Guidance

VAPC London: meeting minutes 23 June 2021

Updated 19 September 2024

Present

• Bill Charles (BC) – Chairman
• Jim Blake (JB)
• Ken Courtenay (KC)
• Caroline Flynn Macleod (CFM)
• Annabel Goulding (AG)
• Robin Herzberg (FRH)
• Oliver Leeming (OL)
• Rebecca Lefort (RL)
• Frances Luczyc Wyhowska (FLW)
• Wendy Morris (WM)
• Matthew Neave (MN)
• Alpa Raja (AR)
• Matthew Seward (MS)
• Larry Stone (LS)
• Brian Willmore (BW)
• Marion Knight -Secretary (MK)

Apologies

• Alex Woolgar Toms (AWT)
• Carl Hunter (CH)
• Nick Mazzei (NM)
• Charles Perrett (CP)
• Bishnu Gurung (BG)

Observers/guests

• Alex Page (Covenant in the Capital)

Welcome

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies for absence

Apologies received from BG,CP, AWT,CH,NM.

CP was unable to connect as there was no dial in option, which MS has now corrected for the next call.

Discussion with Alex Page (covenant in the capital)

Alex Page was asked to introduce herself by BC, who mentioned their prior discussions about cooperation between her work and LVAPC.

Alex explained her role to the Committee, highlighting the importance of signposting support services in the Capital for service leavers.

The Veterans’ Gateway provide relevant data and in the main she works with a wide range of organisations in the public and private sectors who provide relevant services and support. In the third sector she works mainly with military charities, but equally understands the importance of other charities in supporting veterans.

A general discussion took place about the relationship with LVAPC and Alex explained she was keen to establish a relationship which could be demonstrated as valuable. Alex suggested how she might be able to promote LVAPC in her role.

BC explained that the Committee needed to be able to deliver when agreeing a way forward with Covenant in the Capital.

Alex agreed that as a starting point for co-operation she would collate possible points of contact and compile suggested issues / questions she thought could be pursued with them by LVAPC.

BC thanked Alex for attending the meeting and said that he would work with her on the starting point material she provided and liaise with the Committee on it.

Alex was invited to attend the next meeting and indicated that she would like to remain for the rest of the meeting, which she did and indicated that she had found it instructive.

Minutes of 21 April 2021 and 19 May 2021 meetings and points arising from BC’s report of the last meeting

The minutes had been circulated and approved following the meeting of 21st April 2021 December and were now published by the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

Minutes had been taken of the interim way forward 19th May 2021 meeting and it was agreed these should also be published. BC will forward to MK to arrange this. BC. made one correction WM had been in attendance.

BC stated that apart from MS who had for understandable reasons indicated that he did not want to be deputy for housing team he had received acceptances of his suggestions or silence on the leads and deputies of teams – which he would take as consent unless anyone spoke up!

JB said he was happy to be on housing and this was agreed. BW will lead on housing.

Reports from the teams

Parliamentary and GLA engagement

CFM had introduced BC to Tobias Ellwood, Lord Lancaster, and James Sunderland. The meetings had been useful and the last had resulted in an invitation for BC and Rob Nitsch (Chair of LVAPC SE) to attend the APPG in July and make a short presentation

CFM is compiling a list of all Members of Parliament with service backgrounds.

CFM is working with MS and CH, and they have their next meeting arranged for July and are going to discuss amongst other matters conducting a sound bite about knowledge of VA&PC’s amongst parliamentarians.

Employment

FRH heading up Employment and working with NM and LS. He had produced an initial paper which he agreed to circulate to all committee members after the meeting.

FRH explained the employment group will seek to understand existing initiatives put in place by Defence Relationship Management (DRM), to partner with organisations prepared to provide employment to London-based veterans; it will take note of existing initiatives , such as the Barclays Group which the Committee had been and is actively involved with to ensure London-based employers appreciate the benefits of employing veterans; and it will help to identify additional mechanisms, employers or projects that might give rise to opportunities for the employment of veterans.

The Employment group have currently identified the following issues: the Royal British Legion estimate there are, at any point in time, some 120,000 unemployed veterans. The support for service leavers from some minority groups is very poor, particularly for people from the BAME community. DRM need more resources tasked with ensuring that employers that have not been recognised under the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme fully comply with their commitments under the Armed Forces Covenant. There is a need for more focus on ensuring that service leavers become assessed by appropriate professional bodies before they leave.

BC thanked this team for their work

Financial education. WPS and AFCS

AG is heading up this group and working with MN, she had circulated an initial. Report to all committee members before the meeting.

AG said the focus of the group over the next quarter would be a scoping exercise to ensure their work was relevant and to make recommendations.

AG is looking for someone to come onto the group with financial expertise and BC asked anyone who wished to join the group to notify him (after the meeting FRH did so).

BC suggested that this team liaised with Alex Page to see what contacts she recommended to them.

BC thanked this team for their work.

Additional

BC explained that NM had been actively involved in pursuing a case and supporting a suicidal veteran in South Africa. He had actively helped him along with the Royal British Legion (RBL).

This work had highlighted a need for Foreign and Commonwealth Servicemen to have access to support in the UK.

LS mentioned he was drafting an elevator pitch paper re VAPC and possibly an engagement/contacts register as foundation documents, following discussions with OL, FRH, and NH. This was partly dependent on the functions matter resolution.

Appointment of a new secretary/future meetings of whole committee or some of its members

BC explained that MK after 9 years as Secretary had decided to resign and he thanked her for all the work she had done during this time.

BC asked for committee members to let him know if they would like to volunteer for the secretarial role from September 2021 and explained the role.

MK had been in touch with Jacqueline Burt at the RAF Benevolent Fund and currently no bookings were being taken for the room the Committee had previously been allowed to use for free for its meetings due to the pandemic. BC explained more research would be required with regards potential meeting rooms. and asked for support from committee members as he knows the Committee are keen to resume face to face meetings. MS and FLW volunteered to investigate possible locations for face-to-face meeting

MS will continue to arrange the meetings via Microsoft teams in the interim for the September 22nd and December 15th should it still necessary for them to held be remotely.

BC also asked the Committee to consider whether it would be an idea for some committee members to meet individually or in groups of 6 to get to know each other and progress some of the work of the teams.

BC is keen to meet members individually and asked all committee members to consider how they might make face to face meetings happen, times and venues etc.

AOB - the town hall

BC raised the recent Town Hall meeting and how VA&PC members had not been able to access the meeting, which was abandoned. It seems that this was an admin error by Vets UK – who had sent out the invites. He reminded the Committee of the functions issue and sought views on whether he should write to Robert Rowntree of Vets UK on behalf of LVAPC on the advertised subject matter of his address to the Town Hall on the Way Ahead along the lines of a draft he had circulated, in other terms or at all.

The draft raised the importance of VA & PCs having statutory functions relating to all veterans, the understanding of members from the advertisement used in their appointment process that this was the case, the frustrations arising from the last Town Hall and continuing uncertainty of the functions issue.

In the brief discussion individual members indicated that they thought that it was important that LVAPC as a committee made up of ministerial appointments had those statutory functions, that they thought when applying that they would have functions relating to all veterans and that there was a need to end the existing uncertainty as soon as possible. There was a consensus that they were interested in Robert Rowntree’s advertised address, frustrated with the delays in dealing with the functions issue (old members recording that the functions of VA & PCs had been visited a number of years ago as well) and supported the sending of the letter to Robert Rowntree in the terms of the circulated draft.

AOB - general

BC thanked MK once again.

BC also wished to express his thanks to KC as it was his last meeting as a committee member. KC explained he had served 3 consecutive three-year stints and had not sought further reappointment as he no longer lives in London. KC expressed the view that LVAPC had real potential to help veterans pursuant to the Way Ahead.

Next meeting 22nd September at 4pm.