£200,000 funding to help teachers understand and identify mental health issues in children. From last month, teachers in secondary schools around the country having been taking part in a new training programme to help them identify and respond to early signs of mental health issues in children. The programme, backed in the first year by £200,000 in government funding, and delivered by the social enterprise Mental Health First Aid, starts with 1,000 staff and extend in years two and three to cover every secondary school in England. They wil... Continue reading

The travel industry has launched a new training package for staff working in the UK and abroad to help keep holidaymakers safe this summer. The advice, which includes films on how to spot suspicious items and activity as well as what to do in the event of a major incident, will be of interest to anyone providing services or working in the facilities management sector. The programme is being run in partnership with the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) which has created a short presentation offering employers an easy to del... Continue reading

A Muslim woman is claiming religious discrimination against her former employer after she was allegedly ordered to remove her black hijab because it had terrorist connotations. The woman, who has not been named, is said to have worked for estate agent Harvey Dean in Bury, Greater Manchester, for about a year when her employer began to raise concerns about her attire, stating that moving from a back office into public view meant "that it would be in the best interest of the business for her to change the colour of her hijab, due to the supposed... Continue reading

Tesco Stores Ltd has been ordered to pay over £8m in fines and costs after pleading guilty to a pollution incident. The incident, which occurred in July 2014, sparked a huge multi-agency operation involving the Environment Agency, Lancashire County Council, United Utilities, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service and Lancashire Police. It had a massive impact on the local community and environment, with residents having to leave their homes due to petrol odours coming from the sewer network. During the incident, approximately 23,500 litres of p... Continue reading

An Employment Tribunal case that will have implications for thousands of refuse workers on French-owned Veolia contracts across the UK has been hailed a landmark victory by union Unite. Veolia Environmental Services was accused by Unite of hiding behind Brexit when it failed to incorporate overtime pay into annual holiday pay, citing ‘Brexit legal uncertainty’ as the reason. Unite said that employment Judge Skehan found that the voluntary overtime worked on test cases pursued by Unite Legal Services was part of members’ normal pay, beca... Continue reading