Nida Broughton

The power of public participation: using deliberative forums to design policy | BIT Surveys can tell you how many people have certain opinions, perceptions or attitudes. Interviews and focus groups can help you delve into why they hold these views, or why they act in certain ways. Bo...

My last blog post for @bitglobal.bsky.social on my last day(!) is about fairness - and how regulators/policymakers can work with the public to design better regulation www.bi.team/blogs/the-po...

A panel discussion with four speakers seated in front of an audience. Behind them, a large screen displays the question 'What is the Real Impact of Financial Worries?' along with five bullet points: Mental Health, Relationships at Home, Relationships at Work, Productivity at Home, and Productivity at Work.

Supporting worker financial wellbeing is good for business and the UK economy. At our first #NestInsight2025 panel Nida Broughton, Vivien Burrows, Jo Legg (FCA) and Rob Lovesey (Serve and Protect Credit Union) explored how investing it benefits everyone. www.nestinsight.org.uk/research-pro...

Thanks Kirk!

And here's a pic of the lovely trophy they sent 🙂

So a really big thank you to the
Exeter Novel Prize organisers @cathiehartigan.bsky.social @sophieduffy.bsky.social and Margaret James - it makes a big difference!

In that context - in those months and years while you're beavering away, hoping you're writing something worthwhile - I've found competitions for unpublished writers fantastic. Someone to actually read your work and tell you if you've got something promising!

All that time, you're trying to get to the end of the novel, trying to make it as amazing as you can, trying to perfect your writing skills

All that means that when you first pick up a pen, or open your laptop to start writing your first novel, it could be months or years before you ever find out if anyone else is the world is at all interested in your book

I don't have an agent yet, but I hope to, and I know many other authors in a similar situation

With Last Castle Standing - the novel that was chosen as the winner of the Exeter Novel Prize, I probably spent ~6 months writing, and ~12 months editing around a full time job, with breaks in between to work on other novels

And a first draft will get you nowhere. Agents can tell a first draft from a polished manuscript that's been through multiple edits! To get an agent, you need a manuscript that's as good as you can get it and a compelling pitch

Getting published is hugely competitive. The main publishing houses won't take unsolicited manuscripts. You need an agent to represent you. And to get an agent, you need - for fiction - a fully complete manuscript. Not just an idea, the full thing

A lovely parcel in the post this week - a trophy from the
Exeter Novel Prize 😍...

and a short thread for non-authors on why competitions like this are sooo important for writers... #writing #writingcommunity #authors #booksky

Thank you Beth - and best of luck with The Revenge of Hepsibah Brown!

Thank you! And big thanks to the CBC How to Edit Your Novel team - a really great course, packed with practical advice that helped me whip this novel into shape!

A big thank you to the team at Raglan Castle for the brilliant displays about Edward Somerset when I visited a couple of years ago, which inspired me to write this book cadw.gov.wales/visit/places...

Do check out the site for more details on the five amazing shortlisters @eowrites.bsky.social @beth-webb.bsky.social Lenore Hart, Lauren Neely and Loftus Brown, who all gave brilliant readings of their work at yesterday's award ceremony

And to the judge of the competition, Hellie Ogden, for her lovely and encouraging words, "This portrait of a family falling apart at the seams is tender and hilarious and resonates with anyone who has ever desperately held onto their sense of self and the ones they love."

Thanks to @cathiehartigan.bsky.social @sophieduffy.bsky.social and Margaret James for their wonderful work in organising the prize - competitions like this make such a big difference to the lonely life of the writer! And for their lovely comments comparing the book to The Great and Marie Antoinette.

It's about Margaret Somerset, married to would-be inventor Edward Somerset, son of the richest man in the land, and a family about to lose it all.

Tagline: All Margaret wants is to be safe from war. All Margaret’s husband wants is to invent a flying
machine.

2024 Exeter Novel Prize We accept the first ten thousand words including synopsis of a novel that has not been accepted for publication by a traditional publishing house. It is open to all authors who are without...

Absolutely delighted to win this year's Exeter Novel Prize for Last Castle Standing, a (mostly) true comic historical novel set during the English Civil War.
www.creativewritingmatters.co.uk/2024-exeter-...

'We need to make sure actions towards health at work have a real impact. The Commission for Healthier Working Lives... heard that employers lack "real-world examples and evidence on business outcomes to guide effective action".' Nida Broughton, Interim Managing Director, BIT UK

Action from employers is crucial to keeping people with health conditions in work, but do we really know what works?

@nidabroughton.bsky.social from our Commission for Healthier Working Lives argues that building healthier workplaces needs better evidence ⬇

https://bit.ly/43RHFNf

We need to invest in discovering what works, and government needs to kickstart that.

Thanks @healthfoundation.bsky.social for hosting me!

But we've seen that mistake play out before in the diversity & inclusion space - where employers invested heavily in training that seemed like a good idea, but just didn't work (e.g. see some of @bitglobal.bsky.social's research in this space).

We need more than good intentions - we need good evidence on what really works. It's so easy to think the answer is obvious, and sure, some stuff is

My time moonlighting on Commission for Healthier Working Lives (chaired by the stellar Sacha Romanovitch) is coming to an end - and one thing that struck me throughout is the level of consensus across government, employers and citizens that something needs to be done. *But what?* (1/n)

Thrilled to make it to the final six for my tragicomic historical novel set during the English Civil War, Last Castle Standing. Tagline: "All Margaret wants is to be safe from war. All Margaret's husband wants is to invent a flying machine." 📖 😀 #exeternovelprize

Check it out if you're looking for inspiration on how you can go beyond surveys and focus groups to understand what people really think - and use this to inform public policy

I chaired / facilitated some of our deliberative forum sessions with members of the public and it was fascinating to see how the discussion progressed over the weeks, as they took each others' ideas on board and came to a consensus on what fairness means and what the regulator should do about it.