What is Mental Health Awareness Week?

 

green text reading May Mental Health Awareness month

 

It’s a seven-day period organised by The Mental Health Foundation that is intended to raise awareness about how your own mental health can be affected, and to highlight the prevalence of mental health issues across society.

It’s also intended to start conversations about mental health issues and to de-stigmatise the issue as a whole.

For 2023 it runs from the 15th to 21st May.

 

What does the data say?

A recent survey carried out by the Mental Health Foundation indicated that the UK population was “experiencing widespread levels of stress, anxiety and hopelessness in response to financial concerns”, which is probably not overly surprising given the current cost of living crisis.

That survey was carried out in November 2022 and took in the responses of 3000 adults in the UK, which indicated that:

  • 29 % of respondents experience stress;
  • 34% of respondents experience anxiety; and
  • 10% of respondents said they felt hopeless because of financial worries.

However, despite that handy reminder of how common mental health issues can be, the causes of stress are perhaps the most important part of the survey, as they included:

  • Unable to maintain their standard of living (71%)
  • Unable to heat their home (66%)
  • Unable to pay household bills (61%)
  • Worried about being able to afford food (50% generally, 67% in younger adults)

Other common causes of stress included work (either commitments or risk of losing a job), health (of the respondent or a family member) and existing debts.

These points are important because they are things that pretty much any individual can experience or worry about at any given time, even more so currently in the UK due to the ongoing economic situation.

A woman in a facemask sits on some steps, her head is in her hands and a box sits beside her

Who experiences mental health issues?

Anyone can have problems with their mental health, just as anyone can have problems with their physical health, yet mental health is much less discussed, is often seen as a taboo subject, and, if it is a long-term illness, is frequently filed away with other invisible disabilities in an effort for society at large to pretend that it doesn’t exist.

Which is unfair, really, especially when you look at research by organisations such as the NHS, which shows that around 1 in 6 adults meet the criteria for a common mental disorder.

Or, as paraphrased by the Priory Group, around 1 in 6 people “experience symptoms for common mental health problems… in any given week in the UK.”

Now, granted, that NHS survey is from 2014, reported in 2016, and those numbers will have changed since then, but I cannot believe that those numbers will have decreased considering everything that’s happened since then.

You know… Brexit, Covid, the cost of living crisis to name just three.

Interestingly, according to the government, a new survey of this extent is planned for sometime in 2023, so it will be interesting to see how the numbers have changed over these eventful years when the next report comes out.

A cardboard cut-out of a head surrounded by scrunched up paper in various colours that forms the shape of a speech bubble. Inside the head is an outline of a brain in which are the words Mental Health.

So why don’t people do anything about mental health issues?

A whole heap of reasons, right at the top of which are things like the current increased stress on the NHS and reduced funding for social care systems by the Government (as a general entity, not just the current incumbents of Westminster).

Going back to that NHS survey, despite around 43% of adults thinking that they have had or currently have a diagnosable mental health condition at some point in their life, 61% of adults with mental health problems don’t access treatment.

Some of that is lack of access to care, via the NHS or other systems, some of it is down to stigma, and some of it is down to old fashioned things like “I don’t want to be a bother”, or “everyone goes through this”, or “it’ll go away eventually”.

And I mean, even if it does eventually go away like something such as a cold would, firstly you don’t deserve to feel miserable all that time, and secondly, even for a cold you’d reach for the painkillers or the hot lemon, right? So why not look for things to help you when you’re having mental health problems?

And a lot of people do go through mental health issues, it’s true, but here’s an idea: everyone is deserving of help when they’ve got a problem.

scrabble tiles spelling out Mental Health Matters

What can we do about it?

Well, first of all, to pinch a phrase from an old advert, it’s good to talk.

Whether that’s to a professional or to a friend or to a loved one, talking through something can reduce anxiety and give you a new perspective, even if it doesn’t immediately bring about a solution just the knowledge that you’re not alone really does help.

For example, ITV have been running their Britain Get Talking campaign for a little while now in conjunction with Mind and Young Minds charities, which has definitely helped raise awareness of mental health issues for a lot of people.

For some folks, talking to their GP is also a good place to start. Potential issues around even getting an appointment aside, they have access to professional resources that many people don’t, can refer you direct to other services within the NHS, and can provide concise lists of resources that can be tailored by them to your specific needs.

There are multiple charities out there that offer access to resources to help with your mental health – some of these are free of charge but may require self-study, others are paid-for services such as counselling.

You can also access private professional, paid-for therapy and counselling services if that’s something that you think will help you best, and is within your budget, however, that’s really not a point I’m personally able, willing or feel comfortable to advise upon.

What I do feel comfortable doing, and what I’ve done below, is to pull together a list of links and resources for you to access, all neat and tidy and in one place.

All the links open in a new browser window and go direct to the listed resource.

two green charity support ribbons against a green background, one larger than the other, supporting mental health awareness

Links & Resources

General Resources:

The Mental Health Foundation

Information on Mental Health Awareness Week 2023 and it’s core aims is on the MHF Website, and they also have a great Get Help page with links to other resources.

ITV’s Britain Get Talking Campaign

More details can be found on the ITV website.

Mind

Have a lot of information and support on the Mind Website, as well as an infoline number (which is 0300 123 3393)

Young Minds

Similar to Mind but aimed at young people and teens, they also have information for parents, teachers and the like about how to suppport young people with mental health issues on the Young Minds Website.

Anxiety UK

Have helpline services available by phone, text and an online chatbot service, details of which are on the Anxiety UK website.

CALM ( the Campaign Against Living Miserably)

Have a late night helpline and chat bot available 5pm to midnight every day of the year. Can be accessed by phone (0800 585858) and on the CALM website.

Construction Industry Specific Resources:

The Lighthouse Club

This is a construction industry specific charity that provides multiple different types of support for construction workers and their families. They have local clubs across the UK and Ireland and an industry helpline.

They can be contacted by phone in the UK on 0345 6051956 and via the Lighthouse Club Website.

Benevolent Funds

Many professional organisations also have Benevolent Funds (usually charities aligned with the parent organisation) that are free to access for members of that professional body and who are able to provide help and resources.

What is available from each depends on that professional organisation, so you’re best off giving them a call or looking through their website, but I’ve linked a few of the more obvious construction industry ones below.

The Chartered Association of Building Engineers: CABE Benevolent Fund

The Institution of Civil Engineers: ICE Benevolent Fund

The Chartered Institute of Building: CIOB Benevolent Fund

The Institution of Structural Engineers: IStructE Benevolent Fund

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors: LionHeart Organisation

Other Resources:

If you or your company want to do more to help out in the workplace, the Barnsley & Rotherham Chamber of Commerce is offering access to a course to train as a Mental Health First Aider. The cost is £325, and it is a two day course, held online, and the next available date is the 17th May 2023, though there are other dates available later in the year, with more details available through the Chamber Website.

The Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE) is hosting an online Mental Health Awareness Webinar on the 16th May. You need to be a member to access this, but the details are on the CABE Website.

Mental Health UK also have a series of webinars (available online after the date if you miss the live event) that discuss Mental Health in the workplace, available on the Mental Health UK website.

References Cited Above:

Mental Health Foundation Survey: link.

NHS AMP Survey: archive link.

Priory Group Mental Health Statisticks: link.

Mind Mental Health Statistics: link.

Commons Library Statistics: link.

two green charity support ribbons against a green background, one larger than the other, supporting mental health awareness

So, every now and then, often at the pub and / or late at night when everyone’s tired, conversations happen that are either weird or surreal or, more often than not, both.

Such conversations include things like ‘who would win in a fight between spacemen and ninjas’ and ‘who should play such and such a character from my favourite book’. They nearly always devolve into further nonsense and have been known to elicit arguments leading to people not speaking to each other for several minutes at a time.

Despite all that, they’re still nowhere near as divisive as Monopoly.

Anyway, one recent discussion, and one which even has a tenuous (very, very tenuous) link to the construction industry, is the eternal:

How feasible is it to build the Death Star?

Stylised image of the Death Star with text saying can you build it?

It’s a question that has also weighed heavy upon the denizens of the internet, although, as one such denizen, I can confirm that we’re also weighed heavily upon by pictures of cute animals, videos of cats with their heads stuck in cups, and discussions of the finer points of colour theory.

Back on topic, it weighed upon people so heavily that in 2012 a petition with over 34,000 signatures was sent to the White House asking them to consider building a Death Star.

No, really. It even made BBC News !

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view) the White House was forced to concede that there were no plans to build a Death Star, nor was there likely to ever be any such plans. The official response from the White House is hilarious and surprisingly well thought out and can be read in full here on Wired.com .

I’m not even going to allow myself to consider how different the response would have been from the Trump Administration.

What would a Death Star even cost?

The estimated price alone would surely put most nations off the idea of building something as astronomically (heh) expensive as the Death Star, because the estimated cost put forward by the White House is in excess of $850,000,000,000,000,000. That’s eight hundred and fifty quadrillion dollars, which is an amount of money that even my limited knowledge of economics says is going to be hard for a planet to scrape together, let alone a single county.

It does though raise interesting questions about the economy of the Galactic Empire and their movement of materials and goods before you even get onto the technology required to move a giant metal football through space.

Stylised image of the Death Star with text showing the building cost that reads 850 quadrillion dollars

And how long would it even take to build?

On to the subject of materials, it’s estimated that it would take 830,000 years at current global output levels to produce the amount of steel needed for just the superstructure of the Death Star.

I mean, steel probably isn’t the best option for building space craft anyway considering its strength vs its mass, and surely you’d go for something like ceramics or carbon fibre or even aluminium like they used in the space shuttles, but that’s beside the point.

Then you’ve got to get all that metal into space, along with all the infrastructure for putting it together, and then you’ve got to keep it all in a consistent geostationary orbit, which even my (admittedly basic) grasp of physics says is going to require its own infrastructure and fuel supply.

So, let’s assume that to get past that issue, you build it in open space. There’s plenty of that around even within our solar system. You could even wrangle a handy asteroid or two to mine for minerals and resources for the building project (as discussed on Space.com ). You’d then still have to account for how you’re going to protect everything against solar radiation and space debris, how to get your workforce to and from the infrastructure, and the little things like how to shield the giant laser so it doesn’t kill everyone within the Death Star.

Then, then, assuming that you happen to have a spare planet or three’s entire GDP lying around next to your conveniently placed asteroids, you still need to think about running costs.

Speaking of Running Costs…

My handy Haynes Manual (yes I’m that much of a nerd, also my parents are awesome) tells me that the Death Star operates with a population of around 1.2 million people, though other equally nerdy estimates put this closer to 2.1 million people.

Carrying enough consumables to feed that population, plus all the people, superstructure, armour, engines, guns and the whopping great laser system puts the estimated weight of the Death Star at around 900 trillion tonnes.

Ovo energy calculated, in an admittedly fast and loose fashion, that the cost of pushing all that weight through space, firing and charging the laser and keeping the crew going for just one day would be in the region of £6.2 OCTILLION!!

Stylised image of the Death Star with text saying the running cost per day is around 6.2 octillion dollars

TL;DR

I suppose that what this really boils down to is, to paraphrase a quote from another famous movie, just because you can do something it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. Or rather, just because you can theoretically do something, it doesn’t mean that you can actually afford it.

No matter how cool you might think the Death Star is or how much of the strength of humanity it might prove to the hollow remains of the bacteria that once lived on Mars, the Death Star is (currently) an impossibility at the size shown in the movies from the point of view of cost, materials and technology.

That said, 54 years ago we landed a man on the moon using a computer with considerably less processing power than my mobile phone, so I suppose anything could be possible in another 54 years.

So long as you remember to shield the exhaust ports.

Disclaimer:

  • This post is not an endorsement of Ovo Energy, the White House or building your own Death Star.
  • The author has no legal rights or ownership to the Death Star, now owned by Disney, nor does she endorse world or galactic domination.
  • That said, all model Death Stars will be gratefully received and zoomed around the office complete with pew pew noises, because the author is not so secretly still a 12 year old at heart.
  • And on one last note, yes, there really is a Haynes Manual for the Imperial Death Star DS-1 Orbital Battle Station.

A photograph of the Haynes Manual for the Imperial Death Star.

Biomimicry is defined as the “design and production of materials, structures and systems modelled on biological creatures and/or processes”. It’s not a new thing, despite it being a term you may not have heard before, as humans have been inspired by nature for thousands of years.

In fact, nature has been running along, doing its own thing in a mostly successful manner for billions of years now, so why wouldn’t enterprising humans, past and present, look to nature for inspiration or for ways to improve on what we’re making and how we make it.

Biomimicry is not limited to construction either, you can see inspiration from nature in everything from robotics (spider-like robots that can craw into rubble to search for survivors after disasters) to energy (flower inspired solar panels that tilt to follow the sun) and right through to fashion.

The interior of the Sagrada Familia, for example, is inspired by a forest, with large, tree-like columns separating into arching branches that support the leafy decorations and coloured glass skylights that form the ceiling. There’s the infamous building at 30 St Mary Axe in London, known to everyone across the UK as the Gherkin, which is inspired by a gherkin sea sponge, and has a complex air filtration system that runs throughout the building, and is like the system a sponge or anemone might use for filtering water.

The interior of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, designed by Antoni Gaudi, and possibly one of the most argued about structures on the planet.

And a little more recently in Germany there’s the BIQ house in Hamburg, which incorporates algae into transparent panels along the south-facing side of the building. This algae grows over the summer months, providing shade for the building and allowing any heat generated at this time to be stored for later use.

Additionally, once the level of algae in the tanks passes a certain level, the excess is harvested to produce bio-gas, which is then used to heat the building in the winter months. It seems to have been a certain level of success as the building has been occupied since 2013.

CO2 produced by the algae is also collected, preventing release into the atmosphere. (Source)

A similar project was displayed as part of a 2017 Copenhagen art fair, created this time by IKEA’s research lab. This project though was an algae-hosting, four metre high pavillion, within which the algae was to be used as a food source rather than an energy source.

The algae dome in action. (Source)

As quoted in the Dezeen article, “Packed with vitamins, minerals and essential amino acids, microalgae contains 50 times more iron than spinach and more than twice as much protein as meat.”

Notwithstanding the fact that I sat here muttering “soylent green is people” whilst reading the article, this is actually really cool.

Yes, I do know that reference, no I haven’t seen the film. These days if I want to see or hear things about a dystopian world I just switch on the news. (Source)

Ideas based in nature don’t have to be the size of buildings either. The City Tree is a biological filter that uses moss to filter out air pollution as well as to produce additional oxygen.

It’s been suggested that such a system can filter as much air as 275 trees, though this figure is clearly dependent on a lot of different factors. It also does not retain as much CO2 as 275 trees despite some media claims.

The City Tree 2020. (Source)

I’m also, personally, not a fan of the early version with only one small seat on each side, but that is a whole other post.

Sustainability was defined by the Brundtland Commission as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. And with Climate Change in full swing and evident to all but the most stubborn deniers, everyone is looking towards sustainable applications for everything from agriculture to manufacturing.

The construction industry is no different in considering sustainability to be an ethical imperative as we go forward, especially as we consider the changes we will need to make to our building styles and methods as climate change affects the world around us.

Image of a green, slightly sunny, British countryside view. You can almost smell the mud.

It’s a situation made a little more complicated by the fact that there is never going to be a “one size fits all” solution within the construction industry — one site will always be different to another, no matter how subtle the changes might be.

For example, prefabrication has been cited as being more sustainable than some other construction methods, with the reduced time on site and reduction of potential fabrication mistakes amongst the factors that makes it a tempting prospect.

However, this method isn’t without its downsides. Prefabricated sections are usually large and require specialised transport to site, which can significantly increase the carbon footprint of a project, plus the additional provision of ways to manoeuvre the sections into place.

This has led, within the construction industry as well as within many others, to an increased level of creativity and innovation when considering ways that we can become more sustainable.

For example, a Scottish company founded by an Professor Gabriela Medero, an engineer from Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University, is currently working with a design for a brick that is made from construction waste.

The K-Briq is recycled and has a low carbon footprint (image copyright Dezeen.com)

The K-Briq (yes, I know) is comprised of 90% recycled material and is unfired, meaning that it generates a much lower level of carbon emissions than regular bricks. It is said by it’s creator to look, weigh and behave like a clay brick, however, we note that this is stated in an interview in DeZeen magazine and, at the time of writing, no supporting research is publicly available.

And this is by no means the only research into more environmentally friendly ways to form building materials.

Research is ongoing by Suzanne Lambert at the University of Cape town to create a zero-waste brick which is hardened at room temperature using bacteria and human urine.

The blocks use loose sand, bacteria & human urine to create a solid building material (image copyright Dezeen.com)

Following on from this use of bacteria, there was a post that caught my eye last year, largely because it combines construction with one of my hobbies, which detailed work by London-based architect Bastian Beyer who had been using bacteria to calcify knitted materials to form solid columns. They have a wonderful, almost DNA-like structure to them due to the solidification of the knitting structure.

It was interesting largely because, like 3D printing, it could be carried out, with an appropriate advancement of technology, on site with minimal space. And it has the potential for a much simpler repair process if the structure is damaged.

The column is knitted from jute and polyester fibres impregnated with bacteria which form a calcite coating (image copyright Dezeen.com)

Of course, the idea of a calcified structure in an era of climate change, pollution and acidic rainwater is certainly something that would need to be worked upon. As would the way in which the new structures would interact with the surrounding ecosystem and wildlife.

Likewise there would need to be rigorous testing on how these new methods of construction would work at a larger scale, especially with the potential ability to change the loading capacity of the structure by simply changing the knitted pattern.

However, a combination of technology like this with 3D printing and more traditional construction methods suggests that introducing sustainability to the construction industry may not be as far off, or as expensive, as many have stated.

A little over a week ago, Taylor Tuxford Associates hosted its inaugural quiz night in support of Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice.

(I mean, I say ‘inaugural’ no one has been brave enough yet to challenge Anne when her response to the question of whether this was going to be an annual even was a resounding “Nope!”.)

First and foremost, we’d like to thank everyone that supported us, either on the night or via donations. Everyone seemed to have a great night, and the feedback we’ve had since then has been good, though we can’t necessarily confirm that there were no sore heads the day after amongst certain quiz teams.

We’d like to express specific thanks to Lee who ran the quiz and was as brilliant as ever, as well as to Anna at Bluebell Wood who helped source the wonderful raffle prizes, and to Linda from one of the support teams who came along and spoke about the work Bluebell Wood Hospice does.

We also couldn’t have run the night as smoothly as we did without the help of the staff at the Phoenix Pavilion, and their catering team worked absolute wonders on the buffet! And last but never least, we need to thank BluCrew for their loan of the audio equipment and their support on the night.

Our quiz winners on the night were one of the teams put forward by the wonderful ladies of Winthrop Gardens (all volunteers that help run the community gardens in Wickersley). The brilliantly titled Team “At Least We Turned Up” won against a team of their compatriots in a last-minute tie breaker.

We have since been told by the group that they’re planning on using the chocolates as raffle prizes for their memory café events in support of people with dementia, and the prosecco for their Christmas volunteer support programmes.

It’s taken us a little while to confirm the total raised, largely because wonderful people keep giving us extra donations, but we are happy to announce that next week we will be handing over a cheque for £750to Bluebell Wood (embarrassing photos of that event to follow via social media).

Anne has confirmed the breakdown of totals to be £475 in ticket sales and direct donations to Bluebell Wood, and £255 in raffle ticket sales, donations etc on the night.

Again, we would like to express a massive thank you to everyone that came along and supported us on the night or has sent a donation before or since for Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice.

As you may be aware, HMRC have recently decided that small businesses have to join large businesses in filing their VAT returns online.

Which, in theory, makes things easier for both the small business and HMRC, and speeds up the process of paying your VAT bill, which HMRC are understandably keen on.

It also, considering that you need a program by which to submit your VAT online, has led to a boost for the companies that sell these programs (we’ve all seen the adverts on TV starring Sanjeev Bhaskar), and has led to a collective increase in the stress levels of small company finance teams across the country.

If, like us (or Anne, to be really specific) you have previously relied upon spread sheets for your accounts, this means that you have had to learn a whole new program with which to produce company accounts.

Considering that this hit us (metaphorically) between VAT sessions, Anne has been juggling both learning a new system as well as maintaining the spread sheets that she was using previously.

It’s been a stressful few months is what I’m getting at.

But hey, it was meant to make lives easier… which it does, once you’ve learned the system, input all the data, managed to persuade your system to link to the HMRC servers and then gone through all of the security questions.

I’m assured by Anne that connecting to the server was still marginally quicker than getting through to speak to an actual human being on the phone at HMRC.

Anyway, you upload your data online, you answer the six million security questions, you hit the little button to submit everything and then you pay your VAT bill.

And then Anne goes to relax with a G&T in hand and think about things much more fun than the accounts.

As has become traditional now we sent out our Christmas Cards at the beginning of the month and (we know we’re biased) Anne’s creativity has impressed us yet again this year.

It’s also been considerably easier on her hands than cutting out three hundred penguins was the other year!

Image copyright Cartoon Stock Ltd

It also means that before we can sign off for the holiday break and wish you all the appropriate seasons greetings, we probably ought to put you out of your misery and let you have the answers to the various quizzes! And so, in no particular order…

The Crossword answers:

The Wordsearch answers:

The anagram answers:

Cathe Mr Starfish

Father Christmas

Rhys scram timer

Merry Christmas

Fortyfold rumor tax

From Taylor Tuxford

Ewan pay ph Rey

Happy New Year

We’re planning on closing the office from lunchtime on Friday 21st December until the New Year, so we’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and relaxed Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year for 2019.

It’s that time of year again when everyone starts building up for Christmas and the chaos it brings. For most of us that involves saving as much money as we can and making quite frankly ridiculous amounts of lists – Christmas presents, cards, food supplies… drink supplies for getting over the stress of making sure the other three lists are complete. There’s nothing worse than someone coming over to visit you, present in hand only for you to realise that you forgot to add them to one of your lists.

(Hence the ’emergency’ gifts everyone keeps stashed in over Christmas in the hope that no one visits so that they get to eat those chocolates themselves!)

For all of us at Taylor Tuxford Associates, the build up to the festive season marks one of our busiest times as we gear up for our Christmas fundraising sessions alongside our usual workload.

For those that might not know, we are part of a fundraising group known as Blu Crew. The group was founded initially with the primary aim of raising money for Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice, but has now branched out to help other local charities and fundraising groups. During December, Blu Crew’s primary fundraising efforts involve multiple sessions at various shopping areas around South Yorkshire singing carols and other Christmas songs.

We started our fundraising efforts last weekend by singing on Saturday at the Wickersley Christmas lights switch on and on Sunday at the Alhambra shopping centre, Barnsley.

(You’ll notice that Michelle managed to avoid being in the photo by claiming responsibility as photographer!)

We’ll be in action every weekend between now and the 16th December, so you can come and see some or even all of us at the following locations – you’ll know it’s us when you see Anne bopping along to the music!

Saturday 1st December: Crystal Peaks – indoor market area (10am – 4pm)

Sunday 2nd December: Ikea Sheffield (11am – 4pm)

Sunday 9th December: Crystal Peaks – Sainsburys (11am – 4pm)

Friday 14th December: Greenhill Lights switch on (5pm onwards)

Saturday 15th December: Crystal Peaks – indoor market area (10am – 4pm)

Sunday 16th December: The Alhambra, Barnsley (11am – 4pm)

Start/finish times are approximate, but we’ll be at those locations between those times, so come along and say hello… and be prepared for the folks with the collecting buckets!

I have just been reading an article in the July edition of “Building Engineer” – the monthly Journal of the Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE).  I and all of our colleagues around the UK have for many years been proud of the range and breadth of topics covered by the Journal, which, in my opinion continues to punch above its weight.

One particular article caught my eye this month.  It was penned by Jayne Hall, who is currently a Vice-President of the CABE and also a Past President of LABC, the national body for Local Authority Building Control in the UK.  Jayne has recently also joined the Board of Trustees of the CABE Benevolent Fund, of which I am also proud to be a Trustee.

Jayne’s Journal article was explaining that the CABE Chief Executive Dr Gavin Dunn has asked her to take on the role of the CABE’s “Diversity Champion”.  Jayne’s article reflects on the inalienable fact that the Construction Industry, even after years of effort, still has a poor record in regard to Equality and Diversity.

Jayne makes the observation, based on a recent professional conference in Somerset she had attended, that “…it was clear that the construction professions, and engineering in particular, are still dominated by the traditional white middle class male – also mostly well into middle age too…”

Okay, she just described me, but I do take Jayne’s point and I have to agree with her.  During the six years that I sat on the Board of Directors of the CABE in the mid-2000s (at that stage it was still just called the ABE) there were typically about fifteen or so elected Directors and Honorary Officers, of whom I cannot recall there ever being more than three women elected to the Board at any one time.  But to be fair, that merely reflected the proportion of women standing for election … though one can only wonder how much a lack of encouragement to our female members may have restricted the numbers willing to stick their head above the parapet?

Similarly, I regularly sit on interview panels assessing Candidates for admission to Chartered level Membership of the CABE and the ratio of male to female candidates in my experience, is well in excess of 10:1.  And yet, two of the four most impressive Candidates I can recall interviewing over the past years have been female (take a bow Karen and Saira, you were both excellent).  It has been suggested that women have to try harder to justify their place in the industry, which is truly a shame.

I chuckled at some of the examples Jayne quoted in her article though, of “reasons” (i.e. pitiful excuses) for the lack of women employed in high level positions, which apparently have ranged from “…the board room being an uncomfortable place for women…” to “…the issues discussed at board level are very complex…”  Oh, deary me….

Now, the Taylor Tuxford Associates Board meetings typically cover a whole range of issues ranging through: technical difficulties regarding ongoing projects, to establishing our Corporate policy with regard to the General Data Protection Regulations, to where we’re going for the Christmas Party.  My own experience has been that none of the issues arising at any of our Board meetings have caused any of my female colleagues to fall off their chairs with a bad case of “the vapours”… that only tends to happen when we run out of wine at the Christmas Party, and isn’t just restricted to my female colleagues!

For the record, I am pleased to say that three-quarters of the total number of employees and two-thirds of the construction-related technical team at Taylor Tuxford Associates are female and moreover, I am proud to have the opportunity to work with them.

Alright, so there are only four of us altogether and maybe, as Amy always says, you can prove anything you want to with statistics, but we honestly are trying our best in that regard and, like the CABE, we are punching above our weight when it comes to gender diversity in the workplace.

To finish on a serious note though, the construction industry still has an awfully long way to go in this regard.  It is still a novelty to find a female on a construction site – whether in a supervisory or technical capacity or on the tools – and in part, this is likely related to the apparent tendency for blokes not to accept women co-workers as they would another bloke and the (understandable) reluctance of women not to want to expose themselves to the often-misogynistic attitudes of their male co-workers.

The place to make a start on addressing the diversity imbalance is in our Schools.  Until such time as pupils in the advanced stages of preparing for their GCSEs are persuaded – irrespective of their gender, ethnic background or of any inherent disability – that Construction as a career will be a worthwhile thing to do, then we are still going to be having this discussion in a further 20 years’ time.

If there are any Schools out there in the South Yorkshire area that would like someone to come along and give a presentation to their pupils about a career in construction, we will be very happy to talk to you about that.

Rhys Taylor
July 2018

We are pleased to announce that we have been shortlisted as finalists in the Local Authority Building Control, Building Excellence Awards 2018 for the South Yorkshire and Humber region.

The Building Excellence Awards celebrate projects, companies, partnerships and individuals within the construction industry. Each of the 12 LABC regions across England and Wales hold their own Building Excellence Awards, with awards being given across 12 separate categories. One overall winner from each region is then selected to represent that region in the national awards finals later in the year.

We have been shortlisted for our work on a semi-derelict farmhouse in the Rotherham area. The project involved partial restoration of the fabric of the original building along with careful extension of the structure, resulting in a spacious, 6-bedroom family home.

As the original structure dated back to around 1770, a key focus of the project was to retain the style of the original farmhouse whilst incorporating modern heating and insulation systems to allow for a contemporary interior to be designed.

We will be attending the LABC regional finals on the 18 May along with our Client at what is certain to be an enjoyable evening with stiff competition from our fellow building professionals.

As they say, watch this space!