winners and runners-up of the NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording 2022 were announced at the Natural History Museum, in London, on Wednesday 9 November 2022.

These national Awards recognise and celebrate the outstanding contributions adults and young people are making to wildlife recording and data sharing, which is helping to improve our understanding of the UK’s biodiversity.

Steven has worked hard to both generate and verify records of amphibians and reptiles in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk since 2016 and in the last two years in Kent.

All of the records that Steven generates are shared with the local Amphibian and Reptile Groups. He is Chairman of the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Amphibian and Reptile Group, and also the Norfolk Amphibian and Reptile Group as well as being Volunteer Officer for the Bedfordshire Reptile and Amphibian Group.

Steven is often consulted by Animal and Plant Health Agency regarding the presence of non-native amphibian and reptile species in the UK, and his passion and enthusiasm for amphibians and reptiles, and his unique ways of engaging people helped him to also win the 2022 Anglia Ruskin University Sustainability Champion Award.

Steven Allain says: “The main thing that excites me about recording amphibians and reptiles, is that they are historically under-recorded. This means that it is fairly easy to discover new populations of even the most widespread species that no one knew were present in an area. For me, it is all about putting dots on maps, and trying to cover as large a geographical area as possible, to help maintain up-to-date distribution maps of our herpetofauna.”

Come join us at our Menopause café on Wednesday 23 November! Head over to the Oasis Lounge, Rochester Building from 13.00 – 15.00 where you can gather to eat cake, drink tea and discuss the menopause – there’s no need to book!

At the Menopause café

At a menopause café there is no agenda – you won’t learn facts about the menopause, and there is no intention of leading café participants to any conclusion, product or course of action. The café simply gives space to anyone wanting to chat about the menopause in a confidential, respectful space. We will have lots of treats, teas and coffees available, and a few facilitators hopping between tables to keep conversation flowing.

We are running this menopause café in partnership with Menopause Café, which is a not-for-profit organisation that supports the set-up of the café with some guidelines, and also run their own #flushfest. More info can be found on their website.

How it started

The Menopause Café came about in 2017, in Perth, Australia, created by Rachel Weiss who was inspired to get more people talking about the menopause after watching the BBC programme ‘Menopause and Me’.

She modelled the Menopause Café on the Death Café, which aimed to ‘increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives’.

The menopause café has only one purpose: to gather people, often strangers, in one place to drink tea, eat cake and discuss the menopause.

Castles are Elsewhere is an exhibition that commemorates the life of Roger Cardinal (1940-2019), whose fascination with the extraordinary led him on a wondrous odyssey upon which he encountered creativity in the most unexpected places.

Roger is probably best known for his seminal book titled Outsider Art, published in 1972 – the first of its kind in the UK which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary. It was followed a few years later in 1979, with the ground-breaking Outsiders exhibition at The Hayward Gallery.

Through the treasures in his private art collection, his books, his letters, and a selection of his fascinating diaries, this exhibition will give an insight into Roger’s life, and we hope fitting
memoriam to a man who encouraged us all to look at art and life differently, to see that ‘castles
are elsewhere’.

The exhibition which was curated Jennifer Gilbert & Vivienne Roberts, will be accompanied by a publication where luminaires of the Outsider Art world have been invited.

When:

Wednesday 23 November. 17.30 – 19.30
Opening hours: Wednesday – Sunday (27 November), 10.00 – 17.00
This venue is wheelchair accessible and it’s FREE admission.

Where:

Foyle Rooms, Turner Contemporary, Rendezvous, Margate, CT9 1HG

“Who are the Outsiders? They possess no qualifications as artists. They seem to work on their own, for themselves, for the fun of it. They know nothing of the trends and snobberies of the cultural centre. All prefer the rule of the imagination to the strictures of officialdom. Instinctive and independent, the appear to tackle the business of making art as if it had never existed before they came along. What they make has a primal freshness: it is the product of an authentic impulse to create and is free of conscious artifice.” – Roger Cardinal, 1979

Eastern Arc will be hosting a one day workshop on 10 January 2023 for those working on practice research. It will be led by practitioners from the three EARC universities (UEA, Essex and Kent), and will be a chance to explore the issues and opportunities facing all those whose work involves a significant practice element.

The event is free and open to all. However, it is primarily intended for colleagues at the Eastern Arc universities. Those at other universities, research institutes and organisations are welcome to apply and, if there is capacity, their place will be confirmed by 17 December at the latest.

The draft programme is available on the Eastern Arc webpage. The location will be a short walk from Chelmsford mainline station, the midpoint of the EARC Consortium, and the venue will be confirmed shortly.

To take part, please complete this short form. If you have any queries, email Phil Ward, Director of EARC.

2022 has seen the Centre for Child Protection (CCP) celebrate its 10^th anniversary. To end the celebrations, the CCP introduced an award for child protection professionals engaged in outstanding creative, effective, and collaborative practices across disciplines, with an awards ceremony held on Wednesday 9 November.

Strong collaboration and cooperation is is essential in child safeguarding work to keep children safe. Multidisciplinary collaboration is routinely raised as a concern and is highlighted as a key area for further development and learning. CCP regularly hears good examples of strong practices that should be recognised and celebrated alongside the promotion of learning to promote effective working.

Winner – Vulnerable Adolescent Panel (Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board)

Congratulations to our winners of the Centre for Child Protection Collaboration Award 2022!

The Vulnerable Adolescent Panel was created due to the growing problem of extrafamilial harm, which presents a risk to young people in our communities and creates challenges for professionals. The panel consists of health, police, children’s social care and the youth offending service who have worked together to achieve a shared sense of ownership and responsibility for success.

The panel provides a forum for timely and robust expert guidance, advice to professionals and information sharing between agencies who are working with young people at risk of extrafamilial harm. The time and dedication required to create this show a systemwide commitment to tackling child exploitation.

Highly Commended – Ynys Môn Local Authority

The young carers services deliver specialist support to children and young people ages between 5-18 living in Ynys Môn who have caring responsibilities at home. Ynys Môn local authority prides itself on collaborative working, resulting in greater communication between services, effective information sharing and efficient early intervention. They are also dedicated to offering their services in Welsh and English so they can successfully communicate with all children and young people.

Highly Commended – Joint Agency Group Supervision (JAGS) (Norfolk Safeguarding Children Partnership)

JAGS was initiated in response to learning which identified a need for ringfenced time to reflect on challenges and barriers to intervention in complex cases. JAGS provides a reflective space for joint analysis to learn together and understand the family’s lived experiences. JAGS works across children’s social care, health, education, and police and has supported collaborators to move from feeling ‘helpless’ and ‘frustrated’, to feeling ‘confident’ and ‘enthusiastic’. This has led to strong multi-agency working, understanding of different roles, improved communication, and advocacy for children.