Whether you work in private business, the public sector, a charity or social enterprise you can probably relate to the challenges associated with managing a team. In fact, there is a wide body of research on the effect of different management styles on workers and organisations. The Government is interested in creating 'Good Work' which means work that is both engaging for the worker and productive for the business. Sometimes we all get frustrated if our work is not so good due to our line management. For example, if we cannot contribute the way we want to because we are not allowed to work flexibly, have a say in how things are done, feel stressed due to conflict or are not given work that uses our skills (or are not developed so we can keep learning and progress). Equally, anyone with management experience knows that managing people can be really challenging. Even experts believe there is no 'right way' to manage people. Yet, managers must manage and, often, line managers and owners of small firms do so under conditions of scarce resources and short-term pressures. In fact, many are 'accidental managers' who have pretty mixed feelings about their roles and receive very little support to reflect on, and develop, their skills. So what can be done to help managers become more effective at people management, for the good of themselves, their staff and organisations? That is the key question we are addressing in the Good Employment Learning Lab. It is what we call a 'tricky question' - it's not easy to answer because managers, workers, workplaces, sectors and places of management vary so much. We are tackling this challenge by forming a Learning Lab. This is a space where researchers, policy makers and managers collaborate to understand and address shared problems. They frame ideas for better practice and outline the 'theory of change' that is the logic of why they think this will work. They then experiment and evaluate 'what works'. At a deeper level, Learning Labs support long-term, trusting and creative relationships so researchers and practitioners can work together to learn via a process of Engaged Scholarship. We are zooming into two contexts to develop Good Employment Learning Labs: - The Greater Manchester Good Employment Learning Lab will partner with the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter (a coalition of local government, employers, trade unions, workers and other experts who aim deliver good jobs in Greater Manchester with opportunities to progress and develop, and a thriving and productive economy, by promoting 7 principles of Good Employment). We will work in three Greater Manchester districts (Manchester City, Oldham and Salford) to run Workplace Trials to raise management capabilities and share this learning across Greater Manchester - and with other places - to support widespread learning about 'what works' in different contexts to improve people management. - The Social Care Good Employment Lab will also run Workplace Trials, but this time focused on managers of adult social conducted at home or in residential care. Some of these trials will also be in Greater Manchester, so we can compare findings with the Greater Manchester Lab. The Social Care Lab will also share learning nationally. Our third Learning Lab will raise capacity for researchers and practitioners to get involved in joint problem solving and research via Engaged Scholarship. Activities will including workshops introducing this method, sessions for early career researchers on 'Becoming an Engaged Scholar' and workshops for academics and practitioners involved in Practising Engaged Scholarship. The outcomes of the Good Employment Learning Lab will be new learning, new communities and new evidence-based ways of supporting people management. Each of our Labs will also produce an open access Digital Resource Bank that anyone interested in people management or Engaged Scholarship can use.

The World Health Organisation says that there are about 100 million people globally who need prosthetic or orthotic (P&O) services and as populations age, more than two billion people are expected to require health-related assistive devices by 2030. In the UK the Disabled Living Foundation estimates that 6.5 million people live with mobility disablement, with many reliant on P&O services, including an estimated two million orthotic users. In parts of the developing world the aftermath of conflict, such as land mines, and greater rates of traumatic injuries from accidents, means there is a growing need for prosthetics and orthotics for younger people living in poor social and economic circumstances. Often they need P&O devices to stay at work and sustain their families. Poor devices, services and access to these contravene their basic human rights. In the context of this need, we want to establish the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in P&O. This will address the national, and global, shortage of suitably skilled engineers and scientists to become future innovators in P&O technologies. Current academia, industry and care centres have limited researchers, and research activity has lagged behind rapid technology advancements. The Centre will support a minimum of 58 doctoral students whose studies will enable them to become leaders of the future. The Centre will bring together the only two P&O undergraduate education facilities in the UK (Salford and Strathclyde) with P&O research centres of excellence at Imperial College and the University of Southampton. Our vision is for the Centre to become the national and global leader in P&O research training, and the translation of research into innovation that impacts on the lives of people each day, in developed and developing countries. The Centre will work to support training for students from low and middle-income countries (LMIC). Our students will be immersed in industry and real-world experiences which will equip them to lead the P&O sector across technology, social or economic contexts. Our aims are to: 1. Develop a new model of P&O research training and translation of research into innovation. In addition to the doctoral training, this will result in Master's programmes operating across Institutions. 2. Produce ambitious PhD research projects that will be grounded in real-world challenges, but at the cutting-edge of new biomedical science and technologies. 3. Produce a significant impact on the UK P&O industry sector by leading innovation. 4. Have an international impact by attracting an increasing number of CDT students from overseas. 5. Establish a P&O student society which will have matured into a lasting doctoral community with international reach. 6. To have a significant impact on the training of doctoral candidates from LMIC. 7. Attract additional external funding for P&O research. Creating a new generation of P&O research leaders will, over time, have a significant economic, societal and health impact. For users, it will mean access to improved generations of assistive devices which will match the users' needs resulting in a better quality of life. Clinical services will benefit from improved service data, superior products and improved user outcomes. For industry, it will open up new market opportunities, nationally and globally. For the students themselves, they will have access to careers that have a real purpose, enabling them and their future teams to make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities.