Guidance

VAPC East Midlands: meeting minutes 17 June 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
• Bill Dixon-Dodds
• John Berry
• Larry Henson
• Julia Taberham
• David Taylor
• Bentley Strafford-Stephenson

Apologies

• Helen Drew-Bradley
• Gillian Ekins
• Jim Wright
• Ray Boyfield
• David Wilson

In attendance

• Jackie McGrath VWS

Welcome

The Chairman welcomed members to the meeting and in particular Bentley Strafford-Stephenson who has joined the committee. In addition he also welcomed Jackie McGrath from the VWS who on this occasion was deputising for her colleague, Gail Craggs.

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.

VWS update

Jackie McGrath provided a detailed brief on training and conferences that VWS had attended over the last few months. In particular she spoke about IPC4, which is the planning and delivery of mental health care. She confirmed that VWS had a coordination role. IPC4 would not be retrospective. This caused some concern within the committee, as it was well known that some mental health issues did not occur immediately and indeed might not arise until 10 years down stream. The question therefore was which organisation would be able to coordinate the response to retrospective mental health cases? The Chairman agreed to consider this and write to Hd Vets UK.

Jackie said that that VWS was coordinating support to younger veterans and the workload with WW2 veterans had almost faded away. Some of the workload dealt with Servicemen and women who were transitioning out of their service. She reported that nationally 13 people had been recruited for a new role of collaborative work to assist with transition. However, 15,000 people leave the services each year and it had been calculated that up to 10% of those would need assistance. There was a view within the committee that the workload might be too much for the new workforce of only 13 people.

As a backdrop to the discussion in this item, John Berry spoke of his concern that assistance for the veterans in prison was under resourced and mental health was predominant in many of the cases.

Confirmation of minutes of the last meeting held on 18th March 2019

The minutes were confirmed.

Matters arising

Matters arising would be dealt with under the main agenda headings.

Sub-committee reports

Health

GP Accreditation - A recent article in the Royal College of General Practitioners’ (RCGP) newsletter highlighted veterans’ issues. The RCGP has sent a letter to all practices encouraging them to become accredited as veteran friendly and a copy of the letter is available for any veteran to take to their GP asking for their veteran status to be recorded. This letter is on our IT system and will be circulated to members.

New Councillors - Following the recent council elections, Rutland has a new Armed Forces Champion, Major (Retd) Ian Razzell. RSH will be presenting to Rutland County Council Health and Welfare Board in October. Forces in Mind training has been organised at Chetwynd Barracks by Victoria Coomber for newly elected councillors

Armed Forces Network in the NHS - NHS England is organising a meeting at Chetwynd Barracks with interested NHS parties, CMPB chairs (RSH for LLR and BS representing the other counties) and 7 Brigade on 20th June to discuss how best to organise an Armed Forces Network in the region. This should not duplicate networks that already exist. RSH and BS will be attending representing EM VAPC.

Armed Forces Day & Prisons Veterans Groups - RSH will be attending a flag raising ceremony at HMP Gartree on 25th June, and has passed contact details for HMP Stocken on to the Rutland Lieutenancy; he hopes to attend a flag raising ceremony there too. Both these prisons are aiming to set up veterans’ groups, and RSH is liaising with them. JB and DMT will be invited to attend. JB has contacts in Leicester Prison; we hope to develop a relationship with them too. Public Health in Leicester is hoping to distribute leaflets highlighting veterans’ needs to the public at the Armed Forces Day Service and Parade on 22nd June.

DMRC - PP and RSH will be attending an Open Day at DMRC, Stanford Hall on 12th July.

NHS Primary Care Update - BDD reported that there is a plan to merge the 6 CCGs in Nottingham into one “super” CCG. BDD attends all the relevant committees and will be the Committee focus on all developments.

Governance

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

Welfare

David Taylor sought clarity about the role of the EMVAPC Welfare sub Committee within the welfare portfolio. The Chairman briefly explained that the role was both an intelligence gathering initiative within the area of the East Midlands and an opportunity for the Committee to help avoid duplication in 3rd sector provision of welfare. To help, the Chairman would be happy to attend a sub-committee meeting.

The meeting discussed the Veterans Gateway, which was acclaimed by MOD, but members felt was not an easy site to access to resolve an issue. The Chairman noted that the Gateway had originally been funded with £2m for the first two years after which it was to be self-supporting. He wondered if the future funding issue been resolved. There was a discussion about the ‘Map of Need’ and it was suggested there needed to be a discussion with a representative responsible for setting out the ‘Map of Need’ as it was considered that VAPCs could offer a model to follow as a template.

The meeting learnt that H4H was opening recovery centres nationally including Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. The Chairman would try to arrange to visit Melanie Waters of H4H before the next meeting.

Communications

MW spoke about Twitter and our VAPC had about 240 followers. He explained that Twitter was extremely useful to circulate succinct information quickly. He encouraged members to visit our Twitter account.

Update on consultation - veterans strategy

The Government had decided to delay the publication of the outcome of the consultation on the Veterans’ Strategy due to the quantity of responses and the need to consider them all. It was likely that the outcome of the consultation on the strategy will be available by the end of the year but the Chairman will request an interim update later in the year.

There was a discussion about MOD failing to maximise the experience in the VAPCs when considering veterans’ matters and indeed the strategy. It was suggested that it might be opportune to invite the MOD desk officer to attend one of our meetings in order familiarise him with our work in monitoring the delivery of the AFC throughout the region. The Chairman would consider this.

Codifying best practice in NHS secondary care

Local Authorities. The AFC e-learning package originally developed by Warwickshire with Covenant funding has now been widely adopted in our region. Similarly, the FIMT training package for service providers is helpful for LA’s struggling to implement best practice. The Forces Connect training package developed with Covenant funding should be rolled out soon probably as an App.

The Map of Need developed by the University of Northumbria has been warmly received. 3 X LA’s have been part of the pilot of the Map which is accessed via the Veterans Gateway. To better inform service providers a capture of trends of veteran needs. There are training needs in connection with Map population and local teams are to be trained soon. Controversy around the efficacy of 3rd sector organisations and the spread of their delivery of services may well ensue.

Turning to the NHS, we are well acquainted with issues associated with Primary Care and the adoption of Veteran Friendly GP practices. In terms of Secondary Care, it is difficult to identify codified “best practice” based on evidence. In the next round of Covenant Grants, delivery of Health Services including Mental Health is a key area of focus. Perhaps EM VAPC could persuade a Secondary Care provider in our region (who we have identified as delivering best practice) to undertake a pilot, funded by a Covenant Grant. The University of Derby was identified as a possible candidate for this work.

It was also suggested that there may be some useful publications from the Anglian Ruskin website.

VAPC role in coordinating the east midlands approach to veterans

In discussing this item it was agreed we should seize any opportunity to join discussion, offering advice and monitoring to maintain an overview of the delivery of the AFC. There could be an opportunity for us to show our understanding of the support for mental health in this region, which would also enable us to advise and monitor.

Any other business

GDPR - Nothing further to report at this stage.

Expense Claims - LH would distribute the new expense claim form.

Date of next meeting

The next meeting is to take place at 10.30 am on 17 September 2019 at Grantham.