Guidance

VAPC East Midlands: meeting minutes 16 September 2019

Updated 24 October 2024

Location

Prince William of Gloucester Barracks Grantham

Present

• Peter Poole (Chairman)
• Patrick Rendall
• Michael Whitehead
• Barry Smith
• Dick Hurwood
• Stav Melides
• Larry Henson
• David Wilson
• David Taylor
• Bentley Strafford-Stephenson

Apologies

• Helen Drew-Bradley
• Gillian Ekins
• Jim Wright
• Ray Boyfield
• Bill Dixon-Dodds
• John Berry

In attendance

Gail Craggs VWS

Welcome

The Chairman welcomed members to the meeting and also Gail Craggs from the VWS.

Declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interest that would affect the work of the Committee.

Apologies for absence

The Chairman accepted apologies from those listed who were unable to attend the meeting. He also said that Julia Taberham has withdrawn from the committee for family reasons.

VWS update

Gail Craggs began by explaining the events she had attended since the last meeting. This included training and also events where she could communicate the role of the VWS and how it is able to help veterans. The veteran community attended a number of these.

She informed the meeting that the Defence Transition Service was planning to ‘go live’ in October 2019 and work was on-going liaising with Service welfare teams.

There was a general discussion around the VWS workload over the last 3 months. It was always lighter in the summer months and this summer had been no exception. At the end of this item Gail was asked to try and identify any cases where members of the committee might accompany the caseworker to enable the VAPC to maintain an overview of the service. This was a Vets UK requirement. It was understood however, that some of the visits were short notice and difficult to match a member in the timeframe.

Confirmation of minutes of the last meeting held on 17th June 2019 and matters arising

At this stage the Chairman handed over the meeting to the Vice Chair because his tenure in post was time expired and he was leaving the committee. The minutes were confirmed.

There were no matters arising.

Sub-committee reports

Communications

Michael Whitehead said that although Bill DD was leaving the committee he would still be able to provide the committee members with links to matters of interest for the next year or so. There was a general discussion about whether this would be useful and it was quickly decided it would. Bill had access to many sites, some of which are linked to the MOD and it would be more difficult for the committee to gain access to them after he finishes providing the information.

Michael extolled the benefit of Twitter for circulating a succinct message to a wide audience. Twitter messages are being distributed by other users and magnified to a far wider audience. He encouraged members to look at the Twitter account on line.

He said that Bentley Strafford-Stephenson would join the communications team and would continue the work that Bill DD had initiated; it was generally felt that Bentley had a ‘modern’ understanding of communications.

One of the issues that needed to be addressed was to provide members with an official and generic email address and he suggested one that included gov.uk However, it was acknowledged there were security issues for the MOD with this and it might be difficult to achieve. Nevertheless it was suggested it would be useful to raise it at the forthcoming Chairs conference under the umbrella of GDPR.

Health

The report from the Health sub-committee is attached.

Governance

Barry Smith had circulated a report before the meeting and it is attached.

Welfare

David Taylor regretted the resignation of Julia Taberham who would have been a strength in his sub-committee (SC). There had been no policy initiatives during the summer and looking forward, the main focus would be working with the individual AFC Partnership Boards to inform the Map of Need in each County of the relevant and viable 3rd sector organisations that could be signposted to users. There was a discussion on the value of introducing a “kite marking” regime for such organisations similar to that used by the Care Quality Commission in the NHS/Care domain so that veteran safety and support was assured.

Another feature of the discussion was the direct benefit of switching the focus to become more a ‘map of provision’. By so doing, the kite mark concept could be something that we, as a Committee, could contribute directly towards through consultative reflection and audit.

Recruiting and membership tenures

The Public Appointments Team, in the Directorate of Sponsorship & Organisational Policy at MOD has ruled there should be no further appointments offered to any VAPC chair or member who has already served 2 terms or more. Any members on the committee who were approaching the end of their 3rd term should not be routinely recommended for reappointment although should any of these wish to continue they would be welcome to reapply through fair and open competition, following the expiry of their current appointment. If any were successfully appointed then there was a possibility that they could serve up to a further 2 terms. An advert for new Chairs and Members has recently been published. After note: Vets UK has been informed that our VAPC needs 6 new members.

In addition to the edict above, the MOD was keen to recruit a complete mix of people from differing backgrounds and genders. Prior service in the armed forces was not required. The important issue was to be appointed with the right skill set.

Centenary of the WPC/VAPCs

Peter Poole gave a short update as a result of him attending a Skype meeting with 6 other chairs recently. In general terms there was little enthusiasm for celebrating the centenary, which the London VAPC had been leading. It could be costly and it had also been noted that our centenary coincided with the RBL centenary. At this stage there was no further action although there was another conference call to discuss the event at 12.00 on 29th October 2019.

Codifying best practice in NHS secondary care

A directory of which parts of the NHS (Primary care GP practices, Secondary care Hospital trusts and Community trusts) are engaging with veterans is being put together for Leicestershire. We hope it will be rolled out across the East Midlands, as we are aware that some parts of our region are more engaged than others and we wish to encourage all to register as veteran aware, through the AFC, employer recognition or, for primary care, signing up as a veteran friendly practice.

Any other business

Veterans Employment - Stav Melides highlighted recent cases where the Service support had enabled Service leaders to write their CVs and eventually obtain employment.

Temporary Chair - Earlier in the meeting Patrick as vice chair had reminded members that he intended to leave in December 2019. This was because of other pressing commitments. Normally as vice chair he would stand in for the chair until one is appointed to fill the vacancy left by Peter Poole. Vets UK hoped to make that appointment sometime in December. But of course the timing could not be confirmed and given Patrick’s intention to leave, if he filled the position it was possible he would have to hand over to another temporary chair before a permanent incumbent was found. Therefore he suggested that Barry Smith should be invited to fill the chairs position on a temporary basis, leaving Patrick as vice chair until December. Barry had agreed to this and Vets UK was content. The committee approved.

Valedictory

Patrick Rendall on behalf of the committee thanked Peter Poole for his leadership of the VAPC over many years. He highlighted the experience he had brought to the committee, his direction and outstanding leadership of it. He would be missed. The committee regretted that MOD had decided to halt his and other VAPC chairs’ tenures before suitable replacements could be found.

Date of next meeting

The next meeting is to take place at 10.30 am on 20th January 2020 at Grantham.