A Great Loss to the VRA

This has been a month of sad losses for the VR profession and for the VRA in particular.

We learned this week that one of our most influential colleagues, Stephen Bevan, has died, and such was his influence over the years, I find it hard to highlight just a few of his contributions as a valuable ‘Friend of the VRA’, but here are just a few from my personal recollection. Those of you who knew him well (I still struggle to speak of him in the past tense), will of course have many different examples; such was the breadth and depth of his knowledge, and even more importantly, his actions, in the world of wellbeing and work.

‍

‍

I first encountered Stephen several decades ago, when he provided a valuable research report for my employer, an insurance company. In this report, he highlighted, before anyone else was really doing so, the importance of good work and how vocational rehabilitation and preventative programmes (predating much of today’s wellbeing initiatives!) could make such profound differences to the lives of the people we insured. Such was his persuasive power, that it convinced us to invest in vocational rehabilitation as a core part of our business. This was my first experience of how, in Stephen’s hands, a set of statistics could be moulded into such a powerfully told story that it moved its audience into action.

Over many years, Stephen has used his expertise, and his ability to communicate with such directness and clarity, to make things better in the workplace – whether this was getting employers to improve the working conditions for their people, improve how they helped employees who were struggling at work due to health concerns, or struggling to return to work. He did this by leading independent and government initiatives such as the health at Work Policy Unit, publishing research that people could actually use, and simply helping us all understand how important it was to have ‘good’ work – work that was meaningful, secure, inclusive, and challenging.

Steve gave a clear and compelling voice to the work that all of us have been doing in VR, showing how crucial it was to provide the support that would help keep people in work or help them return to work. We could always point to his research work and his practical reports, which provided such a firm foundation for VR in the workplace.

Over the years, the VRA worked with Steve on a number of research proposals and initiatives, and we are definitely the better for it. But if I am to be honest, I think we have very much ridden on his coattails – he provided such support to the VRA’s mission, far more than we were able to do for him in return. But that was the measure of the man – he did not think in quid pro quos, only in making work better for all of us. And if helping the VRA would move that agenda forward, he was there.

Thank you Stephen – you are sorely missed.

Publications | Institute for Employment Studies (IES) (employment-studies.co.uk)