Guidance

VAPC East Midlands: meeting minutes 20 January 2020

Updated 24 October 2024

Location

Prince William of Gloucester Barracks Grantham

Present

• Barry Smith (Acting Chairman)
• Patrick Rendall
• Michael Whitehead
• Dick Hurwood
• Stavros Melides
• Larry Henson
• David Wilson
• David Taylor
• John Berry

Co-opted

• Sam Wileman
• Tom Smith
• Andy Holt

Apologies

• Helen Drew-Bradley
• Gillian Ekins
• Jim Wright
• George Ellison Co-opted member

In attendance

• Theresa Quinn VWS

Welcome

The Chairman welcomed members to the meeting and also Theresa Quinn from the VWS.

He explained that interviews for new members had taken place in November 19 and it was hoped that the successful candidates (all yet to be approved by Minister) will be invited to join the committee. Because of the recent general election and the associated period of government purdah, the national process of recruitment had stalled; therefore, the Chairman had obtained agreement for 4 new members to join on a co-opted basis at this stage. This situation would be regularised once the outcome of the recruiting process was known. He, therefore, welcomed Tom Smith, Sam Wileman and Andy Holt. George Ellison had also been co-opted but was unable to attend this meeting.

The Chairman also explained that the recruiting process to appoint a new chairman had also stalled because of the recent election. He had applied and would be interviewed in due course.

Finally, he explained that Bentley Strafford-Stephenson had resigned because of changed employment circumstances.

Declarations of interest

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

Apologies of absence

The Chairman accepted apologies from those listed who were unable to attend the meeting. He emphasised that individuals’ attendance at committee meetings was a performance indicator that he was charged with monitoring by Vets UK. A total of 12 members were required to attend for the meeting to be considered quorate.

VWS update

Theresa Quinn reported on the activity of the 3 x VWS welfare managers who cover the East Midlands area in the last quarter. It had been a busy period with the normal post-summer holiday increase in calls. She said the VWS had noticed an increase in PTSD cases and Death in Service War Pension claims. One of the welfare managers had attended a number of meetings with Northampton CC working with the AFC Lead Officer.
The trial of the new call management system had not been as successful as hoped and the current regional based capability was to be retained for the foreseeable future. The VWS regional office at Chetwynd Barracks had also been re-located into the old Bde HQ. Efforts would continue for VAPC members to accompany VWS managers on their client calls. The focus for this activity would now transfer to the Acting Chairman.

EMVAPC retains the role of providing an overview of the VWS work in this region and a representative was asked to attend our next meeting on 23rd March 2020.

Confirmation of minutes of the last meeting held on 16th September 2019 and matters arising

The minutes were confirmed.

Item 6.1.4 - Generic Email Address Four VAPCs including EM VAPC were taking part in a Communications pilot embracing email, Office 365 and an Intranet account.

Item 9 - Centenary of WPCs and VAPCs The intent was that there would be a commemoration of WPCs and VAPCs at the National Arboretum in June 2021.

Output from char conference

Chairs Conference Closed Session

The Chairman had attended the Chairs Conference on behalf of EMVAPC. He reported on the ongoing engagement with the new Head within the Office for Veterans Affairs (OVA) as well as the 2 responsible Ministers. There was a strategic focus on how to prevent a repeat of the perceived outcome in 2011 during the launch of the Community Covenant where too many public service providers paid lip service to the AFC. There was a drive to get AFC commitments into legislation. There had also been consideration of regularising policy and improving sign posting for overseas veterans. There was further discussion about holding Armed Forces Champions to account within both Local Authorities (LA) as well as the NHS. Councils’ support for the AFC differed across the UK and was limited by funding disparities as well as the impact of legislation in this area. Consideration was also required as to how VAPCs could provide essential regional oversight. A change of roles linked to a name change to “Veterans Affairs Committees” may become the outcome of the current strategic review of our activities. Finally, there was discussion about the possibility of DMRC - Stanford Hall - becoming a centre of excellence for mental health for veterans as well as physical rehabilitation.

Open Session

A national Armed Forces Champions register is being developed to support the H2A process within the LA domain. The possibility of VAPCs engaging more with Ministers as well as Chief of Defence People would change our standing and require new competencies. Key would be a deep knowledge of the AFC and its implementation across all the service providers in each region. The intent was to retain VAPC’s critical friend’s role w/r to all the stakeholders with whom we engage. All committee members need to be aware of JSP 100 which looks at transition from Service life in a holistic fashion and includes spouses and the family being engaged in the process. Michael Whitehead would circulate the publication. The impact of the new Duty to Refer Act w/r to homelessness was discussed and the issues that surround the approximately 3% of veterans who enter into this state. The postcode lottery associated with NHS support both for Service Personnel and their families as well as other services such as TILS, CTS and the Veteran Trauma Network was recognised and reflected the various resource crises in health care within different regions. There was further discussion about transition and the recent suicide of a spouse who could not cope with the loss of status after her husband’s retirement. The Chair would consider inviting someone from the Defence Transition Service to the next meeting.

Sub-committee reports

Communications

Michael Whitehead said he hoped the Communications pilot study which included our VAPC would assist committee work. He explained to members how to get onto to the Veterans & Families Research hub and hoped all committee members would engage in the pilot from19 February 2020.

Health

Dick Hurwood as Sub Committee (SC) head reported:

• NHS England wanted to set up an AF Network in the East Midlands; it was due to launch in Nov 19 but was postponed due to the impact of the election
• he reported that veterans events in HMP Stocken had been successful thus far but there were operational difficulties with implementing similar events at HMP Gartree which was a Cat B prison and contained some challenging individuals
• University Hospital Leicester (UHL) and the Leicester Health Trust had been recognized with Gold Awards under the Covenant Employer Recognition Scheme
• there were now 45 Veterans’ accredited GP practices compared with 36 a year ago
• there were changes to the way NHS practices were working in the primary care sector. Social prescribers will work with support networks, including 3rd sector partners, to provide welfare support to veterans with their needs identified by their GPs
• the SC head was due to travel to London to attend a British Medical Association (BMA) conference where he will discuss veterans’ issues
• RW had identified that the Rutland Health & Wellbeing Board was not discussing veterans’ issues across all levels. Various enabling activities were in hand to assist in that co-ordination
• in Rutland all GP practices have signed up to the AFC.

Governance

Barry Smith as Policy & Governance SC head had circulated his report before the meeting and it is attached. He reported that the government response to the consultation exercise undertaken last year on the Veterans Strategy should be published by the OVA shortly, together with an action plan for the next 2 years.

Welfare

David Taylor as the Welfare SC Head provided a short brief which is attached.

Recruitment and membership tenures

Recruitment had already been discussed at Items 1.2 and 1.3 above. The Cabinet Office ruling on membership tenure would mean that a further recruiting round would be required in autumn 2020 to replace those members due to retire in 2021. Members were asked to help identify new candidates for the committee and encourage them to apply once the recruiting round is opened up.

LH was asked to provide the Chairman with a record of individuals’ attendance at committee meetings.

Centenary of the WPC/VAPCs

This had been covered at Item 5.3 above.

Codifying best practice in NHS secondary care

In preparation for the stand-up of the AF Network in the East Midlands region, detailed analysis of the various initiatives underway within the UHL by the non-executive director who is the AFC lead within the hospital had been published. The delay by NHS England in the initial start up of the Network has reduced the impetus to roll out these best practice initiatives across the region. It was recognised that more work needed to be done to capture the full complement of different initiatives that various Health Trusts had implemented across the region.

VAPC role in promoting best practice

The Chair suggested that the committee must become more measured in its approach to having an overview of the delivery of the AFC across the region.

Examples of outdated pension policy, given the changed social environment as well as legislative changes that impact the family need to be captured and acted on. One of the issues that had been notified to Vets UK was the unnecessary distress and anxiety caused to War Widows by the need to apply for Child Allowance after the age of 16 given that, following legislative changes, all children now remained in education or training until they were 18. Bureaucratic issues could lead to widow(er)s not receiving the allowance for a period of time. A single bureaucratic intervention at the age of 18 for a child about to embark on tertiary education appeared to be more in line with the changed social environment.

The transition to civilian life for Service families often provided significant challenges in terms of the Service Leavers’ (SLs) relationship with their spouse/partner. Tragic cases as detailed at item 6.2 as well as evidence of an increase in domestic violence within the family during this period highlighted that the cultural changes the MoD needed to adopt in terms of engaging with SLs and their families were urgent. JSP 100 provided the policy underpinning for these changes. We need to be aware if spousal engagement in all aspects of transition is being implemented across the region.

The Government had committed to veterans being assured of a job interview, if they had the appropriate qualifications, for all public sector employment opportunities. Work was ongoing within the P&G SC to consider the various issues that this commitment to the veteran community would bring as well as offering possible solutions to the commitment.

Any other business

The Chairman reminded members of the expenses policy.

Patrick Rendall was resigning from the committee after this meeting and he was thanked for his outstanding support to the veteran community in the region during his 6 years of tenure. His efforts as Vice Chair over the last 2 years, during the extended absences of the previous Chair because of a serious illness, were particularly noteworthy and enabled the committee to continue to function across the piste. He always provided valuable and wise guidance to his colleagues as the committee expanded its remit across the region in line with the development of the various AFC Partnership Boards across the region.

The Secretary (Larry Henson) proposed and the Chairman (Barry Smith) seconded that Stavros Melides would replace Ray Boyfield as the main signatory on the EM Veterans Bank Account. This was unanimously carried with a vote of thanks for Stavros taking over this duty.

Date of next meeting

The next meeting is to take place at 10.30 am on 23rd March 2020 at Grantham.