Staple Stories

Tough Love and Why I Loathe Scrambled Eggs

Back in 1980 I ended up in Dundee on an Outward Bound course with a cross-section of c50 other young people. On this course we didn’t climb mountains or ford rivers, instead over three weeks, we faced some of the very real challenges that exist hidden in our communities. I experienced 4 placements including: intermediate treatment (pre-borstal): a psychogeriatric ward; decorating the home of an MS sufferer; and most dauntingly- a ward with about 25 patients where the highest mental age was c18 months.

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JAC Application Forms – Stand Out from the Crowd

From many years of experience and working with numerous candidates you may find something useful below.

Allow sufficient time and schedule your writing of the form in bite size chunks. Typically, from scratch, a good form can take up to 16 hours of your time.

Seek advice from successful candidates from previous competitions and ask to look at their forms. Review your previous forms. Check out tips and advice on websites.

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Capitalism + Marxism – A Brilliant Business Model Bred in Yorkshire

At Leeds Business School Simon Biltcliffe outlined his revolutionary business model –  formed from the bitter dust of the miners’ strike in his native Barnsley. His sense of injustice inspired the creation of his very successful print management business Webmart.  And his “northern values” of honesty, directness and trust are the company’s DNA.  He wanted to both challenge and encourage us to learn from history, to keep things simple, engage all staff, to innovate, share learning, to expect people to think you are mad – yet  to make work as enjoyable and as much fun as possible. In common with Steve Edge he emphasised the principle “what goes around comes around”.

Simon was incredibly open and I was struck that he used many more “share”

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Public Defender Service – A Level Playing Field?

I tried for many months to get answers from the MoJ as to whether their PDS offers the tax payer value for money. My MP Stuart Andrew has supported my attempts to gain answers by sending several letters to the MoJ and ministers.

Two things happened last week. Firstly I received another letter from my MP – “It appears, somewhat conveniently when considering the Department’s failure to fully address your concerns that my letter dated 17^th July was never received.” He is pursuing the department for answers. More worryingly I picked up a link from the JRS website that the PDS have appointed a silk as Head of Advocacy.

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