People & Culture
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I’m Catherine Harmer the Associate Head of Department for People and Culture.
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On these pages you will find information about our working groups; our upcoming plans and recent events. People and Culture includes our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusivity.
It also includes a focus on people – including facilitating career development, nourishing a positive research and working culture and working together to attract and retain people working in the department for academic, professional and support staff and students.
Our working groups feed into a people and culture oversight committee; each working group has developed an action plan for their focus over the next 12-18 months. Together we have created themed months in the department, to tie into national dates, and to organise our talks, blogs, training sessions and other initiatives around this topic.
Working Groups
| Racial equality | Career development | |
| Family-friendly and flexible working | Mental Wellbeing | |
| Early Career Researcher social group |
On the Committee we also have:
- An Athena SWAN lead (Laura Winchester)
- A representative for disability (Verity Westgate)
- A representative for LGBT+ people (Elizabeth Rapa)
- A student representative (Michael Colwell)
Bullying and Harassment
Our harassment/welfare officers are led by Erdem Pulcu, who is also on the People & Culture Oversight Committee.
Find out more about who the welfare and harassment officers are and how they can help.
People & Culture Oversight Committee members
Also: Moira Westwood
Department Months 2023
January – Menopause awareness
The Mental Wellbeing and Family Friendly/Flexible Working Groups jointly organised a “Menopause in the Workplace” themed month. This included raising awareness of the University’s new menopause guidance, setting up a department Teams channel to facilitate connections/support between those affected by the menopause, promoting menopause training, and holding an informal ‘coffee and chat session’. More details of these activities can be found here (Internal only)
February - LBGT+ History
The department was decorated with rainbow flags with a weekly email sharing information and resources about LGBT+ issues and history.
March - Race Equality
We reported back on the results of the surveys and focus groups on racial equality and shared our draft for a departmental action plan to address these concerns. We promoted activities, training and resources around the university aimed at tackling racism and inequality (including this guide on inclusive research), and celebrated the successes of academics of colour. We bought books on racism that now sit in the common room for anyone to access, guided by this anti-racism reading list.
April - Student Wellbeing
Various activities have been run by student representatives to support the wellbeing of research students across the department including: wellbeing cafés, wellbeing noticeboards sharing tips on nurturing wellbeing, and reflective practice groups facilitated by external qualified counsellors.
May - Neurodiversity
For Neurodiversity Month, members of the Department who are neurodivergent shared their experiences as well as Head of Administration and Finance Moira Westwood on good line management practice. A 'Supporting our neurodivergent community' workshop led by EDI facilitator Hannah Ravenswood was also held and was well-attended.
June - Family-friendly/flexible working
TBC
News and achievements
Catherine Harmer's People and Culture round-up of 2022
100 per cent of Psychiatry's research environment rated as world-leading in REF 2021