Lisa Bayly, our MSc Applied Dental Professional Practice graduate signed up to the Smile Star Charity trip to India in February. The Smile Star charity helps those that have no or very limited access to dental and medical care.

Lisa told us: “Badiani hospital in Khambalia was our first venue. The Smile Star team was made up of volunteers: dentists, a doctor and the support team. We took our own equipment with us, so we had everything we needed to set up our clinical area in the main hall using waiting room chairs and a long table to lay out our dental equipment. That day, we saw over 180 patients.

Our second venue was in the Bhatia village hall. We were inundated with patients, some who had been in pain for days or weeks due to a lack of access to local or free dental care.

Day three, however, was our most humbling experience. We set up in Karamyog school in Jam Kalyanpur and were the first Western organisation to visit this place. The welcome we received was remarkable. Hundreds of people lined up with the Dholi drummers and dancers to welcome us. Truly humbled by the hospitality, we got to work for our busiest day yet. During three days we saw just under 1000 patients for dental or medical care, each one grateful for the care we gave and each filling our hearts for the Indian people a little more.

I would recommend others thinking about something like this to sign up for the Smile Star charity as it’s such a rewarding and humbling thing to be able to do.”

The Centre for Professional Practice offers flexible, part-time, work-related programmes and CPD courses for working professionals. To find out more visit Professional Practice.

Staff are the University’s most valuable asset and their health and wellbeing is extremely important.

There are a number of ways that colleagues across our campuses and centres can access support and advice as and when they need it. These include a new Employee Assistance Programme specifically for Kent employees, as well as access to specialist advisers across the University.

Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

This new scheme offers University staff easy access to expert help with both workplace and personal issues. Whether you have questions on issues from debt and landlords, to nutrition and stress, our new EAP website should have the answers. To log-in, use the username: uokent and the password: university.

Alternatively, you can phone the providers, Care first/Sodexho, free of charge on 0808 168 2143 and get free and confidential advice from an information specialist or accredited counsellor.

Face-to-face counselling (up to eight sessions) is available through the EAP, not just phone or online advice. Following an initial telephone assessment by a qualified counsellor, there can be a referral to a counsellor within your locality.

Occupational Health support

As well as EAP, the University has a dedicated Occupational Health team whose remit is to:

• prevent work-related ill health
• facilitate rehabilitation and return to work following periods of illness or injury
• promote physical and mental health and wellbeing at work.

Your line manager can refer you to Occupational Health or you can opt for self-referral. Find out more on the Safety, Health and Environment website or the OH team’s Health and Wellbeing webpages.

Talking to your line manager

Don’t forget that your line manager can also support you on health and wellbeing issues – either directly or pointing you to the right colleague/place to ensure you get the support you need.

If you are able, speak to your line manager first. There may be a simple solution and they are not going to know you have a problem unless you discuss it with them.

Line Managers can also take advantage of advice available from the EAP.

HR contacts

Our HR department is responsible for a number of staff wellbeing policies – from special leave to flexible working.

The Employee Relations and Business Partnering Team provide line managers and other colleagues with specialist, professional advice, guidance and policy implementation on those policies, amongst others. Each area of the University has a specific Business Partner and Employee Relations Adviser – find out who yours is on the HR website. Please use the general ERBP team email to make initial contact on ERBP@kent.ac.uk. This address is monitored 09.00 to 17.00, Monday to Friday and using it will enable us to deal with your query as quickly as possible.

Colleagues in Estates and Commercial Services have their own dedicated HR teams who can advise as necessary.

Development opportunities

Our Learning and Organisational Development team, part of HR, also provides a wide range of personal and professional development opportunities for staff across the University. Courses include Mental Health Awareness, Crucial Conversations, Promoting Inclusion, and Resilience and Wellbeing.

Find out more on the L&OD website.

Staff representatives

Staff representation and consultation are key to good employee relations

Our Joint Staff Negotiating and Consultation Committee (JSNCC) is the main forum for consultation between the University and our staff on all matters of mutual interest. Membership includes both staff and trades union representatives, who can share your concerns with other members of JSNCC. Find out more about the JSNCC and who your representatives are on the JSNCC webpages.

You may also wish to seek advice/support directly from your trade union if you are a member.

The University has a number of trade unions active across its campuses and centres, including:

• GMB – mainly representing staff in grades 1-6
• University and College Union (UCU) – mainly representing academic and academic-related staff.
• Unison – mainly representing staff in grades 1-6
• Unite – mainly representing technical staff.

Find out more about trade unions and campus representatives on the HR Information for Staff webpages.

Colleagues are invited to the next E-Learning Forum which takes place on Friday 27th March 2020, 13:00-14:30 in the UELT Seminar Room.

In this session the E-Learning team will explore the use of podcasting in academia. Podcasting has had something of a renaissance in recent years, particularly for the sharing of practice and ideas in academic practice and research. In this session, the team will provide practical advice on how staff can create their own podcasts and begin to share them more widely. The session will then look at examples of how podcasting is currently being utilised in academia and will include input and thoughts from Dr Chris Deacy from SECL; creator of the popular ‘Nostalgia’ podcast series at Kent.

Please sign up to attend by completing this booking form.

The School of Art’s Studio 3 Gallery has just launched a new exhibition entitled ‘Hair: Textures of Belonging’.

The exhibition was awarded an Arts Council grant for £14,000 and has been co-curated by Dr Eleen Deprez, curator of the Studio 3 Gallery, and Dr Sweta Rajan-Rankin, Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Kent.

‘Hair: Textures of Belonging’ reflects on the social, political and aesthetic significance of hair. With its different textures, grooming practices, interpretations, and symbolic values, hair provides a unique and timely entry point to understanding racialised and gendered belonging among different communities. Artists have long used hair as a material in art practice. Here, they explore hair as a material with affective potential and as a signifier of identity. The impact of the exhibition will be amplified by a day of performance and workshops at the Gulbenkian Theatre on campus.

The exhibition features Marina Abramović, Zhu Tian, Sonia Boyce, Yuni Kim Lang, Jayoung Yoon, and Sonya Clark.

Studio 3 Gallery is open 10am – 5pm, Monday to Friday, and the exhibition will run until Saturday 4 April 2020.

Visit Studio 3 Gallery, for more details of all upcoming exhibitions.

For more details on Arts Council funding, please see the page here.

There is a Facebook gallery from the opening night of the exhibition.

Dr Lisa Lin, Lecturer in Media Studies, has just co-produced an exclusive report for Channel 4 News exploring the outbreak of Coronavirus in Wuhan.

The report features footage from the epicentre of the outbreak, the metropolis of Wuhan, focusing on the doctors and nurses on the frontline.

The feature is a short sample for a forthcoming documentary titled Frontline Diaries with Wuhan Medics: The Battle against Covid-19 from Ground Zero, which will be released later in the year.

Lisa produced the documentary with her production team in the UK and China.

To view the feature, please visit Channel’s 4 website.

In recognition of International Women’s Day on 8 March 2020, members of staff have been sharing who their most inspirational woman is and what makes them so special:

Jacinta Ardern (PM of New Zealand) – ‘Compassionate leadership in a male dominated world. The youngest female head of government, and only the second elected head of government to have a baby and take maternity leave while in office.’ (Laura Pheils, L&OD Advisor)

Dame Julie Andrews – ‘Her incredible talent and how she coped with having to use this to support her family as a young child; not letting her childhood put her off her dreams. I admire her grace, charity work, her love of family, her strength after losing her voice and as the only person I’ve ever seen to get a standing ovation just walking into a room. ‘ (Helen Oliver, L&OD Coordinator)

Barbara Castle – ‘for introducing the Equal Pay Act.’  (Maddy Withers, Reward Assistant)

Aphra Behn – ‘A playwright, poet and spy was a remarkable and talented woman who made her voice heard and took risks for the things she believed in. Virginia Woolf wrote of her: “All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn… for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.”‘ (Alison Ross Green, Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development)

‘Mary Lacy’ – ‘She was determined to succeed and did so in spades. Born and bred in Ash, Kent she ran away to sea and also became an accomplished shipwright: she was arguably the first women ever to train as shipwright (albeit disguised as a man) and was also the first woman (this time not in disguise) to gain a pension from the Admiralty. She published her fascinating, candid memoirs – The Female Shipwright – in 1773.’  (Simon Kirchin, Director of the Division of Arts, Culture and Design)

Isabel Myers Briggs – ‘No-one has to be good at everything, By developing individual strengths, guarding against known weaknesses and appreciating the strengths of others, life will be more amusing, more interesting and more of a daily adventure than it could possibly be if everyone were alike.’ (Anne-Marie Baker,  Project Manager Athena SWAN)

Mother Teresa – ‘Despite all her encounters with adversity and distress, she maintained an iconic symbol of hope, peace and compassion.’ (Jena Dady, L&OD Advisor)

Emmy Noether – ‘As a woman in a patriarchal scientific community and a Jew in a brutally anti-Semitic society, she was unquestionably an outsider. Yet she discovered mathematics of great power and reach: her theorems on symmetries underpin our understanding of physics, and her exceptionally clear teaching has formed the heart of algebra for the last century.’ (Peter Hydon, Professor of Mathematics and Director of Division)

The abolitionist Sojourner Truth – ‘Born into slavery and at one point sold with a flock of sheep. She fought for the right to have all that comes with the freedom of personhood and equality.’ (Christina Hughes,  Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education and Student Experience)

The Development Office is looking for support for Congregations in July.

Graduations are an important University occasion supporting students in a crucial part of their journey at Kent. Ceremony dates and times are available here.

Various roles are available during graduations. Full training will be available for your designated role, with a member of staff on hand to support you at all times. Staff working two or more consecutive ceremonies will be provided with lunch/hot dinner in between their two shifts as well as allocated breaks throughout the day.

Please complete the form here with your availability. Once you have committed to these hours, please block them out in your calendar as we may not contact you with your role until nearer the time.

Where possible, we will try to allocate you your preferred role. Each role has varying start and finish times so we advise that you are available for two hours before and after the ceremony time you select.

Some of the graduation shifts may involve working outside of your contracted working hours.  Please get permission from your line manager prior to agreeing to work outside of your contracted hours, as they make the decision whether to permit you time off in lieu.

Mental Health is a serious subject. Nearly two-thirds of people say that they have experienced mental ill-health and evidence suggests that poor mental health is responsible for almost 13% of all sickness absence days in the UK.

One of the biggest challenges with poor mental health is removing the stigma that surrounds it. Many don’t hesitate to seek help for physical pain or problem, yet so many of us ignore emotional and mental health issues – or we feel too embarrassed, confused or scared to talk about them.

To ensure continued support for all of our staff, L&OD have arranged the following Mental Health Awareness sessions and Resilience, Emotional Intelligence and Wellbeing training sessions.

Resilience, Emotional Intelligence and Wellbeing

27 April 10.30 – 12.30 Canterbury Campus
3 June 10.30 – 12.30 Medway Campus

Mental Health training for Line Managers

24 March 9.30 – 12:30 and 13.30 – 16.30 (2 sessions)
16 June 9.30 – 12.30 and 13.30 – 16.30 (2 sessions)

During Belong and Grow Week

Mental Health training for Line Managers

19 May 9.30 -12.30

Mental Health General Awareness

19 May 13.30 -16.30

All sessions are available for booking via staff connect

Outlines

Mental Health

• This Mental Health Awareness Training discusses mental health the way you would a headache or the flu, and it encourages you to take care of yourself and those around you.
• These courses raise awareness, they explains how to approach mental health and remove stigma; and provides simple tools, tips and ideas for day-to-day wellbeing-management (for yourself and others).

The Resilience, Emotional Intelligence and Wellbeing session aims to strengthen personal resilience and build emotional intelligence

• Have an understanding and awareness of resilience and emotional intelligence
  Recognise and respond appropriately to workplace demands and pressures
• Explore ideas to overcome negative thinking and maintain a positive mind-set
  Build an individual positive projection of resilience and wellbeing in the workplace