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.

Yesterday the University & College Union announced national strike action at 150 universities across the country. This will take the form of strikes on the 24, 25 and 30 November, along with ‘Action Short of a Strike’ until further notice. At this stage this does not include a marking and assessment boycott. 

The strikes are part of a national dispute over pay, pensions and working conditions across the university sector. As an individual institution, we don’t have a major influence over the negotiations which take place at national level between UCU and both Universities UK and UCEA. Our hope is that through discussion all parties can come to an agreement that works for everyone – all of us want to work in a sector where staff are well rewarded for their hard work, but the same cost of living squeeze felt by people across the country also has an impact on the finances of universities too. 

Our priority initially will also be ensuring we minimise any impact on students as far as we can. We will shortly be sending an update to students which will set out our principles in responding to industrial action, including that we will do all we can to limit the impact on their studies and that we will never devalue their degree or coursework.  

Alongside this we will shortly publish student and staff information which will be regularly updated throughout. This will include the background to the strikes, what we have been doing at Kent to address the issues being discussed, what happens on strike days, plus links to wider support. These will be regularly updated throughout.  

Working groups are also meeting this week to manage our response to strikes across the University, while there will be a number of opportunities for students to have their say, including via the Strike Forums organised by Kent Union. 

It’s International Stress Awareness Week this week. The theme for this year is ‘Working Together to Build Resilience and Reduce Stress.’

Stress is not new. The stress hormone cortisol has even been found in the hair of ancient Peruvians who were alive between 550-1532 CE/AD. Defined as a state of mental or emotional strain caused by adverse circumstances, stress is a physical and emotional reaction experienced by all of us, with symptoms such as headaches, a pounding heart, sweating, and more. Experiencing long-term stress can lead to the development of health problems such as high blood pressure and mental health problems, as well as a physiological and psychological condition known as ‘burn-out’.

People can experience stress due to many circumstances in their lives. With the current cost of living crisis, many people are struggling with the basic demands of living. Work can also cause stress, with studies suggesting that costs to businesses from poor employee mental health have increased by 25% since the pandemic.

At Kent, we have measures in place to help you. For example, our Employee Assistance Programme can be accessed 24 hours a day and you can reach out to them if you are struggling, feeling overwhelmed or just at your wit’s end! Details on how to contact them and other support available can be found on the University’s Mental Health Support webpages. There’s also the Staff Wellbeing Reading List, a useful Staff Wellbeing Toolkit, and the opportunity to use the Roberston-Cooper i-resilience tool.

Using the available resources and having a toolkit of tips such as working out how to look after your wellbeing, building a support network and finding out how to organise your time effectively can help you manage stress and build your resilience. Although it’s impossible to make all the stress in your life disappear, the help available could make it easier to get through stressful situations.

To help with the rising cost of living, we have introduced a £3.60 meal deal in Rutherford Dining Hall (Canterbury) at lunch (12:00-14:00) and dinner time (17:00-20:00), every day of the week!

For staff the meal deal is £3.60 as this includes VAT.

You can choose from two options, including a vegetarian or meat option. Both come with freshly cooked vegetables, sides and salad.

You can see all the financial support available to staff on our Cost of Living Support webpages.

Building an inclusive postgraduate community is an important priority for the University and one of our specific goals is to reduce the gap between proportions of white and black students undertaking PhDs.

To support this work, the Graduate and Researcher College is hosting two online workshops for staff led by Leading Routes on increasing the representation of black students in doctoral training and creating more inclusive research cultures. Leading Routes are leading contributors to this work and their report, The Broken Pipeline, is playing a key role in shaping national policy debates.

Workshops

Both workshops are open to all Academic, Research and Professional Services staff.

The first workshop, ‘The Pipline: Challenging Meritocracy and Acknowledging Structural Barriers for Black Students’ will run on Monday 14 November.

Book your place by visiting this webpage.

The second workshop, ‘Changing Cultures: Practical Steps Towards Long-Term Change’, will run on Wednesday 16 November .

Book your place by visiting this webpage.

Professor Shane Weller, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation has welcomed this initiative saying,  “I am delighted that the University of Kent is working with Leading Routes to support the next generation of Black academics. This initiative lies at the heart of our commitment to creating a more diverse and inclusive research culture both at Kent and across the UK.”

The workshops come alongside the announcement of a new set of University scholarships for BAME and ‘First in Family’ Kent graduates who wish to study for a taught postgraduate programme here – each worth £5,000. Further details on these will be available on the University’s scholarships pages soon.