Guidance

VAPC Yorkshire and Humber: meeting minutes 12 February 2024

Updated 5 November 2024

Attendees

• Alex Baxter (Chair)
• Chris Nolan (Vice Chair) ZOOM
• Iain Burnside
• Adrian Hunt
• Norman Turnbull (Co-opted)
• Pete Mason
• Chris Mason (Secretary)
• Ron Laden
• Elspeth Duemmer-Wrigley
• John Topping (Co-opted)
• Alex Bentley
• Helen Singleton

Apologies

• Rick Short
• Nick Mitchell (Co-opted)
• Huw Bell
• Derek Cross

Absent

• Tim Cole
• Steve Griffiths
• Mike Chambers (Co-opted)
• Craig Gadd (Co-opted)
• Andrew Palmer (Co-opted)
• Christine Landess (Co-opted)

Observer or guest

• Katy Elliott (AFMET NE Lincs)

2. General items:

a. Introductions, welcomes and apologies:

The Chair, Alex Baxter welcomed members to the meeting, both in person and by Zoom, including new member Ron Laden. Apologies were noted as above.

The recent resignation from the committee of Yvonne Macdonald was noted and the Chair expressed his thanks for her contribution.

b. Minutes of the Last Meeting/ Actions with VAPC:

The minutes from the last meeting were accepted unanimously by those present.

Actions from the minutes were as follows:

1. (3c). Chris Nolan & Chris Mason (sec) to prepare notes based on the committee’s recommendations for

2. (9). Chris Nolan to report back from the OVA meeting next month.

3. Feedback and updates

a. Chair’s feedback from UK Chairs’ VAPC Committee:

The Chair provided an overview update on progress towards the secondary legislation and statutory instruments required for the VAPC/ Miller Act 2023.

b. OVA Conference – overview:

Chris Nolan (Vice-chair) gave an overview of the recent OVA Conference and drew members attention to the slide-pack from the event which was circulated with the agenda for this meeting.

4. VAPC/ Millar Act: Statutory Instrument/ legislation update:

This was covered above in 3.a.

5. Break

6. Y&H Health sub-group

The Chair opened this item by thanking Elspeth Duemmer-Wrigley for agreeing to sit on and contribute to the Statutory Instrument (SI) National Working Group.

Elspeth gave an overview of the purposes and process of developing the secondary legislation which the VAPC Act facilitated, and which would place the VAPCs current activities on a formal statutory basis.  Stating that whilst the group was disappointed that MOD has not yet nominated individuals to the group, this has not held back the development work undertaken.

After reviewing and consolidating the diverse sources of information and guidance relating to VAPC activity. discussions turned to matters surrounding the functioning of the VAPC and how these should be enshrined in law ( as well as internal VAPC governance procedures).  A draft SI has now been produced, and circulated to VAPCs chairs for comments, the deadline for which has now past.  These comments will be reviewed and integrated and the finalised draft SI then taken to the MoD lawyers to review.  If there are no objections to the finalised Bill once it goes to Parliament then it can proceed relatively quickly to becoming law, potentially before September.  However, in the event that there are objections, this would lead to a more lengthy process which could potentially be affected and delayed by the forthcoming general election and its timing.  This would suggest that a pragmatic approach may be helpful in keeping any contentious matters out of the SI to ensure smooth passage through Parliament.  However, even if the Bill is delayed in becoming law, the work of the group will bring immediate benefits in terms of consolidated materials and guidance (e.g. a template for Annual Reporting).

Action: The working group will be circulating their latest draft of the SIs to chairs next week for comment with responses needed by 29 Feb 24. When received, the secretary will circulate to all our members for comment.

7. Health sub-group:

a. Hearing Loss Project:

Chris Nolan (Vice-chair), John Topping and Iain Burnside presented the results to date of their project to look at a potential disadvantaging of veterans accessing audiology services in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

Put simply, there had been a suggestion that individuals with possible hearing loss were having their hospital audiology hearing test appointments curtailed because the audiologist was unable to proceed as a rest of excessive cerumen (ear wax). The suggestion was that they were then being referred back to their GPs for treatment, before a re-referral for a hearing test. There was also a suggestion that services for “clearing” ear wax were in some places within the region difficult to access.

The theory was that if this problem is real, then veterans who have statistically significant increased levels of hearing problems as compared to the general community as a whole, would be more disadvantaged.

The project initially sought to ascertain, by a freedom of information (FoI) request, from audiology departments how many patients had their hearing test appointments curtailed because of excessive ear wax. Unfortunately, the results of the FoI request showed that none of the Trusts collected information that would help answer the question posed.

Although this project did not achieve its objective, the Committee considered it a useful exercise in terms of establishing a process for future enquiries into veteran related health matters.

b. Mesothelioma compensation East Midlands VAPC update:

Chris Nolan (Vice-chair) gave an update on the work done by East Midlands VAPC in relation to compensation matters for veterans suffering from mesothelioma and the work that he has led for Y&H VAPC on asbestosis and asbestos exposure related conditions. There have been some attempts to combine these two threads, but Chris recommended, and the Committee agreed that the Y&H asbestos exposure related work, which is much broader in scope would be best managed separately.

Action: The Chair agreed to take this point to this week’s UK CVC meeting to seek agreement from the other chairs that Y&H can lead on this thread.

The Committee are particularly keen to investigate what progress has been made by the MOD team to address a number of concerns it raised towards the end of last year.

Action: To this end, the Chair will look to address this with Min DPVSF at a forthcoming face to face meeting. Chris Nolan (Vice-Chair) will draft an appropriately worded and referenced question.

c. Iain Burnside asked the Committee for advice as to how to proceed in respect of his concerns regarding the recent performance of a Y&H NHS Trust and their apparent inability to comply with their Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA) accreditation requirements. The Committee recommended an approach very much in the form of a “critical friend”, offering assistance in the matter if wanted by the Trust.

Action: The Vice-chair will draft an initial letter from the Committee.

8. Local/ ICB/ Local Authority (LA)/ other stakeholders updates from members:

a. Integrated Care Boards (ICB):

The Committee are aware of evidence of good practice originating from the Coventry and Warwickshire ICB. It was suggested that we as a committee could look to see if we could help flag-up this good practice within our region.

Action: Chris Nolan (Vice-chair) stated that he has a known contact within the ICB and he will make an approach for more information.

b. Local Authorities:

9. Annual Report preparation:

This item was considered earlier in the meeting between items 6 & 7.

The Chair reminded the Committee that the Min DPFVS wants us to report on the local and regional delivery the various Government initiatives aimed at assisting the veteran community – the various “Ops”, COURAGE, NOVA, FORTITUDE etc. To this end discussion centred around how we can, with our small volunteer committee and very little in the way of resource provide feedback of the veteran lived experience. We have opted to utilise our personal links with various veterans’ groups e.g. Breakfast clubs.

Action: Chris Nolan (Vice-chair), John Topping and Iain Burnside will together formulate a question set that we can use for this purpose.

Action: Chris Mason (sec) will then circulate to members for comment prior to distribution for use.

We hope to start to use the questions from mid-March.

The Chair expressed that he is encouraged by the actions of the local Authorities that sit astride the Humber. They are majoring on veterans’ homelessness, and he is aware that they are sharing best practice. A further positive move is that there is now an NHS CEO covering both the Hull Trust and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole.

John Topping reported some difficulties in contacting individual Veterans Champions since the reorganisation of the North Yorkshire LA.

Action: It was decided that the Chair would write to seek clarification.

Action: Council Leader John will supply contact details.

Adrian Hunt reported that Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham in South Yorkshire are moving in the right direction, with strong AF Covenant meetings and particularly note-worthy is their inter-council meetings.

Chris Mason (Sec) reported a healthy and active AF Covenant calendar of meetings in Leeds, which are drawing in a wide variety of stakeholders.

10. New Member Support/ Integration:

It was agreed that a “localised” version of the recently circulated SW VAPC “Onboarding document” would form an excellent resource not only for new members, but also for existing members.

Action: The Chair will review this prior to each Committee meeting to ensure the content and links are valid and current.

11. AOB:

Nil.

12. Next meeting:

25 March 2024 – again at Imphal Barracks, York.