Guidance

VAPC Yorkshire and Humber: meeting minutes 13 February 2023

Updated 6 November 2023

Attendees

• Alex Baxter (Chair)
• Mr Chris Nolan (Vice Chair)
• Col (Retd) Chris Mason (Secretary)(Co-opted)
• Dr Iain Burnside
• Mrs Helen Singleton
• Mr Alex Bentley
• Mr Rick Short
• Mr John Topping (Co-opted)
• Lt Col (Retd) Terry Reilly RA
• Mrs Christine Landess (Co-opted)
• Maj Adrian Hunt
• Mr Tim Cole
• Maj Pete Mason R Signals
• Maj Huw Bell
• Mr Normal Turnbull (Co-opted)

Apologies

• Ms Elspeth Duemmer-Wrigley
• Mr Stephen Norton
• Mrs Yvonne MacDonald
• Mr Nick Mitchell (Co-opted)
• Mr Andrew Palmer (Co-opted)

Absent

• Flt Lt Steve Griffiths
• Sqn Ldr (Retd) Mike Chambers MBE (Co-opted)
• Mr Craig Gadd (Co-opted)

1. General items:

a. Introductions and apologies:

The Chair, Alex Baxter welcomed members to the meeting and noted apologies as above.

Introductions:

Round table introductions, including a welcome to guest Ms Katy Elliot who is PA & Executive Administrator at the Armed Forces Major Events Team and is based in Cleethorpes.

b. Minutes of the Last Meeting/ Actions with VAPC

The minutes of the last meeting (24 Oct 22) were approved.

All actions arising completed:

1. 2c. CM (Sec) will distribute the latest version of the VAPC Members Handbook with these minutes. It contains at the annex the required Self-Assessment Template. Above named members to complete the Template and return to Chair.

2. 3a. CM (Sec) will circulate the minutes of the VAPC Chairs’ meeting of 11/10/2022 with these minutes.

3. 3a. CM (Sec) will forward the Self-Assessment shortly.

4. 4a. Chris Nolan to contact Mandy Stokes (VCHA).

5. 4a. Chris Nolan will provide to the Committee a pre-sourced information sheet that could be used for this purpose, to then consider how it could be utilised.

6. 4a. Chris Mason to pass ICB information sheet to members with minutes.

7. 4c. AB (Chair) will seek introductions to introduce YM to NY Covenant Board.

8. 4c. Alex Baxter will circulate a map of our region with the LA Covenant boundaries marked, seeking members to volunteer to engage locally to ensure we improve coverage.

9. 1. AB (Chair) will explore accessing SSAFA and report back.
10. 1. CM (Sec) will explore GDPR regulations regarding contact details, to ensure we are compliant with the regulations. All present at the meeting said that they were content to be contacted.

c. Recruitment and membership

Discussion and allocation of willing/ available committee members to Local Authorities (LA) within Yorkshire and Humber region, with a view to acting as liaison and point of contact (poc) to and from Y&H VAPC. In respect of the pending North Yorkshire council reorganisation in March 2023 we are at this stage awaiting details of any changes to structure but have allocated members to the pre-existing LA areas.

Action: CM (Sec) will circulate details of allocation to members to confirm arrangements and will subsequently provide updated LA poc details.

3. Feedback/Updates

a. Chairs feedback and discussion on actions from National Chairs Committee meetings / VETS UK/ Annual Ministerial Report with reference to Asbestosis/ pre-emptive health surveillance and existence of National H&WB sub-group

Alex Baxter (Chair) reported back on recent themes and discussions from the National Chairs meetings, particularly in relation to opinions from some quarters regarding a “standardising” of how all regions should focus and structure their annual reports. There was some concern voiced in response to this from the meeting, in that Y&H VAPC has always been an exemplar of best practice and would not wish to compromise this or our independence in moving towards nationally standardised practices. We will continue to distribute the minutes from the National Chairs’ meetings to ensure members remain appropriately informed.

Discussion then moved on to our plans and preparation for our Annual Report which is due by August 2023. Chris Nolan (Vice-chair) raised concerns here that although we continue to focus on the Minister’s priorities of Veterans Housing and Health & Wellbeing, it is difficult to know what to include, as there has been no apparent action coming out of concerns reported in previous reports (specifically in response to concerns regarding asbestosis risk and also regarding pro-active ideas and suggestions with respect to secondary preventative health interventions). The question of who is responsible and accountable for actioning matters arising from our reports was raised. It is not enough that we are told that we have made good points or suggestions.

Discussion then moved to the performance of VETS UK and the information delivered by their performance dashboard. There was the suggestion that this was not picking up the large numbers of new claims per week, which have reached 300/ week, apparently with increasing proportions coming from serving personnel (SP). There are many factors which now make it both easier and less stigmatising for serving personnel to make claims, this will with time change the balance from one in which SPs waiting until discharge or later to commence claims. It was raised that it will take some considerable time before the process is fully digitised, which continues to puts a considerable strain on VETS UK performance. It was suggested that it may be helpful that VETS UK show in their data the proportion SP to veteran. Alex Baxter, who is lead VAPC chair for oversight of VETS UK IT stated that the narrative is a more useful measure of performance than the dashboard. A recurring theme raised was the quality of Medical Advisers (MA), but we note that there has been the recent appointment of a senior MA with training and performance in his remit.

Alex Baxter (Chair) informed members that he was soon meeting with the AF Covenant team and would take the opportunity to raise some of the measures raised here.

b. Feedback from Quinquennial Review (QQR) Self-Assessment Interview with DEFRA director

Chris Nolan (Vice-chair) discussed his interactions and interview within the QQR process. He made it clear that nothing in the process so far has explained why even the voluntary VAPCs are being subjected to this process. This is thrown into spotlight when one considers the types of government organisations subjected to such a review, e.g. The Office for Nuclear Regulation. Most of the question sets were completely inappropriate as we have no administration support or anything but the basics of expenses reimbursement.

Seemingly leading on from the QQR seems to be the un-asked for in-house VAPC Strategic Review. Accompanying the fact that this is working to extremely tight timelines, there is also a concern that it is both potentially failing to be a consensus project and that those who have put themselves forward to assess the global view may not be as impartial as would be desired. The concern is that a centrally devised structure and function, particularly one emanating out of the National Chairs Committee may not be something that Y&H VAPC can and should have to sign up to.

We await with a slightly puzzled interest the outcome of the QQR.

4. Chairs Strategy Project and SWOT analysis, including Yorkshire and Humberside input

This had been mainly covered in item 3. From Y&H VAPC 5 individuals submitted an input which was anonymised into the strategy project.

5. National sub-groups update

a. Health and wellbeing update

Iain Burnside gave an overview of the composition and history of the H&W subgroup whilst he has been a member. His view was that it was initially a very productive forum, particularly with its interaction with the academic unit in Chester (The Westminster Centre for Research in Veterans). Initial work relating to hearing loss and concerns regarding certain SPs risk of asbestosis was promising and hopeful of progressing Veteran health issues. Unfortunately, this has not come to pass. A lack of any funding support and administration has worn thin and broken the links with Chester. The failure of engagement and onward action from the Chair of the sub-group has led to general disillusionment with sub-group members questioning their involvement and at the last meeting it was decided to close it down. Our meeting agreed that this was a very unfortunate and we discussed how we can from within Y&H try to keep some of this important work going and how best we can try and beat the blocks that have existed previously to escalate our concerns and ideas.

Action: Chris Nolan, Iain Burnside and Chris Mason (Y&H informal H&W sub-group) will put together a plan for the Chair with suggestions as to how to progress this and other H&W work.

6. Guest speaker

Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance - National & Regional update plus Q&A session – by Lt Col (Retd) Guy Benson VCHA Team Leader.

Members were grateful to have the opportunity to both hear and question Lt Col (Retd) Benson on his review and update (both national and regional).

Copied below is his “one-page” summary overview of the VCHA:

Overview of the Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA)

Reference:

• Veterans Strategy Action Plan 2022-2024

1. NHS in England is committed to raising standards among healthcare providers of Veterans’ services.  The Armed Forces Covenant health commitments are included in the NHS Constitution and mandates, and form part of the contract with every NHS commissioned provider.  This helps to ensure all healthcare professionals will be considerate of these services.

2. The Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA) is a group of NHS providers, including acute, mental health, community, and ambulance trusts that have agreed to be exemplars of the best care for, and support to, the armed forces’ community.

3. The Veteran Aware model will encourage providers to identify those patients who currently work, or who have worked in the military, as well as service families, to ensure they are not disadvantaged in the care they receive and where possible, that they receive personalised care and improve patient outcomes.

The Veteran Aware model includes:

• The organisation understands and is compliant with the Armed Forces Covenant
• The organisation has a clearly designated Veterans’ Champion Dyad
• The organisation supports the UK Armed Forces as an employer
• The organisation has established links to appropriate nearby veteran services
• Staff at the organisation are trained and educated in the needs of veterans
• The organisation raises awareness of veterans
• The organisation identifies veterans to ensure they receive appropriate care
• The organisation will refer veterans to other services as appropriate.

1. Our ambition is to accredit all NHS providers in England as Veteran Aware by March 2024. Accreditation involves providers sharing good practice and linking with local services for the armed forces community. Nationally we have now accredited 136 (66%) of Trusts and the Y&H Region we have 12 Trusts who are accredited with 5 in various stages of the journey.

2. The VCHA programme received clear direction, by Central Government, in the Veterans Strategy Action Plan 2022 – 2024, to widen scope and to pilot the accreditation of both the Independent Sector and Hospices. The pilot accreditation scheme commenced in September 2022 and currently has 8 signatories.

Action: Chris Nolan (Vice-chair) will liaise with Guy Benson to see how we can assist with the aims and work of the VCHA, particularly in respect of positive encouragement to regional NHS Trusts and also in their aim to take this work out into the private healthcare sector and nursing home fields.

Alex Baxter (Chair) had to leave on an urgent matter during item 6 and the meeting lead was taken over by Chris Nolan (Vice-chair).

7. Thank you and goodbye

Chris Nolan (Vice-chair) wished to put on record his and the Chair’s thanks to Lt Col (Retd) Terry Reilly and Mr Tim Cole for their extremely valuable contributions and time given to the Y&H VAPC during their membership of the committee. He made it clear that we would be happy to see them back in the future either as members or in a co-opted manner.

8. AOB

a. John Topping said that he would source and copy to members the results of the recent All Party Parliamentary Group “Veterans Survey”, which has in part appeared in the print media and on social media platforms. He also drew members attention to his recent FOI request to English Police Constabularies, as to their procedures when interacting with veterans (previously forwarded to members).

Action: John Topping will source and distribute the results of the APPG Veterans Survey via the secretary.

b. Chris Mason (Sec) sought opinions regarding him compiling a “newsletter” format for transmitting information to members, to reduce the number of ad hoc communications. It was agreed to trial this.

Action: Chris Mason (Sec) to compile a newsletter format to trial.

9. Next meeting

A change to the originally advertised date, the meeting will now take place on 19 June 2023. In addition, the venue will now be Imphal Barracks, York as Y&H RFCA in York have capacity issues and cannot accommodate the size of our meeting.