t2group.co.uk
May - July 2021
edge achievers
edition 47
Inside This Issue
Vulnerable & Marginalised Young People Climate Change in 2021 Mental Health Matters
INSIDE
THE INCREASING NUMBER OF HOMELESSNESS ON OUR STREETS Employment Opportunities For Welsh Speakers - See inside for details
What’s
On?
ESDGC and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
around the UK? May 15 Tafwyl 2021 Online 26 – 6 Hay Digital 2021 29 HowTheLightGetsIn Online 2021
June 12 Wales v Switzerland UEFA Euro 2020 13 England v Croatia UEFA Euro 2020 18 England v Scotland UEFA Euro 2020 28 Wimbledon
July
11 Final UEFA Euro 2020 23 Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
Health & Well-being
events 2021
events 2021
May
May
3 World Press Freedom Day 8 World Fair Trade Day 11 – 14 Water Saving Week 15 International Day of Families 17 International Day Against Homophobia 26 Visakha Puja - Buddha Day
3-9 8 10 - 16 12 30
Deaf Awareness week World Red Cross Day Mental Health Awareness week National M.E. Awareness Day World MS Day
June June 4 5 8 12 15 - 21 17 20
International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression World Environment Day Parents’ Day/World Oceans Day World Day Against Child Labour Refugee Week World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought World Refugee Day/Father’s Day
14 - 20 Men’s Health week 14 World Blood Donor Day 21 International Day of Yoga
July 1 – 31 Sarcoma Awareness Month 28 World Hepatitis Day 30 Gastroschisis Awareness Day
July 4 Independence Day 17 World Day for International Justice 30 World Day against Trafficking in Persons
SAFEGUARDING events 2021
May
June
July
3-9 Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week
31-05 National Patient Participation Week
1
Talk to us Day (Samaritans)
24
Samaritans Awareness Day
1
1-6
6
World Maternal Health Day
9
National Schizophrenia Awareness Day
11-16
Dying Matters Week
World Meditation Day
21
21
World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development
25 International Missing Children’s Day
4
International Children’s Day Child Safety Week 2021
Our Safeguarding Team :
International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression
Safeguarding & Prevent Lead Stacy Preston 02920 799 133 / 07876 824 157
15 World Elder Abuse Awareness Day
Deputy Safeguarding & Prevent Lead Lisa Sheppard 07881 093 484
15-20
Learning Disability Week 2021
26
International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking 2021
Designated Senior Person for Safeguarding across the t2 group Dave Marr 02920 799 133
The scale of homelessness is a notoriously difficult thing to quantify. There are many different types of homelessness, for starters. It’s not just rough sleeping — there are people trapped in temporary accommodation or hostels and shelters.
and other emergency accommodation during the pandemic – has seen a shift in the number of people moving off the street and into temporary accommodation.
And it is not always a visible problem. Hidden homelessness, also known as sofa surfing, is virtually impossible to count as people staying at friends or relatives’ homes are out of sight and often don’t consider themselves to be homeless.
WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?
It is vital that we have an accurate idea of how many people are homeless in the UK – if you don’t know how many people need help, how can you help them?
Alerts are monitored by volunteers at St Mungo’s who check information and forward them to outreach teams. Everyday hundreds of alerts are received by StreetLink.
At the end of December 2020, 95,370 homeless households were living in temporary accommodation – a rise of 7,060 households in just one year.
If you see a rough sleeper, send details of where and when you see them, as well as a brief description of the person, to StreetLink using their website, app, or phone line. StreetLink is operated in partnership with Homeless Link and St Mungo’s.
HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE HOMELESS IN THE UK? Overall, Crisis estimated that around 200,000 people were experiencing core homelessness – the most severe and immediate forms of homelessness – in England in 2020. The charity’s Homelessness Monitor series also covers Scotland and Wales but there are currently no equivalent figures representing the current state of homelessness following the Covid-19 pandemic. It is difficult to come up with a catch-all figure on just how many people are homeless at any one time because there are various measures to take into consideration. The statutory homelessness figures tell us how many households have contacted councils for help with homelessness. In England, 288,470 households were owed assistance from councils to prevent or relieve homelessness in 2019-20 compared to 9,993 households in Wales. The latest UK Government figures showed 62,250 English households approached councils for support between October and December 2020, down 10 per cent on the same period in 2019. The figures were also a 10-per-cent drop on the previous three-month period which covered the end of the first national Covid-19 lockdown. The Everyone In scheme – which brought rough sleepers off the streets to provide them shelter in hotels
Source: Big Issue
From unprecedented wildfires across the US to the extraordinary heat of Siberia, the impacts of climate change were felt in every corner of the world in 2020. Here is a round-up of where we are on climate change at the start of 2021, according to five crucial measures of climate health. 1. CO2 levels The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere reached record levels in 2020, hitting 417 parts per million in May. The last time CO2 levels exceeded 400 parts per million was around four million years ago, during the Pliocene era when global temperatures were 2-4C warmer and sea levels were 10-25 metres (33-82 feet) higher than they are now. The effect of lockdowns on concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere was so small that it registers as a “blip”, hardly distinguishable from the year-to-year fluctuations of the carbon cycle, according to the World Meteorological Organization, and has had a negligible impact on the overall curve of rising CO2 levels. “We have put 100ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere in the last 60 years,” says Martin Siegert, co-director of the Grantham Institute for climate change and the environment at Imperial College London. That is 100 times faster than previous natural increases, such as those that occurred towards the end of the last ice age more than 10,000 years ago. “If we keep tracking the worst-case scenario, by the end of this century levels of CO2 will be 800ppm. We haven’t had that for 55 million years. There was no ice on the planet then and it was 12C warmer,” says Siegert.
2. Record heat The past decade was the hottest on record. The year 2020 was more than 1.2C hotter than the average year in the 19th Century. In Europe, it was the hottest year ever, while globally 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest. Record temperatures, including 2016, usually coincide with an El Niño event (a large band of warm water that forms in the Pacific Ocean every few years), which results in large-scale warming of ocean surface temperatures. But 2020 was unusual because the world experienced a La Niña event (the reverse of El Niño, with a cooler band of water forming). In other words, without La Niña bringing global temperatures down, 2020 would have been even hotter. The exceptionally warm temperatures triggered the largest wildfires ever recorded in the US states of California and Colorado, and the “black summer” of fires in eastern Australia. “The intensity of those fires and the number of people being killed is truly significant,” says Siegert.
3. Arctic ice Nowhere is that increase in heat more keenly felt than in the Arctic. In June 2020, the temperature reached 38C in eastern Siberia, the hottest ever recorded within the Arctic Circle. The heatwave accelerated the melting of sea ice in the East Siberian and Laptev seas and delayed the usual Arctic freeze by almost two months.
As well as being a symptom of climate change, the loss of ice is also a driver of it. Bright white sea ice plays an important role in reflecting heat from the Sun back out into space, a bit like a reflective jacket. But the Arctic is heating twice as quickly as the rest of the world – and as less ice makes it through the warm summer months, we lose its reflective protection. In its place, large areas of open dark water absorb more heat, fuelling global warming further.
4. Permafrost Across the northern hemisphere, permafrost – the ground that remains frozen year-round for two or more years – is warming rapidly. When air temperatures reached 38C (100F) in Siberia in the summer of 2020, land temperatures in several parts of the Arctic Circle hit a record 45C (113F), accelerating the thawing of permafrost in the region. Both continuous permafrost (long, uninterrupted stretches of permafrost) and discontinuous (a more fragmented kind) are in decline. Permafrost contains a huge amount of greenhouse gases, including CO2 and methane, which are released into the atmosphere as it thaws. Soils in the permafrost region, which spans around 23 million square kilometres (8.9 million square miles) across Siberia, Greenland, Canada, and the Arctic, hold twice as much carbon as the atmosphere does – almost 1,600 billion tonnes. Much of that carbon is stored in the form of methane, a potent greenhouse gas with a global warming impact 84 times higher than CO2.
5. Forests Since 1990 the world has lost 178 million hectares of forest (690,000 square miles) – an area the size of Libya. Over the past three decades, the rate of deforestation has slowed but experts say it isn’t fast enough, given the vital role forests play in curbing global warming. In 2015-20 the annual deforestation rate was 10 million hectares (39,000 square miles, or about the size of Iceland), compared to 12 million hectares (46,000 square miles) in the previous five years. Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia are the countries losing forest cover most rapidly. In 2020, deforestation of the Amazon rainforest surged to a 12-year high. An estimated 45% of all carbon on land is stored in trees and forest soil. “Soils globally contain more carbon than all plants and atmosphere put together,” says Waring. When forests are cut down or burned, the soil is disturbed, and carbon dioxide is released. As well as showing how much the climate has changed already, these five climate indicators also point the way to the solutions that can curb global warming to safer levels by the end of the century.
Source: BBC Futures
What is mental health? Everyone has mental health in the same way that everyone has physical health, and just like physical health, whether it is good or poor can change over time. Mental health can also be referred to as ‘emotional health’ and is often included when we talk about our well-being in general. When we are in good mental health, we find it easier to cope with life and the challenges it can bring, whether that is at home, work, or school. It can affect relationships with family and friends and our outlook on life and what we want to achieve. As we move through life our circumstances change. We may experience setbacks or traumatic events which can affect people in different ways and how we react to or ‘bounce back’ from these can vary – an event that one person may take in their stride may take someone else a long time to recover from emotionally.
preventing mental health problems from developing further or in providing individuals with a diagnosis and medication or therapies to help manage the impact on our daily life and those around us.
Some early indicators of poor mental health could be: • poor concentration • being easily distracted • worrying more • finding it hard to make decisions • feeling less interested in day-to-day activities • low mood • feeling overwhelmed by things
What are mental health problems? There are a variety of problems that can impact our mental health, from the worries and fears of everyday life such as exams, moving house and work, to diagnosed longer-term conditions such as anxiety disorders and depression and even serious mental health illness such as multiple personality disorder and schizophrenia. Some severe mental health disorders can interfere with how a person perceives reality and may include hallucinations and delusions.
• tearfulness • tiredness and lack of energy • sleeping more or less • talking less and avoiding social activities • talking more or talking very fast, jumping between topics and ideas • finding it difficult to control your emotions • drinking more • irritability and short temper • aggression
• Around 1 in 10 people are experiencing anxiety and depression at any one time • 4-10% of people in England will experience depression in their lifetime • 1-2 people in every 100 people experience severe mental illness such as bi-polar disorder or schizophrenia • In 2018, according to the ONS, the suicide rate in the UK was 11.2 deaths per 100,000 people, with 75% of these being male • Depression affects around 22% of men and 28% of women aged 65 years and over, yet it is estimated that 85% of older people with depression receive no help at all from the NHS. • An estimated 12.7% of all sickness absence days in the UK can be attributed to mental health conditions
Mental Health Foundation website Early intervention is key Whilst social perception around mental health is changing, there is still an existing stigma that can prevent people from accessing vital help and support. We must be able to recognise the signs and symptoms of poor mental health in ourselves and others. Early intervention from professionals, family and friends can be key in
However, noticing some of these signs doesn’t mean you should make assumptions about what mental health problems someone may have. Instead, use them as a way of noticing when you should check-in and start a conversation about how someone is coping. Reaching out to someone may be just what they are waiting for!
Where can you access help? You can find local services that can support mental health by accessing the following link for Hub of Hope https://hubofhope.co.uk/ NHS Website https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/ Samaritans – call free on 116 123 or visit https://www.samaritans.org/ Mental Health Foundation – the following link contains a host of organisations useful contact details https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/your-mental-health/getting-help
You can also contact our Mental health First Aiders by emailing safeguarding@t2group.co.uk or talk to your Assessor for support
Many vulnerable and marginalised young people are facing adversity and need additional help to attain good health. If you fall into one of these categories remember you are not alone. 41% of young offenders have experienced childhood bereavement. • 700,000 young carers in the UK - no child should remain hidden from services while caring for an ill or disabled family member. Measures in the Care Act and the Children and Families Act mean that local authorities must take reasonable steps to identify young carers, assess their needs, and then explicitly define what those needs are. Currently, a young carer or their parent must request an assessment themselves; many don’t, either because parents don’t recognise that their child is a carer, or because they do, but don’t want to admit it either to themselves or to the authorities, for fear of being accused of neglect or endangering their child. • 93,000 ‘looked after’ children and young people in the UK –‘looked after children’ generally have greater health needs than their peers yet they may have more difficulty accessing adequate healthcare. They have statutory yearly health assessments (twice yearly if aged under five).
• 1 in 7 11-15 year olds have special educational needs. • Half of transgender young people have attempted suicide - The lack of visibility and acceptance in society contributes to these shocking figures about suicide attempts and self-harm in trans young people. While society’s attitudes towards transgender people are changing, it is still not fast enough and the negative impacts on trans people’s mental health every day are huge. • 20% of 10-24 year olds are from an ethnic minority. • 13% of under-19s live in deprivation - Poverty is both a cause and a consequence of poor health. Poverty increases the chances of poor health. Poor health in turn traps communities in poverty. Marginalised groups and vulnerable individuals are often worst affected, deprived of the information, money or access to health services that would help them prevent and treat disease.
• 83,000 homeless young people in the UK - homeless young people are more likely to use accident and emergency services or be admitted to hospital than their housed peers, and that they need more help in accessing appropriate health services. Homeless people can face major barriers in accessing dental services – while their life circumstances can often mean they are among those most in need of treatment. • 1 in 20 young people have been sexually abused. • 80,000 young people suffer from severe depression - Depression is a treatable illness. The first step towards getting help is to recognise that there might be a problem. Young people can be referred to their local child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) which can offer more specialist help.
IF YOU FEEL YOU NEED SUPPORT, PLEASE CONTACT Winstons Wish winstonswish.org.uk
Young Minds youngminds.org.uk
NSPCC nspcc.org.uk
NHS nhs.co.uk
BEING ABLE TO USE WELSH AND ENGLISH FLUENTLY IS A BIG ADVANTAGE WHEN YOU’RE LOOKING FOR WORK Many employers value Welsh Language Skills because: • they could help create a better relationship between a company and its customers; helping to attract new customers and increase loyalty from existing customers. • providing a Welsh language service to Welsh speakers could improve customer service; companies offering a language choice to the public receive a higher level of customer appreciation. • using Welsh could generate goodwill, particularly in Welsh-speaking areas. Many customers like to deal with businesses that offer a Welsh experience – seeing and hearing the Welsh language being used.
IF YOU’RE AN EMPLOYEE LOOKING FOR WORK YOUR WELSH LANGUAGE SKILLS COULD BE A VALUED ASSET Remember: • being able to speak and communicate in Welsh is a skill that is valued by employers in Wales. • being able to speak and write in both Welsh and English could give you an important advantage whether you’re looking for a job or developing your career. • there is an increased demand in certain sectors, such as healthcare and childcare, from employers for staff who can communicate in Welsh. • For further information please visit our Why Learn Welsh website http://www.whylearnwelsh.co.uk/
Prentis-iaith If you are one of our learners that has already enrolled to develop your Welsh Language skills, then visit https://www.porth.ac.uk/en/collection/prentis-iaith to access your Prentis-iaith e-learning programmes.
Information about Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) The Liberty Protection Safeguards were introduced in the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019 and will replace the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) system. The Liberty Protection Safeguards will deliver improved outcomes for people who are or who need to be deprived of their liberty. The Liberty Protection Safeguards have been designed to put the rights and wishes of those people at the centre of all decision-making on deprivation of liberty. The Liberty Protection Safeguards will provide protection for people aged 16 and above who are or who need to be deprived of their liberty in order to enable their care or treatment and lack the mental capacity to consent to their arrangements. People who might have a Liberty Protection Safeguards authorisation include those with dementia, autism and learning disabilities who lack the relevant capacity. The Liberty Protection Safeguards are planned to come into force in April 2022. For more information please visit - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/liberty-protection-safeguards-factsheets
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